The Muwatta' of Malik b. Anas (d. 795 CE) is the first written treatise of Islamic law. This is the introduction to the forthcoming translation of this foundational work of Islamic law. It represents the apogee of Islamic law in its earliest phase -- when Islamic law was still associated with particular regions and before Islam became a cosmopolitan religion. The legal doctrines set forth in the Muwatta' would form the basis of what would later be known as the Maliki school of law, one of four surviving Sunni schools of law.