Navoi’s personality and chapters of “Saddi Iskandariy”

The historian and writer Khondamir (1473/76–1534) wrote “Makorim ul-axloq” (1501) about the life of Alisher Navoi (1441–1501); the book consists of a preface, an introduction, ten maqsads, a conclusion and a chapter on Navoi’s death. The excerpts say that Navoi’s words amazed people from childhood, that in his youth he studied many books in Herat, that he had madrasas and a khanaqah built, and that he was a master of all kinds of poetry. Mavlono Lutfiy (1366–1465), on hearing one of his ghazals, said he would exchange thousands of his own couplets for that single ghazal. The work also mentions Navoi’s Turkic “Khamsa,” written as a counterpart to Nizami’s “Panj ganj.” Two anecdotes show his compassion and generosity: taking an ant back to its nest and giving away his grain at Sabzavar for the prince’s benefit.