2021-02-09 Tue

Ali Shir Nava?i was a Turkish poet and scholar who was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.

Nava'i believed that Chagatai and other Turkic languages were superior to Persian for literary purposes. 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. Nava'i is considered the national poet of Uzbekistan in Uzbek culture.

Nava'i had a great influence in areas as distant as India to the east and the Ottoman Empire to the west. Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire in India and the author of Baburnama, was heavily influenced by Nava'i and wrote about his respect for the writer in his memoirs.

To honour him a commemorative Soviet stamp was issued to celebrate his 550th birthday. Besides this, a commemorative coin was also issued depicted his portrait in the foreground.

Image Source: Wikipedia.org