Navoi's Contributions to Eastern Divan Introductions

Farida Karimova

Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature named after Alisher Navoi, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Keywords: Divan, Principles of Divan Composition, Prelude, Tradition, Prelude Composition, Praise and Praise, Theme,

Unity of Content and Form, Literary Source.

Abstract: The article explores the history and emergence of prologues in Eastern literature, with a focus on the preludes

composed by Alisher Navoi. Navoi's preludes are significant examples of 15th-century Uzbek prose,

providing insights into his personal life, literary pursuits, and the historical context of his works. They also

shed light on the socio-political and cultural milieu of that era. Navoi's preludes are notable for their

compositional and stylistic maturity, showcasing artistic beauty and adding to their literary merit. His tradition

of incorporating prefaces continued to influence subsequent generations of Uzbek poets. Consequently, the

numerous prologues produced in Uzbek literature throughout history serve as essential literary sources.

1 INTRODUCTION

Prologues in Eastern literature: Prologues have a

long history in Eastern literature and are considered

one of the most important literary sources in the study

of a poet's life and work. Prefaces are mainly found

in divans, or collections of poems, and differ from

other works in many aspects, such as the placement

of issues and their content, composition, and style of

narration. Prefaces are especially important for

information about the poet's biography, their literary

activities, the history of the creation of their works,

and the expression of their literary and aesthetic

views.

Preludes have a unique compositional structure:

they begin with praise and end with apologies for

mistakes. Information about the poet's life and work,

a hymn to the ruler of the time, the poet's love for their

teachers, and an introduction to the contents of the

divan are also important elements of the preface.

Silence, figurativeness, or the predominance of the

luxurious oriental style in the statement of thoughts,

are important characteristics of preludes. The author

of the prologue tries to express their thoughts through

long sentences, complex allusions, metaphors, and

figurative parallelisms. This style is characteristic of

preludes from Khusrav Dehlavi, Alisher Navoi, to the

19th century, and is also found in preludes created by

poets of the 20th century.

Corresponding author

Another characteristic of preludes is the mixed

use of verse and prose. During the prose narration in

the prologues, poetic fragments of various genres

such as masnavi, rubai, qita, and verse are given.

These fragments, as Khusrav Dehlavi noted, increase

the beauty of prose, and also serve to fulfill tasks such

as proving, continuing, and concluding thoughts in

prose. sPreludes also attract attention with the wide

range and variety of artistic image tools. These allow

the author to express their thoughts clearly, vividly,

and figuratively. Especially in preludes, the art of sajj

is widely used.

Prefaces are an integral part of the divan as a

starting source. Therefore, in the preface, it is

important to introduce the unique features of the

divan, the history of its construction. For example,

Alisher Navoi in the preface of "Badoe' ul-Bidaya"

pays special attention to the description of the special

features of the divan, which is new in the history of

creating a divan, and how it was created.

2 EXPERIMENTAL PART

One of the important features of prefaces is their

creative-biographical nature. As we read the

prologues, we get to know many aspects of the poet's

life and work. For example, Alisher Navoi mentions

in both prefaces that the ruler of the time, Husayn

328

Karimova, F.

Navoi’s Contributions to Eastern Divan Introductions.

DOI: 10.5220/0012486900003792

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR 2023), pages 328-332

ISBN: 978-989-758-687-3

Boyqaro, always followed the poet's work, edited his

poems, and made some changes. This information is

important in studying the relationship between

Alisher Navoi and Husayn Boyqaro.

Preludes are of two types in terms of form and poetry:

prose and poetic preludes. Most of the prefaces

written in the past were in prose style. As we noted

above, many poetic passages of various genres are

included in the composition of prose introductions.

Verse preludes are rare. In the history of Uzbek

literature, poets like Shavqi and Uzlat finished their

prologues in poetic style.

Prefaces are written by a poet, a scribe, or a person

who compiles a divan. It is important to note that

prefaces written by a scribe or person compiling a

book are different from a preface written by an

author. In prefaces of this nature, information about

the poet's life and work is presented, the structure of

the divan and the reasons for its compilation are

explained. For example, the preface written by

Alisher Navoi's friend, Mohammad Gulandom, for

Hafiz Sherazi's book can be cited as an example.

After the poet's death, Muhammad Gulandom

collected his poems and wrote a preface. Also, Khoja

Abdullah Marvarid Bayani, a contemporary of Navoi

who served in Hossein Boyqaro's palace, wrote a

preface to the same divan.

In the history of the literature of Eastern peoples,

the first prefaces written to divans can be found in

Persian-Tajik literature. An ancient manuscript copy

of the Industrial Divan (UzRFAShI, manuscript,

#760) contains a prose preface written by the poet. In

the prologue, written in a sophisticated and quiet

prose style, the poet talks about his disappointment

throughout his literary career, and his friend and

patron Ahmad ibn Mas'ud Mustawfi comforted and

encouraged him to collect his scattered poems and

create a divan.

Khusrav Dekhlavi collected his lyric poems in the

following five divans: "Tuhfatus-sigar" ("The gift of

youth"), "Wasatul-hayat" ("The middle of life"),

"Ghurratul-kamal" ("The beginning of maturity")

[Alisher Navoi 2016], "Baqiyaun-naqiya" ("Sarahs of

sarasi"), and "Nihayat ul-kamal" ("Peak of

Perfection"). Manuscript copies of these divans are

stored in the libraries of India, Britain, Iran, and

Russia. The poet wrote a preface to his divans.

Additionally, "Tuhfatus-sigar" (UzRFASh,

manuscript, No. 9661/I), "Vasatul-hayat"

(UzRFAShI, manuscript, No. 9661/III), and

"Ghurratul-kamal" (UzRFAShI, manuscript, No.

9661/VI, No. 178) [Alisher Navoi 2016] have

prefaced copies of divans. These prologues are of

great importance in studying Khusrav Dehlavi's life

and work.

In 1491, the Persian-Tajik poet Abdurahman Jami

named his three divans separately and wrote a preface

to them. A preface consisting of 10 pages was written

for Jami's first divan. Prefaces consisting of 2-3 pages

were written for "Fatihat ush-shabab" [Abdurahman

Jami 1978.], "Wasitatul iqd" ("The middle of joy")

[Abdurahman Jami 1980.], and "Khotimat ul-hayat"

("End of life") [Abdurahman Jami 1980.]. These

prefaces expressed the history of the creation of the

divan and the literary and aesthetic views of the poet.

Alisher Navoi appreciated the services of Khusrav

Dehlavi and Abdurahman Jami in composing

prefaces and creatively continued their tradition of

writing prefaces to the divan. The influence of

Khusrav Dehlavi was particularly special in this

regard. Navoi's prefaces to "Badoe' ul-Bidaya" and

"Khazayin ul-Maoni" divans were the product of this

creative and scientific process. The poet reports that

he also wrote a preface to his second poem "Navodir

un-nihoya": "«Andin so'ngra dag'i ul jam'u tartibdin

boshqa yana har taqrib bila har nav' abyotkim, aytilib

erdiyu, har nav' g'azaliyotkim, yig'ilib erdi, ul xayol

shabistonining duraxshon axtarlarinu ul ko'ngul

maxzanining duraxshon gavharlarin dag'i ikkinchi

devonimdakim, «Navodir un-nihoya»g'a

mashhurdur, rabtu tartib berib, debochasinda sharh

bila aizzayi as'hobu ajillayi ahbob xidmatlarida arz

qilib erdim» [Alisher Navoi 1988].” However, for

some reason, this preface was not preserved in the

known copies of the book.

The book "Badoe' ul-bidaya" was compiled in

1478-79, and a preface was written for it. The range

of issues raised in this prologue, created due to the

need to express a great ideological goal, is extremely

wide.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The prelude begins with a traditional praise and chant.

In this part of the prologue, the poet describes Allah

and the Prophet (peace be upon him) as a Muslim

child. Then the poet informs about himself and talks

about how the poems in the Divan were born and

spread widely among many people.

One of the important aspects of the preface is the

attitude of the poet towards the works of his

predecessors. Although the poet's poems have been

compiled by his fans, he does not consider himself

worthy to be the owner. He thinks about the difficulty

of organizing a divan equal to the divans of his

predecessors.

Navoi’s Contributions to Eastern Divan Introductions

329

In this regard, Navoi expresses his great respect

for his predecessors - Khusrav Dehlavi, Hafiz Shirozi,

Abdurrahman Jami, and the Turkish poets such as

Maulana Sakkoki and Maulana Lutfi. The issue of

Husayn Boygaro's attitude to Alisher Navoi's work is

one of the important issues in the composition of the

prelude. It shows two important aspects of Husayn

Boygaro's attitude towards Navoi's poetry.

On the one hand, Husayn Boygaro ordered to

collect the poet's poems and create a divan so that

they would not be scattered and lost. At the same

time, he provided material and spiritual support to the

poet and constantly supervised the process of building

the cabinet. On the other hand, as exaggeratedly

stated in the preface, Husayn Boygaro was directly

and regularly engaged in Navoi's work, especially his

poetry, read his poems, edited them, and gave high

evaluations at literary meetings.

After all, the preludes are an important

documentary source that sheds light on the

relationship between Alisher Navoi and Husayn

Boykara. Another aspect of the composition of the

preface is the emphasis on the lack of desire to form

a council and the fact that it was motivated by certain

individuals.

The poet, who has been humbly responding to the

requests of many to create a divan, finally created the

divan "Badoe' ul-bidaya" under the instructions and

direct supervision of Husayn Boygaro and dedicated

it to Husayn Boygaro. At the same time, it also

describes the history of the creation of the devan.

Declaring the specific features and content of

Devon is one of the important issues in the

composition of the prelude, and it is one of the poet's

ideological goals in creating a lyrical prelude. The

poet's office was a new phenomenon in the history of

the office. Therefore, in the preface, the poet, first of

all, justifies the principles of his composition.

First of all, Navoi Divan emphasizes that the poets

who ordered the ghazal ending with four of the 32

letters of the Arabic-Persian alphabet did not finish

the ghazal, and states that the ghazal part of the divan

was classified "in the order of thirty-two letters": "...

ghazaliyat was compiled in the order of thirty-two

letters".

Secondly, Navoi ensures that the composition of

the divan and every letter in it is perfect. That is, the

divan and the first ghazals of each ghazal of letters are

composed of ghazals in the spirit of praise or orifona:

He was rewarded as a dole for one of the two works".

Thirdly, together with romantic ghazals, Navoi

created excellent examples of socio-philosophical

and moral-educational ghazals and achieved

compositional-thematic perfection of his divan: "...in

this divan, every other pious song of yours is praise

and advice, and a couple of verses of advice and

advice have been added to give praise to those who

are sad and sorrow to those who are grieving...".

Navoi pays great attention to the issue of harmony

of content and form in the ghazal, which is the fourth

principle described in the preface. The poet tried to

develop and continue the content of the ghazal matla

to the point of praise, to ensure that the stanzas were

compatible with each other in terms of form and

meaning, and this was an important innovation of the

poet in the field of ghazal poetics: let's fall in

accordance with the meaning of the soul".

Fifth, the genre content of the book should be

perfect. The poet, noting that he had included 11

beautiful poems in "Badoe' ul-bidaya", he described

them one by one.

Finally, the prologue ends with an apology to the

reader for some minor mistakes in the poems included

in the collection. Also, lines about the poet's

biography and life as a penman, information about his

first divan were skillfully embedded in the preface

composition.

From the above, it can be seen that the scope of

the issues raised in the preface of "Badoe' ul-Bidaya"

is quite wide, and it is no doubt that placing them in a

certain order and coherent statement required great

artistry from the poet. Since the information in the

preface is Navoi's own confession, it serves as an

important source for studying the poet's life and work.

Alisher Navoi's preface to "Khazayin ul-Maoni"

is the highest peak of Uzbek preface writing. The

composition of the preface covers a number of

important issues, such as information on the poet's

biography and work, the relationship between Husayn

Boykara and Alisher Navoi, the history of the creation

of "Khazayin ul-Maoni", its structure, and

composition.

After praise, the poet talks about the reasons for

the order of Khazayin ul-Maoni. In this, the poet talks

about the two divans that he originally composed, and

emphasizes that his poems written in the later period

are larger than them in terms of volume. It was

necessary to arrange them so that they would not be

lost due to the events of time. But the poet's health

does not allow it.

At that time, Husayn Boygaro, who was

constantly interested in Navoi's work, ordered the

poet to collect all his poems and create four divans:

"...my two previous divans, you arranged them with

our judgment and speech... the number of your city,

which is drawn to the bond of the congregational

poetry and poetry, is more than the previous divans,

and it will be known as if two more divans will be

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ordered with the love and affection of the loved

ones... Now Here I am, please cheer up this strange

work..."

The king, aware of the poet's health, promises to

help him in every possible way: "Because your

weakness is obvious to us, he is clear and caring with

compassion and servitude, and if you have a problem

with kindness, he solves it".

Hearing the king's order, the poet explained his

condition to him: "Although there is a hope of health

in my illness, but I still drink juice, drink, eat, weigh

myself with scales and look at the clock from morning

to evening, and although the possibility of strength

appears in my weakness, but I am still corrupt. If I

want to jump out of my bed, until the ropes of the

hanging rope become a support and help me, I have

to sway and move, but there is no possibility...".

In the last years of his life, due to great worries

and hard creative work, the poet, who fell ill, seems

to be a "difficult task" to fulfill the royal commission.

Because collecting all his poems and placing them in

four divans was a hard work that required a lot of

effort. Therefore, the poet turns to the king, saying

that he needs attention and help while doing this

work.

In response, Husayn Boyqaro, as stated in the

preface, states that he is ready to support Navoi in

every way, to provide material and moral support:

"However, in the past, there was no incident of your

observance in the perfection of the two devas, and the

guidance of the grace did not cause any kind of

trouble. Now, with the program, maybe more than

before, with the law, maybe even more than before, I

will find out about your condition and at least it's time

to hang around. Because your weakness is obvious to

us, you will be taken wherever you are with

compassion and kindness, and because your injury is

clear and compassionate to us, you will solve any

problem with kindness and tenderness".

After that, due to the material and moral support

of Husayn Boyqaro, Navoi collected all his poems,

edited them, and added new ones to them. He passes

these poems through the king's "chemical work of

art". Husayn Boyqaro, who edited Navoi's poems as

early as the 70s, reviewed the poems in "Khazayin ul-

Maoni" both as a king and as a poet, and made

corrections to some of them. Finally, the poet collects

all his lyrical poems and composes four divans and

calls it "Khazayin ul-maani".

It is understood that Husayn Boyqaro participated

in the construction of "Badoe' ul-Bidaya" and

"Khazayin ul-Maoni" divans, he regularly read the

poems included in them and edited them. Although

this idea is exaggerated in the prefaces, there is a vital

truth at the bottom of them. In this place, if we take

into account aspects such as the fact that Husayn

Boygaro is one of the major representatives of the

literary environment of Herat, despite his knowledge

of the Persian-Tajik language, he created beautiful

ghazals in Turkish and called other poets to write in

their mother tongue, as well as the fact that he is the

owner of a divan, our above opinion becomes clearer.

It was necessary to have great talent for making

corrections and reforms, and to have deep knowledge

of the subtlest aspects of poetry, even though it was a

part of the poems of such a great poet as Navoi. It is

not wrong to say that Husayn Boyqaro had these

qualities. After all, in his ghazals, Navoi emphasizes

that Husayn Boyqaro is an extremely sensitive person

in the field of poetry.

It can be seen from the above that Husayn

Boyqaro's services were great in the creation of

Alisher Navoi's divans and the preservation of the

poet's poems for future generations. That is why

Husayn Boyqaro was very happy with Navoi. Even

the next generation will praise him. Here the

following words of the poet are important: "...this is a

jihad until the world crisis, they will pray for the state

of Sultan Sahibqiran and they will say psalm for his

mercy".

Here, the poet gives detailed information about

the structure of Khazayin ul-Maani. The poet calls the

four divans with four different names, corresponding

to the seasons and human life. That is, the first devan

was called "Garayib us-sigar", the second devan

"Navodir us-shabab", the third devan "Badoe' ul-

wasat", the fourth devan "Favoyid ul-kibar". Also, the

poet shows the age limits of the poems included in

each divan. During the years he spent creating

"Khazayin ul-Maani", Navai was engaged in

"Khamsa" verse, "Nazm ul-Javahir", "Majolis un-

nafais", "Zubdat ut -tavorikh" and "soyir tasniflar".

In this place, he says that he is extremely satisfied

with his achievements in the field of artistic

creativity: "And thank God, I have achieved such

achievements, not one in a hundred of my generation

will be able to do so... Thank God, I have spent most

of the valley of my life in this country with the

achievements of his country and the end of my life. I

have come to know things, but also things... I have

driven away all the desires and external things of the

world, and I have sent the sound of my words to the

seven heavens in its praise" [Shomuhamedov Sh.,

Musaev B. Amir Khusrav Dehlavi. -1971.].

The health of the poet, who completed the great

work of creating a wall, becomes extremely bad

during this period, and this is also expressed in the

prologue. Navoi, who considered his services in the

Navoi’s Contributions to Eastern Divan Introductions

331

state of Husayn Boyqaro to be "the honor of my

religion and the end of my life", ends the prelude with

three verses in the form of prayers and wishes.

Alisher Navoi's preface to "Khazayin ul-Maoni" has

a wide range of issues and the consistency of their

arrangement, as well as the methodological maturity

of the narrative, gave its composition all-round

perfection. This prelude is the most beautiful example

of ideologically-artistically high divan preludes.

4 CONCLUSION

In general, Alisher Navoi creatively continued the

traditions of preludes in Eastern literature and created

excellent examples of preludes in Uzbek literature.

Dozens of prologues created in the history of our

literature are important as one of the literary sources

for the complete study and illumination of the life and

work of the authors, as well as the history of the

period in which they lived.

Alisher Navoi's prefaces are, first of all, valuable

as a beautiful example of 15th-century Uzbek prose.

Secondly, it is important because it provides

information about the personal life of the thinker poet,

his literary activity, the history of the creation of his

works, their specific characteristics, and to a certain

extent, the socio-political and cultural life of that

time. Thirdly, it attracts attention with its

compositional and stylistic maturity and artistic

beauty.

His tradition of giving order with a preface was

continued by dozens of Uzbek poets such as Nadira,

Amiri, Munis Ogahi, Shavqi, Muhsini, Faqiri, Tabibi,

Muhayyir, Fano. Dozens of prologues created in the

history of our literature are important as one of the

literary sources for the complete study and

illumination of the life and work of the authors, as

well as the history of the period in which they lived.

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