I stumbled on this wiki article the other day about an Arab philosphopher named, “Al-Ma’arri”. 
Pretend you’re at a party at my house, and you just finished telling me about something you read on Perez Hilton just this morning. I would respond with, “Hey, do you know who Al-Ma’ari is? I read about him today on Wikipedia. He was a blind[1] Arab philosopher, poet and writer. He was a controversial rationalist of his time, he attacked the dogmas of religion, and rejected the claim that Islam possessed any monopoly on truth. He lived soon after Muhammad was said to have originated Islam. What were you saying about Charlie Sheen?”
Wikipedia article here. You should go read it.
Le Café Wittypoots 
I quite like Hypatia of Alexandria, if we’re comparing the ancients. Would we be boring at parties?
If we qualify as boring, gimme two tickets on the ennui train straight to boredom town. I rather like what you talk about, dear Julie. 🙂