Since publishing the Nogai New Testament (Injil) in 2011, IBT has continued translation work on Old Testament portions into Nogai, a Turkic language spoken by about 100,000 people in the North Caucasus area of Russia. IBT’s translations of Ruth, Esther and Jonah were already published in 2005. Genesis is the first book of the Pentateuch translated by IBT into contemporary Nogai, coming almost 200 years after the Pentateuch was first published in Nogai.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the full NT and a significant number of OT books were translated into high literary Nogai and were printed in Arabic script, which was used for several centuries for literature in various Turkic languages. However, these old Nogai translations are almost impossible to find nowadays, and are completely unintelligible to modern Nogai readers.

The Nogai translation team is continuing work on the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Interested readers are welcome to check out Nogai Genesis on our electronic editions page.