The first five books of the Old Testament, also known as the Pentateuch or the Mosaic Law, have been published for the first time ever in the Kumyk language. Kumyk belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages. With about half a million speakers, Kumyk is one of the larger languages of Dagestan and is also spoken in northeast Chechnya and the Mozdok District of North Ossetia.

The translation team headed by the Institute for Bible Translation included experts in the Kumyk language as well as biblical scholars and linguists. The text was peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the Dagestan Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The publication of the Pentateuch in the Kumyk language is a landmark event for Kumyk literature. Kumyk readers, most of whom traditionally practice Islam, will discover not only similarities with Koranic subjects but also many new insights into the foundational Scriptures of ‘the People of the Book’.

The Kumyk Pentateuch is available as a PDF in the E-publications section of the IBT website. The website also features an audio recording of the book of Genesis from the Pentateuch.

IBT’s previously published books of the Bible in Kumyk include the New Testament (2007), Genesis/Proverbs (2008), Gospel Parables (2016), Psalms (2016), Job (2018), and 1-2 Samuel/1-2 Kings (2019). Work continues towards a translation of the full Old Testament.