00:00www.mesmerism.info
00:41The International Media Forum, Islamic Civilization, A New Perspective, New Discoveries,
00:47organized by the Center of Islamic Civilization in Tusken, brought media professionals,
00:53researchers and technology specialists to Uzbekistan.
00:56The Forum explored new ways of presenting history to today's audiences.
01:01The wider idea behind the Forum echoed President Shavgat Mirziyoyev's 2017 UN Address
01:08when he rejected attempts to link Islam with violence and called for enlightenment and religious tolerance.
01:14One of the Forum's central themes was that knowledge has long traveled between cultures.
01:19We believe that we invented a ring, but it's not true.
01:23All the knowledge passed from the, I call it, the Silk Road of Knowledge.
01:27It passed from ancient China to in the middle of the Middle East, and then we go to the Renaissance
01:32Award.
01:34Dr. Taddei cites medieval engineers Almorandi and Al-Jazari as part of this wider history of scientific exchange.
01:43But this was only part of the story.
01:46Spanish envoy Rui Gonzalez-Teclavijo traveled to Samarkand in the early 15th century to meet Amir Timur.
01:53Charlotte Kramer presented a new publishing project based on his account.
01:57We already see a very strong connection from Europe to Central Asia and especially to the actual region of Uzbekistan
02:04because of the trade road, of the Silk Road, and also because of diplomatic dialogues.
02:10The project gives that centuries-old account a new form for today's audiences.
02:16What stood out at the Forum was how the same piece of history could take very different forms.
02:22An ancient manuscript could study with AI, reproduced in a book, brought into a digital exhibition or retolled on screen,
02:32all starting from the same historical source.
02:35AI could help researchers work with all manuscripts more quickly,
02:39but new technology did not remove the need to verify information.
03:01But the debate was not only about format, it was also about how history itself is understood.
03:08Behind many of the projects presented at the Forum was a broader aim to challenge stereotipers about Islam
03:14by looking back at its scientific and cultural history.
03:18The approach was not to ignore today's realities, but to bring a much wider part of that history into the
03:24picture.
03:40But some speakers argued that the problem was not only about perceptions in the West.
03:59The discussion also turned to how international media report on Uzbekistan.
04:18Being on the ground is one part of the job.
04:21What journalists do with what they find is another.
04:25Journalists should be here on the ground.
04:27Journalists should report about the reality.
04:30We are there to empower our audiences to build up an own opinion,
04:36what they want to think and should think about this region.
04:39We are not here to teach them.
04:40We are here to inform them.
04:42Across the Forum, one idea kept returning.
04:45New tools can bring history closer to today's audiences.
04:49But whatever the format, facts, context and critical judgment still matter.
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