Aḥmad Ṣidqī

Biography

Ahmad Sidqi was a composer and sculptor from al-Ayyat, Giza, according to the Opera dossier published in 2018.

It records his birth in 1916 and death on 14 January 1987. He combined visual art with radio, theatre and film composition; the birth day and month remain disputed. Ahmad al-Samahi reports maqam tuition with Darwish al-Hariri and entry to the Arabic Music Institute in 1933. He records applied-arts graduation in 1935 and music-institute graduation in 1937, alongside continuing interests in sculpture and archaeological drawing. Dar al-Hilal recounts an interview attributed to Kawakib, 7 May 1963: Sidqi drew excavated antiquities for the Antiquities Department. It describes his proposed Suez Canal operetta and refusal to replace it with popular works suggested by Fuad al-Gazayirli. This documents a proposal, rather than a completed production. In republished participant testimony, Zahi Hawass remembers Sidqi working in archaeological drawing on the same floor when Hawass joined the department in 1968, behind the Egyptian Museum. This supports concurrent archaeological and musical work, without establishing an architectural qualification.