page_title: Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The main building of Tashkent state instituti of oriental studies. Tashkent, Mirabad district, Shakhrisabz street 25
context_page_description: The Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies is a state institution of higher education in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Founded in November 1918, the school is the only Oriental-studies institute in Central Asia and Asia's oldest Oriental institute of higher education. It is one of the largest schools of its kind in Asia and the former Soviet Union.
context_section_description: The Turkestan Institute of Oriental Studies was founded in Tashkent in November 1918. Central Asia's first (and only) Oriental higher-educational institute, the school began preparing qualified specialists in a number of branches of Oriental studies for Turkestan and neighboring countries. Subjects included ethnography, geography, study of local lore, the history and economy of Turkestan and neighboring Oriental countries, Islamic history and law, and eastern languages and literature. Two hundred thirty-four students were accepted in 1918. They were taught Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Pushtu, Urdu, Turkish; local languages (Uzbek, Tadzhik, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Tatar), and European languages (English, German and French). Other subjects were the geography of Afghanistan, India, Iran, East and West Turkestan and Bukhara; Uzbek, Kirghiz, Persian, Tadzhik, Kazakh, Afghan and Karakalpak ethnography, and Central Asian, Iranian, Afghan, Indian and ancient history.
  Third-year students were taught specialized subjects, including Turkestan languages, Iranian and Arab philology, and Islamic studies. The institute prepared language and history teachers for local schools. It had 5,300 books and over 200 manuscripts by 1922. The first dean of the Oriental faculty was A. Y. Shmidt.
  It was attached to the National University of Uzbekistan in accordance with Resolution No. 186 of the Cabinet Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan in July 1991, and was named on the basis of a 26 July 1991 resolution by the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education.
caption: The institute's main building
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