The newest cultural center in Uzbekistan is a monument of epic proportions, four times taller than the Hollywood sign and roughly seven times larger than the White House. The three-story, $150 million Center for Islamic Civilization (CISC) in Tashkent, which will open to the public in March 2026, is designed to honor and revitalize Uzbekistan’s historical role as a center of Islamic learning. It is half museum, part academic research institution.
Many ancestors who influenced world civilization have lived in this region, stated CISC director Firdavs Abdukhalikov. “The big question was how to present their influence to younger generations and the rest of the world in an engaging and contemporary way. Islam plays a significant role in Uzbekistan’s history and cultural identity, despite the country being secular.
Islam replaced prior Zoroastrian and Buddhist traditions in Central Asia in the seventh century thanks to Arab conquests, and the region saw a golden age of science, literature, and building between the ninth and twelfth centuries.
According to historian Farhan Ahmad Nizami, founding director of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford and not affiliated with the CISC, medieval Uzbekistan and the larger Central Asian region were “a globalized world before globalization.
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