does laravel requires solid background in pure php

I learned PHP first (PHP v3, dark days!) when there weren't really any frameworks in existence - so my experience is a bit coloured by that. I think if I were starting now I'd probably start with a framework like Laravel and pick up 'pure' PHP as I went along. Kind of like (and this will date me - again) learning to use Delphi rather than 'pure' pascal.

There are some good lessons on here for 'pure' PHP - like the katas for instance which might help though :-)

A framework is for people that already know the langage, not reverse.

If you work through the link below, you'll have a good foundation to be able to work through Jeffrey's beginner screencasts:

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/php

I have done a couple of years PHP and just started using Laravel.

I would suggest that if you have any (OO preferably) programming experience , you could learn Laravel and just Google the PHP you get stuck with. Doing a http://www.w3schools.com/php/ course would be enough to get you going.

By learning raw PHP you will lean lots of things you will never need to use.

Personally I found learning Laravel helped me to understand "higher level" concepts (starting with OOP), and greatly improved the quality of code that I wrote myself.

It's probably worth spending at least a little time learning the absolute basics of PHP first. But I would move onto a framework (Laravel) pretty rapidly.

Jumping straight into a framework without knowing PHP, means you will never understand what is really going on and why things are the way they are, you will just learn they things work by doing this and that, you should learn Pure PHP principles first so that you can apply your own logic, classes and methods without copying others.

Part of the answer depends on what you plan to do with Laravel. You can accomplish a lot with Laravel without being an expert at PHP, and you will also learn more PHP along the way of trying to learn Laravel. At the very least, you should do a few online tutorials on PHP before starting with Laravel. This is a good one for a total beginner: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/php

If all you seek is to be productive, build web apps, and make money then you should be fine jumping into Laravel. When I use Laravel I rarely see any benefit from all the time I wasted on plain PHP. I do however like people mentioned think that you should understand the concept of OOP first. Jeffrey has a great course about that. The whole syntax thing you can cover in a couple of hours by watching some youtube videos.

I know some people say that you should first get your hands dirty with plain PHP, but it doesn't make sense because you'll never use it. It's like telling you to use a horse as a transportation before buying a car because this is how it started :)

If you can read and understand (for the most part) the php Manuel you'll be fine. I don't know anyone, even twenty plus years exp, that don't reference docs.

With that said Laravel is php, remember that when Laravel doesn't have a helper function for your task. A basic understanding of php is a must. Not every aspect is covered and you as a dev have to figure it out.