Professor R.A.Nicholson (1868-1945)
The great Rumi scholar, eminent English Orientalist, and lecturer in Persian and Arabic at Cambridge university, Reynold A. Nicholson was the foremost scholar of the 20th century in the field of Islamic literature and Sufi mysticism.
He was a renowned author and recognized authority on Islam. His Literary of the Arabs (1907) remains a standard work on the subject in English, while his many text editions and translations of Sufi writings, culminating in his eight-volume Masnavi of Jalaluddin Rumi, advanced the study of Muslim mystics to an eminent degree. He combined exact scholarship with notable literary gifts; some of his versions of Arabic and Persian poetry qualify him as a poet himself. Nicholson's major works include:
Fihi_Ma_Fihi or Discourses of Rumi.
Rumi: Poet and Mystic.
Fihi_Ma_Fihi or Discourses of Rumi.
Rumi: Poet and Mystic.
English translations of Rumi's Divan-e-Shams and Masnavi [his magnum-opus which took him over 40 years of scholarly work to translate.
Literary History of The Arabs.
The Sufi Treatise of Hujviri [Kashf-Al-Mahjub of Persian Sufi and founder of Sufism in India, Ali Hujviri or Data Ganj Bakhsh].
Ibn Arabi's Tarjuman Al Aswaq.
The Secrets of The Self [the great Indian Subcontinent philosopher and poet, Iqbals' philosophical Persian poetry book].
Essence of Sufis.
The Mystics of Islam.
Professor Nicholson was fluent in Persian/Farsi, Arabic, and Turkish.
Professor R.A. Nicholson's par excellence book on Islamic mysticism, 'The Mystics of Islam' is A MUST READ for anyone interested in Sufi, Sufism, or Sufi related topics. "The Mystics of Islam, first published in 1914, has long been recognized as a classic and definitive introduction to the message of Sufism. In this short but comprehensive work, R.A. Nicholson—who was one of the greatest Islamic scholars of the early 20th century—provides the general reader with an easy approach to the study of Islamic mysticism. He gives a broad outline of Sufism and describes the key principles, methods and characteristic features of the inner life as it has been lived by Muslims of every class and condition from the 8th century onwards. Many quotations are given, mainly in the author's own fine translations from the original Arabic and Persian."
