Shukri al-Quwatli
Sabah was born in Aleppo, Syria and enrolled in the Academy of Arabic Music of Aleppo. He later studied at the Academy of Damascus, from which he graduated in 1948. He was given the stage name "Fakhri" by his mentor, Syrian nationalist leader Fakhri al-Barudi, who encouraged him as a young boy to stay in Syria and not travel to Italy. One of Fakhri's earliest performances was in 1948 at the Presidential Palace in Damascus, before President Shukri al-Quwatli and Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey. Unlike many Arab artists, he never studied or worked in Cairo, insisting that his fame is linked to the artistic heritage of his homeland, Syria.