'Ali-Shir Nava'i, also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī was a Turkic poet, writer, politician, linguist, Hanafi Maturidi mystic and painter who was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.
Nava'i believed that Chagatai and other Turkic languages were superior to Persian for literary purposes, an uncommon view at the time and defended this belief in his work titled Muhakamat al-Lughatayn. He emphasized his belief in the richness, precision and malleability of Turkic vocabulary as opposed to Persian.
Because of his distinguished Chagatai language poetry, Nava'i is considered by many throughout the Turkic-speaking world to be the founder of early Turkic literature. Many places and institutions in Central Asia are named after him.