An international exhibition "History of Samarkand in Manuscript Funds of the World" has opened at Samarkand State University. This exhibition was organized in collaboration with Prof. Florian Schwarz, PhD in History, Director of the Research Institute for Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

     The exhibition featured photocopies of 15 manuscripts stored in 6 foreign countries: USA, France, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Ireland. All unique sources are created directly in the scientific and spiritual environment of Samarkand or are closely related to it.

   The exhibition featured manuscripts from the following countries: 2 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (USA), 1 from the Walter Art Museum in Baltimore (USA), 1 from the David Collection in Copenhagen (Denmark), 2 from the National Library of France in Paris , 1 from the Library of the School of Oriental Languages, 2 from the National Library of Berlin, 1 from the Chester Beatty Dublin Library (Ireland), 1 from Leiden University (Holland), 2 from Princeton University (USA), 1 from the University of Leipzig (Germany), 1 from University of Pennsylvania (USA).

    The oldest of them was moved to Samarkand on February 6, 1083, and the newest in 1806. Each of the 15 manuscripts is a unique source that formed the basis of a separate dissertation topic.

     In terms of sciences, they cover the Qur'an, jurisprudence, Islamic philosophy, medicine, pharmacology, botany, zoology, astronomy, literature, history, and calligraphy.

     These manuscripts are an important source for studying the scientific and spiritual environment of Samarkand in different periods, academic mobility, the scientific heritage of scientists who worked in that period, toponymy and historical geography of the city.

    Bekhruz Shamsiddinov,
    information officer of
    Samarkand State University,
    The photographs were taken by Shavkat Akramov.