CHAPTER 4

THE IRAQIANS

THE present and the following chapter are concerned with the outward development of the Iraqian and the Hijazi schools of law in the pre-literary period. The conventional picture of this development, as it is presented in the Arabic sources from the beginning of the third century A.H. onwards,¹ is thoroughly fictitious, as we have already had occasion to notice more than once and as we shall see in greater detail in the pages that follow. Prominent features of the conventional picture, like the pre-eminence of Medina, have no foundation in fact; important concepts current in the ancient schools, such as that of the Companions of Ibn Mas'ūd in Iraq, are neglected; essential developments, like the attack of the traditionists on the 'living tradition' of the ancient schools of law, are misinterpreted; and even the information on the doctrines of individual authorities belonging to that period is to a great extent spurious. We must therefore suspect on principle statements which refer to the pre-literary period unless they are verified; and they can be verified with the help of the method which I have endeavoured to work out and to put to the test in Part II of this book. The results of this verification, as far as I have been able to undertake it, will be found in the present chapter and in those that follow. The picture gained in this way cannot, of course, compare in completeness with that presented to us by the conventional opinion, partly on account of the character of the legal traditions which contain the only contemporary evidence on the period in question, and also because of the limitations inherent in a first effort of this kind.

A. SHURAIḤ

After Ibn Mas'ūd, whom we shall discuss in section D below, the oldest Iraqian authority is Shuraiḥ. Shuraiḥ is said to have been appointed judge of Kufa by the Caliph 'Umar, to have