Islamic Civilization in Central Asia: Past and Present

The International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, and IRCICA have jointly organized an international conference on “ Islamic Civilization in Central Asia: Past and Present”. The conference was coordinated in hybrid format at Tashkent, on 14 October 2021. More than 100 research papers were presented. This was the second edition of the international conference on “ Culture, Religious Traditions and Customs of the Central Asian Peoples” which was coordinated by the two institutions precisely one year before, on 14 October 2020. The papers of the 2020 conference were published in 2021, under the title Culture, Religious Traditions and Customs of Central Asian Peoples. Proceedings of the Scientific-Practical Conference organized by the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan and IRCICA, Tashkent: International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan Publishing and Printing Association, Tashkent 2021. 314 pages (in English, Uzbek, Turkish, and Russian), presented in  IRCICA Newsletter no. 114 (January-May 2021). The present collection of papers resulting from the second conference begins with the forewords of Amb. Dr. Shoazim Minovarov, Director of the Centre for Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan; Amb. Prof. Dr. Mahmud Erol Kılıç, Director General of IRCICA; Prof. Dr. Muzaffar Kamilov, Rector of the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan, and other dignitaries having addressed the opening session of the conference. The forewords underline the importance of promoting studies on the history and heritage of Central Asian contributions to Islamic civilization. Reference is made, in this regard, to the IRCICA Chair for Islamic History and Source Studies which works under the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan.
The first section of the book, on the topic “The scientific and spiritual heritage of Central Asian scholars”, has 53 articles; the second, on “Islamic civilization and art in the Central Asian region” includes 22 articles; the third, on “Epigraphy and architecture of the Central Asian historical civilizations” 14 articles, and the fourth, on “Similarities and particularities of the customs and traditions of Central Asian peoples”, 23 articles. The majority of the papers are in the Uzbek language; those in English include the following: Gavhar Fuzaliova. “The great thinker Ibn Sina on education and upbringing”, and Shahzod Khatamov, “Contribution of Uzbek ancestors to the development of Islamic culture”.