Upon his return from the east, Baqi ibn Makhlad (817-889) unsuccessfully attempted to introduce the Shafi‘i school of fiqh,[1] though Ibn Hazm (994-1064) considered Makhlad's exegesis favorable to Tafsir al-Tabari. The Zahiri school was, however, introduced by Ibn Qasim al-Qaysi, and further supported by Mundhir ibn Sa'īd al-Ballūṭī. It was also heralded by Ibn Hazm, a polymath at the forefront of all kinds of literary production in the 11th century, widely acknowledged as the father of comparative religious studies[2][3], and whose book al-Fisal (The Separator Concerning Religions, Heresies, and Sects) was considered the most important source of theological knowledge well into the 19th century.[…]