The Poetry of the Dibacha (Prologue) of Sadd-i-Iskandari by Alisher Navoi

Alisher Navoi made significant contributions to Uzbek literature through his innovations and experiences. The renowned poet elevated the tradition of writing the dibacha (prologue) to a high standard in terms of imagery, composition, style, poetry, and content. In the dibacha of his masnawi (a poetic form), Alisher Navoi adeptly integrates the reader’s perspective, his own experiences, the content of the work, and the philosophy of tasawwuf (Sufism). Remarkably, he can present a dibacha on a subject and theme in a fresh literary landscape and poetic variations each time.
The tradition of writing about Iskandar has a long history. Influenced by Islam and existing written traditions, Eastern artists wrote special dibachas for works on this topic. In the tradition of homonymy, which is widely popular in Eastern literature, it was necessary to dedicate a separate epic to the theme of Iskandari. This gave creators the responsibility of showing originality within the tradition of writing a dibacha. Comparing the dibachas of Nizami Ganjavi, Khusrav Dehlavi, Abdurahman Jami, and Alisher Navoi’s iskandarnamas shows that Navoi was able to show creative individuality in this regard too. Alisher Navoi took a new path in creating the dibacha of the epic “Saddi Iskandari”, arranging the chapters of the dibacha not in sequence, but in perfect composition.
This article discusses the dibacha of the “Sadd-i-Iskandari” (“Alexander’s Wall”) in Alisher Navoi’s work “Masnawi”. It focuses on the poet’s writing skills in the dibacha, the poetry within it, the connection of the chapters in the dibacha with the content of the work, and the role of revealing the essence of the work. To analyze Alisher Navoi’s writing skill in the dibacha, a comparative-historical method is used, comparing it with the dibacha to Nizami Ganjavi’s “Eskandar-Nâmeh” (“The Book of Alexander”), and drawing necessary conclusions.