AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The Islamic Civilization Center of Uzbekistan has been launched as a large-scale cultural and educational project designed to redefine the place of Islamic heritage in world history and to preserve the country’s historical and cultural legacy for future generations. CNN has highlighted various dimensions of the complex in a recent report.
The idea for establishing the center was first proposed in 2017 by Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of Uzbekistan, during his address to the United Nations. At the time, he said the project aimed to present a humane, peace-oriented, and cultural image of Islam to the international community.
The cultural complex is located in the Hast-Imam area of Tashkent, widely regarded as the spiritual heart of the Uzbek capital. Its 65-meter dome and four main entrances symbolize the unity of the country’s different regions. At the core of the complex is the Qur’an Hall, which houses the renowned manuscript attributed to the seventh century CE, known as the “Mushaf of Uthman,” an artifact inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
The center’s exhibitions make extensive use of digital technologies to present a chronological narrative of the region’s cultural history, spanning from the pre-Islamic period to the contemporary era and “New Uzbekistan.”
The Islamic Civilization Center also includes a wide range of academic, artistic, and educational facilities, including a library with around 200,000 volumes, a calligraphy school, traditional crafts workshops, a historical restoration laboratory, and Uzbekistan’s first dedicated children’s museum. Offices of international cultural and research institutions, including ICESCO and other prominent research centers, are also based at the site.
One of the center’s core missions is the repatriation of Uzbekistan’s historical artifacts from abroad. Through cooperation with researchers, collectors, and cultural institutions, more than 2,000 manuscripts and historical items have been returned to the country.
Officials say the museum’s content will be continuously updated to ensure the center remains a dynamic space for dialogue between past and present, as well as a platform for international cultural exchange.
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