Mir Ali Shir Teaches Chagatai

1561

In the Timurid court traditions of Central Asia, Chagatai Turkish continued as a literary language even as Persian dominated chanceries. Scholars revered the fifteenth-century poet Mir Ali Shir Nava'i as its master. The Mughal Babur's memoirs, written in Chagatai, remained the tongue's supreme prose monument. Nava'i's achievement in demonstrating Chagatai Turkish could rival Persian helped establish the cultural dignity of Turkic languages across Central Asia.