Nicholas Sims-Williams

I have deep admiration for scholars like Nicholas Sims-Williams. Born in Chatham and a Research Professor of Iranian and Central Asian studies at SOAS, he spends his life decoding languages most of us have never heard of, like Sogdian and Bactrian, breathing meaning back into documents that have been silent for millennia. His Fellowship of the British Academy testifies to decades of painstaking work far from any spotlight. Without specialists of his patience, whole chapters of human memory would vanish into the dark. There is a quiet heroism in that labour, and I find these unsung giants genuinely moving.

Name (English)

Nicholas Sims-Williams

Name (Japanese)

ニコラス・シムズ＝ウィリアムズ

Reading

にこらす・しむず＝うぃりあむず

Born

April 11, 1949 (age 77)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Ox

Origin

Chatham, United Kingdom

Occupation

orientalist

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8B%E3%82%B3%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A0%E3%82%BA%EF%BC%9D%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A3%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E3%83%A0%E3%82%BA

Tags

• orientalist

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.