 Educated at Aberdeen University and Trinity College, Cambridge, Nicholson was professor of Persian at University College London from 1901 to June 1902, then lecturer in Persian at the University of Cambridge from 1902 to 1926, and Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge from 1926 to 1933.He is considered a leading scholar in Islamic literature and Islamic mysticism who exercised a lasting influence on Islamic studies.He was able to study and translate major Sufi texts in Arabic, Persian, Punjabi and Ottoman Turkish to English.