Ali-Shir Nava'i

Who was Ali-Shir Nava'i?

Mīr 'Ali-Shir Nava'i, also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAlī-Shīr Herawī was a Central Asian Turkic politician, mystic, linguist, painter, and poet. He was the greatest representative of Chagatai language literature.

Nava'i believed that the Turkic language was superior to Persian for literary purposes, and defended this belief in his work. 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.