If the previous episodes tried to answer the question, “What did Uzbekistan give to Islamic civilization?”, this episode addresses the question most connected to the present:
What does Uzbekistan want to do with this heritage in the twenty-first century?
The clearest answer is: the Center for Islamic Civilization in Tashkent.
From Idea to Project
The modern starting point dates back to 2017.
On September 19 of that year, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev addressed the seventy-second session of the UN General Assembly, linking Islam to science, enlightenment, and peace, and announcing the project to establish a Center for Islamic Civilization in Tashkent.
This point deserves reflection.
The project did not begin merely as a museum.
It began as a civilizational, political, and international cultural idea.
In 2018 the foundation stone was laid, followed by a long journey of design, construction, gathering materials and manuscripts, and preparing content.
After roughly eight years, the center was officially opened on March 17, 2026.
The period from idea to opening thus spanned roughly from 2017 to 2026
A Strategic Location
The center’s site was chosen next to the Hazrati Imam complex in Tashkent.
This choice is highly symbolic.
The new center is not located in an isolated cultural area, but at the heart of one of the most important Islamic landmarks in the capital.
Official sources note that the center was built on an area of about ten hectares, that its building consists of three floors, that the building is 161 meters long and 118 meters wide, that the center’s dome reaches about 65 meters, and that its usable area exceeds 42,000 square meters.
The building itself is thus part of the message.
It seeks to say that Islamic heritage is not a small relic of the past, but a subject deserving of a massive institution at the heart of the capital.
How Is the Narrative Organized Inside the Center?
One of the project’s most important features is that it does not begin with Islam directly.
It begins with the civilizations that preceded Islam.
This is a meaningful scholarly choice.
The story begins with the ancient civilizations of the region, then moves to the arrival of Islam, then the First Renaissance, then the Second Renaissance, then the modern era and the “New Uzbekistan.”
The center thus attempts to present a continuous history spanning three thousand years, not merely a separate religious history.
The Hall of the Qur’an
At the heart of the center is the Hall of the Qur’an.
Among its most notable holdings is the Uthman Qur’an, alongside a collection of Qur’anic manuscripts connected to Uzbekistan.
The center’s materials state that the hall houses 114 Qur’anic manuscripts, in addition to the mus’haf attributed to the era of Caliph Uthman ibn Affan, and that modern display technologies are used to present these treasures to visitors.
Here one of the center’s key philosophies becomes apparent: ancient heritage combined with modern technology.
The manuscript is centuries old, but the way it is presented is digital and interactive.
The First Renaissance Inside the Center
The center devotes considerable space to what the Uzbek narrative calls the “First Renaissance.”
Names featured include: al-Bukhari, al-Tirmidhi, al-Maturidi, al-Khwarizmi, al-Farghani, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, and others.
But the center does not present them in a single section.
It links them to their fields.
In hadith, al-Bukhari and al-Tirmidhi appear. In theology, al-Maturidi appears. In the natural sciences, Ibn Sina and al-Biruni. In mathematics and astronomy, al-Khwarizmi and al-Farghani.
The center’s official materials state that the sections of the First Renaissance include hadith, jurisprudence, exegesis, and biography; theology and Sufism; the natural and exact sciences; and the legacy of the House of Wisdom and the humanities.
The Second Renaissance
Next comes the Second Renaissance, linked to the Timurids.
Here Samarkand appears as a city of science, art, and architecture.
Ulugh Beg, his observatory, madrasas, and the arts all feature prominently.
Turkic and Persian literature also appear.
Works of calligraphy, ornamentation, ceramics, and miniature painting appear as well.
This matters because civilization is not books alone.
Civilization is also a city, architecture, art, language, and institutions.
The New Uzbekistan
The narrative then moves to the modern era.
Here the Jadids enter, followed by independence, then the modern reforms.
Uzbekistan presents this phase as the beginning of a “Third Renaissance.”
This term is critically important to understanding the project.
The goal is not to reproduce the era of al-Bukhari or the era of Ulugh Beg, but to build a new era inspired by the values of science, education, and innovation.
The Center as a Research Institution
Here we arrive at the difference between the center and a museum.
A traditional museum displays the past.
The center, however, seeks to study the past and produce new knowledge about it.
The project therefore includes functions connected to a library, manuscripts, scientific research, restoration, publishing, conferences, and education.
In its early scholarly meetings, matters such as organizing the library, training guides, forming museum and library collections, tagging materials with QR codes, and developing scholarly content were discussed.
This means the center is trying to build an ongoing knowledge infrastructure.
From Museum to Civilizational Diplomacy
An important shift occurred in July 2026.
The center hosted the First International Forum on Islamic Civilization.
The forum was held on July 7 and 8, under the theme “The Path of Peace, Tolerance, and Enlightenment.”
According to the official presidential statement, representatives of more than forty countries took part.
Here the center shifts from a national institution to an international platform.
The forum was not merely an academic conference.
It was a message that Uzbekistan wants to engage in what might be called “civilizational diplomacy” — using history, culture, and science to build international relations.
The International Media Forum in August 2026
Then came the International Media Forum in August, under the theme “Islamic Civilization: A New Vision — New Discoveries.”
The idea was highly significant.
If the previous phase was one of searching for heritage, the new phase is one of retelling that heritage.
This matters because modern media can turn a manuscript or an ancient scholar into a story that reaches millions of people.
What Does Uzbekistan Want to Tell the World?
The message can be summed up in four ideas:
First: Islam is part of the history of world science.
Second: Central Asia was not a periphery of Islamic civilization, but one of its major centers.
Third: the Islam presented by the region’s great scholars was linked to reason, knowledge, and tolerance.
Fourth: Uzbekistan wants to make this heritage a foundation for its future cultural relations.
This message is also supported by international Islamic institutions.
In the center’s materials on cooperation with IRCICA, it is emphasized that the history of Islamic civilization cannot be conceived without the legacy of al-Bukhari, al-Tirmidhi, al-Maturidi, al-Khwarizmi, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, and others.
What Might the Future Hold for the Center?
Five major roles can be anticipated.
1. A global center for manuscripts. If the center manages to collect, catalog, and critically edit Central Asian manuscripts, it could become an international reference point.
2. A center for the study of Islam in Central Asia. This is a field that still needs further comparative study.
3. A bridge between the Islamic world and global universities, through conferences, fellowships, translation, and joint projects.
4. A platform for countering stereotypes about Islam — not through propaganda, but through documents, books, manuscripts, and history.
5. A nucleus for a Third Renaissance. This is the most important point of all. If the center produces new research, trains researchers, and gains a global presence, it will move from “preserving heritage” to “producing the future.”
Challenges
There are challenges that should not be ignored.
The most important is to avoid the project turning into nationalist glorification of the past.
The scholars who came from Bukhara, Khwarazm, Termez, and Fergana were part of a vast civilization.
Al-Bukhari is Uzbek heritage in terms of place, but also global Islamic heritage.
Al-Khwarizmi was from Khwarazm, but worked in Baghdad.
Ibn Sina came from the Bukhara region, but moved within a wide sphere.
Al-Biruni was not confined to a single geography.
This universality is a source of strength for the project, not a weakness.
The Final Outlook
If Uzbekistan continues investing in research, education, translation, and institutions, Tashkent may, in the coming years, become one of the most important centers for the study of Islamic civilization in the world.
If the Center for Islamic Civilization succeeds in linking manuscripts, scientific research, education, technology, international conferences, and media, it could become a new model for civilizational institutions in the Islamic world.
And here we return to the beginning of the story.
The story began with ancient civilizations in Bactria, Sogdiana, and Khwarazm.
Then came Islam.
Then Bukhara, Termez, and Samarkand rose to prominence.
Then came al-Bukhari, al-Tirmidhi, al-Maturidi, al-Khwarizmi, al-Farghani, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, and al-Marghinani.
Then came the eras of invasion and Russian and Soviet transformation.
Then independence.
Then the idea of the center in 2017.
Then the foundation stone.
Then the center’s opening on March 17, 2026.
Then the International Forum on Islamic Civilization in July.
Then the Media Forum in August.
The entire project can thus be read as a complete historical cycle: civilization → flourishing → rupture → memory → restoration → an attempt to build a new future.
The real question, therefore, is not “Has Uzbekistan restored its past?”
It is: Can it turn this past into genuine knowledge power for the future?
The answer will not appear in a year or two.
It will appear in the books the center critically edits, the researchers who emerge from it, the international institutions it partners with, the languages into which the region’s heritage is translated, and the new ideas that will be born in Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara.
Only then can we judge whether the “Third Renaissance” is merely a slogan, or truly a new chapter in the long history of this land.
If the First Renaissance gave the world al-Bukhari, al-Khwarizmi, al-Biruni, and Ibn Sina, and the Second Renaissance gave it Samarkand’s Ulugh Beg, Nava’i, and Babur, then the challenge facing Uzbekistan today is to produce scholars, thinkers, and institutions whose impact is no less than those it now speaks of.
This, precisely, is where the significance of the Center for Islamic Civilization lies.
Its greatest success will not be making the world know that al-Bukhari was born in Bukhara.
It will be making Bukhara itself — and Tashkent, and Samarkand, and Khwarazm, and Termez, and all of Uzbekistan — places where the production of the knowledge the Islamic world and humanity need in the twenty-first century continues.
That is the real test of the entire project.
