Lutfiy: life and ghazals

Lutfiy was the most famous Uzbek lyric poet up to the second half of the 15th century, and contemporaries honoured him as “malik ul-kalom” (king of words); the word “Mavlono” (great master) is added to his name. Alisher Navoiy counted him among his teachers and wrote in “Majolis un-nafois” that his Turkic devon was famous. The textbook gives Lutfiy’s years traditionally as 1366–1465; Navoiy says he died aged 99 and that his grave is at Dehikanor near Herat, so the poet is said to have been born in Herat, though the name “Lutfiyi Shoshiy” suggests he may have been born in Tashkent. Of his Turkic devon, 33 copies survive; the legacy is over 2774 couplets, 2086 of them ghazals and the rest qit‘as, ruba‘is, tuyuqs and fards. The dastan “Gul va Navro‘z” was long thought to be his, but later research showed it is Haydar Khorazmiy’s. In 2006 the grave at Dehikanor was identified and a new mausoleum was built.