The Literary Legacy of Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur

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14.02.2025 14.02.2025 599

The English scholar William Erskine once said about Babur: "In terms of generosity and bravery, talent, love for science and art, and his successful engagement with them, there is no king in Asia who can equal Babur."

Babur is a truly significant figure in Uzbek history. His literary legacy as a historian, insightful writer, and charming poet is invaluable. Despite his royal duties, Babur managed to write major works. His lyrical poetry is unique in literature. Undoubtedly, the central theme of his poetry was homeland and longing for the homeland.

At the same time, Babur’s poetry glorifies noble human emotions, justice, and humanism. One of his famous rubaiyat states:

"Whoever remains faithful will find loyalty in return,
Whoever does evil will receive evil in return.
A good person will never witness wickedness,
But an evil one shall always face retribution."

Babur’s total poetic output exceeds 400 verses, including 119 ghazals and 231 rubaiyat. He also wrote in other poetic genres such as tuyugh, qit’a, fard, and masnavi.

His scholarly work "Treatise on Aruz" holds great significance in Eastern linguistics. In this work, Babur enriched the theory of stressed and unstressed, long and short syllables in speech, expanding their classification and types. He substantiated his views with references to Arabic, Persian-Tajik, and Turkic poetry, continuing the literary traditions of Alisher Navoi.

"Baburnama" is the cornerstone of Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur’s literary legacy. It is a crucial and unique historical work in world literature and historiography. Written in Old Uzbek (Chagatai), the book is also known under various titles, including "Boburiya," "Vaqeanama," "Tuzuki Boburiy," "Tabaqoti Boburiy," and "Tavorikhi Boburiy."

It is a primary source detailing the history of the Timurids. More than ten manuscript copies of the work are preserved at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. It has been translated into many world languages, including Persian, English, Russian, Turkish, Dutch, and French. To date, "Baburnama" has been translated into more than 25 languages.

To immortalize Babur’s name, a statue was erected in his hometown of Andijan. Several places and institutions have been named in his honor. Every year, on February 14th, Babur’s birthday is widely celebrated across the republic.