Mir Ali Shir Nava'i
Encyclopedia
(9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501) was a Central Asia
n Turkic
politician, mystic, linguist, painter, and poet of Uyghur
origin who was born and lived in Herat
. He is generally known by his pen name Navā'ī . Because of his distinguished Chagatai
poetry, he is considered by many throughout the Turkic-speaking world to be the founder of early Turkic literature.
, which is now in northwestern Afghanistan
. He belonged to the Chagatai
amir (or Mīr
in Persian) class of the Timurid elite. His father, Ghiyāth ud-Din Kichkina ("the Little"), served as a high-ranking officer in the palace of Shāhrukh Mirzā
, the ruler of Khorasan
. According to contemporary historian Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat
(1499-1551), he was a descendant of Uyghur "Bakhshis" - originally scribes serving in the Mongol Empire
who often put orders, issued by Chengiz Khan and his descendants, in shape of verses, declaring by loud voices - many of whom later served at the courts of almost all Chagatai and Timurid rulers and later became powerful military officials (thus the military title Mīr). His mother served as a princes' governess in the palace.
His father died while Mīr Alī Shīr was young, and the ruler of Khorasan, Babur Ibn-Baysunkur
, adopted guardianship of the young man. He was subsequently educated in Mashhad
, Herat
, and Samarkand
.
Mīr Alī Shīr was a schoolmate of Husayn Bayqarah
, who would later become the sultan
of Khorasan. During Mīr Ali Shīr's lifetime, Herat was the capital of the Timurid Empire and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual centers in the Muslim world
. It was there that Navā'i met his good friend Jāmī
.
s, and other educational, pious, and charitable institutions in Khorasan
. In Herat, he was responsible for 40 caravanserais, 17 mosques, 10 mansions, 9 bathhouses, 9 bridges, and 20 pools.
Among his most famous constructions were the mausoleum of the 13th-century mystical poet, Farid al-Din Attar, in Nishapur
(northeastern 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
, the distinguished English
historian of Islam
, called him "the Chaucer
of the Turks".
. Navā'ī himself wrote primarily in the Chagatai language
and produced 30 works over a period of 30 years, during which Chagatai became accepted as a prestigious and well-respected literary language. Navā'i also wrote in Persian (under the pen name Fāni), and to a much lesser degree in Arabic
and Hindi
.
Navā'ī's best-known poems are found in his four divans, or poetry collections, which total roughly 50,000 verses. Each part of the work corresponds to a different period of a person's life:
To help other Turkic poets he wrote technical works such as Mizan al-Awzan ("The Measure of Meters"), and a detailed treatise on poetical meters. He also crafted the monumental Majalis al-Nafais ("Assemblies of Distinguished Men"), a collection of over 450 biographical sketches of mostly contemporary poets that is a gold mine of information for modern historians of Timurid
culture.
Navā'i's other important works include the Khamsa (quintuple), which is composed of five epic poems and an imitation of Nizami Ganjavi's Khamsa:
He also wrote Lisan-ol-tayr (لسان الطیر or "Language of Birds", following Attar's Manteq-ol-tayr منطق الطیر or Speeches of Birds), in which he expressed his philosophical views and Sufi
ideas. He translated Jami
's Nafahat-ol-ons (نفحات الانس) to Chagatai Turkic and called it Nasayim-ul-muhabbat (نسایم المحبت).
Hi Besh Hayrat (Five Wonders) also gives an in-depth look at his views on religion and Sufism. His book of Persian poetry contains 6000 lines (beit).
Perhaps his most passionate work was his last, Muhakamat al-Lughatayn
("Judgment between the Two Languages"), completed in December 1499. He believed that the Turkic language was superior to Persian for literary purposes, and defended this belief in his work. It was the writer’s last definitive statement on the subject dearest to his heart; the Muhakamat acted as the author's last will and testament. Repeatedly, Nava'i emphasizes his belief in the richness, precision and malleability of Turkic vocabulary as opposed to Persian.
to the east and the Ottoman Empire
to the west.
Navā'ī became one of the most beloved poets in the Turkic-speaking world. With the rise of the great Ottoman poets, the place of Turkish as a classical language of Islam and a major world literature was solidified.
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
n Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
politician, mystic, linguist, painter, and poet of Uyghur
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
origin who was born and lived in Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
. He is generally known by his pen name Navā'ī . Because of his distinguished Chagatai
Chagatai language
The Chagatai language is an extinct Turkic language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia, and remained the shared literary language there until the early twentieth century...
poetry, he is considered by many throughout the Turkic-speaking world to be the founder of early Turkic literature.
Origins
Mīr Alī Shīr was born in 1441 in HeratHerat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
, which is now in northwestern Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. He belonged to the Chagatai
Chagatai Khanate
The Chagatai Khanate was a Turko-Mongol khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan , second son of the Great Khan Genghis Khan, and his descendents and successors...
amir (or Mīr
Mir (title)
Mir is a title which is derived from the Arabic title Emir or Amir . It was adopted in many languages under Islamic influence, such as Persian , Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, meaning leader of a group or tribe in Iran, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.-Title:In Iran, mir has also been formally used as a...
in Persian) class of the Timurid elite. His father, Ghiyāth ud-Din Kichkina ("the Little"), served as a high-ranking officer in the palace of Shāhrukh Mirzā
Shah Rukh (Timurid dynasty)
Shāhrukh Mīrzā was the ruler of the eastern portion of the empire established by the Central Asian warlord Timur - the founder of the Timurid dynasty - governing most of Persia and Transoxiana between 1405 and 1447...
, the ruler of Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
. According to contemporary historian Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat
Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat
Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat was a Chagatai Turko-Mogol military general, ruler of Kashmir, and a historical writer. He was a Turkic speaking Dughlat prince who wrote in Persian and Chagatai languages. Prince Haider was a first cousin of Prince Zahir .-Life:He first campaigned in Kashmir in 1533,...
(1499-1551), he was a descendant of Uyghur "Bakhshis" - originally scribes serving in the Mongol Empire
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
who often put orders, issued by Chengiz Khan and his descendants, in shape of verses, declaring by loud voices - many of whom later served at the courts of almost all Chagatai and Timurid rulers and later became powerful military officials (thus the military title Mīr). His mother served as a princes' governess in the palace.
His father died while Mīr Alī Shīr was young, and the ruler of Khorasan, Babur Ibn-Baysunkur
Babur Ibn-Baysunkur
Babur Ibn-Baysunkur , also known as Abu'l-Qasim Bābur, was a Timurid ruler in Khurasan . He was the son of Baysunqar, and thus the a grandson of Shāhrukh Mirzā....
, adopted guardianship of the young man. He was subsequently educated in Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
, Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
, and Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
.
Mīr Alī Shīr was a schoolmate of Husayn Bayqarah
Husayn Bayqarah
Husayn Bayqarah was a Timurid ruler of Herat from 1469 to 1506, with a brief interruption in 1470. His father was Mansur, a great-grandson of Timur...
, who would later become the sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
of Khorasan. During Mīr Ali Shīr's lifetime, Herat was the capital of the Timurid Empire and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual centers in the Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
. It was there that Navā'i met his good friend Jāmī
Jami
Nur ad-Dīn Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī also known as DJāmī, Mawlanā Nūr al-Dīn 'Abd al-Rahmān or Abd-Al-Rahmān Nur-Al-Din Muhammad Dashti who is commonly known as Jami , is known for his achievements as a scholar, mystic, writer, composer of numerous lyrics and idylls, historian, and one of the greatest...
.
Achievements
Mīr Alī Shīr served as a public administrator and adviser to his sultan, Husayn Bayqarah. He was also a builder who is reported to have founded, restored, or endowed some 370 mosques, madrasas, libraries, hospitals, caravanseraiCaravanserai
A caravanserai, or khan, also known as caravansary, caravansera, or caravansara in English was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey...
s, and other educational, pious, and charitable institutions in Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
. In Herat, he was responsible for 40 caravanserais, 17 mosques, 10 mansions, 9 bathhouses, 9 bridges, and 20 pools.
Among his most famous constructions were the mausoleum of the 13th-century mystical poet, Farid al-Din Attar, in Nishapur
Nishapur
Nishapur or Nishabur , is a city in the Razavi Khorasan province in northeastern Iran, situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Binalud Mountains, near the regional capital of Mashhad...
(northeastern Iran) and the Khalasiya madrasa in Herat. He was one of the instrumental contributors to the architecture of Herat, which became, in René Grousset
René Grousset
René Grousset was a French historian, curator of both the Cernuschi and Guimet Museums in Paris, and a member of the prestigious Académie française...
'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
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
, the distinguished English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
historian of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, called him "the Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
of the Turks".
Literary achievements
Under the pen name Navā'i, Mīr Alī Shīr was among the key writers who revolutionized the literary use of the Turkic languagesTurkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
. Navā'ī himself wrote primarily in the Chagatai language
Chagatai language
The Chagatai language is an extinct Turkic language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia, and remained the shared literary language there until the early twentieth century...
and produced 30 works over a period of 30 years, during which Chagatai became accepted as a prestigious and well-respected literary language. Navā'i also wrote in Persian (under the pen name Fāni), and to a much lesser degree in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
.
Navā'ī's best-known poems are found in his four divans, or poetry collections, which total roughly 50,000 verses. Each part of the work corresponds to a different period of a person's life:
- Ghara’ib al-Sighar ("Wonders of Childhood")
- Navadir al-Shabab ("Rarities or Witticisms of Youth")
- Bada'i' al-Wasat ("Marvels of Middle Age")
- Fawa'id al-Kibar ("Advantages of Old Age")
To help other Turkic poets he wrote technical works such as Mizan al-Awzan ("The Measure of Meters"), and a detailed treatise on poetical meters. He also crafted the monumental Majalis al-Nafais ("Assemblies of Distinguished Men"), a collection of over 450 biographical sketches of mostly contemporary poets that is a gold mine of information for modern historians of Timurid
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
culture.
Navā'i's other important works include the Khamsa (quintuple), which is composed of five epic poems and an imitation of Nizami Ganjavi's Khamsa:
- Hayrat-ol-abrar (Wonders of Good People) (حیرت الابرار)
- Farhad va Shirin (فرهاد و شیرین)
- Layli va Majnun (لیلی و مجنون)
- Sab'ai Sayyar ("Seven travellers (planets)", سبعه سیار)
- Sadd-i-Iskandari ("Alexander's Dam", سد سکندری , an epic poem about Alexander the Great).
He also wrote Lisan-ol-tayr (لسان الطیر or "Language of Birds", following Attar's Manteq-ol-tayr منطق الطیر or Speeches of Birds), in which he expressed his philosophical views and Sufi
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
ideas. He translated Jami
Jami
Nur ad-Dīn Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī also known as DJāmī, Mawlanā Nūr al-Dīn 'Abd al-Rahmān or Abd-Al-Rahmān Nur-Al-Din Muhammad Dashti who is commonly known as Jami , is known for his achievements as a scholar, mystic, writer, composer of numerous lyrics and idylls, historian, and one of the greatest...
's Nafahat-ol-ons (نفحات الانس) to Chagatai Turkic and called it Nasayim-ul-muhabbat (نسایم المحبت).
Hi Besh Hayrat (Five Wonders) also gives an in-depth look at his views on religion and Sufism. His book of Persian poetry contains 6000 lines (beit).
Perhaps his most passionate work was his last, Muhakamat al-Lughatayn
Muhakamat al-Lughatayn
Muhakamat al-Lughatayn , was one of Mir Ali-Shir Nava'i's masterpieces. Completed in December 1499, he believed that the Chagatai Turkic language was superior to Persian for literary purposes, and defended this belief in his work...
("Judgment between the Two Languages"), completed in December 1499. He believed that the Turkic language was superior to Persian for literary purposes, and defended this belief in his work. It was the writer’s last definitive statement on the subject dearest to his heart; the Muhakamat acted as the author's last will and testament. Repeatedly, Nava'i emphasizes his belief in the richness, precision and malleability of Turkic vocabulary as opposed to Persian.
Influence of Nava'i
Navā'ī had a great influence in areas as distant as IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to the east and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
to the west.
- BaburBaburBabur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...
(1483-1530), founder of the Mughal EmpireMughal EmpireThe Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
in India, wrote one of the first autobiographies among Islamic rulers, the epic "BaburnamaBaburnamaBāburnāma is the name given to the memoirs of Ẓahīr ud-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur , founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur...
". He was influenced heavily by Nava’i and even includes his respect for the writer in this famous book. - The Ottomans were highly conscious of their Central Asian heritage; Süleymân the MagnificentSuleiman the MagnificentSuleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...
was impressed by Nava’i and had the Divan-i Neva’i, Khamsa and Muhakamat added to his personal library. - The renowned Azari poet FuzuliFuzûlîFużūlī was the pen name of the Azerbaijani or the Bayat branch of Oghuz Turkish and Ottoman poet, writer and thinker Muhammad bin Suleyman...
, who wrote under the auspices of both the SafavidSafavid dynastyThe Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning...
and OttomanOttoman EmpireThe Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
empires, was heavily influenced by the style of Nava’i. - Further influence can be found in KazanKazanKazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
of RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Turkistan/Central Asia, modern day TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and all other areas which TurkicTurkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
speakers inhabit. - He is considered the national poet of Uzbekistan in Uzbek culture
Navā'ī became one of the most beloved poets in the Turkic-speaking world. With the rise of the great Ottoman poets, the place of Turkish as a classical language of Islam and a major world literature was solidified.