According to the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Seoul

By Feature Editor Andy Hyun of The Korea Post

Every year on February 9, it has become a tradition in the Republic of Uzbekistan to widely celebrate the birthday of Hazrat Mir Alisher Navoi, a great man, writer, politician, linguist, mystic, painter, and sultan of poets. According to the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Seoul, this year marks the 580th anniversary of the birth of the poet-thinker who is widely celebrated not only in Uzbekistan, but also in many other parts of the world.

 

President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev lays flowers at the statue of Alisher Navoi during his visit to the Alley of Writers in Tashkent, May 5, 2020.
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev lays flowers at the statue of Alisher Navoi during his visit to the Alley of Writers in Tashkent, May 5, 2020.

Alisher Nava'i was born in 1441 in Herat, which is now in north-western Afghanistan. During Alisher's lifetime, Herat was ruled by the Timurid Empire and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual centres in the Muslim world.
Alisher was a schoolmate of Husayn Bayqarah, who would later become the sultan of Khorasan. Alisher remained in the service of Bayqarah until his death on 3 January 1501.
Alisher served as a public administrator and adviser to his sultan, Husayn Bayqarah. He was also a builder to have founded, restored, or endowed some 370 mosques, madrasas, libraries, hospitals, caravanserais, and other educational, pious, and charitable institutions in Khorasan. In Herat, he was responsible for 40 caravanserais, 17 mosques, 10 mansions, nine bathhouses, nine bridges, and 20 pools.

 

A monument to Alisher Navoi in the Alley of Writers in Tashkent
A monument to Alisher Navoi in the Alley of Writers in Tashkent

Every year on February 9, it has become a tradition to widely celebrate the birthday of the great man, writer, politician, linguist, mystic and painter the sultan of poets Hazrat Mir Alisher Navoi. This year, the 580th anniversary of the birth of the poet-thinker is widely celebrated not only in Uzbekistan, but also abroad.
Alisher Nava'i was born in 1441 in Herat, which is now in north-western Afghanistan. During Alisher's lifetime, Herat was ruled by the Timurid Empire and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual centres in the Muslim world.

 

Alisher Navoi with Sultan Husayn Bayqarah
Alisher Navoi with Sultan Husayn Bayqarah

Alisher was a schoolmate of Husayn Bayqarah, who would later become the sultan of Khorasan. Alisher remained in the service of Bayqarah until his death on 3 January 1501.
Alisher served as a public administrator and adviser to his sultan, Husayn Bayqarah. He was also a builder to have founded, restored, or endowed some 370 mosques, madrasas, libraries, hospitals, caravanserais, and other educational, pious, and charitable institutions in Khorasan. In Herat, he was responsible for 40 caravanserais, 17 mosques, 10 mansions, nine bathhouses, nine bridges, and 20 pools.

 

Alisher Navoi
Alisher Navoi

Among Alisher's constructions were the mausoleum of the 13th-century mystical poet, Farid al-Din Attar, in Nishapur (north-eastern Iran) and the Khalasiya madrasa in Herat. He was one of the instrumental contributors to the architecture of Herat, which became, in René Grousset's words, "the Florence of what has justly been called the Timurid Renaissance". Moreover, he was a promoter and patron of scholarship and arts and letters, a musician, a composer, a calligrapher, a painter and sculptor.
Under the pen name Nava'i, Alisher was among the key writers who revolutionized the literary use of the Turkic languages. Nava'i also wrote in Persian (under the pen name Fāni), and, to a much lesser degree, in Arabic.
Nava'i's best-known poems are found in his four diwans, or poetry collections, which total roughly 50,000 verses. Each part of the work corresponds to a different period of a person's life:

- Ghara'ib al-Sighar (Wonders of Childhood)

- Navadir al-Shabab (Rarities of Youth)

- Bada'i' al-Wasat (Marvels of Middle Age)

- Fawa'id al-Kibar (Benefits of Old Age)

To help other Turkic poets, Alisher wrote technical works such as Mizan al-Awzan (The Measure of Meters), and a detailed treatise on poetical meters. He also crafted the monumental Majalis al-Nafais (Assemblies of Distinguished Men), a collection of over 450 biographical sketches of mostly contemporary poets. The collection is a gold mine of information about Timurid culture for modern historians.
Alisher's other important works include the Khamsa (Quintuple), which is composed of five epic poems and is an imitation of Nizami Ganjavi's Khamsa:

- Hayrat-ol-abrar (Wonders of Good People);

- Farhad va Shirin (Farhad and Shirin);

- Layli va Majnun (Layli and Majnun);

- Sab'ai Sayyar (Seven Travelers, about the seven planets);

- Sadd-i-Iskandari (Alexander's Wall, about Alexander the Great)

Alisher also wrote Lison ut-Tayr (Language of Birds, following Attar's Manteq-ol-tayr or Speeches of Birds), in which he expressed his philosophical views and Sufi ideas. His Besh Hayrat (Five Wonders) also gives an in-depth look at his views on religion and Sufism. His book of Persian poetry contains 6,000 lines (beits).
Nava'i's last work, Muhakamat al-Lughatayn (The Trial of the Two Languages) is a comparison of Turkic and Persian and was completed in December 1499. He believed that the Turkic language was superior to Persian for literary purposes, and defended this belief in his work. Nava'i repeatedly emphasized his belief in the richness, precision and malleability of Turkic vocabulary as opposed to Persian.
It is obvious that the great poet, enlightener and statesman of the Uzbek people Alisher Navoi's rich and multifaceted scientific and theoretical heritage fully reflects the socio-political life, all the problems of the time, philosophical views. As a philosopher and poet, he was able to create unparalleled works in both poetry and prose. In his views, he reflected on man, his perfection, philosophy of life, the chain of existence, the meaning of life. As a statesman, he revealed the problems of the people, the wishes of the people, the duties of religious scholars, the life of kings, their duties and actions before the people, their character in artistic images, with great talent.
Alisher Navoi has made an invaluable contribution to human civilization and literature with his rich spiritual heritage, royal works, rare devons, unique ghazals and epics. Because the priceless works of the scientist, created in the tone of high skill and unique art of speech, of great educational value, have become the flower of our great spiritual heritage and literature for centuries without losing their content and design.
Great work is being done in Uzbekistan to study the life and work of Alisher Navoi, to promote his invaluable literary heritage and his works, which are full of humanistic ideas. In October 2020, the Resolution of the President of Uzbekistan " On the wide celebration of the 580th anniversary of the birth of the great poet and thinker Alisher Navoi" was published. It is an important task to study the creative heritage of Alisher Navoi, to promote and immortalize his immortal works in the country and abroad, to celebrate the poet's birthday as a holiday of literature and enlightenment.
According to the resolution, the creative school named after Alisher Navoi will be organized in Tashkent in 2021.
The President of Uzbekistan instructed the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, the Ministry of Public Education, the Ministry of Preschool Education, the Agency for Development of Presidential, Creative and Specialized Schools under the Cabinet of Ministers to develop a Concept for the continuous study of the works of Alisher Navoi and from the 2021/2022 academic year to provide training on this basis at all educational institutions.
It is also planned to hold a poetry reading competition "Followers of Navoi" among students of secondary schools, and an essay competition "Comprehension of the genius of Navoi" among students of Presidential, creative and specialized schools.
As part of the implementation of the Five Important Initiatives of the President, mobile applications with the works of Alisher Navoi will be created, with the wide involvement of young programmers in this activity.
In addition, the Alisher Navoi International Public Foundation was established in Uzbekistan to study the life and work of Navoi, his rich scientific and literary heritage, to promote his works in Uzbekistan and abroad, and to immortalize his memory.
Alisher Navoi is described by the Azerbaijani poet Fuzuli as "The most beloved person of the kings of Khorasan" (Manzuri shahanshahi Khorasan). This assessment of Fuzuli is not in vain. Navoi is a poet, a thinker, a divinely inspired statesman, who was acceptable to all in his time, then and in our time. It is no coincidence that the poet did not write about this blessed person as "Alisher took the place where Timur did not cut with a pen". He spent his life, his property, in the struggle for justice. In his works, he wrote about true human love and justice.
Today, the life and work of A.Navoi are highly valued not only in Uzbekistan but also abroad. In particular, the translation of Navoi's works into different languages, the remarkable research work carried out by foreign scholars, works about the thinker, films and the installation of statues of our ancestor in dozens of cities as a symbol of respect are a clear confirmation of this idea.
Alisher Navoi's invaluable creative and scientific heritage has a special place not only in the history of the Uzbek people, but also in the history of world literature, the development of national culture and literary and aesthetic thinking. The ideas put forward by Navoi will always call people to goodness and creativity.

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