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Alisher Navoi (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501)
Alisher Navoi also known as
Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī
(
Chagatai Turkic
/
Persian
: ﯽﯾاوﻧ رﯾﺷﯽﻠﻋ نﯾدﻟامﺎظﻧ), was a
Turkic
poet, writer,
politician, linguist,
Hanafi
Maturidi
mystic
and
painter
[
who was the
greatest representative of
Chagatai
literature.
Nava'i believed that Chagatai and other
Turkic languages
were
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.