Uzbekistan: the crossroads of Central Asian cultures

These are 500-year-old words from ancient Khiva, carved onto a cenotaph, an empty tomb, of Persian grief poetry. They line the cenotaph all around. There are three or four different poems. We've understood that... These traditions, these mourning traditions continue across Central Asia even today. It's among the artefacts on loan to the Doha Museum of Islamic Arts Heritage in Motion exhibition, where countless innovations and creations have been found across Central Asia in what is now known as Uzbekistan. Samarkand was the hub for these innovators, one of the most important cities in what was called Ma'wara al-Nahar. by the Islamic conquest. The work of these scholars, scientists and craftsmen still influences the tools we use today and the art that we create. Islam brought to the region Of course, a new way of life, a new religion, a new way of thinking, but also transformed the surrounding environment. This is what we see when we visit Uzbekistan and other parts of Central Asia today. This is a folio of the Tashkent Scrolls, which hold blueprints and geometric patterns from master builders who built in the 16th and 17th century. And this is the Zij-i Sultani. A star catalogue written by Ulugh Beg, grandson of Timur, both powerful leaders in Samarkand. Ulugh Beg was also a renowned mathematician and astrologer. In it is his star catalogue where he documented more than 1000 stars with no satellites, telescopes or computers. To do that he used one of these, an astrolabe. While Qur'ans are usually found in mosques or libraries, but This one page was found in a mausoleum or shrine. The folio is from a holy Qur'an book, which was kept in a shrine near Shahrisabz, southern Uzbekistan. The rest of the pages were scattered, likely under Russian rule, more than 200 years ago. From sacred verses to science and architecture, much of the world that we know today has been influenced by Uzbekistan's crossroad of history.