A crater on Mercury named after Uzbek poet Alisher Navoi
Culture and History, Uzbekistan3 Comments
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has recently announced names for 15 craters, the second group craters found on the surface Mercury by NASA’s project “MESSENGER”. According to a list of names, one of the Mercury craters will be named after famous Uzbek linguist, poet and philosopher Alisher Navoi.
MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington says:
“We’re pleased that the IAU has again acted promptly to approve this new set of names for prominent craters on Mercury. These latest names honor a diverse suite of some of the most accomplished contributors to mankind’s higher aspirations. They also make it much easier for planetary scientists to refer to major features on Mercury in talks and publications.�
Alisher Navoi had surely contributed a lot to higher aspirations of all Turkic nations, especially Uzbeks. In Uzbekistan, Alisher Navoi’s memory is well kept, as he is considered to be a founding-father of modern Uzbek language. In 2006, Uzbekistan marked Alisher Navoi’s 565th anniversary that was celebrated throughout the country with great festivities. One of 12 administrative regions (oblast/viloyat) of Uzbekistan is named after Alisher Navoi.
Locations of newly named craters on Mercury are shown in the following picture. The Navoi crater is on the top of the left picture.
Click picture to enlarge
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“Uzbek poet”?? . How about Uyghur then?
In my understanding historians mentioned him as Uyghur origin, now you claiming him as Uzbek.
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Well, Turkic nations have very much in common and that times when Navoi lived, there were not clear divisions between Uzbek, Uygurs, Kyrgyz, etc. The main reason why Uzbeks claim Navoi to be ethnic Uzbek is the fact that Navoi started writing in Uzbek and is considered to be the father of Uzbek language.
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Here is one of the famous poems of Navoi, in Uzbek:
“Har kimki vafo qilsa, vafo topqusidur,
Har kimki jafo qilsa, jafo topqusidur,
Yahshi kishi yomonlik kormagay hargis,
Har kimki yomon bolsa jazo topqusidur”
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