Abū l-Faraj ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Jawzī (508/1116-597/1200) was a Ḥanbalī scholar and preacher active in the twelfth century. He gained prominence under the ʿAbbāsids when asked by the caliph al-Mustanjid (555- 66/1160-70) to preach at the palace mosque, first at the behest of the caliph’s well-known Ḥanbalī vizier Ibn Hubayra. He continued to work as a preacher under the next ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Mustaḍī (r. 1170-80), who was keen to promote Ḥanbalism, particularly as an alternative to Shiʿism. Ibn al-Jawzī was a prolific scholar, with hundreds of works to his name, including a history of Islam titled al-Muntaẓam fī tārīkh al-mulūk wa l-umam, an exegesis of the Qurʾān titled Zād al-masīr fī ʿilm al-tafsīr, and a work on theological factions, particularly Sufī factions, titled Tablīs iblīs. He gained prominence as one of the leading Hanbalī theorists in Islam, notably producing several dozen works that would come to exert widespread influence in later centuries. A severe critic of kalam (Islamic theology), as well as other tendencies in Islam such as Sufism, Ibn al-Jawzī was acclaimed as a forewarner of the dangers of innovation in thought and practice (bidʿa).