Монография представляет собой исследование традиционной вышивки

Part Two, “On the Symbolism of Embroidery Motifs in Local Centers,” 
is divided into a series of sections. The section “Bukhara: Gardens of Heaven 
and Gardens of Earth” is devoted to the decoration of Bukharan embroidery. 
It examines the production of this embroidery center in the context of the 
development of the Islamic artistic tradition, and considers how local women 
artisans related to the approaches to composition and drawing style found in the 
creations of professional artists from the court workshops. 
Bukharan embroidery is distinguished by its abundance of plant and flowers 
designs, simultaneously associated with an idea characteristic of Islam, the garden 
of paradise, and with cults of nature preserved in the national consciousness and 
involving celebrations of flowers. Plant and flower designs become a picturesque 
hymn to family happiness and a prosperous life; the gardens of heaven turn into 
the gardens of earth. The work of local embroideresses is a striking example of 
Gardens of Heaven and Gardens of Earth
Embroidery of Uzbekistan: The Hidden Meaning of Sacred Texts 

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сады небесные и сады земные
the symbiosis of an elite art style with a folk art style, and the interaction of the 
traditions of “courtly” and mass cultures.
The decoration of Nurata embroidery is considered in the section “Nurata: 
A Round Dance of Flowers and Moons.” Local embroideries exhibit a preference 
for one favorite subject – the depiction of luxuriantly flowering bushes around a 
central medallion. The flowering bush is a traditional motif in practically all forms 
of art in Uzbekistan; it derives from the tree of life and contains the idea of growth 
and abundance, important for a wedding celebration. The composition with bushes 
came to be called in local parlance 
chor shoxu yak-mox (four branches and one 
moon). The name is symptomatic of the way that embroideresses, adopting and 
modifying a formal professional style that appealed to concepts from the celestial 
world, gave it a poetic turn closer to their understanding, linked with the ideas of 
flowering and fertility.
In the embroidery of Shakhrisabz (the section “Shakhrisabz: Symbiosis of 
Zoroastrian and Islamic Symbols”) Zoroastrian symbolism can be observed 
together with plant and flower designs. First of all, there is the 
chor-chirog’ (four 
lamp) design, representing the holy fire, an organic component of family and 
household rituals in the late Middle Ages. Other Zoroastrian symbols are birds 
with swirls on their backs (their shapes adapted from lamps for lighting fire), 
roosters, which are symbols of the sun, and the 
albasty-bodom motif (derived from 
Anahita). The meanings of Zoroastrian symbols have already been forgotten but 
they have continued to be incorporated in the ornamental field as being 
xosiyat 
doral (useful) – so strong remained the belief in the protective significance of these 
designs. Although paradoxical at first sight, the synthesis of Zoroastrian and Islamic 
motifs was possible thanks to their symbolic similarities, since both the former 
and the latter were associated in the national consciousness with ideas of divine 
protection and fertility. 
Embroideries of the group “Shakhrisabz, Lakai” are also examined. It is noted 
that the Lakai were never localized in Shakhrisabz area, and this attribution was 
brought into being by commercial interests.
The decoration of Samarkand embroidery (the section “Samarkand: the 
Reflection of Soghdian Traditions”) was connected to the most ancient periods of 
art in the area. Therefore Samarkand can be considered one of the most important 
centers for the genesis of this form of artistic activity. Some of the patterns go back 
to the local artistic traditions of sedentary agricultural and steppe nomad cultures 
(the oldest autochthonous astral, plant and zoomorphic motifs). Others resulted 
from the influence of textile compositions that were popular in the countries of 
the Muslim East, derived from the designs of professional artists. Soghdian textile 
traditions played a conspicuous role in the formation of Samarkand patterns. 
The components of patterns varied widely – from echoes of totemic cults, fire 
worship and sun worship to fully realistic forms of the down-to-earth objects that 
surrounded women in their everyday lives.
The section devoted to the embroidery of Jizzak (“Jizzak: The Image of the 
Temple in Suzani Designs”) establishes the interconnection between 
suzani 
designs and religious outlooks of the early Middle Ages. As a result, a composition 
“reads” as a symbolic image of a temple protected by