The mixing cultures of Central Asia and Arabia produced several thinkers who wrote about music, including something about the lute in their works, including Al-Kindi (c. 801 - c. 873), Ziryab (789-857), Al-Farabi (c. 872 - c. 950), Avicenna (c. 980 - 1037), and Safi al-Din al-Urmawi (1216-1294). They wrote in Arabic, what had become the useful lingua-Franca of their time, and took part in Muslim society and culture. However they were brought up in Central Asia.