Reynold Alleyne Nicholson (or R.A. Nicholson; born in Keighley, Yorkshire, England in 1868; died in Chester, Cheshire, England in 1945) was an eminent orientalist widely regarded as the greatest Rumi scholar in the English language. Nicholson was a lecturer in Persian language and Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University and a leading scholar in Islamic literature and Islamic mysticism who exercised a lasting influence on Islamic studies.[1] He was able to study and translate major Sufi texts in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish to English.
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Works on Rumi
Nicholson's magnum opus was his work on Rumi's Masnavi, published in eight volumes between 1925 and 1940. He produced the first critical Persian edition of the Masnavi, the first full translation of it into English, and the first commentary on the entire work in English. This work has been highly influential in the field of Rumi studies worldwide.
Works on Iqbal
Being a teacher of the Pakistani scholar and poet Muhammad Iqbal, Nicholson translated Iqbal's first philosophical Persian poetry book Asrar-i-Khudi into English as The Secrets of the Self.
Other significant translations
- The Sufi treatise of Hujviri
- Rumi's Mathnawi and Divan e Shams
- Ibn Arabi's Tarjuman al-Aswaq
Nicholson also authored Literary History of The Arabs and translated poetry by the Sindi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai.
See also
References
External links
- Encyclopedia Britannica's entry for Reynold Nicholson
- Bio from Dar-al-Mathnawi
- Bio from Answers.com
- Rumi, from Dr. Farooq's Study Resource Page
- The Secrets of the Self, from Iqbal Academy
