[1] Abdullah obtained a doctorate in meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1946[2][3] before returning to Iraq to become an educator and researcher.

After several years as the President of the University of Baghdad, Abdullah left Iraq amid a period of social unrest, and lived in the United States for the remainder of his life.

He subsequently pursued his postgraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned his PhD, supervised by Bernhard Haurwitz.

In 1949, Abdullah returned to Iraq and joined the faculty of The Higher Normal College, where he served as chairman of the physics department.

Abdullah was imprisoned during the February 1963 coup d'état in Iraq by the revolting Ba'ath forces, who charged him with being a political dissident.

Sinan Abdullah is a dentist in Niskayuna, New York and owned various Mandaean manuscripts that were analyzed by Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley.