Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani

Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (b. c. 310/922, Kairouan – d. 30 Sha'ban 386/17 September 996) was, from the Nafzawa Berbers, one of the greatest figures of the Maliki school. For systematizing Maliki doctrine and being regarded as the "pole" of the school he is nicknamed "Malik al-saghir" (the little Malik); he authored the celebrated al-Risala (a legal primer written around age 17) and the encyclopedic al-Nawadir wa'l-Ziyadat. As the leading Maliki of his era he led intellectual resistance to Fatimid Shi'i pressure in North Africa and held to an Ash'ari creed. He died in Kairouan and was buried in his own house; since his grave is not a coordinate-verifiable shrine, the coordinate is left null. TDV corrects Brockelmann's error placing his birthplace at Nafzawa and death at Fez, and adopts 386/996 over alternatives such as 389/999 or 396/1006. (Source: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam "İbn Ebû Zeyd" and "er-Risâle"; en.wikipedia "Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani".)