Madzhab ini dinamai dengan nama ulama Syam, ‘Abdurrahman bin al-Awza‘i, yang lahir di Ba‘labak pada tahun 708.

This Madh-hab is named after the Syrian scholar ‘AbdurRahman ibn al-Awzaa’ee who was born in Ba’labek in the year 708

CE. Ia dikenal sebagai salah seorang ulama besar hadis pada abad kedelapan M, dan menentang penggunaan qiyas yang berlebihan serta bentuk-bentuk penalaran lain dalam kasus-kasus yang nash-nya jelas dari Al-Qur'an dan/atau Sunnah tersedia. Imam Awza'i menghabiskan sebagian besar hidupnya di Beirut, dan akhirnya wafat di sana pada tahun 774 M, namun mazhabnya menyebar luas di Suriah, Yordania, Palestina dan Lebanon, serta di Spanyol.

CE. He became known as one of the major scholars of Hadeeth of the eighth century CE and was opposed to the excessive use of Qiyaas and other forms of reasoning in cases where clear texts from the Qur’aan and or Sunnah were available. Imaam Awzaa’ee spent most of his life in Beirut, eventually dying there in the year 774 CE, but his Madh-hab became widespread in Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon as well as in Spain.

Madzhab beliau tetap menjadi madzhab utama di Syam hingga abad kesepuluh Masehi, ketika Abu Zar'ah Muhammad bin 'Utsman dari madzhab Syafi'i diangkat sebagai qadhi Damaskus. Abu Zar'ah memulai kebiasaan memberikan hadiah seratus dinar kepada setiap murid yang menghafal kitab Mukhtashar al-Muzani (sebuah kitab dasar dalam fikih Syafi'i). Tentu saja, kebiasaan ini menyebabkan madzhab Syafi'i menyebar dengan cepat di Syam, dan jumlah pengikut Awza'i terus berkurang hingga pada abad kesebelas tidak ditemukan lagi seorang pun. Namun, kontribusi beliau dalam ilmu fikih tetap tercatat dan masih ada hingga kini dalam sebagian besar kitab-kitab fikih perbandingan.

His Madh-hab remained the main school of thought in Syria until the tenth century CE, when Abu Zar’ah Muhammad ibn ‘Uthmaan of the Shaafi’ee Madh-hab was appointed judhe of Damascus. Abu Zar’ah began the practice of giving a prize of one hundred dinars to any student who memorized the book, Mukhtasr al-Muzanee, ( a basic book of Shaafi’ee Fiqh). Naturally, this practice caused the Shaafi’ee Madh-hab to spread rapidly in Syria and the number of Awzaa’ee’s followers continued to dwindle until the eleventh century when none were to be found.132 However, his contributions to the science of Fiqh were recorded and remain to this day in most of the books of comparative Fiqh.