text: Abu l-Hasan 'Ali Ibn Nafi, better known as  Ziryab, Zeryab, or Zaryab ( 789– 857) (), was a singer, oud and lute player, composer, poet, and teacher who lived and worked in Iraq, Northern Africa and Andalusia during the medieval Islamic period. He was also a polymath, with knowledge in astronomy, geography, meteorology, Botanics, cosmetics, culinary art and fashion. 
  His nickname "Ziryab", comes from the Persian word for jay-bird , pronounced "Zaryāb". He was also known as  (blackbird) in Spanish. He was active at the Umayyad court of Córdoba in Islamic Iberia. He first achieved fame at the Abbasid court in Baghdad, his birthplace, as a performer and student of the musician and composer Ibrahim al-Mawsili.
  Ziryab was a gifted pupil of Ibrahim al-Mawsili in Baghdad, where Ziryab got his beginner lessons. However, he left Baghdad during the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun and moved to Córdoba, where he was accepted as a court musician in the court of Abd ar-Rahman II of the Umayyad Dynasty.