The Institute for Bible Translation (IBT) has printed the first translation of the Pentateuch into the Lezgi language. Prior Scripture publications in Lezgi include: Excerpts from Matthew (1990); Mark (1996); Luke/Acts (2004); the Children’s Bible (2009); Ruth/Esther/ Jonah (2010); the Four Gospels (2014); and the New Testament (2018).
The Lezgi language belongs to the Lezgic group of the Nakh-Dagestanian family of Caucasian languages. It is spoken by more than 700,000 people in southern Dagestan and northern Azerbaijan.
The translation work was carried out by a highly qualified IBT team that includes experts in the Lezgi language, as well as exegetes and Bible scholars. The translation was tested with native speakers and reviewed at the Tsadasa Institute of Language, Literature and Art in Dagestan...
By the middle of the 1st millennium B.C., an alliance of 26 tribes was formed in the eastern Transcaucasus (at present, the territory of Azerbaijan). They formed the polyethnic kingdom of Caucasian Albania, which in the 4th century A.D. adopted Christianity as its state religion. Parts of the Bible were translated into the Caucasian Albanian, or Agwan, language, which belonged to the Lezgic language family. However, this translation was lost during the early Medieval period, and parts of it were discovered only in recent times. In the 12-17th centuries Islam came to dominate in the region, so nowadays the Lezgic peoples are mainly Muslim. They practice folk Islam, but traces of their Christian past are still noticeable, and in folklore traditions one can still find traces of ancient paganism...
The Institute for Bible Translation has published the New Testament in the Lezgi language with an official stamp of approval from the Institute of Linguistics at the Russian Academy of Sciences. This marks the completion of many years of work by talented Lezgi writers and poets, theologians, and scholars of the Lezgi language, including Dr. B. B. Talibov, Dr. M. E. Alekseyev, Dr. N. A. Abdulgamidov, Dr. Marianne Beerle-Moore, and others.
IBT has recently published the Four Gospels in the Lezgi language. There are over 400,000 Lezgi speakers in the Russian Federation, most of whom live in south Dagestan near the border with Azerbaijan. More than 350,000 Lezgis also live in Azerbaijan, as well as in Turkey, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
By the middle of the 1st millennium B.C., an alliance of 26 tribes was formed in the eastern Transcaucasus (at present, the territory of Azerbaijan). They formed the polyethnic kingdom of Caucasian Albania, which in the 4th century A.D. adopted Christianity as its state religion. Parts of the Bible were translated into the Caucasian Albanian, or Agwan, language, which belonged to the Lezgic language family. However, this translation was lost during the early Medieval period, and parts of it were discovered only in recent times. In the 12-17th centuries Islam came to dominate in the region, so nowadays the Lezgic peoples are mainly Muslim. They practice folk Islam, but traces of their Christian past are still noticeable, and in folklore traditions one can still find traces of ancient paganism...
