Tashkent (/tæʃˈkɛnt/ ^ⓘ), also known as Toshkent, is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. It is located in northeastern Uzbekistan, near the border with Kazakhstan.

Before the influence of Islam in the mid-8th century AD, Sogdian and Turkic culture was predominant. After Genghis Khan destroyed the city in 1219, it was rebuilt and profited from its location on the Silk Road. From the 18th to the 19th centuries, the city became an independent city-state, before being re-conquered by the Khanate of Kokand. In 1865, Tashkent fell to the Russian Empire; as a result, it became the capital of Russian Turkestan. In Soviet times, it witnessed major growth and demographic changes due to forced deportations from throughout the Soviet Union. Much of Tashkent was destroyed in the 1966 Tashkent earthquake, but it was soon rebuilt as a model Soviet city. It was the fourth-largest city in the Soviet Union at the time, after Moscow, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and Kiev (now Kyiv).

Tashkent plays a central role in the country's economic and human development. As of 2024, it recorded the highest HDI among Uzbekistan's regions, with a score of 0.840, reflecting significant progress in education, healthcare, and living standards. Economically, Tashkent was the leading contributor to the national GDP, accounting for 19% of Uzbekistan’s GDP in the first half of 2024. This economic dominance is supported by ongoing infrastructure development and urban modernization projects aimed at enhancing its role as a financial and commercial hub. Nonetheless, the city faces challenges such as environmental concerns and the need for sustainable investment in public services.

Since Uzbekistan gained independence, Tashkent has retained its multiethnic population, with ethnic Uzbeks forming the majority. In 2009, it celebrated 2,200 years of its written history. The master plan of Tashkent until 2045 was approved.

During its long history, Tashkent has undergone various changes in names and political and religious affiliations. Abu Rayhan Biruni wrote that the city's name Tashkent comes from the turkic tash and persian kent, literally translated as "Stone City" or "City of Stones".

Ilya Gershevitch (1974:55, 72) (apud Livshits, 2007:179) traces the city's old name Chach back to Old Iranian *čāiča- "area of water, lake" (cf. Čaēčista, the Aral Sea's name in the Avesta) (whence Middle Chinese transcription *źiäk > standard Chinese Shí with Chinese character 石 for "stone"), and *Čačkand ~ Čačkanθ was the basis for Turkic adaptation Tashkent, popularly etymologized as "stone city". Livshits proposes that Čač originally designated only the Aral Sea before being used for the Tashkent oasis.

Ünal (2022) critiques Gershevitch's and Livshits's etymology as being "based on too many assumptions". He instead derives the name Čač from Late Proto-Turkic *t₁iāt₂(ă) "stone", which he proposes to be seemingly another translation, besides the apparent Chinese translation 石 shí "stone", of *kaŋk- (whence Chinese transcription 康居 EHC *kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ > standard Chinese Kāngjū), which possibly meant "stone". Against Harold Walter Bailey's and Edwin G. Pulleyblank's suggested Tocharian origin for *kaŋk-, Ünal proposes that it was instead an Iranian word and compares it to Pashto kā́ṇay "stone".

The first occupants identified in the Tashkent oasis were the Burgulik (Burghulik, Burgulyuk or Burganlik) culture, an ancient pastoral society of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. The Burgulik era is usually divided into two periods, Burgulik I occurred during the 9th to 7th centuries BCE and Burgulik II, from the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. Archaeological excavations indicate that the Burgulik people were involved in animal husbandry, possibly agriculture with some irrigation and handicrafts. They lived primarily in basement shaped huts or hollowed cave dwellings and there was no evidence of wooden architecture. The hill fort, Shashtepa, in the southern part of the city was constructed during Burgulik I and is believed to have been abandoned in the 7th century BCE.