Islamic Civilization Center, Tashkent: tickets, hours, halls

Which ticket: standard, individual, VIP or a shared guide

Most visitors need the standard ticket: a 2-hour group session with an audio guide in English or Russian, 425,000 som for a foreign adult. Buy the individual ticket, 660,000 som, if you want to read every label: it has no time limit until the 22:00 closing.

With a live guide, group size decides. One foreign adult pays 850,000 som for VIP, which includes the upper entrance and a guide, against 905,000 som for a standard ticket plus a guide service (425,000 + 480,000). Two adults pay 1,330,000 som for two standard tickets and one shared guide, against 1,700,000 som for two VIP tickets, so from two people up the shared guide wins. One guide service covers up to 10 people; a group of 11–20 needs two.

A family of two foreign adults and one child pays 1,160,000 som on standard tickets (2 × 425,000 + 310,000), or 1,640,000 som with one shared guide.

A museum and library that opened in March 2026

The Center for Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan grew out of an initiative announced in 2017 and was officially opened on 17 March 2026. It combines a museum, a library with about 300 seats on 3,105 m², and rooms for research and teaching, at the edge of the Hazrati Imam complex in Tashkent’s old town. The museum runs in time order: the pre-Islamic civilizations, the First and Second Renaissances of science and art, and present-day Uzbekistan. Besides the halls, the Center lists interactive learning labs, virtual exhibitions, ‘time capsules’ and walls of civilizations and discoveries among its formats.

On maps and signs, look for Islom sivilizatsiyasi markazi (Uzbek) or Центр исламской цивилизации (Russian). The Hazrati Imam Friday mosque is a 300 m walk away, and the city’s route for the Center and its surroundings covers 1–1.2 km in 1.5–2 hours.

The halls, from Sogdiana to the Quran Hall

The Center’s website names eight spaces. The table follows the museum’s order; within a 2-hour session you split the time between them yourself.

The Hall of Glory sets the tone: under its 14 arches, touch panels open a digital platform on which avatars of more than 100 thinkers and scholars talk about their ideas and discoveries. In the First Renaissance section the instruments are easier to follow than the long list of names: the nilometer model shows how the level of the Nile was measured, the qibla compass gave the direction of prayer, and the 12th-century astrolabe stands beside them.

For manuscripts, compare the date of the text with the date of the copy on show: a work by an early scholar and a book copied centuries later are different objects. In the Timurid rooms, the digital figures of Amir Temur and Gawharshad are the museum’s interpretation; for craftsmanship, spend the time on the Umar Aqta Quran, the miniatures and the architectural decoration. The New Uzbekistan stela closes the route with LED screens on the country’s heritage and its reforms since 2017.

The Uthman Quran is in the Quran Hall

The Uthman Quran, also called the Mushaf of Uthman or Othman, is in the Quran Hall at the centre of the building, according to the Tourism Committee (April 2026) and the Center. The Center describes it as a 7th-century manuscript written on gazelle skin; UNESCO added it to the Memory of the World register in 1997. Around it, the hall shows Quran manuscripts covering all 114 surahs.

The Center calls the hall the conceptual and architectural heart of the museum, built around the manuscript. Leave time for the script and the page layout, not only for the room.

Until 2026 the manuscript was shown in the Muyi Muborak madrasa at Hazrati Imam. That madrasa, open 09:00–17:00, now displays a copy, so guidebooks that send you there for the original describe the years before the Center opened.

Read the labels for originals and replicas elsewhere too: the Center itself notes that the Uzbek Khan Quran on display is a replica, with the original in Turkey. Ask the hall staff before you photograph a manuscript.

Ticket prices in 2026

The prices below are from the Center’s iTicket listing, read on 27 September 2026. There are two categories, local and foreign. The standard ticket includes an audio guide, in Uzbek for the local category and in English or Russian for foreigners, who pick the English or Русский queue once inside. A guide service is not an entry ticket: every visitor needs a standard ticket first.

The listing gives worked examples: a group of 13 local visitors buys 13 standard tickets and one Fast Track at 300,000 som, and a group of 18 buys 18 tickets and one Fast Track at 500,000 som; foreign groups follow the same rule at 400,000 and 600,000 som. An individual-ticket holder who wants a guide adds the guide service, which covers 2 hours.

Hours and entry rules

The museum opens every day from 09:00 to 22:00. Choose the date, category and session on iTicket and keep the QR code until you leave: staff and security can ask to see it during the visit.

One ticket admits one visitor. The ticket conditions also ask you to keep order in the halls, handle the exhibits with care and follow the instructions of staff and security.

Getting there: address, metro and taxi

The Center gives its address as Qorasaroy (Karasaroy) Street 47, Olmazor district. One events listing uses 89A on the same street, so set your map pin on the Center building beside the Hazrati Imam mosque rather than on a house number. Contact: +998 55 511 23 06, info@cisc.uz.

No metro station is close: Chorsu and Gʻafur Gʻulom are each 1.7 km on foot, about 23 minutes, and the walk from Chorsu bazaar is the same length. By metro from Amir Temur Square, ride 2 stops to Paxtakor, cross to Alisher Navoiy and ride 1 stop to Gʻafur Gʻulom or 2 to Chorsu, then walk. For a timed session, a taxi is the simple option.

The taxi fares in the table use Yandex Go’s published Start rates: a 4,600 som minimum, then up to 1,050 som per km and 500 som per minute, valid to 29 September 2026. The upper figure assumes twice the free-flowing driving time.

A half day with Hazrati Imam and Chorsu

Book a morning session and fit the old town around it. The Hazrati Imam mosque, 300 m away, is open around the clock, and the Muyi Muborak madrasa with its copy of the Uthman Quran opens 09:00–17:00. Chorsu bazaar, 1.7 km away, opens 09:00–18:00, and the Kukeldash madrasa courtyard, 400 m beyond it, is open 08:00–18:00. The Tashkent guide has the full city day.

Hazrati Imam grew around the tomb of Kaffal Shashi, Tashkent’s first imam, born in 903; the square holds the Friday mosque, the Barak Khan madrasa and the Tilla Sheikh mosque. At Chorsu, the blue-tiled dome of 1990, inscribed by UNESCO with Tashkent’s modernist buildings in July 2026, covers the dairy, meat and spice rows, and the open-air row serves naryn, khanum, kazy and shashlik. Kukeldash, a 16th-century madrasa, works as a religious school again and holds Friday prayers.

If a train follows, read the station on your ticket: from Chorsu, Toshkent metro station by Tashkent Central is 6 stops on one line, while Tashkent South has no metro nearby.

Dress code and visiting with children

The dress rule is short and applies to everyone: no shorts and no revealing clothes. If you continue to the Hazrati Imam mosque next door, cover shoulders and knees (dress code).

A foreign child pays 310,000 som for the standard ticket (35,000 in the local category), and the listing carries a 6+ mark. The playground inside takes a child for up to 1 hour on an extra ticket, 180,000 som in the foreign category, and both the child and the accompanying adult need entry tickets; after the playground, the child carries on through the museum with the adult. The Center is preparing a children’s exhibition on the country’s thinkers as a learning space.

With children, pick three objects instead of every hall: the 12th-century astrolabe, the nilometer model and the Uthman Quran fit easily into a 2-hour session.

Where the Center fits in an Uzbekistan route

Put the Center on a full Tashkent day, not on the afternoon you land: sessions start on time and entry closes 30 minutes in. Its halls set up the rest of the trip. The Timurid rooms and Ulugh Beg’s astronomy lead to Samarkand, the Ma’mun Academy to Khorezm and Khiva, and the Sogdiana sector to the Afrasiab museum in Samarkand. The itineraries show where a Tashkent day falls in 7, 10 and 14 days.

In Samarkand, the Ulugh Beg Observatory of 1428–1429, whose star catalogue lists 1,018 stars, continues the astronomy story, and the Afrasiab museum shows the wall paintings of the Sogdian palace of Varkhuman.

What catches visitors out

• Arriving late costs the ticket: entry closes 30 minutes after the session starts, and there are no refunds.
• The standard ticket is a 2-hour group visit. Only the individual ticket, at 660,000 som, has no time limit.
• Foreign visitors pay the foreign category: 425,000 som against 90,000 for the local ticket.
• Two house numbers circulate, 47 and 89A Qorasaroy Street: navigate to the building next to the Hazrati Imam mosque.
• Not every famous manuscript on show is an original: read the label before you photograph it.

Common questions