al-Layth ibn Sa'd

{{Short description|8th-century Islamic jurist}}

{{more citations needed|date=January 2017}}

{{Infobox religious biography

| religion = Islam

| era = Islamic Golden Age

| image = الليث بن سعد.png

| caption = Calligraphy of the Imam Al-Layth

| name = Al-Layth ibn Sa'd

| title =

| birth_date = 713 CE

| birth_place = Qalqashandah, Egypt

| death_date = 791 CE

| death_place = Fustat, Egypt

| region = Caliphate

| Maddhab = Laythi

| main_interests = Hadith, Fiqh

| notable_ideas = Laythi madh'hab

| works =

| influences = Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri

| influenced = Al-Shafi'i, Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi

| creed =

}}

Al-Layth ibn Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Fahmī al-Qalqashandī ({{langx|ar|الليث بن سعد بن عبد الرحمن الفهمي القلقشندي}}) was an Arab and the chief representative, imam, and eponym of the Laythi school of Islamic Jurisprudence. He was regarded as the main representative of an Egyptian tradition of law.{{Citation |last=Tillier |first=Mathieu |title=Local Tradition and Imperial Legal Policy under the Umayyads: The Evolution of the Early Egyptian School of Law |date=2022 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/egypt-and-the-eastern-mediterranean-world/local-tradition-and-imperial-legal-policy-under-the-umayyads-the-evolution-of-the-early-egyptian-school-of-law/44B40FF75042D8BAB471518FA8FBF043 |work=Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World: From Constantinople to Baghdad, 500-1000 CE |pages=131–168 |editor-last=de Jong |editor-first=Janneke H. M. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781009170031.006 |isbn=978-1-009-17003-1 |editor2-last=Bruning |editor2-first=Jelle |editor3-last=Sijpesteijn |editor3-first=Petra M.}}

He was born in 713 CE in Qalqashanda, a village in Egypt and so his nisba is Al-Qalqashandī. Despite his Arabic nisba (Al-Fahmi), in his encyclopedic magnum opus entitled "Siyar a`lam al-nubala", the prominent scholar Al-Dhahabi mentioned that his family claimed a Persian origin from Isfahan, and this in turn became a common reference for later writers, maintaining that his Arabic nisba was the result of familiar loyalty to Khalid ibn Thabit ibn Dhain Al-Fahmi.{{citation|url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/al-dhahabi-COM_0159 |title=" al-Ḏh̲ahabī." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online , 2012. Reference. Princeton University Library. 09 June 2012}}"سير أعلام النبلاء، الطبقة السابعة، "الليث بن سعد{{cite book|last1=Donzel|first1=E. J. van|title=Islamic Desk Reference|date=1 January 1994|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-09738-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/islamicdeskrefer00donz_0/page/227 227]|quote=al-Layth b. Sad*: transmitter of traditions and a jurisconsult of Persian origin in Egypt; 713791. He is ranked unanimously among the leading authorities on questions of religious knowledge in the early years of the Islamic Empire.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/islamicdeskrefer00donz_0/page/227}}

Despite being among the most famous of jurists at the time, his students did not write down his teachings and spread it like the students of another famous jurist of the time, Malik ibn Anas.{{cite web|title=al-Imam layth ibn Sa'd|publisher=Darul Fatwa Islamic council of Australia|date=2015|url=https://www.darulfatwa.org.au/ar/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D9%90%D9%85%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8F-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%91%D9%8E%D9%8A%D9%92%D8%AB%D9%8F-%D8%A8%D9%86%D9%8F-%D8%B3%D9%8E%D8%B9%D9%92%D8%AF%D9%90/}}

He presided over the first trial of Elias of Heliopolis for apostasy in 779.{{citation |author=Robert G. Hoyland |author-link=Robert G. Hoyland |title=Seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam |publisher=Darwin Press |year=1997 |pages=363–365}}.

According to al-Shafi'i, founder of Shafiʽi school, al-Laythi were even greater jurist than Malik ibn Anas, founder of Maliki Madhhab school and al-Shafi'i own teacher.{{cite book |last1=Philips |first1=Bilal |author1-link=Bilal Philips |title=The Evolution of Fiqh |date=1990 |publisher=International Islamic Publishing House |isbn=8172313551 |pages=86–87 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l9vtE_7-rBwC |access-date=23 December 2021|quote=ak-Madkhal, p.205}}