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.^[6]

Work on Ali Hujwiri Daata Ganj Bakhsh

Nicholson translated the famous Persian book on sufism Kashf ul Mahjoob into English which was written by the famous saint of the Subcontinent, Ali Hujwiri Daata Ganj Bakhsh^[8]

Works on Iqbal

Being a teacher of the Indian scholar and poet, Muhammad Iqbal, Nicholson translated Iqbal's first philosophical poetry book, Asrar-i-Khudi, from Persian into English and titled it,The Secrets of the Self.

Other significant translations

• The Sufi treatise of Hujviri
• Rumi's Mathnawi
• Rumi's Divan-i Shams-i Tabrizi (Divan e Shams), 1898
• Ibn Arabi's Tarjuman al-Aswaq (1911)
• Poetry by the Sindhi language poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai^[9]
• Poetry by the Punjabi language poet Bulleh Shah^{[10][11][12][13]}

Students

Among Nicholson's students was A. J. Arberry, a translator of Rumi and the Quran. Another student, Muhammad Iqbal, was a famous poet and has been called the "Spiritual Father of Pakistan".