The museum was founded in 1958 in honor of the 1100th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Tajik-Persian poet Abu Abdallah Jafar Rudaki, who is often called the "Homer of the East". He was born near Penjikent at the end of the 9th century. The museum is located in a building specially built for it in the city center. On the facade of the museum there are two carved panels, made based on the frescoes of ancient Penjikent, and the famous saying of A. Rudaki: "There is no greater joy in the world than the sight of relatives and friends." The interior of the museum is skillfully decorated. The entrance carved doors were made by the craftsman from Istravashan, Yuldashbek Baratbekov, the ceiling of the vestibule was painted by the craftsman Mirzo Hashim Khujandi, and the alabaster borders of the door and window openings were made by the Asadov brothers from Khujand.
The museum also includes a number of historical monuments as branches: the mausoleum of Rudaki in the village of Penjrud, the mausoleum of Muhammad Bashshar in the village of Mazar-i-Sharif (VIII-XII centuries), the functioning mosque-madrasah and the house-museum of N. Sharipov in the village of Rudaki.
The museum has one of the largest collections among Tajik museums. Its collection includes more than 98,000 items, most of which are archaeological collections obtained during many years of excavations in the Zeravshan Valley, carried out by expeditions of the State Hermitage Museum (RF) together with employees of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan since 1946. Archaeological collections represent a collection of monuments of a vast chronological range - from the Neolithic to the late Middle Ages. The unique archaeological collection of the museum is complemented by rich collections on the ethnography of the Tajiks of Northern Tajikistan. The museum also has documents and photographs that tell about the political, social, cultural and industrial life of the region in the 20th - early 19th centuries.
The expositions of the museum on the area of 600 sq. m represents less than 30% of all museum collections. Expositions in seven halls are offered to the attention of visitors. The first hall is dedicated to the nature of the Zeravshan river valley. Here you can see stuffed animals of various animals: wild boars, wolves, foxes, bears, argali, porcupine, marmot and others, and also learn that tigers and leopards were found in the Zeravshan valley in the past.
The museum has a rich ornithological collection, collections of fish and reptiles. The next three halls showcase the unique collections of the museum on the archeology of ancient Sarazm and Penjikent. Here you can get acquainted with the monuments of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, learn how back in the III millennium BC. people in the Zeravshan valley cultivated the land, grazed cattle, were engaged in crafts, what kind of jewelry was customary to wear and how to bury the dead.
Bronze axes, ceramics, knives, stone products, as well as fabric samples of the 2nd century BC are on display. BC. - II century. AD A particularly rich collection came to the museum as a result of excavations of medieval Penjikent.
The museum visitor can get acquainted with the life of the townspeople before the Arab invasion of the 8th century. The exposition presents pottery water pipes and hums (vessels for wine and grain), fragments of looms, terracotta toys, wooden shoes, women's jewelry, weapons, coins, as well as special ceramic burial urns, ossuaries and reconstructions of the crypts in which they were installed.
The most valuable exhibits of this part of the exposition are frescoes from the walls of residential buildings of the excavated city, which depict scenes of feasts, battles, hunts and rituals, from which you can learn about the architecture, clothing and everyday life of the inhabitants of medieval Penjikent. Burnt and blackened by a fire, a wooden sculpture of a dancer from the 6th-1st century BC. under the vines - a magnificent monument to skillful Sogdian carvers, it revives for us the arts of the inhabitants of one of the largest cities on the Silk Road.
The next room presents collections on the traditional culture and ethnography of the population of the Zeravshan Valley in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Bright patterns of embroidered suzani bedspreads, rich horse harness and weapons, various types of Tajik clothing and jewelry, handicrafts help museum visitors to get acquainted with the rich traditional culture of the local population and see its deep connections with the ancient traditions of the East.
A special hall of the museum tells about the history of the region in the XX-XXI centuries and modern Penjikent, its musicians, writers, poets, craftsmen. In the same hall, poster displays present materials on the establishment of Soviet power and the civil war in Northern Tajikistan, on the emancipation of Tajik women and the removal of their veils, on the participation of residents of Northern Tajikistan in the Great Patriotic War.
The jubilee hall of A. Rudaki presents various handicraft works depicting the great poet, as well as publications of his works. Numerous photographs and posters tell about the image of Rudaki, created by cultural figures of Tajikistan in the theater, cinema and fine arts.
Etiquette in Tajik, Russian and English.
Address: 735500, Republic of Tajikistan, Sogdi region, Rudaki str., 43, Penjikent
Tel.: 992-3475-527-27 - directorate
Tel: 992-3475-527-3096 - museum