Thawri

Al-Thawri school or Sufyani school^[1] was an Islamic school and law school that did not last long. It was made by Sufyan al-Thawri, a smart man from the 3rd century Hijri. He was a judge and wrote lots of Prophet Muhammad’s sayings.^[2]

Because Sufyan al-Thawri was very smart, he became one of the big judges.^[3] He had his own rules and way of thinking about Islamic law,^[4] and some people even counted him as one of the six big Islamic schools.^[5]

People who followed his school were called "Thawri"^[6] or "Sufyani".^[7]

Sufyan al-Thawri was born in Kufa in 97 AH. He grew up there and became a very smart teacher in the city. His ideas were like Abu Hanifa’s, but he did not like some things Abu Hanifa used, like analogy and preference.^[8]

Then he moved to Basra, where his ideas became like Al-Awza’i and some Umayyad judges.^{[eng 1]} Later, he had to hide because he disagreed with the Abbasid caliph Muhammad al-Mahdi. The caliph wanted him to be the judge of Kufa but follow the caliph’s rules. Sufyan tore up the caliph’s letter and threw it in the Tigris River.^{[eng 2]}

After he died, his students taught his rules. One of the main students was Yahya al-Qattan.^{[eng 1]} But the school did not last long as a separate school. Even so, his ideas and sayings of the Prophet were respected and influenced the big schools.^{[eng 2]}

Sufyan al-Thawri was a big teacher in the opinion school in Iraq. This school started with Abdullah ibn Mas’ud. He gave advice using rules and smart thinking. Sometimes, he agreed with Abu Hanifa because they learned in the same way, even though he never studied with him.^[9]

He did not always follow the opinion school. Sometimes he followed Ahl al-Hadith and preferred single reports over analogy. He loved Prophetic Hadith a lot, so people called him “Prince of Hadith.” He traveled to Hijaz and learned from teachers in Medina and Mecca.^[10]

So his way was a mix of opinion and Hadith. He liked strong evidence and respected other scholars. He said it’s okay for people to disagree on small things: «If you see someone doing something that people argue about, don’t stop him.»^[11]

He also liked making things easy for people within Islamic rules: «Knowledge is for the trusted. Everyone can do strict rules if they can.»^[12]

The Thawri school spread in the east and west. Some followers were Abu Salih Hamdun and al-Numan ibn Abd al-Salam al-Asbahani, Bishr al-Hafi, and Abu Ahmad Muhammad ibn Isa al-Juludi. Some big teachers like Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd and maybe Yahya ibn Ma’in also followed it. Abu Bakr Abd al-Ghaffar al-Dinuri was the last to give rulings from this school in Baghdad.^[13]

Ali ibn Ziyad al-Absi first brought this school to the west. Some sources say it lasted until the early 5th century AH. But others say it lasted even until the 8th century, like Abu Sa’ad al-Sam’ani said. Most people in Dinur still followed it, and Ibn Taymiyyah said it existed in Greater Khorasan in 728 AH.^[14]

Over time, the school ended and became one of the extinct schools. This happened because not enough people wrote the books, few smart teachers spread it, no rulers adopted it, and Sufyan himself had hard times. He even buried or burned many of his books before dying.^[15]

Many of his ideas were copied by students of other imams, so they still exist, but they are not organized.^[16][17][18]