Ali-Shir Nava'i

Nizām al-Din Ali-Shir Nava'i
A commemorative Soviet stamp made in honour of Ali-Shir Nava'i's 550th birthday
Born	9 February 1441 (Islamic Calendar: Ramaḍān 17, 844) Herat, Timurid Empire
Died	3 January 1501 (Islamic Calendar: Jumādā II 12, 906) (aged 59) Herat, Timurid Empire
Pen name	Navā'ī (or Nevā'ī) and Fāni
Occupation	Poet, writer, politician, linguist, mystic, and painter

Mīr 'Ali-Shir Nava'i (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAlī-Shīr Herawī (Chagatai-Turkic/Persian: نظام‌الدین على‌شير علی‌شیر نوایی‎‎) was a Central Asian poet, writer, politician, linguist, mystic, and painter. He was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.

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

Ali-Shir Nava'i was born in 1441 in Herat, which is now in north-western Afghanistan. During Ali-Shir's lifetime, Herat was ruled by the Timurid Empire and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual centres in the Muslim world. Ali-Shir belonged to the Chagatai amir (or Mīr in Persian) class of the Timurid elite. Ali-Shir's father, Ghiyāth ud-Din Kichkina (The Little), served as a high-ranking officer in the palace of Shāhrukh Mirzā, a ruler of Khorasan. His mother served as a prince's governess in the palace. Ghiyāth ud-Din Kichkina served as governor of Sabzawar at one time. He died while Ali-Shir was young, and another ruler of Khorasan, Babur Ibn-Baysunkur, adopted guardianship of the young man.