Al-Mawardi 972 – 1058

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi was an Arab Islamic jurist of the Shafi'i school and the principal classical theorist of Sunni political thought. Born in Basra and trained at Baghdad, he served as chief qadi of several Iraqi towns and as a high diplomatic envoy of the Abbasid caliph to the Buyid sultans. His Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah, the Ordinances of Government, set out the qualifications of the caliph, the powers of viziers and provincial governors, the functions of judges, and the obligations of subjects, and remained a foundational reference for Sunni political theory for centuries. His Adab al-Dunya wa-l-Din offered a celebrated treatise of practical ethics.