The peoples of Central Asia have been called "forgotten Muslims". Isolated from the rest of the Muslim empire by the appearance of Shia power in Iran, the Muslims of Central Asia then had to confront the war waged by communism to Islam, and then remained isolated from the world under the sway of the Soviet regime. Uzbekistan has some of the greatest holy places of Islam. Religion is largely imbued with shamanism and zoroastrianism, whose believers have never been able to escape. A circuit through the country's main spiritual sites can also take place from Termez, the gateway to Buddhism from India to China.
Day 1: Arrival in Tashkent
Day 2: The Pearl of Islam
Day 3: The Timurid capital
Day 4: Towards the stronghold of Central Asia
Day 5: On Ali's grave
Day 6: The greatest Koran in the world
©Patrice ALCARAS
Visit the main places of worship in the Uzbek capital: madrasa Barak Khan, where the great mufti of Central Asia is located, and excursion to the mausoleum of Zenghi Ata in the afternoon.
©Jeff Jones - Iconotec
Flight to Bukhara in the morning. Visit to the mausoleum of Baha al-Din Naqchband (1318-1389), the founder of the Sufi order of the Naqchbandi, the most widespread in Central Asia. Three pilgrimages to the tomb of Naqchband are equivalent to a pilgrimage to Mecca.
©Patrice ALCARAS
Travel to Samarkand in the morning. Visit of the Al-Bukhari mausoleum, one of Hadith's greatest collectors, born in 810 in Bukhara. He collected more than 600,000 words from the Prophet during a 15-year journey through the Muslim world. President Islam Karimov erected a rich mausoleum for him, financed by Saudi Arabia, claiming to make it a new Mecca.
©Jeff Jones - Iconotec
Samarkand flight at Ferghana. Walk in the afternoon to the hills of Chakhimardan.
Excursion to the Chakhimardan Mountains, an Uzbek enclave located 55 km inside the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. There is one of the seven tombs of Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law, in the sumptuous setting of the high mountains and at the confluence of two rivers with transparent waters.
©Jeff Jones - Iconotec
Return to Tashkent and visit the Amur Timur Museum where one of the greatest Korans in the world, and also one of the oldest, is located. Takeoff at the end of the day.
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