Sufyān ath-Thaurī

Sufyān ibn Sa'īd ibn Masrūq Abū 'Abd Allāh al-Kūfī , better known under the name Sufyān ath-Thaurī ( Arabic سفيان الثوري) (* 716 in Kufa ; † May 778 ) was an important Islamic scholar. He studied Islamic law intensively , founded a legal school that for a time extended to Spain , and played an important role in the transmission of numerous hadith traditions.

Life

Sufyān ath-Thaurī was born in Kufa, Iraq, and quickly gained a reputation as a lawyer, with a particular focus on hadith. In this it differed from the system that prevailed in Iraq at the time and was mainly characterized by the use of Ra'y , of which Abū Hanīfa is considered to be the most important representative . Between 732 and 737 Ath-Thaurī began a journey of more than 30 years, which was devoted to the transmission of hadiths and led him to Khorasan , in the Hejaz and in particular to Basra . Here he got into the political clashes between Abbasids and Umayyads . In 769 he was offered a vacant position as a Qādī in Kufa, which he refused. To avoid arrest and incarceration, he fled to Sanaa . Between 769 and 774, he appears to have made a pilgrimage to Mecca as well as frequent trips to Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. During his frequent encounters with al-Auzāʿī and their mutual student Abū Ishāq al-Fazārī , legal decisions were made, which were later recorded in the Ichtilāf al-fuqahāʾ / اختلاف الفقهاء “The controversial doctrines of the legal scholars” by at-Tabarī . The Thaurīya school of law he founded and named after him was decisive for legal practice in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus until it was superseded by the Maliki school in the 10th century .

Towards the end of his life he grew tired of constant travel and accepted a reconciliation with the new authorities under the caliph al-Mahdi . He died in Shā'bān 161 of the Islamic calendar (May 778) and was buried in Baghdad next to important scholars such as Hasan al-Basri .

plant

Belong to his partially lost work

• two untraceable volumes of hadiths
• a volume with provisions on inheritance law
• a fragmentary commentary on the Koran
• various religious treatises
• some notes on natural science and other areas of interest of the author.

literature

• The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill. Suffer. Vol. 9, pp. 804–805 (Author: Hans-Peter Raddatz )