Andijan Regional Museum of History and Culture

History

The museum opened in 1934 as a regional history museum inside the madrasa of the Jome complex, which was then being used as a market. In 1982 the local history displays moved into a modern building, and in the 1990s the city's museums were merged into the State Museum of History and Culture of Andijan Region. It now comprises the main building in the Jome madrasa, the local history museum, a fine art department in the Kal'a complex, the Babur House Museum and memorial museums to the writers Abdulhamid Cholpon and Zokirjon Habibiy.

The collection

The core of the collection was formed in the first half of the 20th century from excavations at ancient settlements such as Elatan, Shortepa, Lumbitepa and Gayrattepa, along with gifts from Andijan craftspeople. Carpets and suzani, ceramics, and wood and metal carving are on show. The manuscripts include volumes of al-Zamakhshari's Tafsir al-Kashshaf, Abu Talib al-Makki's Qut al-Qulub and a work by Mir Sayyid Sharif Jurjani. The coin cabinet holds Timurid and Mughal coins and a rare Qarakhanid coin struck with Quranic verses.

The museum's pride is an early 20th-century coverlet embroidered by an Andijan needlewoman with lines from a medieval ghazal. A collection of old photographs shows how the city changed as it was rebuilt after the earthquake. The local history section alone holds more than 66,000 items.