The primary attraction of the Khast Imom square is this library museum, which houses the 7th-century Osman Quran (Uthman Quran), said to be the world’s oldest. This enormous deerskin tome was brought to Samarkand by Timur, then taken to Moscow by the Russians in 1868 before being returned to Tashkent by Lenin in 1924 as an act of goodwill towards Turkestan’s Muslims. It is Tashkent’s most impressive and important sight. The museum also contains 30 or 40 rare 13th-century books among its collection. The library is next to the spartan 1856 Telyashayakh Mosque .
