Is the Maliki school the most accurate and closest to the Sunnah and the Salaf due to the practice of the people of Madinah, and did Ibn Taymiyyah say that?

Summary:

The Maliki school is a jurisprudential school that adopted the sayings of Imam Malik ibn Anas as the basis for issuing fatwas and practice. It is characterized by its wide spread and the efforts of its students. Comparing jurisprudential schools is a delicate matter due to differences in understanding the school itself, determining what is correct in matters of ijtihad (independent reasoning), and the multiplicity of aspects of superiority. Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah focused on the madhhab of the people of Medina, not necessarily the Maliki madhhab, because he believed that the madhhab of the people of Medina during the era of the Companions and the Tabi'in (successors) was the soundest of madhhabs.

Among the characteristics of the Maliki madhhab is its expansive use of sources of legislation such as custom (urf) and public interest (istislah), which has given it remarkable flexibility and applicability for codification. The consensus of the people of Medina has four ranks: that which is a definitive proof by the agreement of scholars, such as their transmission of the measure of the sa', and the ancient practice before the killing of Uthman, which is a proof according to Malik and Shafi'i, and preferring the practice of the people of Medina when evidence contradicts, and the later practice which is not a legal proof according to the majority of imams. Imam Malik was the most upright person concerning the madhhab of the people of Medina, both in narration and opinion, and his Muwatta is full of the hadith of the people of Medina and what they agreed upon. Scholars believe that the principles of Malik and the people of Medina are the soundest principles and rules, and that the madhhab of the people of Medina is superior to the madhhabs of the people of the East and West. Some sayings of Malik's followers may contradict his original saying or the practice of the people of Medina. The Maliki madhhab is distinguished by the richness of its methodologies and the multiplicity of its sources, such as the Qur'an, Sunnah, ijma' (consensus), the consensus of the people of Medina, qiyas (analogical reasoning), al-masalih al-mursalah (unrestricted public interests), urf (custom), sadd al-dhara'i' (blocking the means to evil), istihsan (juristic preference), and istishab (presumption of continuity).