Enjoying the status that came with official recognition, the ulama now formed themselves into a distinct class and set about institutionalizing their systems of knowledge. Their project was to explain the shari‘a, God’s law for his people, and develop a religious programme that all Muslims would understand and accept. Their writings, like those of the Jewish scholars from whom they must have taken inspiration, combined practical social rules, fiqh, with directions for ritual observance and moral principles.
