The four imams of fiqh
767–855 CE · The Abbasid Caliphate & Golden Age
Within a century, four jurists — Abu Hanifa (d. 767), Malik ibn Anas (d. 795), ash-Shafi'i (d. 820), and Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855) — develop the methods that became the four enduring Sunni schools of law. Each studied under or transmitted from the others' circles; their disagreement was disciplined, documented, and mutually respectful.