Hannibal Alkhas Information

Hannibal Alkhas (1930 – 2010) was a sculptor, painter and author. He was born in 1930 in Iran into an ethnic Assyrian and Christian family and spent his childhood and teenage years in Kermanshah, Ahwaz and Tehran. In 1951, Hannibal Alkhas moved to the United States in pursuit of his education and studied philosophy for three years at Loyola University of Chicago, Illinois.

From 1953 to 1958 he attended the Art Institute of Chicago where he earned his Bachelor’s and Masters of Fine Arts.

In 1959, after the death of his father, the famous Assyrian writer Rabi Adai Alkhas, Hannibal Alkhas returned to Iran and began to teach painting, drawing, and art history at the Tehran School of Fine Arts for the next four years. During this time he established the successful Gilgamesh gallery, the first modern art gallery in Iran where aspiring young artists were introduced. In 1963 he returned to the United States and taught a Monticello College in Illinois where he became the chairman of the art department.

Hannibal Alkhas has also created book illustrations, written poems and translated many poems to and from Assyrian. His works have been displayed in numerous exhibitions in Iran, Europe, Canada, Australia and the US.

Hannibal Alkhas died on September 14, 2010 at the age of 80 in the United States. He was suffering from cancer.

Hannibal Alkhas was working on the completion of his Assyrian reproduction of the tragedy of Rustam and Sohrab, which was to have a happy ending.

“When I read the combat of Rustam and Sohrab in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, I wept for Sohrab (Rustam’s only son) who was killed by his father. So I decided to bring the story to a different end,” he had told MNA in June.

He had also explained that he changed the plot in a way that when Rustam takes the knife to stab Sohrab, he feels the great power of Sohrab and realizes that he is his son and does not kill him. Thereafter, father and son become close friends and decide to help people. The story continues on to the modern world of today where they even travel to the United States to save the American Indians.

Painter and sculptor Alkhas had also illustrated tens of book covers. His translation of Hafez’s lyrics into Assyrian was also among his other credits.