al-Qaffal al-Shashi

Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Ismail al-Qaffal al-Shashi (291–365 AH) was the Imam of Khorasan and the leading Shafi'i scholar of the Eastern Islamic world in his time. Born in Tashkent (Shash), he traveled to Baghdad to study under the major Shafi'i scholars and then became the foremost authority of his school in Central Asia and Persia. He wrote al-Malhuz fi al-Fiqh (the Abridged) which became a standard Shafi'i text, and a groundbreaking work on usul al-fiqh called Mahasin al-Shari'ah. He is credited with founding the eastern branch of the Shafi'i school.