Senior Academic Researcher in Arabic & Islamic Calligraphy and Manuscripts
Senior academic researcher at the Center for Studies of Writings & Calligraphy, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, specializing in Arabic scripts, Islamic manuscripts and documents, and their history and art.
The evolution and aesthetics of the Arabic scripts, from Kufic to Diwani and Taʿliq.
Studying Islamic manuscripts and Qurʼans, their copying and illumination.
Methods for reading, dating, and editing historical scripts and documents.
Epigraphy and ornament in Islamic architecture and the arts across eras.
An academic lecture at the ISMAR center of Fatih Sultan Mehmet University in Istanbul on the Umayyad Qur'anic codices (41 to 132 AH): the development of Orientalist and contemporary studies about them, their concept and characteristics, the sciences involved in studying them (paleography, codicology, and philology), and the leading researchers and codex collections.
Continue readingA lecture by Dr. Mohamed Hassan Ismail within the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts' 2025 courses on the manuscript codices and their codicological dimensions: the major drivers of the Qur'anic script's evolution (religious, artistic, historical), the chronological development from Hijazi to Kufic to the supple scripts, the contemporary academic schools and the clash of their methods, and controversies such as the Sana'a palimpsests and the Birmingham codex.
Continue readingA lecture on paleography (the science of scripts and the reading of ancient texts) and its importance in uncovering the history of Arab-Islamic civilization: its definition, its levels of study, the distinction between manuscript and document, and its application to the noble Qur'anic codices.
Continue readingA lecture on the art criticism of Arabic calligraphy: the concept of the "critical history," the methods of reading the history of script, the crisis of art criticism and its authentic sources, and the effect of intellectual mindsets (such as Sufism and Hurufism) on the calligraphic panel.
Continue reading
A documentary book and artistic encyclopedia on the career and achievement of the great Egyptian and international artist Mosaad Khudair al-Borsaidy, a pioneering figure of singular standing and head of Egypt’s calligraphers’ syndicate. The volume is a significant harvest and a sober study of one of the most important Arab calligraphers of the modern age, surveying his artistic history and calligraphic legacy from his birth and upbringing in Port Said, to the artistic mark he left for several years on Egyptian television, lettering the title sequences of various series and programmes. Published by the Calligraphy Studies Center at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, with a foreword by Prof. Mostafa El-Feki.
Read more
This catalogue offers a theoretical study of the rise and origins of Arabic calligraphy: the various theories about its derivation, its birthplace, and its development, and how that development was bound up with the beginnings of Islamic civilization. It also examines the use of the different Arabic scripts in official correspondence, Qur’ans, tombstones, foundation inscriptions, works of art, and more. A dedicated section presents the masterpieces of the Egyptian school of calligraphy, showcasing exquisite specimens by four pioneers of the art in Egypt (Sayed Ibrahim, Muhammad Ibrahim, Kamel Ibrahim, and Khudair al-Borsaidy), recounting each one’s journey with the art and introducing their lives, efforts, and the artistic treasures and pioneering panels they left behind, which still adorn calligraphy exhibitions to this day.
Read more
A study of the life and work of the “dean of calligraphers” Sayed Ibrahim in light of modern Arabic calligraphy.
Read moreA theoretical and practical course introducing researchers to the methods of reading and dating the scripts of Islamic manuscripts and documents.
A series of seven methodical lectures, each combining presentation, practical drill, terminology, and sources.
A vision premised on calligraphy as “the conscience of Arab-Islamic civilization,” not mere letter-drawing, addressing the challenges of teaching it through three axes of solutions.
