ABSTRACT
The obvious research strategy is to define the school, then go back in time through the sources to discover where it first appears. Madhhab, the Arabic word conventionally translated as "school", most often refers in the sources to doctrine. At its simplest, this means a particular tenet, possibly having to do with theology or piety rather than law. In the field of law, madhhab most often refers to a jurisprudent's opinion concerning a particular case or to the opinion of a whole school; say, of practically all the Shafi'Iya, to which a deviant opinion may be contrasted. From madhhab as the doctrine of a school, it is only a short step to madhhab as the school itself, a body of jurisprudents loyal to their school's eponym.
