author
Reynold Alleyne Nicholson
1868–1945
A pioneering English scholar of Islamic literature and mysticism, he helped open Rumi and other Sufi writers to generations of English-speaking readers. His work combined careful scholarship with a real feel for poetry, which is why it still matters today.
2 Audiobooks
The Mystics of Islam
by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson
A Literary History of the Arabs
by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson
About the author
Born in Yorkshire in 1868, Reynold Alleyne Nicholson became one of the most influential British scholars of Arabic and Persian literature. He studied at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Cambridge, and later taught Persian and Arabic at Cambridge, where he built a lasting reputation as a gifted orientalist and interpreter of Islamic thought.
Nicholson is especially remembered for his work on Sufism and for bringing Jalal al-Din Rumi to a wider English-speaking audience. His editions and translations, including the monumental multi-volume Mathnawi of Jalal al-Din Rumi, helped shape modern Western understanding of Persian mystical poetry. His Literary History of the Arabs also remained an important reference work for many years.
What makes Nicholson stand out is the range of his scholarship: he was both a precise academic and a translator with an ear for the spiritual and literary power of his sources. He died in 1945, but his writings continue to be valued by readers interested in Islamic literature, mysticism, and the history of ideas.