Dawud al-Zahiri
Dawud bin Ali bin Khalaf al-Zahiri (815–883/4 CE) was a Muslim scholar of Islamic law during the Islamic Golden Age, specializing in the fields of Hermeneutics, Biographical evaluation, and historiography. He is widely regarded as the founder of the Zahiri school of thought, the fifth school of thought followed by Sunnis Muslims to this day, though he never viewed himself as such, nor do the followers of the school.
He was a celebrated, if not controversial, figure during his time, being referred to in Muslim historical texts as "the scholar of the era."
Biography
Early life
al-Zahiri's exact place of birth is not entirely clear to historians. He has most commonly been attributed to the Iranian city of Isfahan, often being referred to as "Dawud al-Isfahani." Ibn Hazm, Al-Dhahabi, Christopher Melchert and others held that this attribution was due to the fact that al-Zahiri's mother was a native of Isfahan, and that he was actually of Iraqi origins, having been born in the city of Kufa.Ignác Goldziher agreed that al-Zahiri was born in Kufa, but attributed the confusion regarding his place of birth due to his father's role in the civil service of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma'mun in Kashan, a smaller city near Isfahan.
David in Islam
David, or Dawud (Arabic: داؤد, translit. ʾdāūd, pronounced [daːʔwd], Daud or Dawud), (circa 1043 BC - 937 BC?), is recognized in Islam as a prophet, messenger (Rasul), and lawgiver of God, and as a righteous king of the United Kingdom of Israel, which itself is a holy country in Islam. He similarly figures prominently in the Torah and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. David is perhaps most famous in Islam for defeating the Philistine giant Goliath, when he was a soldier in the army of King Saul's (Tālūt).
His genealogy goes back through Judah, the son of Jacob (Ya'qub), to Abraham (Ibrahim). The figure of David is of extreme importance in Islam because he was one of the few prophets to receive a named revealed book. It says in the Quran that the Zabur, the Biblical Psalms, were given to David. David's son, Solomon (Sulayman), took over the task of prophecy after his death and he was made the subsequent King of Israel.
The Judeo-Christian and Islamic views of David, however, differ in some aspects. Muslims generally do not accept the sins of adultery and murder attributed to David in the Hebrew Bible, as they feel that prophets – in their belief the utmost chosen and elect of God – would never commit such grave crimes. The story of Bathsheba and Uriah is completely rejected.
David (name)
David is a common masculine given name of Biblical Hebrew origin. King David is a character of central importance in the Hebrew Bible and in both Christian and Jewish religious tradition.
Hebrew: דָּוִד, Modern David, Tiberian Dāwîḏ has the meaning of "beloved", from a root דּוֹד dôwd, which had an etymological meaning of "to boil" but survives in Biblical Hebrew only in figurative usage "to love", and specifically a term for an uncle (father's brother). In Christian tradition, the name was adopted as Syriac: ܕܘܝܕ Dawid, Greek Δαυίδ, Latin Davidus. The Quranic spelling is داوُد Dāwūd.
David was adopted as a Christian name from an early period, e.g. David of Wales (6th century), David Saharuni (7th century), David I of Iberia (9th century). Name days are celebrated on 8 February (for David IV of Georgia), 1 March (for St. David of Wales) and 29 December (for King David), as well as 25 June (St. David of Sweden), 26 June, 9 July (Russia) 26 August, 11 December, and 30 December (Hungary, Latvia, Norway).
