Ibn Zurʿa was born in 943 in Baghdad, then the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate.
He also studied medicine and was renowned as a physician, according to Ibn Abi Usaybi'a.
According to Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, he was accused of treason for engaging in trade with the Byzantines.
His translations include Aristotle's History of Animals and Sophistici elenchi and Proclus' commentary on Plato's Phaedo.
[1] He may be the philosopher "Antecer" cited by Pedro Gallego in his Latin works of the 13th century, if the latter is a garbled version of Avençer.