The Abu Rayhan Beruni Institute of Oriental Studies under the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan was established in 1943 on the basis of the Oriental Department of the State Public Library of Uzbekistan. This largest research center has a rich collection of manuscripts that are extremely important from academic, cultural and spiritual points of view. Thematic structuring helps to assess its significance, and therefore five volumes are dedicated to the collection of manuscripts from the Institute. Volume 21 (Part 1) presents unique handwritten examples of historical works and documents. They contain valuable material for studying the socio-economic and political history of Central Asia. Thus, the universal history is represented by 257 manuscripts (50 works). The earliest of them is the Persian translation of Tarikh-i Tabari (The History of Tabari), written by Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari (lived in 839-923) in Arabic, which covers events that took place in the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. These and other sources allow scholars to reconstruct historical events with convincing reliability. In 2000, the manuscript collection of the Institute of Oriental Studies under the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan was listed in the UNESCO Memory of the World program as one of the richest manuscript repositories in the world.