Ahmed bin Abdulmohsen Al-Assaf

Writer and Biography Researcher

Readers know Ahmed bin Abdulmohsen Al-Assaf as a Saudi writer and blogger devoted to biography. He began reading memoirs some twenty-five years ago as a break from heavier reading, and it became a discipline: one to three biographies a month, reviewed on his blog. There and elsewhere he has published around 1,700 articles, short studies and working papers on writing, reading, law, statesmen, the history of the Arafat sermon-givers and the idea of lineage and heritage. He is best known for charting the history of the Saudi Council of Ministers since the first ministerial appointment in 1349 AH, compiling from ministers' memoirs rarely cited facts on the longest tenures, the youngest and oldest appointees, and those who returned to the Council after leaving it. He has written three biographies: "Abdulmohsen bin Mohammed Al-Sudairy: A Life and an International Career", on the first Saudi and Gulf national to lead a United Nations agency; "Abdulrahman Al-Saleh Al-Shobaily: Another Life", for which he interviewed more than a hundred people who knew its subject, both commissioned by the Abdulrahman Al-Sudairy Cultural Centre; and "Colours on the Canvas of a Lifetime", the life of Ahmed bin Hamdan Al-Aradi Al-Balawi. He has edited books on biography, management, endowments, community work and health education, written forewords, and judged novels and research. He took part in the "Tilka Shahadati" series on Al Thaqafiya, appeared on Abdullah Al-Mudaifer's "Fi Al-Sura", and lectured on "What Erodes Heritage" on Al-Majd Scientific channel. He holds a bachelor's in pharmacy from King Saud University (1997) and a bachelor's in law from Saudi Electronic University (2025), and has worked at the Ministry of Health, King Fahad Medical City and community and endowment foundations. He trains writers in drafting, editing and content, and sits on the board of the Society for the Care of Libraries and is a member of the Saudi Media Association (Ealami), the Saudi Opinion Writers Association and the Saudi Pharmaceutical Society. In his words: writing is both release and immortality.