Al-Mawardi as teacher, then qadi at Ustuwa and at Baghdad

After completing his studies at Basra and Baghdad, al-Mawardi became a teacher; the breadth of his learning drew the attention of the authorities, and he was appointed qadi in several towns — among them Ustuwa near Nishapur — before holding the office at Baghdad itself ¹.

Ibn al-Jawzi says of him in his tarjama that he 'held the qada in many lands'; he used to say 'I spread fiqh over four thousand sheets and compressed it into forty', meaning by the former the Hawi and by the latter the Iqna' ².