The History of the Manifest Men

The name of the school does not come from a founder's name, but from his nickname. Dawud ibn Khalaf was dubbed Azahiri because of his robust insistence on using the surface meaning of the Quran and Hadith as the sole source of law. Ibn Khazim tried several times to support claimants to the Umayyad throne in Spain. He sometimes found himself in prison, while at other points he rose to the level of vizier. The latter part of his life was spent in relative seclusion devoted to scholarship.