'Ali-Shir Nava'i (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī (Chagatai: نظام الدین علی شیر نوایی, ) was a Timurid poet, writer, statesman, linguist, Hanafi Maturidi mystic and painter who was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.
Nava'i believed that his native Chagatai Turkic 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.
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.
Life
Alisher Nava'i was born in 1441 at the city of Herat to a family of well-read Turkic chancery scribes. During Alisher's lifetime, Herat was ruled by the Timurid Empire and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual centres in the Muslim world. Alisher belonged to the Chaghatai mir class of the Timurid elite. Alisher's father, Ghiyāth al-Din Kichkina ("The Little"), served as a high-ranking officer in Khorasan in the palace of the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh. His mother served as a prince's governess in the palace. Ghiyāth al-Din Kichkina served as governor of Sabzawar at one time. He died while Alisher was young, and another ruler of Khorasan, Abul-Qasim Babur Mirza, adopted guardianship of the young man.
Alisher was a schoolmate of Sultan Husayn Bayqara, who would later become sultan of Khorasan. Alisher's family was forced to flee Herat in 1447 after the death of Shah Rukh created an unstable political situation. His family returned to Khorasan after order was restored in the 1450s. In 1456, Alisher and Bayqarah went to Mashhad with Abul-Qasim Babur Mirza. The following year Abul-Qasim died and Alisher and Bayqarah parted ways. While Bayqarah tried to establish political power, Alisher pursued his studies in Mashhad, Herat, and Samarkand.
After the death of Abu Sa'id Mirza in 1469, Husayn Bayqarah seized power in Herat. Consequently, Alisher left Samarkand to join his service. In 1472, Alisher was appointed emir of the dīvān-i aʿlā (supreme council), which eventually led him into a conflict with the powerful Persian bureaucrat Majd al-Din Muhammad Khvafi, due to the latter's centralising reforms, which posed a danger to the traditional privileges that the Turkic military elite (such as Alisher) enjoyed. Alisher remained in the service of Bayqarah until his death on 3 January 1501. He was buried in Herat.
Alisher Nava'i led an ascetic lifestyle, "never marrying or having concubines or children."
Work
Alisher served as a public administrator and adviser to his sultan, Husayn Bayqara. Mirkhvand composed his Timurid universal history under the patronage of Ali-Shir Nava’i. He was also a builder who is reported to have founded, restored, or endowed some 370 mosques, madrasas, libraries, hospitals, caravanserais, and other educational, pious, and charitable institutions in Khorasan. In Herat, he was responsible for 40 caravanserais, 17 mosques, 10 mansions, nine bathhouses, nine bridges, and 20 pools.
Among Alisher's constructions were the mausoleum of the 13th-century mystical poet, Farid al-Din Attar, in Nishapur (north-eastern Iran) and the Khalasiya madrasa in Herat. He was one of the instrumental contributors to the architecture of Herat, which became, in René Grousset's words, "the Florence of what has justly been called the Timurid Renaissance". Moreover, he was a promoter and patron of scholarship and arts and letters, a musician, a composer, a calligrapher, a painter and sculptor, and such a celebrated writer that Bernard Lewis, a renowned historian of the Islamic world, called him "the Chaucer of the Turks".
Among the many notable figures who were financially backed by Alisher include the historians Mirkhvand (died 1498), Khvandamir (died 1535/6) and Dawlatshah Samarqandi (died 1495/1507); the poets Jami (died 1492), Asafi Harawi (died 1517), Sayfi Bukhari (died 1503), Hatefi (died 1521), and Badriddin Hilali (died 1529/30); and the musicians Shaykh Na'i and Husayn Udi.