A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

134 A history of Inner Asia
known by his pen name Navai (“The Melodious One”).This lifetime
friend and informal adviser of Sultan Husayn Bayqara was a Chaghatay
Turk like the sovereign, although he did not belong to the Turco-Mongol
tribal aristocracy but was descended from the Uighur bakhshi (scribal)
class.He wrote in both Turki and Persian, using the pen-name Fani
(“One who has reached the state of fana or separate existence in God,”
a Sufi concept) in the latter case; but especially his poetry in Turki
became a source of delight and inspiration throughout the Turkic world.
Its importance, however, was not confined to enjoyment and aesthetics;
for it played a catalytic role in the crystallization of Turki as a major literary
language, and in fact as proof that Turkic high culture too had
come of age and could safely take its place beside Persian.
The poet himself may have consciously pursued this goal, and indeed
indirectly admitted as much by writing a prose treatise in Turki to which
he gave the Arabic title Muhakamat al-lughatayn (“Arbitration between the
two languages”).The two languages are Turki and Farsi (Persian), and
Mir Ali Shir endeavors to demonstrate that Turki has an edge over its
senior partner in expressiveness and in wealth of vocabulary.From
among his works of poetry, two stand out: the Khamsa, and the Khazain
al-maani.The Khamsa (an Arabic word based on the number five, translatable
as “Quintet”) is a cycle of five lyrico-epic poems modeled on the
work of the Persian poet Nizami (1141–1203).Choosing famous models
and reworking them in a new fashion was customary, and the challenge
lay in the originality and mastery displayed in the reworking; Navai,
according to both contemporary and modern critics, more than met that
challenge.The Khazain al-maani (again an Arabic title, as was customary:
“Treasure-troves of meanings”), on the other hand, has a less obvious
model; for it consists of four divans or collections of lyrico-philosophical
poems composed at various periods but organized in this fashion, by
Navai himself, toward the end of his life; their Arabic titles hint at the
contents: Gharaib al-sighar (“Oddities of childhood”), Navadir al-shabab
(“Curiosities of adolescence”), Badai al-vasat (“Splendors of adulthood”),
and Favaid al-kibar (“Benefices of maturity”).
Navai’s importance, however, lay not only in his own compositions but
also in the role he played as the dean of the literary and artistic circle
gathered around Sultan Husayn Bayqara; its intellectual splendor shone
far beyond the confines of the Timurid realm, and especially the poetry
and art of the book that were flourishing in Herat inspired appreciation
and emulation throughout the Turco-Persian Islamic world, from India
to Ottoman Turkey and Mamluk Egypt.Finally, mention should also be