Famous people A

Famous people A. Navoi
Alisher Navoi (1441-1501) was a great poet and thinker, a statesman. His full name was Nizomiddin Mir Alisher. He wrote poetry under the pseudonym Navoi in both Chagatai (ancient Uzbek language) and Farsi (in Persian works). He is the outstanding figure of Uzbek literature, known in the West as Chagatai literature. There is no greater personality than him in the literature of the Turkic peoples.
Childhood and Youth
Nizomiddin Mir Alisher was born in Herat on 9 February 1441. At that time, Herat was the capital of Khorasan (now the territory of modern Uzbekistan and Iran), a province within the state of Maverannahr created by Amir Temur. There is still scholarly debate about the origin of Alisher Nawoi. Two versions are disputed: according to the first, he is a descendant of the Uighur Bakhshi (storytellers); according to the second, he belongs to the Barlas tribe, from which Amir Temur himself came.
Hence the privileged position of his father – Giyasiddin Kichkina, who served as an official at the Temurid court and was a man of the enlightened, educated dynasty. One of Alisher’s uncles was a poet, another was a musician and calligrapher.
From childhood, Navoi was friends with the future ruler of Khorasan (Transoxiana) Husayn Boyqaro (1469-1506). He started writing poetry at the age of 10-12. According to the information of Navoi’s contemporary, the historian Khandamir (1473 (76) – 1534), the famous Uzbek poet Lutfi (1369-1465) met a child named Navoi in his old age and highly appreciated his poetic talent.
In the course of his life, Navoi visited various countries of the Muslim Orient and met notable personalities of his time. He developed his poetic skills. In 1464-65, the admirers of Navoi’s creativity prepared the first collection of his poems (Diwan). This fact shows that Navoi had already become famous as a poet by this time. Until 1469 – during the Temurid internal unrest – Alisher Navoi was forced to live far away from his hometown – Herat.