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Sayed Ibrahim Life Story

The Calligrapher Sayed Ibrahim

The calligrapher Sayed Ibrahim was born in the Citadel district in Cairo, Egypt, in August 1897. He was an elegant poet and a rare narrator and an eminent literary in the golden age of the Egyptian Civilization. He was distinguished by his beautiful calligraphy and his prosperous knowledge of this field. At the age of 30 he became the most prominent calligrapher in Egypt and the Arab World.His journey with calligraphy started since childhood. He was the younger brother to Mohamed, a marble trader, and Ahmed the famous sculptor whose work is found in the Japanese garden in Helwan and Al-Andalusia garden in Cairo. Sayed Ibrahim was greatly affected with the artistic talents of his brother. Added to this are the Islamic monuments, with their beautiful Arabic decorations and writings, that are abundant in the Citadel district and the surroundings. He used to stand for hours in front of the writings written on Om Abbas fountain by the Ottoman calligrapher Abd Allah El Zohdi (the calligrapher of the two sacred mosques) and the calligraphy in Mohamed Ali mosque written by the Persian calligrapher Senglag.He was also enchanted by the writings on the street signs (in tholoth) written by the Egyptian calligrapher Mohamed Gaafar. In addition, he was greatly affected by the calligrapher Mohamed Moe’nes Zadah to whom goes the credit of the renaissance of the Egyptian calligraphy. Sayed Ibrahim was enchanted by imitating his works. He even kept going to Mohamed Ali mosque, up to the age of 92, to watch the grace of the poem that is written in Persian calligraphy from which he learned the Persian calligraphy by simply admirably staring at the writings.

Sayed Ibrahim 1922

Sayed Ibrahim started studying Arabic calligraphy in school by Sheikh Farag where they used to write on writing slates and tin plates and then copy the Quran from the old Qurans that were written by the great calligraphers of Istanbul. Later he joined the Azhar where he studied religious and language subjects in addition to Arabic calligraphy that was taught by Egyptian and Turkish professors at that time.While Sheikh Mustafa El Ghor was accidentally passing by the marble store of Mohamed Ibrahim he noticed a nice tablet inside the store. He couldn’t believe that the young boy Sayed was the writer of this tablet. He, then, asked him to come and see him in Al Azhar. Sayed prepared a tablet and went to the Sheikh in Al Azhar and showed him his tablet. Sheikh Mustafa told his students that he expects Sayed Ibrahim to have a glorious future in calligraphy. He advised him to learn calligraphy and gave him a book on calligraphy. That was the first book in Sayed’s library. From this point forward he was keen on acquiring all the available books and pictures of tablets related to calligraphy including Islamic civilization books. In his scholastic life he mainly depended on the books of Mohamed Mo’enes from Egypt and Mahmoud Galal Eldin from Turkey.Sayed Ibrahim used to say that he realized early in his career life that calligraphy and literature share a feeling of beauty and life and that both of them require consistent acts of perfection through education and culture in addition to talent.He memorized the Quran in Al-Azhar. He also committed himself to memorize poems and indulged himself in the secrets of the Arabic language, not only because of his belief that the Arabic language is essential for a good calligrapher, but also because of his love to the Arabic language, literature and poems. He also believed that a calligrapher must be strongly enlightened in the Arabic language and this will eventually enable him to choose the magnificent words to write. All of the above mentioned lead to the development of a calligrapher and a literate.At the age of 10 he composed his first poem. At the age of 19 he had already memorized almost thirty thousand verses of poems. His love to Abu El Alaa El Maary’s poems had an evident effect on his poetic and literature works. He believed that he was charged with the Arabic art in language and calligraphy. Thus, his writings of the tablets and the poems emerged from his sense of beauty: the beauty of the meaning, the picture and the thought that was in the Arabic and Islamic hereditary in calligraphy and poetry.Before the age of 20 he opened his first office (an annex to his home) for calligraphy. His office was always full of clients, friends and scholars from Egypt and abroad who were fascinated by his beautiful writings and his passion to his job. He wrote the titles of authentic books, famous magazines, shop signs, invitation cards, advertisements, famous companies, theatre advertisements, personal cards of ministers and celebrities, and royal openings not only in Egypt but in the Arab world in general. One of the main elements that contributed to the eminence of Sayed Ibrahim in the Islamic World was the colored gifts of Quran tablets that “The Islam” magazine, founded in 1931 by Amin Abd El Rahman, (the highly distributed magazine at that time) distributed as giveaways. These tablets were used to decorate homes, shops and mosques.The period between the two world wars was the most fertile period in Sayed Ibrahim’s literary and artistic career. His articles were published in several magazines such as Apollo, Al-Helal, El-Usoor, El-Donia, and Kol Shaie. He was able to establish his position in the artistic organizations and clubs at that time. He participated with Ahmed Shawky, Ahmed Zaki Abu Shady, Ibrahim Nagy, Hassan Kamel El Serafy and others in the establishment of Apollo Group and the Modern Literature Group. He was also a regular attendant to the literary meetings that flourished in the 1920’s & 1930’s and were attended by the elite literary men at that time such as Taha Hussein, Abbas El Akad, Ali Adham, Mohamed El Asmar, Ahmed Hassan El Zayat Gamil Sedky El Zahawy, and Shakeeb Arsalan.Together with Kamel El Kilany he established “El Kilany Club for Children” in 1908, and in 1918 “El Kilany Literary Association” that included influential literary men, scientists, and artists in Egypt and the Islamic world. No orientalist, literary or political refugee would visit Egypt at that time and not visit this association. Thus, Sayed Ibrahim was able to enlarge his circle of friends and acquaintances. With his choice of the magnificent words and the beauty of his writings, Sayed Ibrahim was also able to attract an assembly of calligraphy lovers and calligraphers from the various cultural and social levels of the society.When President Gamal Abd El Nasser visited Bangalore in South India and offered a grant of carpets to the mosque there, the custodians of the mosque asked him for tablets by the calligrapher Sayed Ibrahim. Accordingly, he wrote Quran of ‘Al-Gomaa Surah’ in a frame 7m high to surround the internal door of the mosque courtyard.

Sayed Ibrahim 1992

In his late years, Sayed Ibrahim felt that times have changed and the Arabic calligraphy started suffering from ongoing retreat and neglecting. In addition, the level of artistic evaluation has deteriorated and the field has become full of pretenders in this beautiful art. At this point, Sayed Ibrahim preferred to retreat from the social life.After he underwent an operation in his eyes in 1978 in Spain, he retired from all his work. He stopped teaching in the ‘Writing Amelioration School’ (after teaching there for 34 years) and The American University in Cairo (after teaching in the Arabic Language Institute for 8 years). He also closed his office after 63 years of operation. He stayed at home and kept himself busy writing artistic calligraphy tablets, reading poetry, and enjoying the visits of his friends, students and beloved ones from Egypt and abroad. He never stopped getting acquainted with calligraphy books that he even mentioned when he was 90 years old that at this age he can still discover new secrets of the Arabic calligraphy. From time to time he would visit Mohamed Ali Mosque and Om Abbas fountain, the origin of his inspiration, to revive his memories with Prince Mohamed Ali and Hajj Ahmed Kamel, head of calligraphers in Istanbul. He stopped writing at the age of 92. His last tablets were for his friend Engineer Osman Ahmed Osman and Mohamed Ali Hafez, the publisher of Middle East Newspaper, to whom goes the credit of publishing “The Magnificent Arabic Calligraphy Book”.

A Sample of Naskhta'liq calligraphy

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