The Controversy over the Law Schools (lā madhhabiyya) in Twentieth-Century Syria

The validity of the established schools of law (sing. madhhab) is a major bone of contention between contemporary Salafis and Traditionalists. The controversy reached its peak around 1970 in a famous exchange between Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī, who called for direct reliance on authenticated hadith, and Muḥammad Saʽīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī, who favored the jurists’ legal expertise. In this essay, I chart the course of the lā madhhabiyya debate in Syria by analyzing the polemical writings of three generations of Syrian ulama from 1870 to 1970. I argue that the seeds of the controversy were sown in the late Ottoman period in the Salafi challenge to taqlīd. I also uncover the central role of the Indian Ahl-i Hadith in mediating the anti-madhhabī position to the core Arab lands, and the part of Syrian Ḥanafī-Naqshbandī ʽulamāʼ in defending the madhhabs. Finally, I allude to the political split among the Traditionalist ʽulamāʼ between the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and the Baʽth regime.