Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Barbahari

Al-Ḥasan ibn ʻAlī al-Barbahārī was a Hanbali Sunni Muslim theologian from Iraq. He was a scholar and jurist who played an important role in the Sunni struggle against the Shia missionaries and successfully opposed the progress of Mu'tazilism in the Abbasid Caliphate during the 10th-11th centuries. His books are peppered with stinging remarks that place the Shias, Qadaris, and Mu'tazilis in an extremely negative light. He was responsible for a number of invasive pogroms and instances of sectarian violence in 10th-century Baghdad. Princeton University scholar of Islamic history Michael Cook has described al-Barbahari as a manifest demagogue.