@mastersthesis {1297333,
	title = {From Tradition to Law: The Origins and Early Development of the Sh{\={a}}fi{\textquoteleft}i School of Law in Ninth-Century Egypt},
	year = {2009},
	type = {PhD dissertation},
	abstract = {<p>Unraveling the complex dynamics that created and sustained the hegemony of the four principal schools of Sunni Islamic law necessarily requires an appreciation of the schools{\textquoteright} historical genesis. This dissertation provides the first comprehensive account of the emergence and early development of a Sunni legal school (madhhab fiqhi), drawing on new evidence from a range of hitherto unstudied primary sources. Through a reconstruction of the socio-political, intellectual, and textual history of the Sh{\={a}}fi{\textquoteright}i school during its formative stage in ninth-century Egypt, my study identifies the factors that contributed to the emergence and success of Shafi{\textquoteright}i doctrine; traces how this doctrine was propagated and re-interpreted, and from where it derived its authority; and explores the intimate connection between writing and thought in Islamic legal discourse. The dissertation concludes that the innovative legal hermeneutic of Muhammad b. Idris al-Sh{\={a}}fi{\textquoteright}i (d. 204/820), which enshrined normativity in a clearly demarcated canon of sacred sources, played a crucial role in the transformation of Islamic law from a diffuse oral tradition into a written legal science.</p>},
	url = {http://search.proquest.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/docview/304889761?accountid=11311},
	author = {Ahmed El-Shamsy}
}
