The Maliki school is founded by Malik ibn Anas (711–795 AD), born and based in Medina. The Maliki school is distinguished by its use of the ‘practice of the people of Medina’ (amal ahl al-Madina) as a legal source — the argument being that the Medinan community directly inherited the Sunnah of the Prophet through unbroken community practice. Malik’s great work, the Muwatta (‘The Well-Trodden Path’), is the earliest surviving collection of hadith and legal opinions. The Maliki school became dominant in North Africa, West Africa (where it spread through trade networks and Sufi orders), Spain (Al-Andalus), and parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Today approximately 25% of Sunni Muslims follow the Maliki school.