Hassan Massoudy was born in Najaf, Iraq. He moved to France in 1969, where he studied at L'École des Beaux-Arts. His work has been exhibited throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, and is in the permanent collections of the British Museum and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, among others. Nineteen books of his calligraphy have been published in France, along with his autobiography, Si Loin de l'Euphrate: Une jeunesse d'artiste en Irak.

Poets cited:

Pir Sultan Abdal 1480-1550, Turkish poet
Gentil Bernard 1708-1775, French poet and librettist
William Blake 1757-1827, English poet, painter and printmaker
Nicolas Boileau 1636-1711, French poet and critic
Henri Bosco 1888-1976, French novelist and poet
Buson 1716-1783, Japanese poet and painter
René Char 1907-1988, French poet
Chiyo-Ni 1703-1775, Japanese poet
Lucie Delarue-Mardrus 1874-1945, French poet, novelist and sculptor
Dogen 1200-1253, Zen Buddhist philosopher
Saint Francis of Assisi 1182-1226, Italian patron saint of animals and the environment
Theophile Gautier 1811-1872, French poet, dramatist, novelist and critic
Yoka Gengaku 665-713 Chinese Zen master
Kahlil Gibran 1883-1931, Lebanese poet, artist and philosopher
Eugène Guillevic 1907-1997, French poet
Zafir al-Haddad 11th century, Egyptian poet
Victor Hugo 1802-1885, French novelist, poet and playwright
Johann Gottfried Von Herder 1744-1803, German philosopher, poet, literary critic
Kobayashi Issa 1763-1827, Japanese poet and Buddhist priest
Ernst Jünger 1895-1998, German writer
Saint Kabir 15th century, Indian poet and saint
Ibn Khafaja 11th century, Arab poet from Andalusia
Ibn Khanzabeh 10th century, Arab poet and politician
Omar Khayyam 1048-1131, Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer
Jacques Lacarrière 1925-2005, French writer
Lao Tzu ca 6th century BCE, Chinese Taoist philosopher
Ilya Abu Madhi 1889-1957, Lebanese poet
Sidi Abou Madyan 12th century, Andalusian Sufi poet
Henri Matisse 1869-1954, French artist
Catulle Mendès 1841-1909, French poet, playwright and novelist
Henri de Montherlant 1895-1972, French essayist, dramatist and novelist
Tamim Ibn Al Mouaaz 948-985 Tunisian-Egyptian poet
Charles d'Orléans 1394-1465, French duke and poet
Honorat de Racan 1589-1670, French writer and poet
Henri de Régnier 1864-1936, French poet
Saadi 1184-1283, Persian poet
Al-Sanawbari 10th century, poet from Antioch
Saryu Japanese poet
Ibn al-Sayegh 14th century, Arab poet
Tu Fu 8th century, Chinese poet
Nicolas Vauquelin 1567-1649, French poet
Paul Verlaine 1844-1896, French poet
Wang-Wei 8th century, Chinese poet and painter
Ibn Zaydoun 1003-1071, Andalusian poet