Craft · Fergana
Rishtan ceramics
The blue and turquoise pottery of Rishtan in the Fergana Valley, famed for its ishkor glaze made from plant ash and its local red clay.
Craft · Nationwide
Jewellery making (zargarlik)
The craft of gold and silver jewellery — tillaqosh diadems, earrings, bracelets and tumar amulets; the old centres are Karshi, Kokand, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.
Photo: Marat Nadjibaev · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Techniques and pieces
Zargarlik (from the Persian zargar, ‘one who works gold’) is the making of jewellery in gold, silver, copper and other metals. Jewellers cast, forge, gild and silver-plate, engrave and emboss, use granulation, stamping and openwork, and set turquoise, pearls, coral and other stones. Women’s jewellery is especially rich: large earrings and rings, multi-strand necklaces and the tillaqosh, ‘golden eyebrows’, a jewelled diadem still worn with national dress.
After the spread of Islam gold became mainly a women’s metal while men preferred silver. Silver also produced the boldest pieces, blackened and gilded, and Bukhara’s jewellers were famous for silver set with bright enamel.
Centres today
The historic centres of handmade jewellery are Karshi, Kokand, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva; Tashkent has become a major hub too, hosting an International Jewellery Fair every two years since 2023. Uzbekistan is one of the world’s big gold producers, and its largest deposit, Muruntau, lies in Navoiy Region. Bukhara’s Toqi Zargaron, the jewellers’ dome, has been a jewellery market for centuries; look for traditional-style silver there and in Khiva’s shops.
Sources (3)
Photos
Craft · Bukhara
Gijduvan ceramics
Pottery from Gijduvan near Bukhara, glazed in browns, yellows and greens — the best-known centre of the Bukhara–Samarkand school.
Craft · Fergana
Margilan atlas and adras
Margilan’s ikat silks: pure-silk atlas and half-silk adras. UNESCO recognises the town’s work to safeguard them as a model practice.
Craft · Bukhara
Bukhara gold embroidery
Embroidery in gold and silver thread on velvet and silk — the art of the Bukhara emirs’ court and still the city’s most precious craft.
Craft · Khorezm
Khiva woodcarving
The carved doors and columns of Itchan Kala: Khiva’s carvers never paint the wood, finishing it only with natural oil; the Juma Mosque alone has more than 200 columns.
Craft · Namangan
Chust knives
Hand-forged knives from Chust in Namangan Region: a blade with a slightly upturned tip, the maker’s stamped ‘signature’ and a decorated sheath.
Craft · Namangan
Chust doppi (skullcap)
The four-sided Chust skullcap, with white pepper-pod motifs on dark green, is the best-known emblem of Uzbek dress — and every oasis has its own doppi.
Craft · Samarkand
Samarkand paper
Paper made from mulberry bark — the finest writing material of the 9th–10th-century Islamic world, revived at Konigil at the end of the 20th century.
Craft · Bukhara
Suzani and Bukhara embroidery
Large hand-embroidered hangings called suzani; the Bukhara school is known for fine designs covering almost the whole cloth in reds and greens on a pale ground.
Craft · Navoiy
Nurata suzani
Embroideries from Nurata in Navoiy Region: realistic sprays of carnations, irises, cotton flowers and cherries on a pale ground around a central eight-pointed star.