The religious centre of Tashkent, gathering several historic monuments around a wide paved plaza. The complex includes the Barak-Khan Madrasa (sixteenth century), the Tilla Sheikh Mosque, and the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi, a tenth-century Sufi philosopher. Restoration during the Karimov years gave everything a tidy, slightly artificial finish, but the buildings are still genuinely old.
The main draw is the Muyi Muborak Madrasa library, which houses the Othman Quran — an enormous deer-skin manuscript dating from the seventh century. It is one of only a handful of surviving early Qurans and was returned from Saint Petersburg in 1924. Entry to the library is a few dollars; you cannot photograph the manuscript.