SHĀFI'Ī'S REASONING 317

Tr. VIII, 20: Shāfiʿī's systematic reasoning is superior to that of Shaibānī.

Tr. IX, 1: Shāfiʿī points out the inconsistent and unsatisfactory character of Abū Yūsuf's doctrine; his criticisms are not always well-founded, and he too has to wind his way rather arbitrarily through a maze of conflicting traditions; but on the whole his reasoning is sound and superior to that of Abū Yūsuf.

Tr. IX, 18: Shāfiʿī shows disciplined and consistent systematic reasoning, against the solutions of his predecessors which are ruled by expediency and practical considerations. In §§ 16 and 17, too, Shāfiʿī's opinions are systematically more consistent than those of his predecessors.

Tr. IX, 20: Shāfiʿī merely borrows and repeats the reasoning of Abū Ḥanīfa (loc. cit. and Ṭabarī, 34) and Shaibānī (Siyar, i. 244).

Tr. IX, 23: Shāfiʿī introduces a broader systematic aspect.

Tr. IX, 26: Shāfiʿī keeps aloof both from Auzāʿī and from Abū Yūsuf, and his legal thought is superior, particularly to that of Auzāʿī.

Tr. IX, 27: Shāfiʿī is systematic and consistent and cuts across the former division of doctrines; he is less technically legal than Abū Ḥanīfa, but combines Islamicizing and systematizing; his reasoning is superior to that of his predecessors, particularly to that of Auzāʿī.

Tr. IX, 28: Shāfiʿī is anticipated partly by Mālik (Ṭabarī, 82) and to a greater extent by Shaibānī (Siyar, i. 35); see further below, p. 319.

Tr. IX, 39: Shāfiʿī gives better systematic reasoning than Abū Yūsuf, but exaggerates on a detail. In § 45 Shāfiʿī turns the argument, which Abū Yūsuf uses against Auzāʿī, against Abū Yūsuf himself, but neither reasoning is very convincing.

Tr. IX, 48: Compared with the ancient Iraqians (cf. Sarakhsī, x. 66), Shāfiʿī shows less of technically legal reasoning and more of Islamicizing combined with systematizing.

When Shāfiʿī wrote, the process of Islamicizing the law, of impregnating it with religious and ethical ideas, a process which we have discussed in an earlier chapter,¹ had been essentially completed. We therefore find Shāfiʿī hardly ever influenced in his conscious legal thought by material considerations of a religious and ethical kind, which played an important role in the doctrines of Auzāʿī, Ibn Abī Lailā, Abū Ḥanīfa, and Mālik.² We also find him more consistent than his predecessors in