The Tsakhur people are indigenous to the Caucasus region, historically residing in southern Dagestan and northern Azerbaijan (about 25,000 people in all, according to censuses taken in 2009 and 2010). They profess Sunni Islam. Their language belongs to the Lezgic family of the Nakh-Dagestanian group of North Caucasian languages.

IBT has published an edition of selected parables of Jesus from Luke’s Gospel in three more languages: Tatar, Rutul and Tsakhur. Previous editions of this book were published in Agul (2007), Dungan, Kumyk and Nogai (2016), and Dargi (2017).

The book of Proverbs has recently been audio recorded by IBT in the endangered Bezhta and Tsakhur languages. Bezhta is spoken by about 6,000 people in Dagestan and does not have an official orthography, while Tsakhur has about 23,000 speakers in Dagestan and Azerbaijan and is written with both Cyrillic and Roman orthographies. While both languages have a rich oral tradition, neither yet has a tradition of written literature.