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Alisher NavoiUzbek poet
Date of Birth: 09.02.1441
Country:  Uzbekistan |
Content:
Biography of Nizamaddin Mir Alisher Navoi
Nizamaddin Mir Alisher Navoi was an Uzbek poet, thinker, and statesman. Born into the family of the Timurid official Ghiyathuddin Kichkine, whose house was a center of artistic communication, including poets, Navoi became known as a poet composing verses in both Central Asian Turkic and Persian by the age of 15. He studied in Herat, Mashhad, and Samarkand.
In 1469, Navoi became the seal keeper of the ruler of Khorasan, Sultan Husayn Bayqara, with whom he had studied in a madrasa. In 1472, he was appointed as the vizier and received the title of emir. Navoi provided assistance to scholars, artists, musicians, poets, calligraphers, and supervised the construction of madrasas, hospitals, and bridges.
A Defender of the People
As a convinced humanist and fighter against medieval despotism and arbitrariness, Navoi defended the rights of the people before the sultan and resolved cases in favor of the unjustly oppressed. His progressive positions caused dissatisfaction at the court. In 1487, Navoi was exiled to the remote province of Astrabad as a ruler. The collapse of hopes for political restructuring of the country and achieving peace in a state torn apart by Timurid conflicts forced Navoi to leave his service. After returning to Herat in 1488, he spent the rest of his life in intensive creative work.
The Legacy of Navoi
Navoi's humanistic poetry is multifaceted, and his legacy is extensive. His lyrical verses were collected by the author in 1498-99 in four divan collections. The peak of his poetic creativity is represented by the "Quintet" ("Khamsa", 1483-85), consisting of poems such as "The Confusion of the Righteous," "Layla and Majnun," "Farhad and Shirin," "The Seven Planets," and "Iskandar's Wall." Navoi's works influenced the development of Uzbek and other Turkic literatures.
Navoi's vivid personality and the artistic power of his poetry attracted great interest among Orientalists. A separate field of scholarly research, known as "Navoi studies," emerged. The works of Russian scholars such as V. V. Bartold, E. E. Bertels, A. Sharafutdinov, Aibek, V. Zakhirov, I. Sultanov, A. N. Boldyrev, A. A. Semyonov, A. Yu. Yakubovsky, Kh. Suleiman, A. Khaitmetov, A. Abdugafurov, P. Shamsiev, and others are well-known in this field. Navoi's poems have been translated into many languages, and his manuscripts are preserved in major libraries around the world, including those in Russia, England, Turkey, Iran, and others.
