Abu Abdullah Malik ibn Anas ibn Malik ibn Abi Amir al-Asbahi

Malik ibn Anas was born in Madinah in approximately 711 CE (93 AH) into a family with deep roots in hadith scholarship. He spent virtually his entire life in the city of the Prophet, studying under its leading scholars from a young age. His teachers included Nafi', the freed slave and student of Ibn Umar, giving Malik a remarkably short chain of transmission to the Prophet through one of the most prolific companion narrators. He also studied under Ibn Shihab az-Zuhri, one of the greatest hadith scholars of the early period.

Malik's approach to jurisprudence was distinctive in its emphasis on the 'amal (practice) of the people of Madinah — the living tradition of the Prophet's city — as a legitimate source of law alongside Quran, Sunnah, and scholarly consensus. He reasoned that the continuous practice of Madinah's residents, who had inherited their customs from the generation of Companions who learned directly from the Prophet, constituted a form of mass transmission (tawatur) of the prophetic practice. This methodology gave the Maliki school its unique character and practical orientation.

His reverence for hadith and the Prophet's legacy was legendary. He would never narrate hadith without being in a state of ritual purity, dressed in his finest clothing, and seated with dignity. He refused to narrate hadith while riding or walking, insisting on the gravity such transmission deserved. His Al-Muwatta, compiled over a period of approximately 40 years with meticulous revision, is the earliest surviving comprehensive work of Islamic law and hadith. He died in Madinah in 795 CE (179 AH) and was buried in the Baqi cemetery, near many of the Companions he spent his life studying.