Chust (uzb. Chust) is a city (since 1969), located in the Namangan region of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 12 km from the Chust railway station. It is the second largest city in the Namangan region after Namangan. The administrative center of Chust district of Namangan region.

Population
Chust is one of the oldest settlements in the Ferghana Valley. In 2005, he turned 3500 years old. The Chust Bronze Age settlement is located near Chust. Population 70.2 thousand people (2010). From ancient times, the city was predominantly inhabited by the Iranian-speaking population. According to the first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897, the distribution of the population by native language and counties of the Russian Empire in terms of population and national composition of the Ferghana region, 13,785 people lived in the city of Chust, of which 91% were Tajiks.

Artistic craft
Chust knives
Since ancient times, in the view of the peoples of Central Asia, sharp objects have the power of amulets that protect their owners from misfortunes. According to legend, the national knife “pichok” (Uzb.), “Kord” (Tajik) has this ability, which is an attribute of many traditional folk rites and rituals, there are many legends about it. One of the most ancient metal processing centers is located in the Ferghana Valley, one of which is the city of Chust..
In Chust, there has long been a quarter of knife-makers - “suzangars”, (from the Tajik word “suzan” - “needle”, a needle-maker), where knives are made in small forges. A piece of metal will undergo several dozen operations before it becomes a knife blade. In the almost finished, but not yet cooled down after hardening, knife blade, the master hammers his “signature” brand of brass with a hammer. By the brand, you can determine the place of manufacture of the knife and the name "suzangara". A good knife blade should be light gray in color, the handle is commensurate with the length of the blade and fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. A well-forged knife easily cuts hair, and its blade will last for many years, giving in to sharpening on the bottom of a porcelain bowl.
Each of the many types of traditional Uzbek knives has its own purpose. Some knives are good for cutting meat, others are good for peeling and chopping carrots and onions for pilaf. It is customary to peel the skin of fruits with small elegant knives. Special knives are used by gardeners to trim tree branches. Butchers use knives with a slightly curved blade tip, which are convenient for butchering animal carcasses and skins.
An indispensable attribute of a knife are covers or sheaths. Thick fabric or leather is suitable for them, and then they are decorated with embroidery or appliqué, embossed. Often, leather sheaths are decorated with brass or copper overlays, chasing or engraving. You can find scabbards made of carved wood. All scabbards are equipped with a leather loop, which serves as a pendant to the belt.
Pupils and followers of the famous Suzangars Ubaidulla Satarov and Miraziz Karabaev still work in Chust today. One of them, the famous usto Sobir Mamajonov, has students himself. Under his guidance, they learn not only to forge knives and sabers, but also to mint traditional copper and brass lagans, decorate women's bracelets and earrings with granulation and filigree.
More than 500 thousand pieces of Chust souvenir knives are produced annually. A real Chust knife will serve the owner for a long time and will always remind of the skillful hands of artisans of the Ferghana Valley.

Chust skullcaps
Since ancient times, one of the main types of headdress in Central Asia has been the skullcap - an embroidered male or female cap, which got its name from the Turkic word "tyube" ("tobe"), meaning the top, the top of something. There is a great variety of skullcaps, differing in shape, color, purpose and geography of distribution. In the Ferghana Valley, skullcaps are called duppi, in their form they differ sharply from skullcaps in other regions. Modern duppi became widespread in the second half of the 19th century, after the beginning of the colonization of the countries of Central Asia by Russia, when high-quality, cheap fabric and equally cheap paper, the main components for making duppi, began to be imported to Uzbekistan from this northern country.
Two types of duppi are produced in the Ferghana Valley: Chust-duppi (skull-teikas that rise high above their heads), which in Uzbekistan are worn mainly by residents of Andijan and Samarkand, in Tajikistan by residents of Khujand and Dushanbe, and in Kyrgyzstan by residents of Osh and Jalalabad regions, and Margilan-duppi (skullcaps, completely fitting the head), common throughout the Ferghana Valley (except for Andijan) and Tashkent.

The Chust skullcap is distinguished by its height - it is almost twice as high as the skullcaps made in neighboring Andijan, not to mention the Margilan ones. The patterns embroidered on top and on the sides differ significantly. Artisans from Chust have been creating unique headdresses since ancient times, making each stitch exclusively by hand to the tune of songs and sentences. "Embroidery on a skullcap is not just a beautiful decoration, it is a good parting word for the future owner", the patterns embroidered on a skullcap with white thread promise wealth, protect from the evil eye, and lead enemies astray. Since ancient times, this land has been famous for its skilled craftswomen for duppi embroidery. And today Chust girls - college graduates - successfully master this craft, creating truly masterpieces of national applied art. The production of sensitive "duppies" - from cutting to pressing, takes place in several stages. Experienced craftswomen gather around them young needlewomen, each of whom performs her part of the work. One cuts out the necessary details, the other embroiders the upper pattern, the third, meanwhile, prepares a dense base, and the fourth has already taken up sewing a whole skullcap from its constituent parts. At the very last stage, men are involved, who give the "duppi" a traditional shape by pressing. In the ornament of the Chust skullcap, there are small graceful elements in the form of circles, drops, twigs, which, in combination with the main pattern "bod" (almonds), form a thin lace frame. Embroidered images of a ram's head, a round rosette with a "wheel of life" crosshair stand out in the "kalampir" (pepper) bends. The beauty of the form, its graphic character, the proportionality of the "bodom" and "kalampir" motifs, correlated with the background according to the color scheme, make it possible to classify the Chust skullcaps as classic works of this applied art. Each craftswoman Chusta knows by heart the ornamental motifs of skullcaps, but at the same time she enriches her patterns in every possible way, fantasizes, invents something of her own: as a result, a masterpiece is obtained that is in great demand both on the local market and among foreign tourists.
The symbol of honor "The mind, honor and conscience of a man lies in his skullcap", - says folk wisdom. It is not surprising that walking through the eastern bazaar of any city in the Ferghana Valley, you can see that almost every man wears head with a skullcap embroidered by craftswomen of Chust. From below, the skullcap is framed by a black silk braid, on top of which wavy patterns are embroidered around the headdress. Each of them symbolizes one of the teeth of the crown. There are sixteen such patterns in total - four on each side. This means that every owner of a "duppy" wears a semblance of a royal crown on his head.

Craftsmen of the above regions, who specialize in making Chust-duppi, distinguish more than ten types of embroidery, which are called “gul” - “flower” among the people. Based on the design and method of manufacture, duppi have different names, for example, "Anzhan" (from the name of the city of Andijan), "Inzhik" ("Cranky"), "Pakhtaabad" - from the word "cotton", "Setara" or "Three strings”, “Tovus” - “Peacock”, “Hilal” - “Crescent”. One of the common names for duppy is "Tozhik", from the merger of two words - "identity" ("crown") and "jiyak" ("braid"). But in colloquial speech, the word "Tozhzhiyak", apparently, was transformed into the word "Tozhik" - in the Russian transcription "Tajik".
All varieties of skullcaps differ from each other not only in the features of the ornament, but also in the quality of workmanship, and, accordingly, differ in price. Every Sunday seamstresses go to the market to demonstrate their work to each other in order to sell some of them. The most skillful craftswomen embroider one skullcap in ten days. On average, it takes about a month to make a skullcap. For example, the market price of the most common duppy for general consumption, Anzhan, ranges from 5 to 70 thousand soums, Shakhrikhan - from 10 to 20 thousand, Inzhik - from 30 to 80 thousand, Tozhik - from 40 to 150 thousand soums. Однако цена дуппи , изготовленной по индивидуальному заказу, может доходить и до 300 thousand soums.
At international exhibitions in Montreal (Canada), Izmir (Turkey), the Chust skullcap was highly appreciated.

Culture and leisure
One of the main attractions of Chust is the park, which has many attractions and cafes. Guests from all over the Ferghana Valley come here to relax. In the spring, schoolchildren spend a “bird day” in this park. Each of them makes crafts in the form of a bird (burning, embroidery, appliqué, etc.), and older students bring live birds here for demonstration. Saint Mavlono Lutfullokh is buried in the park, who, according to legend, opened the source of holy water. Every visitor to the park must drink this water. The park is also known for