The Zahiri school (madhhab)

The Zahiri school was established by Dawud ibn Ali al-Isfahani, after he had been a partisan of al-Shafi'i. Ahmad Amin says in "Dawn of Islam" that many people followed him, especially in Persia and al-Andalus. ²

The school holds to the outward meaning of the Book and the Sunna, from which its name derives. In Ahmad Amin's description, it is the opposite of the Hanafi school. ²

It rejects analogy, and holds that the Qur'an, the hadith and their general statements are enough to explain the rulings. It holds that legislating by analogy is rational legislation, while religion is divine. ²

It allows analogy only where a text forbids or permits something on the basis of a cause. In that case, whatever shares the same cause is given the same ruling. ²

Ahmad Amin describes it as the narrowest of the schools in scope for legislation, because analogy, the greatest avenue of independent reasoning, is rejected by them. ²

Not covered here: the proofs of the school as its adherents set them out, and its history of spread. A second source is needed.