Mind-Benders of Jewish History
The last great Gaon and Avicenna died within a year of each other
Rav Hai Gaon, the last of the towering Geonim of Babylonia, and Ibn Sina — Avicenna, the most famous philosopher-physician of the Islamic world — were near-exact contemporaries. Their deaths fell barely a year apart: Avicenna in 1037, Hai Gaon in 1038.
How we know
Rav Hai Gaon 939–1038 (d. March 1038); Avicenna c. 980–1037 (d. June 1037). Deaths under a year apart.
One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.