00:04This Islamic Civilisation Centre is one of the most remarkable things I've seen anywhere in the world.
00:15In a single year, the Centre of Islamic Civilisation in Uzbekistan has been visited by Presidents,
00:21the Director General of UNESCO, Special Envoys and former Prime Ministers,
00:25and on a busy day, over 5,000 members of the public.
00:28It's become one of the busiest diplomatic addresses in Central Asia.
00:34At a time of growing division, the Centre aims to use history as a bridge between cultures,
00:41promoting peace, tolerance and greater understanding of the ideas and traditions
00:45that connect Uzbekistan, Europe and the wider world.
00:52It's a project on an extraordinary scale, and to those who study Islamic heritage for a living,
00:57an extraordinary idea.
01:01We are talking about a grand project, a very unique one,
01:07that brings together all these threads of the Islamic civilisation throughout the ages.
01:14So, yes, it's a grand project, it's a unique one, it's a very important one.
01:20It carries within itself many aspects, starting from beauty, construction, message, ideas,
01:29and therefore it is such an important project.
01:33I would call it probably one of those, you know, investments and projects for the whole Uzbekistan.
01:42It is not just the building.
01:44Buildings in some ways are easier to construct.
01:48It is the idea behind the building, which I think is most astonishing and very, very important.
01:55A great contribution to this country, to the region, and indeed to world civilisation.
02:01The idea took shape in 2017, when Uzbekistan's president stood at the United Nations
02:07and argued that the answer to ignorance and Islamophobia was not slogans, but enlightenment.
02:12Nine years on, the doors are open, and within months, the recognition followed.
02:17Named among the world's most beautiful museums by the Prefasai,
02:21among the most anticipated by the Smithsonian,
02:23and, by Guinness World Records, the largest museum of Islamic civilisation on Earth.
02:29The head of the Islamic world's leading cultural body came to see it for himself.
02:35What I saw is beyond the imagination, beyond what I thought the centre would be.
02:41The centre came as an idea by His Excellency President Shaukat Mirziyaf.
02:49It was one of his dreams, and I think when a dream becomes real,
02:56that is something that you should be proud of.
03:03At its heart, a 7th century Qur'an on deerskin, but never only a museum.
03:09Inside are offices for a range of academic institutions, including UNESCO and the University of Oxford.
03:15But why here?
03:16Because this land sat at the crossroads of the old world.
03:22The collections here show how Uzbekistan's position at the crossroads between East and West
03:28helped ideas, scholarship, and scientific knowledge travel across the world.
03:33By bringing this heritage together, the centre highlights Uzbekistan's contribution to medicine,
03:38mathematics, and astronomy,
03:40and the influence that knowledge had across the Islamic world and Europe.
03:47Europe learnt its medicine from a physician born in Bukhara.
03:50The word algorithm is a European mispronunciation of a mathematician's name.
03:55Even Sina, in Europe, they gave him another name.
03:59When you are talking of Avicenna,
04:02the contribution or the impact in the West, in Europe,
04:07is far greater than people might realise over here.
04:10Over there, people would know the great contribution of Avicenna,
04:13but not everybody would know where he came from,
04:17or what his interests were, or where they were taught.
04:31What the museum or the centre is trying to bring
04:35is not only for someone who visits this place
04:39to be excited and to be proud about their past,
04:44but rather to find themselves in that place.
04:58The centre has made itself a meeting point.
05:01This year it held the first international forum,
05:04drawing more than 400 scholars and religious leaders from over 50 countries
05:08under a single theme,
05:10the path to peace, tolerance, and enlightenment.
05:19There is also quieter diplomacy at work.
05:22This year, 900 artefacts looted from the ancient Termes,
05:25sculpted heads from the Christian era,
05:27and fragments of wall painting,
05:29some more than 1,500 years old,
05:32were recovered in London and brought home.
05:33They were handed over at a ceremony marking 690 years
05:38since the birth of Amir Temer.
05:43The message is a lot to do with the historical memory
05:48and might serve as a message for more and more such artefacts
05:52to head back to their home country.
05:56I love the fact that the centres work with Oxford and Cambridge
06:00and the close connection that the UK has,
06:03because some of the artefacts that are here
06:05were in the UK and are now where they should be,
06:07which is here.
06:08And I hope that's a sign not of the past,
06:12but of the future between our two countries.
06:16So what is it for?
06:1860% of Uzbekistan is under 35.
06:21They are who the argument is aimed at.
06:27It is so important, particularly in the world today,
06:31where there is a tendency to deny the past
06:35in some quarters in other parts of the world,
06:38where people think as if, you know,
06:40everything was contributed only by themselves, not by others.
06:43to be reminded that, you know,
06:45human civilisation is something
06:47to which all people have contributed
06:49and to which all people can make a contribution in the future.
06:54None of it happens quickly,
06:56and Professor Nizami is the first to say so.
07:00But I think it is also very important to remember
07:03that these are processes.
07:06You should not push the pace of things.
07:09What has not happened for centuries
07:12cannot happen within a year or within two years.
07:16But unless you start it, it will never happen.
07:21Forget where you came from, he says,
07:23and you lose more than a history.
07:28Just as you can have orphans,
07:31civilisations can also be orphans
07:33if they forget who their parents were.
07:41This place remembers.
07:42The scholars are arriving,
07:44the delegations are coming,
07:45the doors are open.
07:46In a world that has forgotten how to talk to itself,
07:50Uzbekistan has built somewhere to start.
07:52With more and more
07:55than a world.
07:55.
07:56.
07:59.
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