Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣbahānī: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	al-Iṣfahānī • Abū al-Faraj ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Qurashī al-Iṣbahānī
Born	897 • Isfahan • Iran
Died	November 20, 967 (aged 70) • Baghdad • Iraq • (Anniversary in 7 days)
Subjects Of Study	music • poetry • Arab • Islamic arts

Photos

illustration from Kitāb al-aghānī (“The Book of Songs”) by Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣbahānī

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Patti Smith

Patti Smith

American poet, songwriter, and singer

Gulzar

Gulzar

writer, film producer, and director

Gil Scott-Heron sings into a microphone onstage before a large crowd, circa 1974, wearing a patterned shirt.

Gil Scott-Heron

American poet and musician

Kazi Nazrul Islam

Kazi Nazrul Islam

Bengali author

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Ibn al-ʿArabī

Muslim mystic

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Mikhail Alekseyevich Kuzmin

Russian writer and composer

Saul Williams

Saul Williams

American rapper, songwriter, poet, and actor

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Ameen Rihani

Arab American author and political figure

Guillaume de Machaut, detail of a miniature from Oeuvres de Guillaume de Machaut, c. 1370–80; in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Ms. Fr. 1584).

Guillaume de Machaut

French poet and musician

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Jackson Mac Low

American composer, poet, and performance artist

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Tansen

Indian musician and poet

Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins

American singer and writer

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Thomas Campion

English poet and musician

Vysotsky, Vladimir

Vladimir Vysotsky

Soviet actor, singer, and author

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Imruʾ al-Qays

Arab poet

Bellman, detail of an oil painting by P. Krafft, 1779; in Gripsholm Castle, Sweden

Carl Michael Bellman

Swedish poet and musician

Archie Shepp, 1982

Archie Shepp

American musician and educator

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al-Maʿarrī

Arab poet

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Paul Bowles

American composer, translator, and author

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al-Farazdaq

Islamic poet