Calligraphyer Sayed Ibrahim was born in Cairo, August 1897. He was educated at Al-Azhar and then followed free courses at the National University of Egypt between 1917-1920. He was a member of Apollo poetry group which was established by Dr. Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi in the thirties.  He was also a member in the High Council of Arts and Letters for decades. He learned by heart more than 30,000 couplets of poetry. He was one of the famous of Abu AÕla Al MaÕari in the modern age.

His experience with calligraphy began at a very young age. The environment in which he lived and the calligraphic inscriptions decorating the mosques and historical buildings at Al QalÕa District where he spent his childhood were the first courses in this art. He was influenced particularly by the calligraphic inscriptions in thuluth style written on the  ÒUm AbbasÓ fountain by the renowned Ottoman calligrapher Abdullah Al Zuhdi and by the inscriptions in naskhtaliq style written on the Mohamed Ali Pasha Mosque by the Iranian the names of streets written by calligrapher Muhamed Jafer in the thuluth style.

He learned the art of calligraphy from the exercise book of calligrapher Muhamed Muniszade and from the Turkish and Persian exercise books.

Sayed Ibrahim met with Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Rifai when he was invited to Egypt from Istanbul in 1922 to copy the Holy Quran. Their relationship flourished. He also met with Haci Kamil Akdik, the last of the master calligraphers in Turkey and visited him at his residence in Cairo where he stayed in 1933 to undertake the writings off the mosque of Prince Mohamed Ali Palace in Al Manyal. The proposal of Prince Mohamed Ali to Sayed Ibrahim and Haci Kamel Akdik to write some of the plates of the Palace is considered a great honour for Sayed Ibrahim. Thus, both calligraphers wrote the plates in the palace.

Sayed Ibrahim taught calligraphy at the School for the Development of Calligraphy, in Cairo for more than half a century from 1920's to 1970's. He trained a number of calligraphers including Hashim Al Baghdadi, Janeh and Farah Adnan (Iraq) Muhamed Sherifi (Algeria), Ahmed  Ziya Ibrahim and Nasr Al Meymun (Saudi Arabia) Mustafa bin Nakhi (Kuwait), Abdul Ilah Al-Arab (Bahrain) Muhamed Mandi and Abu Bakr Sasi (Libya) Sheikh Beshir Al Edlbi (Syria) Anne Royal and Louis Oryan (USA) and Riyadh Jawhariya and Muhamed Siyam (Palestine).

Many calligraphers from Arab and Muslim countries visited him. He also taught at the Faculty of ÒDar ul UlumÓ the Department of Arabic Studies of the American University and the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts of the League of Arab States

Research Centre for Islamic History Art and Culture (IRCICA)

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