Ferdowsi
Persian poet, author of Shahnameh
Born 3 January AD 940 · died c. 1020
Who was alive at the same time as Ferdowsi?
When Ferdowsi was born, Otto I the Great was 27.
Born during Ferdowsi’s lifetime: Avicenna, Al-Biruni, Ibn al-Haytham and Leif Erikson.
Not quite contemporaries: William the Conqueror was born 4 years after Ferdowsi died, Abu Bakr al-Razi died 15 years before Ferdowsi was born, Urban II was born 10 years after Ferdowsi died and Anselm of Canterbury was born 8 years after Ferdowsi died.