Islamic Heritage

This rather short tour will lead guests through the most prominent monument and places of pilgrimage of the Islamic faith as well as mausoleums of famous and respected Islamic personalities who made a great contribution to the development of the Islamic perspective.

Guests will start from Tashkent, currently the capital of the Islamic community in Central Asia, where the Board of the Central Asian Muslims is located. Near the Barakhan Madrassah, which hosts the Board, guests will visit its library - where a copy of the Holy Book Koran is kept. As the legend goes, the third caliph of the Muslims, Muhammad's son-in-law, Uthman (locally pronounced as Osman) decided to bring all numerous copies which existed during his rule 644-655 A.D. to a unified and official form. The Holy Book was written, and the caliph was murdered while reviewing one of its copies.

In Samarkand, the great capital of Tamerlane, guests will visit the Mausoleum of Qusam Ibn-Abbas - who is believed to be the second most significant leader in the Islamic religion after Muhammad, in the Shahi Zindah complex.  Also, guests will get to see the tomb of the legendary Imam al Bukhory, a religious thinker and intellectual, who made a great contribution to Islamic theology.

Bukhara was the centre of Islam for centuries. Legendary Sufis preached here, and rules that every Muslim follows in life based on the Koran, were discussed and explained here. Guests will visit the tomb of one of the most respected sheikhs of Islam, Bahauddin Nakshbandi, the founder of the Sufi movement.