The Mystics of Islam Format: Paperback

A classic and definitive introduction to the message of Sufism.

Nicholson (1868-1945), who translated many important works of Sufism--notably the definitive version of Rumi's "Mathnawi," was among the leading English Islamic scholars of the 20th century.

English Orientalist, lecturer in Persian and Sir Thomas Adams professor of Arabic at Cambridge University, he was a foremost scholar in the field of Islamic literature and mysticism. He was born at Keighley, Yorkshire in 1868. 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 "Mathnawi of Jalalu'ddim 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.