Navoi and Jami among the Great Poets Nizami, Firdawsi, Khusraw Dehlavi, Saadi, Sanai, Anvari and Haqani

This miniature represents a symbolic gathering of the intellectual elite of the Islamic world. Rather than illustrating a specific historical event, the artist Qasim Ali creates an imagined assembly of the greatest poets of Persian and Turkic literary tradition.
At the center are Alisher Navoi and his teacher Abd al-Rahman Jami, two of the most influential literary figures of the fifteenth century. They are shown alongside earlier classical poets such as Ferdowsi, Nizami, Saadi, and Khusraw Dehlavi, emphasizing the continuity of literary heritage.
The miniature relates to Navoi’s epic poem Saddi Iskandari, part of his famous Khamsa. In this work, Alexander the Great appears as an ideal philosopher-king surrounded by scholars and poets.
The visual language is also symbolic. The gold background represents the light of knowledge and spiritual truth, while the flowering garden evokes a timeless space of wisdom – almost a paradise of poets.
This work reflects the cultural atmosphere of Herat during the Timurid period, when the city flourished as one of the most important intellectual centers of the Islamic world.