Islam in Uzbekistan

Islam arrived in the 8th century, and Transoxiana soon became one of the centres of Islamic learning: Imam al-Bukhari, Imam al-Tirmidhi, Imam al-Maturidi and Baha-ud-Din Naqshband came from this land.

Uzbeks are mostly Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school. Religion was suppressed in Soviet times, but since independence mosques, madrasas and shrines have been restored.

The Hazrati Imam complex in Tashkent keeps one of the oldest Quran manuscripts in the world, the Uthman (Samarkand Kufic) Quran, traditionally said to have been read by Caliph Uthman. Uzbekistan is a secular state.