The Imam Bukhari International Scientific Research Center, in collaboration with the Institute for Asian-African Studies at the University of Hamburg, Germany, held another online seminar in the “Material Cultural of the Zerafshan Valley” online lecture series. It was attended by employees of the Center, researchers from scientific institutions in our country and abroad, as well as scientists from Germany, Turkey, and the USA.
At the seminar, Oysara Madaliyeva, Senior Research Fellow at the Abu Rayhon Beruni Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Philology, Associate Professor, gave a lecture on the topic “A look at the history of the manuscripts and research of ʿAlī-Shīr Navāʾī’s (Alisher Navoi) ‘Badāyi’ al-Bidāya“.
The scientist first noted that the work of the great poet and thinker Mir Alisher Navai arouses great interest not only among his contemporaries, but also in subsequent centuries and the current generation. Manuscripts of the poet’s works are widely distributed around the world, and there is a lot of interesting information related to their study.
Navai’s first divan, “Badāyi’ al-Bidāya”, is a sample of the poet’s lyrical work during his childhood and youth. Eight ancient manuscript copies of the work are preserved in France, Great Britain, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Most interestingly, these manuscripts contain poems of different sizes and genres, which differ slightly from each other. For example, the manuscript in Paris is valued as the first divan arranged by the poet himself. It was copied in 1480 and contains 831 poems. The copy in Tashkent consists of the largest number of poems – 916 poems. The differences in genre in other copies serve as a valuable source for studying the different stages of Navai’s work.
The researcher noted that some of these manuscripts have become a subject of debate among scholars, with the specific features of one manuscript in Paris, for example, significantly different from the others, revealing the early stages of Navai’s creative research.
According to the opinions expressed at the seminar, a deeper study of these manuscripts will allow for a better understanding of Navai’s creative heritage. At the same time, based on a comparative analysis of the Hazrat divans, it will be possible to draw new conclusions about the processes associated with his creative activity.
The seminar continued with a lively question-and-answer session.