KHALID AL-QASSAB

Dr. Khalid Al-Qassab was born in Baghdad in 1924, three years after the coronation of Faisal I, the first king of modern Iraq. As a teenager, he developed an interest in architecture when his parents hired an architect to design a new home for them in Baghdad. Despite his interest in this field, he ultimately decided to pursue a career in medicine after graduating from high school, fulfilling his parents' wishes.

Dr. Al-Qassab graduated from Medical School in 1946 and later received a fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1954. He also obtained a fellowship at the Memorial Hospital in New York to study cancer surgery in 1958. For many years, he served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Baghdad University.

While studying Medicine in Baghdad, Dr. Al-Qassab also cultivated a passion for art. He formed a close-knit group of friends who shared his interests in music, theater, and art, and together they founded the "Société Primitive" or S.P. in the early 1940s. Faik Hassan, one of Iraq's most famous modern artists who passed away in 1993, was also a member of this group. Al-Qassab spoke fondly of his recollections with the members of the group who were passionate about their art and would often travel to the countryside to paint, as an escape, regardless of extreme weather conditions such as heat or sandstorms. The Société Primitive held its first exhibit in 1950 inside Al-Qassab's parents' home in Baghdad.