A minister at the Timurid court in Herat who wrote in Chagatai Turkic when the prestige language was Persian — and then argued the case for doing so in a book of its own.
Key achievements
Wrote the Khamsa, five long poems answering the Persian classics
Wrote Muhokamat al-Lughatayn, arguing Turkic equalled Persian as a literary language
Funded mosques, madrasahs, bridges and hospitals across the Timurid realm