Behind his desk, Musaad al-Khudairi sat as he had done every day for more than 65 years to begin his work. He took a baguette pen and dipped it in black ink; On a large piece of paper, he wrote the letter Alef; then stop; With a nostalgic look, he returned to the memory of the past, when the journey began with letters written on the wall of the valiant city, “He who cooperates with colonialism will have death.” At that time, the young child did not realize that fate carries for him a long journey of effort, fatigue, and sweat, until Musaad Khudair Al-Borsaidi became the sheikh of the calligraphers and their captain.

“If I wasn’t a guerrilla, I wouldn’t have been a calligrapher.” He started his career at the age of five and was the youngest guerrilla in the valiant city of Port Said. He joined the popular resistance against English colonialism. At the age of 6, he wrote on the walls of schools and houses in the various streets, expressions denouncing colonialism, and when the people of the three canal cities migrated Because of the tripartite aggression against them, his family went to the city of Tanta, and he documented the Port Said popular resistance on the walls of schools “in dazzling pictures and touching words that raised his talent in writing Arabic calligraphy, so he wrote most of the shop signs in Tanta, and during this period he trained well and taught himself to master the art of writing Arabic calligraphy of all kinds known at the time.

Khudair in his childhood

Four years later, the boy returned to his city and opened his first shop under his name behind the Arab section, to begin the career of a small calligrapher. Massad dominated the banners of most of the shops in the city. He was creative, different and innovative. Everyone loved him and his fame spread throughout the city, until he was called up for military service. His completion of the dream grew big in the mind of the young man and he aspired to spread his calligraphy throughout all of the guarded Egypt, so he migrated to Cairo and settled in Al-Hussein neighborhood to complete the picture inside him, and he began a new journey that began by joining the sons of the Maspero building and becoming the chief calligrapher.

Khudair in childhood

He wrote with his pen many sequences for TV and series such as Al-Mashrabiya, Al-Qahera wa Al-Nas, Baba Abdo, Abu Al-Ela Al-Bishri, Layali Al-Hilmiyya, Al-Shahd wa’l-Dumar, and old plays. Mahmoud Effat came with the bagha that he played with, and Khudair took it from him and wrote it in tatars until the Arabic calligraphy became the musician of the program’s tatars.

Massad Khudair Al-Borsaidi

“The Arabic calligraphy is a living being, my heart is a pawn in the letter, giving it life.” This is how Khudair Al-Borsaidi described it. He said: I play with the text as if I am doing a lyrical work, so I turn the text into a visual image that benefits people, like the proverb “Your tongue is your horse. standing on offense; If someone sees him who does not know how to read, he will understand the written text, and for that I owe my gratitude to my teachers, Muhammad Abdel Qader, Sayed Ibrahim and Muhammad Hosni, the father of the artist, Souad Hosni, in my mastery of the Arabic calligraphy, so I learned a lot from them, as they are my teachers and my friends.

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Khudair owns a museum of his paintings that includes 15,000 paintings, making it a shrine for tourists, lovers and suppliers of Arabic calligraphy. The exhibits are not for sale, no matter how tempting their price is. The museum was visited by many world famous people, including Mamoun Abdul Qayyum, President of the Maldives, Mrs. Jehan Sadat, presidents and kings of Arab countries, artists, and politicians.

calligrapher’s house

The Sheikh of calligraphers held many positions, including head of the Calligraphy Division of the Union of Arab Artists, an active member of the Syndicate of Fine Artists since its inception, member of the General Syndicate for Press, Printing and Media, Director of the Arabic Calligraphy Department of the Egyptian Television, Member of the Board of Directors of Arabic Calligraphy at the Ministry of Education and participated in the preparation and development of curricula for schools lines.

his tools

Khasir with Dr. Osama Al-Baz

Khadir and Rahmi

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic

Paintings inside the exhibition of Arabic calligraphy aesthetic