Al-Māwardī’s (d. 450AH/1058CE) Jurisprudential Thought in Classical Islam: An Integrated and Responsive System of Ijtihād and Taqlīd

The development of classical Islamic jurisprudence continues to raise critical questions, particularly regarding the proper framing and assessment of the establishment of legal schools. The decline narrative has held sway in much of the literature. It portrays the establishment of legal schools as a key factor in the downward trajectory of fiqh, especially during and post-fourth/tenth century, due to the dominance of taqlīd (emulating a legal authority) over ijtihād (independent legal reasoning). This article reexamines this narrative by analyzing the relationship between the concepts and procedures of ijtihād and taqlīd in the neglected works of the renowned Shāfiʿī jurist al-Māwardī, particularly al-Ḥāwī al-kabīr. Instead of interpreting ijtihād and taqlīd as oppositional or successive phases in the history of fiqh, the article maintains that al-Māwardī’s jurisprudential thought integrates both procedures as complementary tools to address distinct methodological and sociopolitical demands. To substantiate this central claim, the article examines the meanings, uses, and functions of ijtihād and taqlīd in al-Māwardī’s corpus, demonstrating how taqlīd provided stability during political fragmentation, while ijtihād upheld judicial autonomy and countered esoteric (bāṭinī) hermeneutics. The integration of these concepts as permanent and interdependent elements of fiqh challenges any reading of al-Māwardī within a simplistic decline narrative. Through the case of al-Māwardī, this study aims to contribute to the historiography of Islamic legal thought, offering insights into the enduring dynamism of fiqh as a responsive and methodologically rigorous tradition during the purported moment of decline in the classical period (ca. 2nd/8th–5th/11th centuries).