Muhammad Salikh
Muhammad Salikh
Born 1455 in Khwarazm; died 1535 in Bukhara. Uzbek poet.
Muhammad Salikh wrote in both Old Uzbek and Persian. The son of a court poet, he served at the court of Muhammad Sheibani and his successors from 1499; he had the title “king of poets” and held high court posts.
Mukhammad Salikh’s principal work is the mathnawi (heroic poem) Sheibani-name, containing about 9,000 lines. It deals with the historical events that took place between 1499 and 1506 in Middle Asia and with the victory of the Sheibanids over the Timurids. A copy of the mathnawi, which was recopied in 1510–11, is preserved in Vienna. The mathnawi has been translated into German (1885), Russian (1904), and other languages.