Scholars

d. 279 AH / 892 CE · Khurasan, 3rd/9th century

• Jami' al-Tirmidhi (Sunan al-Tirmidhi)
• al-Shama'il al-Muhammadiyya
• al-'Ilal al-Kabir

Hadith master, disciple of Bukhari, and pioneer of hadith grading taxonomy (Sahih, Hasan, Gharib); his Jami' uniquely records madhhab differences alongside narrations.

d. 458 AH / 1066 CE · Nishapur (Khurasan), 5th/11th century

• al-Sunan al-Kubra
• Ma'rifat al-Sunan wa-l-Athar
• al-Asma' wa-l-Sifat
• Dala'il al-Nubuwwah

Prolific Shafi'i hadith scholar and traditionist; his 10-volume al-Sunan al-Kubra is the most comprehensive compilation of legal proof-texts and companion practices in Sunni Islam.

d. 275 AH / 889 CE · Basra/Sijistan, 3rd/9th century

• Sunan Abi Dawud
• Kitab al-Marasil
• Risalat Abi Dawud ila Ahl Makkah

Renowned hadith master and author of Sunan Abi Dawud, the primary collection dedicated specifically to traditions of legal rulings (ahkam).

d. 150 AH / 767 CE · Kufa/Baghdad, 2nd/8th century

• Musnad Abi Hanifah (transmitted)
• al-Fiqh al-Akbar

The Great Imam (al-Imam al-A'zam) and founder of the Hanafi madhhab, pioneering legal reasoning (ra'y) and juristic preference (istihsan).

d. 241 AH / 855 CE · Baghdad, 3rd/9th century

• Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal
• Kitab al-Sunnah
• Kitab al-Zuhd
• al-Radd 'ala al-Jahmiyya

Imam of Ahl al-Sunnah and founder of the Hanbali school of law; compiler of the vastest early hadith encyclopedia (Musnad).

d. 303 AH / 915 CE · Egypt/Damascus, 3rd-4th/9th-10th century

• al-Sunan al-Sughra (al-Mujtaba)
• al-Sunan al-Kubra
• Khasa'is Amir al-Mu'minin 'Ali

Eminent hadith critic and author of al-Sunan al-Sughra, celebrated for his exceptionally rigorous narrator evaluation criteria.

d. 279 AH / 892 CE · Baghdad, 3rd/9th century

• Futuh al-Buldan

His Futuh al-Buldan is the classical account of the early conquests and the fiscal/administrative arrangements that followed.

d. 256 AH / 870 CE · Bukhara, 3rd/9th century

• al-Jami' al-Sahih

Compiler of the most authoritative hadith collection; hadith numbering follows the standard edition (Fath al-Bari pagination).

d. 450 AH / 1058 CE · Baghdad, 5th/11th century

• al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya

Shafi'i jurist; his al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya is the classical treatise on caliphal and governmental law, including jizya and the dhimma.

d. 676 AH / 1277 CE · Damascus, 7th/13th century

• Sharh Sahih Muslim
• al-Minhaj
• Riyad al-Salihin

Shafi'i jurist and hadith commentator; his commentary on Sahih Muslim is a standard reference for hadith law.

d. 671 AH / 1273 CE · Andalusia/Egypt, 7th/13th century

• al-Jami' li-Ahkam al-Qur'an

Maliki exegete whose tafsir focuses on legal rulings (ahkam) derived from the Qur'an.

d. 310 AH / 923 CE · Baghdad, 3rd-4th/9th-10th century

• Jami' al-Bayan fi Ta'wil al-Qur'an
• Tarikh al-Rusul wa-l-Muluk

Exegete and historian; his tafsir and chronicle are foundational for asbab al-nuzul and early Islamic history.

d. 852 AH / 1449 CE · Cairo, 9th/15th century

• Fath al-Bari Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari
• al-Isaba fi Tamyiz al-Sahaba
• Tahdhib al-Tahdhib

Foremost Shafi'i hadith master (Shaykh al-Islam / al-Hafiz); his monumental commentary on Bukhari is universally cited in Sunni scholarship.

d. 456 AH / 1064 CE · Cordoba (al-Andalus), 5th/11th century

• al-Muhalla bi-l-Athar
• al-Ihkam fi Usul al-Ahkam
• al-Fasl fi-l-Milal wa-l-Ahwa' wa-l-Nihal
• Tawq al-Hamama

Foremost systematic theologian of the literalist Zahiri school; celebrated for uncompromising text-literalism, polemical critiques of the four madhhabs, and foundational comparative religion.

d. 218 AH / 833 CE · Egypt, 3rd/9th century

• al-Sira al-Nabawiyya

His recension of Ibn Ishaq's biography of the Prophet is the standard early sīra text.

d. 774 AH / 1373 CE · Damascus, 8th/14th century

• Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azim
• al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya

Shafi'i exegete and historian; his tafsir is among the most widely used classical commentaries.

d. 273 AH / 887 CE · Qazwin/Iraq, 3rd/9th century

• Sunan Ibn Majah
• Tafsir Ibn Majah
• Tarikh Qazwin

Persian hadith compiler whose Sunan constitutes the sixth canonical book of the Sunni Kutub al-Sittah, known for unique and rare hadith variants.

d. 751 AH / 1350 CE · Damascus, 8th/14th century

• Ahkam Ahl al-Dhimma
• Zad al-Ma'ad
• I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in
• al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya

Eminent Hanbali jurist and chief disciple of Ibn Taymiyya; his Ahkam Ahl al-Dhimma is the definitive classical legal treatise on the status, taxes, and restrictions of non-Muslim subjects.

d. 620 AH / 1223 CE · Damascus, 6th-7th/12th-13th century

• al-Mughni
• al-'Umdah

Hanbali jurist; his al-Mughni is a comprehensive comparative fiqh work documenting consensus and divergence.

d. 728 AH / 1328 CE · Damascus, 7th-8th/13th-14th century

• al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya
• al-Sarim al-Maslul

Hanbali jurist and theologian; his works on governance and on the blasphemy ruling are classical landmarks.

d. 179 AH / 795 CE · Medina, 2nd/8th century

• al-Muwatta
• al-Mudawwana (transmission)

Imam of Medina and founder of the Maliki school of jurisprudence; his Muwatta is the earliest surviving legal and hadith compendium.

d. 204 AH / 820 CE · Cairo/Baghdad, 2nd-3rd/8th-9th century

• Kitab al-Umm
• al-Risala
• Musnad al-Shafi'i

Founder of the Shafi'i madhhab and the pioneer of Islamic jurisprudence methodology (Usul al-Fiqh).

d. 230 AH / 845 CE · Baghdad, 3rd/9th century

• Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (8 volumes)

Early Abbasid historian and biographer whose Tabaqat is the oldest surviving biographical dictionary containing comprehensive lives of the Prophet, Companions, and Successors.

d. 483 AH / 1090 CE · Central Asia (Transoxiana), 5th/11th century

• al-Mabsut (30 volumes)
• Sharh al-Siyar al-Kabir
• Usul al-Sarakhsi

The towering master of classical Hanafi jurisprudence; he famously dictated the entire 30-volume legal encyclopedia al-Mabsut from memory while imprisoned in a well.