Its compilation, initiated by the Governor-General of the Turkestan region, K. P. von Kaufman, was started in St. Petersburg by the renowned bibliographer V. I. Mezhov (1830–1894), who worked on this project from 1867 to 1887. Originally, the collection was compiled with the purpose of familiarizing with various information about the Turkestan region, identifying and summarizing data about its natural and economic potential, raw resources, crafts, and more. Subsequently, it transformed into a collection of unique bibliographic, historical, artistic, and scientific literary sources.
Rich and diverse in content, the collection includes valuable materials not only about the territory of the Turkestan Governor-Generalship (1867–1917), but also about the whole of Central Asia, including the Bukhara Emirate, the Khiva Khanate, information about their relations with Iran, Afghanistan, East Turkestan (China), India, Mongolia, and Russia.
The "Turkestan Collection", which is kept in the rare editions department of the Alisher Navoi National Library, remains a rare historical source from the 19th to early 20th centuries, an intellectual heritage of our region.
All its 594 volumes are carefully preserved. Thanks to the fact that it contains valuable information about the internal and external politics of that time, the geopolitical situation, economy, history, and culture of the peoples of Central Asia and neighboring states, Uzbek and foreign specialists continue to study the materials of the collection with great interest.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "The Manuscript and Book Heritage of the National Library of Uzbekistan named after Alisher Navoi" (Volume XLI) in the series "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.