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How did Muhakamat al-lughatayn compare Persian and Chagatai?

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Bābur inspecting a garden, portrait miniature from the Bābur-nāmeh, 16th century; in the British Library. — Uzbek literature Bābur inspecting a garden, portrait miniature from the *Bābur-nāmeh*, 16th century; in the British Library.

In his 1499 treatise Muhakamat al-lughatayn ("Judgment on Two Languages"), the poet and scholar ‘Alī Shīr Navā’ī compared the relative merits of the Persian and Chagatai languages.1

Navā’ī, who was a master of both languages, wrote the work to defend and elevate the status of Chagatai, an eastern Turkic literary language. Through this comparative analysis, he sought to demonstrate that Chagatai was not inferior to Persian as a medium for high literary expression. By highlighting the unique expressive capabilities and linguistic richness of Chagatai, Navā’ī played a pivotal role in establishing it as a sophisticated literary language, ultimately bringing it to new artistic heights and cementing his own legacy as the greatest representative of the tradition.2314