Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The project "Cultural heritage of Uzbekistan in the world’s collections" and the World Society for the Study, Preservation and Popularization of Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan are preparing to release a unique album of miniatures " Kamoliddin Bekhzad - Shamed Mani". The secrets of preparing the album were told by the Candidate of Art Criticism, Professor of the National Institute of Arts and Design named after Kamoliddin Bekhzad Zukhra Rakhimov.

- This year, in connection with the 565th anniversary of the outstanding medieval miniaturist Kamalitdin Bekhzad, the author and head of the project "Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan in the World Collections" F. Abdukhalikov initiated the idea of creating a richly illustrated album for national and foreign readers. Bekhzad occupies a special place in the culture of Uzbekistan, because his work had a huge impact on the formation of the local Bukhara school in the early 16th century, and contemporary miniaturists often use many of his achievements in their works. The National Institute of Arts and Design in Tashkent, the Museum of Miniatures, schools, scholarships are named after Bekhzad.

The idea of publishing an album is extremely relevant, because despite the fact that a huge literature is devoted to the work of Kamoliddin Bekhzad, in our republic it is known mainly only to specialists. This is especially important also because in Uzbekistan there has not yet been such a publication, which will be designed for a wide range of readers and, first of all, young people.

The main task of this album is to describe the main directions of his work, as well as to find an answer to the question of why Bekhzad became so popular in his time and why he is still considered one of the consummate miniaturists of the East.

The book-album " Kamoliddin Bekhzad - Shamed Mani" will include well-known and little-known works of a miniaturist from world collections. It will feature miniatures from the British Library in London, the Freer Gallery in Washington, the collection of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, the Library of the Gulistan Palace in Tehran, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, in the collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan in Geneva and many others.

The album examines the works of Bekhzad in various genres, the techniques that he uses when creating his images to convey those deep philosophical thoughts that underlie the spiritual culture of that time.

The album will consist of a text part and an appendix in the form of reproductions of works, many of which are little known in our republic.