Nazira – Not Imitation but Artistic Response

Abstract

In Timurid Central Asia, the practice of nazira – writing a new work modeled on a classic precursor – was far more than mere mimicry. Marc Toutant’s analysis of Alisher Navo’i’s Khamsa (Quintet) in L’imitation dans les arts des derniers Timourides reveals imitation as an active artistic response: a creative, intellectual, poetic, and spiritual engagement with tradition. Far from passive copying, nazira served as a vehicle for innovation and meaning. Navo’i’s creative dialogues with Persian masters Niẓāmī Ganjavī and Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī exemplify how Timurid-era imitation conveyed moral authority, notions of sovereignty, and aesthetic autonomy. By rewriting canonical epics in Chaghatay Turkish, Navo’i not only paid homage to his predecessors but also asserted a symbolic “conquest” over them – infusing his works with Sufi ethical ideals and tailoring them to the political-cultural needs of his age. This article situates Toutant’s interpretive approach to nazira in the broader context of late 15th-century Timurid aesthetics, illuminated manuscript culture, and the politics of poetic form, demonstrating that imitation was a dynamic process of cultural renewal rather than rote replication.