[1] Hatefi was born in 1454 in Khar Gerd, a village that formed a district of the town Torbat-e Jam, which was in turn a dependency of the Khwarezmian city of Herat.

[1][2] Jami spent most of his whole life in his hometown, where he served as the custodian of the mausoleum of the Timurid-era poet Qasim-i Anvar.

In the late 15th century, Hatefi travelled alongside fellow poet Amir Homayun Esfaraini to Iranian Azerbaijan and Lower Mesopotamia.

[1] Ismail, who sought to associate himself with Persian literature, requested Hatefi to write a historical epic similar to that of his previous Timurnama (also known as the Zafurnama), a biography of the Turco-Mongol ruler Timur (r. 1370–1405).

Modelled after previous pentologues of Persian literature, including those of Nizami Ganjavi, his Khamsa became famous even outside of Iran.