Al-Mawardi is Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Habib al-Basri al-Mawardi (364-450 AH / 974-1058 CE), the most senior judge of the late Abbasid Caliphate, author of numerous beneficial works, a jurist and memorizer of hadith, one of the greatest Shafi’i jurists, who authored his massive encyclopedia on Shafi’i jurisprudence in more than twenty volumes.