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УДК: 711.42
MAKHALLA - THE DISAPPEARING HISTORICAL APPEARANCE
OF OLD TASHKENT
Sereyeva Guljazira Adilbaevna
Associate Professor of the Department of Urban Planning,
Tashkent University of Architecture and Construction.
The neighborhood is the foundation of our eternal value,
rich past and bright future.
Abstract:
In this article, many people think that Tashkent is too
Europeanized, but not everyone knows that in the very center of the city today
there are national, colorful, charming neighborhoods - traditional Uzbek
neighborhoods, where there are generous one- and two-story houses that have
stood here for more than a hundred years...
New houses are emerging today in place of the destroyed neighborhoods.
The residents of the neighborhoods will probably live in them more comfortably,
but soon, unfortunately, there will be no trace of the unique appearance of old
Tashkent.
Key words:
city, city center, neighborhood, tradition, mosque, madrasa,
people and state, market, personal self-government bodies
The experience of state structure and management in the Asian continent and
the Muslim East has its own characteristics and traditions. A neighborhood that
existed before the Arab conquest and the conversion to Islam existed as an
association of people living in a certain small area, bound not only by good
neighborly relations, but also by internal rules of conduct. spiritual and moral
standards, customs and traditions formed over the centuries. This type of socio-
economic harmony of the population changes at each stage of historical
development. Socio-political, cultural and economic changes came to most
traditional Uzbek families through the neighborhood.
Tashkent, in the minds of many, is a completely Europeanized capital of
Uzbekistan with wide avenues, green parks and beautiful high-rises built in recent
“JOURNAL OF SCIENCE-INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN
UZBEKISTAN” JURNALI
VOLUME 03, ISSUE 06, 2025. JUNE
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years. However, not everyone knows that almost in the very center of the city,
charming corners of national color have been preserved to this day - traditional
Uzbek mahalla quarters, adobe one- and two-story houses of which have been
standing here for more than a hundred years...
In Tashkent, not far from the Chorsu market, there is a circus. It is no
coincidence that this place is located this way: it was here that the center of the old
city was once located. Since the Middle Ages, ancient mosques and madrassas have
been preserved here, such as, for example, the famous Kukeldash, here was the
Tashkent shakhristan - a part of the city with residential areas inside the fortress wall.
Not many tourists today reach the Zarkaynar district, located behind the circus,
but it is here that you can still see the unique adobe houses of local mahallas, which
now look the same as they did 100-150 years ago.
These are old Uzbek quarters of 5-7 streets and several hundred residents,
where there is a mosque, a small market, a teahouse and tiny mahalla committee
offices headed by their elder. Completely different people live here than in the
modern microdistricts of Tashkent, and for tourists who have come here, the
medieval appearance of these streets complements the "ethnographic" appearance of
Tashkent.
In the mahalla, every resident knows not only all of their closest neighbors, but
also Aunt Khadicha from the Sagban dead end, who cooks the most delicious pilaf
in the mahalla, and the hairdresser Baykhtiyer, who gets all the men in the quarter
cut off. Here, children calmly ride their bikes through the streets, just like we did in
“JOURNAL OF SCIENCE-INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN
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our Soviet childhood. And the neighboring grandmothers treat them to samsa or
flatbreads, just taken out of the oven.
Even today, you can easily see chickens, rams or goats in the courtyards of old
adobe houses - and this is actually in the center of the capital of Uzbekistan!
Tashkent, in the minds of many, is a completely Europeanized capital of Uzbekistan
with wide avenues, green parks and beautiful high-rises built in recent years.
Tashkent Kukeldash: people studied, prayed, and maintained a caravanserai
here.
However, not everyone knows that almost in the very center of the city,
charming corners of national color have been preserved to this day - traditional
Uzbek mahalla neighborhoods, whose adobe one- and two-story houses have been
standing here for over a hundred years...
Local boys also like to run to the Khazrati Imam religious complex located next
to the mahalla, where on the square between the ancient mosque of the same name
and two madrassas - Barakhan and Muyi Muborak, they launch kites into the sky,
just like their fathers and grandfathers did 30-50 years ago...
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Tourists who come to see this stunningly beautiful architectural ensemble love to
stare at the kites soaring in the blue sky, and the kids who are especially skilled at
this craft sometimes get a few sums for pocket money...
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Now you can see the Khazrati Imam Complex and the Zarkaynar mahalla
nearby. Of course, not everywhere here today is so relatively welcoming and calm:
part of the quarter has been under reconstruction, which has been going on for ten
years, and the old houses there are being torn down, and the residents are being
evicted to modern high-rise buildings.
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Some of them still continue to live in half-ruined adobe houses, which are
separated from the modern microdistricts of the city by a high fence - like some kind
of reservation of local "Indians". I think that the attitude of Tashkent residents to the
residents of the mahalla is something else - as to third-class people, because who
else would live in such slums in our time...
By the way, houses in the mahalla are still being built using old Uzbek
technology, which saved many buildings in its time from the strongest earthquake
of 1966, which greatly destroyed Tashkent.
Houses are built using natural materials: an internal wooden frame is installed
from the trunks of young pyramidal poplars, which makes the entire structure strong
and earthquake-resistant. Bricks are partially laid inside the frame, but mostly guval
- pellets of unbaked clay. The walls of houses in the mahalla are usually made blind
on three sides. And inside the clay duval there is an internal courtyard with a garden
and outbuildings.
When building houses, as a rule, not a single nail is used, since the wooden
parts fit perfectly to each other.
On the facade of the house there are one or two windows with carved wooden
frames, the entrance gates are usually also wooden, often carved.
Water and gas pipes do not run underground in the mahalla, but hang along the
streets, along with electrical wires.
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Back in 2012, former President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov signed a decree
on the reconstruction, improvement and development of the old city in Tashkent,
during which, in addition to the restoration of mosques and madrassas, the
dilapidated adobe buildings that were erected in Tashkent even before Tsarist Russia
conquered Central Asia in the 19th century were to be demolished!
Since then, many mahalla buildings have been demolished, and some are still
awaiting this fate, because next to the religious complex of Hazrati Imam in 2017,
the new President Shavkat Mirziyoyev laid the symbolic stone of the future giant
building of the Center for Islamic Civilization. Passing by it, we could not help but
look at the construction site, which is in full swing. A grand mosque will soon appear
there, the dome of which is in no way inferior in beauty to ancient monuments. And
nearby, on an area of 482 hectares, including the Chorsu market, the streets of the
mahallas "Zarkaynar", "Sagbon", "Sebzor", "Karasaray", "Guzalbog" and others, it
is planned to create a tourist, commercial and entertainment space - the so- called
open-air museum, where craft workshops and shops, teahouses, hotels, small
museums will be organized, in general, all the necessary infrastructure for tourists.
“JOURNAL OF SCIENCE-INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN
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VOLUME 03, ISSUE 06, 2025. JUNE
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New houses are appearing today on the site of the demolished neighborhoods.
The former residents of the mahallas will live in them, perhaps, more comfortably,
but soon, unfortunately, there will be no trace left of the unique appearance of old
Tashkent.
REFERENCES:
1. info@parliamentrk.gov.uz
2. Collection of Legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 2017, № 6, Article
69. 24.05.2018, 09/18/372/1255; 17.01.2020, 09/20/30/0061).
3.
The formation of the mahalla and the implementation of the concept of
comfortable and safe mahalla in Uzbekistan
SG ADILBAEVNA - International Journal of Innovations in Engineering …,
2021
4.
MODERN ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTIONS OF MAHALLA AND
SG Adilbaevna - International journal of advanced research in education …,
2024
5.
Ecological Problems of Public Spaces in a Modern City Center
S Guljazira, S Oripova, Z Polotova… - E3S Web of Conferences, 2024
