Bridging Traditions: Comparative Literary Reflections on Persian and Turkic Poetics in Timurid Herat

Abstract

This article explores the dynamic coexistence of Persian and Turkic literary traditions in Timurid Herat during the reign of Sultan Husayn Bayqara. Drawing on literary field theory and French Orientalist scholarship, it analyzes how the courtly culture of Herat fostered a bilingual poetic environment that linked Persianate prestige with the emerging Chaghatay literary canon. Through the intertextual contributions of Alisher Navoi—especially his Khamsa and Muḥākamat al-Lughatayn—and the classical works of his Persian mentor Jāmī, the paper investigates how imitation (taqlīd), bilingualism, and cultural patronage formed a cohesive literary field. The study highlights how Navoi’s strategic emulation of Niẓāmī Ganjavī and his fusion of Persian literary aesthetics into Turkic language enabled the formation of a dual canon. Drawing on the works of Marc Toutant, Maria Szuppe, and Anna Caiozzo, the article demonstrates how this cultural synthesis was reinforced through institutional patronage and remained influential in post-Timurid literary and dynastic models across Central Asia. The study argues that this bridging of traditions was not only a literary phenomenon but a deliberate strategy of cultural legitimation and dynastic identity-making.