Ali-Shir Nava'i

Ali-Shir Nava'i (1441–1501) was a Timurid poet, statesman and linguist born in Herat. His family fled the city after Shah Rukh's death in 1447 and later returned to Khorasan. A schoolmate of Sultan Husayn Bayqara, he entered Bayqara's service after the latter seized Herat in 1469, and in 1472 was made emir of the supreme council.

The greatest writer of Chagatai Turkic literature, he argued its superiority over Persian in Muhakamat al-Lughatayn and composed a Khamsa and four divans. He died unmarried in Herat on 3 January 1501.