Alisher Navoi National Library of Uzbekistan

Tashkent's Marifat Markazi architectural complex houses the country's largest repository of manuscripts and printed publications, the Alisher Navoi National Library of Uzbekistan. The library's collection contains the world's largest collection of works in the Uzbek language.

The library traces its ancestry back to 1870, when the Governor-General of Turkestan, Konstantin Kaufman, ordered the establishment of the Tashkent Public Library. A Russian scientist, bibliographer V. I. Mezhov, was involved in collecting the first editions of the library. The publications were mainly of the nature of the history of the Turkestan region, later they formed the basis of the multi-volume book "Turkestan Collection", which is kept in the library to this day.

Over the years, the library has undergone various changes – the closure of the institution by order of the Governor-General of Turkestan M.G. Chernyaev in 1882, the distribution of publications to various organizations, but still most of the fund was preserved thanks to the Supervisory Committee established in 1883, which included well-known scientists, historians, and educators. In 1920, the library received the status of a "State Library", and from that moment on, it received all the "mandatory copies" published in the territory of the Turkestan region.

The library received its current name in February 2020 after the merger of two large funds – the Republican Scientific and Technical Library and the Alisher Navoi State Library of the Republic of Uzbekistan, organized by the Decree of the President of Uzbekistan "On Improving the organization of research activities."