Dr. Mohammed Said Farsi Biography

Mohammed Said Farsi, in his generous endowment of the first Chair of Islamic Peace to be established in the United States, reflects the universalism, tolerance, and inclusiveness of the original message of Islam on an individual level. His deep belief in the Islamic ideal of human solidarity that respects the divinely ordained reality of cultural pluralism, coupled with his quiet dignity, his intellectual achievements and personal generosity, reflect a concrete manifestation of Baraka (God's grace and blessing) in his life. For the first five years of his life, Mohammed Said Farsi lived in Makkah, where he began to learn to recite the Qur'an. Then, at the age of five, he met his first love, the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, "The Bride of the Sea." It was in Jeddah, while facing the Red Sea from the shore, that Dr. Farsi developed (in his son Hani's words) a "love for the sea's horizons, the smell of the sea, and its unknown depths."

Trained in architecture and town planning in Alexandria, Egypt, Mohammed Said Farsi entered government service in 1963, at age 29, when he was appointed Town Planning Officer for Jeddah. In 1965, he was appointed Planning Officer for the Western Regions of Saudi Arabia, and in 1972, he became Mayor and City Planner of Jeddah, a position which he held until 1986. During this time, Saudi Arabia was undergoing rapid changes; Jeddah became an increasingly important center not only for pilgrimage, but also for commerce. At the beginning of his tenure, there were 300,000 people in the city; by 1982 there were 1.5 million--and at present approximately 2 million. Jeddah has the most remarkable collection of outdoor sculptures in the world. Dr. Farsi travelled around the world, meeting with sculptors, artists, painters and musicians, and talking with them about his vision, "... to have in our city, places of beauty." Space in Jeddah is proportioned harmoniously -- it is musical. In his architecture we hear music, we feel harmony, and we see culture. Mohammed Said Farsi has subordinated technical architecture to the natural principle of harmony, as well as human principles of tradition, human scale and spirituality. His art is a gift from God.

Mohammed Said Farsi's vision is enormous. This vision of expansiveness and depth, of the meeting of the horizontal and the vertical, opened his heart to the vast beauty of the reality around him. He began to see that "the whole is reflected in the parts, and from the parts comes the ever-greater whole." This aesthetic vision inspired Mohammed Said Farsi with a devotion to beauty. He also saw that the East and West can meet--that the East can remain faithful to its cultural heritage while accepting the best that the West can offer, and, moreover, that the East can offer its own cultural riches to the West. Within the depth of his vision of beauty and the expansiveness of his vision of the world, Mohammed Said Farsi has tried to live his life creatively -- like an artist. He has always tried to bring greater beauty to that part of the world which has been entrusted to his care.

Mohammed Said Farsi's efforts to artistically enrich the city of Jeddah mirrors his vision. Inspired by the "golden age" of Arab and Islamic culture, during which art bore witness to a "sense of security, continuity, and peace," Mohammed Said Farsi is a firm believer in the arts, sciences and literature. He understands that the "[f]lowering of culture begins with the elimination of fear, anxiety, and turbulence." It is to this end--the flowering of human culture and the promotion of inner as well as social peace--that Mohammed Said Farsi's quest for beauty has been directed. It is his hope that each sculpture and monument which he has helped bring to Jeddah will "[b]ring delight to the observer, while stimulating...a sense of wonder" and a desire to probe for inner, spiritual meaning--for the "spiritual beauty or spiritual essence" from which fine art emerges, and which it illuminates.

Mohammed Said Farsi teaches us that the "[r]ealization of an object as art is a spontaneous act of giving." He continues to give to this day, in light of his own realizations of life as art. It is from this vision of life as art that the Chair of Islamic Peace derives its inspiration.

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For more information about the
Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace, contact

Professor Abdul Aziz Said
American University
School of International Service
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016-8071
Phone: (202) 885-1632
Fax: (202) 885-6999
E-mail: tawhid@american.edu