ABSTRACT
Following the spread of the school's doctrine and as a consequence of the continuous need of Muslims to stabilize law and legal authority in the institution of the madhhab, al-Nawawi became a central figure among later Shafi'ite jurists in the long-term process of construction and perpetuation of the juristic authority of al-Shafi'i, the school's eponym. Al-Nawawi attained an unequivocal reputation and legacy as transmitter of the totality of legal doctrine that centered around the figure of al-Shafi'i, the supposed founder of the madhhab. Al-Nawawi underwent a process of growing veneration evolving from the status of pious jurist in the Ashrafiyya to becoming an authority with the final say on madhhab doctrine, a status that eventually distinguished him from other great jurists in school. Within this process of growing veneration, his juristic knowledge was gradually recognized and routinized in substantive works and narratives of history written by later Shafi'ite jurists as representing the authority of the madhhab.
