Kitab al-Umm

The Kitāb al-Umm (Arabic: كـتـاب الأم) is a book of law that is used as an authoritative guide by the Shafi'i school of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) within the Sunni branch of Islam.[1] The work was composed by the founder of the Shafi'i school, Imām ash-Shāfi‘ī (767-820 CE). The term "al-Umm" means "the exemplar."[1] The Kitab al-Umm is noted for its hermeneutic approach to developing legal principles, basing them on revelation rather than traditional authority.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach, Medieval Islamic Civilization, Volume 2, Taylor & Francis, 2006, ISBN 9780415966924, http://books.google.com/books?id=LaV-IGZ8VKIC, "... His massive Kitab al-Umm (The Exemplar) covers the standard topics found in a work of Islamic law ... ..." 
  2. ^ Aisha Y. Musa, Hadith as scripture: discussions on the authority of prophetic traditions in Islam, Macmillan, 2008, ISBN 9780230605350, http://books.google.com/books?id=W9Tz_4g_oSYC, "... authorship of the Risala and Kitab al-Umm, he accepts that 'the Shafi'i school was ahead of other schools in devising hermeneutic arguments that would assure the accommodation of the law to a growing set of Prophetic hadith' ..."