'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Amr al-Awza'i

‘Abd al-Rahman b. ‘Amr al-Awza‘i (c.707–774) was Umayyad Syria’s most influential jurist, part of a generation of scholars who began establishing the first formal structures for the preservation and dissemination of religious knowledge. Following the Abbasid revolution, they provided a point of stability in otherwise unstable times.

Despite his close ties to the old regime, al-Awza‘i continued to participate in legal and theological matters in the Abbasid era. Although his immediate impact ...