Avicenna
Avicenna was born in Afshana, a village near Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan), the capital of the Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan. His mother, named Sitāra, was from Bukhara; his father, Abdullāh, was a respected Ismaili scholar from Balkh, an important town of the Samanid Empire, in what is today Balkh Province, Afghanistan. His father worked in the government of Samanid in the village Kharmasain, a Sunni regional power. After five years, his younger brother, Mahmoud, was born. Avicenna first began to learn the Quran and literature in such a way that when he was ten years old he had essentially learned all of them.
Ludovico Stern
Stern was born in Rome to a Bavarian painter, Ignazio Stern, (Mariahilf 1680 – Roma 1748), who had moved to Italy around the year 1700. Ignazio had received work and training in the studio of Carlo Cignani in Rome. Ignazio had a two sons and two daughters, and all were also allied to the arts. His elder son, of the same name (died 1775) painted still-lives and portraits; a daughter Veronica was a portrait miniaturist, while Maddalena married the French painter Claude Vernet.