Moyie Mubarek Library Museum

The official religious centre of the republic is located 2km north of the Circus, on Zarqaynar kochasi. Here you'll find the newly restored Moyie Mubarek Library Museum, which houses the 7th-century Osman Quran (Uthman Quran), said to be the world's oldest. This enormous deerskin tome was brought to Samarkand by Timur, then taken to Moscow by the Russians in 1868 before bring returned to Tashkent by Lenin in 1924 as an act of goodwill towards Turkestan's Muslims.

It is Tashkent's most impressive and important sight. The museum also contains 20,000 additional books and 3000 rare manuscripts. The library is next to the spartan Telyashayakh Mosque.