Life
Mīr Alī Shīr was born in 1441 in Herat, which is now in northwestern Afghanistan. During Mīr Ali Shīr's lifetime, Herat was the capital of the Timurid Empire and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual centers in the Muslim world. Alī Shīr belonged to the Chagatai amir (or Mīr in Persian) class of the Timurid elite. His father, Ghiyāth ud-Din Kichkina ("the Little"), served as a high-ranking officer in the palace of Shāhrukh Mirzā, the ruler of Khorasan. Although all applications of modern Central Asian ethnonyms to people of Navai's time are anachronistic, some sources regard Mīr Alī Shīr as an ethnic Uzbek. Maria Subtelny has proposed that Ali-Shir Nava'i was a descendant of Bakhshi scribes, which has led some sources to call Nava'i "Uyghur", but this view is refuted by Kazuyuki Kubo.
Alī Shīr's mother served as a princes' governess in the palace. His father served as governor of Sabzawar at one time. He died while Mīr Alī Shīr was young, and the ruler of Khorasan, Babur Ibn-Baysunkur, adopted guardianship of the young man.
Mīr Alī Shīr was a schoolmate of Husayn Bayqarah, who would later become the sultan of Khorasan. Alī Shīr's family was forced to flee Herat in 1447 after the death of Shāhrukh created an unstable political situation. His family returned to Khurasan after order was restored in the 1450s. In 1456 Alī Shīr and Bayqarah went to Mashhad with Ibn-Baysunkur. The following year Ibn-Baysunkur died and Alī Shīr Bayqarah parted ways. While Bayqarah tried to establish political power, Alī Shīr pursued his studies in Mashhad, Herat, and Samarkand. After the death of Abứ Sa'īd in 1468, Husayn Bayqarah seized power in Herat. As a result Alī Shīr left Samarkand to join his service. Bayqarah ruled Khurasan almost uninterruptedly for forty years. Alī Shīr remained in the service of Bayqarah until his death on 3 January, 1501. He was buried in Herat.
Alī Shīr Navā’ī led an ascetic lifestyle, "never marrying or having concubines or children."
Read more about this topic: Ali-Shir Nava'i
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