<![CDATA[This article examines the continuation and transformation of Alisher Navoi’s tradition of compiling divans with a dibacha (authorial preface) in the Kokand literary milieu of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The study focuses on the prefaces associated with the divans of Amiriy, Nodira, Uzlat, Muhsiniy, and Muhayyir. Drawing on manuscript copies, published editions, and previous textual scholarship, it applies historical-comparative, textological, and structural methods to identify the conventional elements of the dibacha and the individual modifications introduced by Kokand authors. The findings show that these poets retained the principal components established in the classical tradition—hamd, naʿt, autobiographical narration, an account of poetic formation, explanation of the divan’s compilation, acknowledgment of literary masters and patrons, apology for possible defects, and a concluding prayer—while adapting them to their personal, dynastic, social, and aesthetic purposes. Amiriy and Nodira linked the preface to courtly and autobiographical representation; Uzlat transformed it into a verse dedication; Muhsiniy repeatedly revised it across successive manuscript versions; and Muhayyir used it to articulate a developed poetics of authorship. Accordingly, Kokand dibachas are both literary compositions and primary documentary sources for the study of biography, manuscript history, literary patronage, and the reception of Navoi.]]>
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