Ali-Shir Nava'i

Ali-Shir Nava'i
16th-century portrait of Ali-Shir Nava'i by Mahmud Muzahhib, now located in the Museum of the Astan Quds Razavi in Mashhad, Iran
16th-century portrait of Ali-Shir Nava'i by Mahmud Muzahhib, now located in the Museum of the Astan Quds Razavi in Mashhad, Iran
Born9 February 1441 (1441-02-09)
Herat, Timurid Empire
Died3 January 1501(1501-01-03) (aged 59)
Herat, Timurid Empire
Resting placeHerat, Afghanistan
Pen nameNavā'ī (or Nevā'ī) and Fāni
OccupationPoet, writer, politician, linguist, mystic and painter
Mystics in a garden, an illustration to Sadd-i Iskandari by Qasim Ali. Herat, c. 1485. Bodleian Library

'Ali-Shir Nava'i (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī[n 1] (Chagatai: نظام الدین علی شیر نوایی, Persian: نظام‌الدین علی‌شیر نوایی) was a Timurid poet,[1] writer, statesman, linguist, Hanafi Maturidi[2] mystic and painter[3] who was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.[4][5]

Nava'i believed that his native Chagatai Turkic[6] language was superior to Persian for literary purposes, an uncommon view at the time and defended this belief in his work titled Muhakamat al-Lughatayn (The Comparison of the Two Languages). He emphasized his belief in the richness, precision and malleability of Turkic vocabulary as opposed to Persian.[7]

Because of his distinguished Chagatai language poetry, Nava'i is considered by many throughout the Turkic-speaking world to be the founder of early Turkic literature. Many places and institutions in Central Asia are named after him, including the province and city of Navoiy in Uzbekistan.


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  1. ^ Robinson, Chase; Foot, Sarah, eds. (2012). The Oxford History of Historical Writing Volume 2: 400-1400. Oxford University Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-0-191-63693-6. ... biographies on individuals only started to appear in larger numbers during the late fifteenth century under the Timurid dynasty, such as Khvandamir's glorification of his patron, the Timurid poet and statesman Mir Ali Shir Navai
  2. ^ Nava'i, Ali-Shir (1996). Nasa'em al-mahabba men shama'em al-fotowwa. Turkish Language Association. p. 392.
  3. ^ Subtelny 2011.
  4. ^ Robert McHenry, ed. (1993). "Navā'ī, (Mir) 'Alī Shīr". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (15th ed.). Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. p. 563.
  5. ^ Subtelny 1993, p. 90-93.
  6. ^ Dabashi, Hamid (2012). The World of Persian Literary Humanism. Harvard University Press. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-674-06759-2. ... in his (Nava'i's) own poetic and literary capabilities and wrote both in his native Chagatai Turkish and also in Persian, ...
  7. ^ Валихўжаев, Ботирхон (13 November 2018). "«Муҳокамат ул-луғатайн» ҳақида". Xurshid Davron kutubxonasi (in Uzbek). Retrieved 20 October 2023.

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