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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Lezghi of Azerbaijan

The Lezghi of Azerbaijan, numbering approximately 441,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Lezgic people of the Samur River basin whose ancestors' 26 tribes united to form ancient Caucasian Albania in the 4th century BC, later absorbed into Russia by the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan, their homeland split when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Lezghian is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Lezghi

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Eurasian Peoples
Country: Azerbaijan
People Cluster: Caucasus
Primary Language(s): Lezghian (lez)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 441,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024076
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Pray for the Lezghi of Azerbaijan

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

99%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Lezghian
Language Family: Nakh-Daghestanian

90%
%
Lezgi Speakers

Media Resources in Lezghian:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Lezghian:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2018 Institute for Bible Translation, Moscow✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Lezghian bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Lezghi are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Lezghi:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Pray specifically for the Lezghi of Azerbaijan

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
readRomans 10:14

Pray that those who haven't heard will hear the Word of Christ and believe in Him, calling upon the name of the Lord to be saved.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
readRomans 2:4

Pray that, in God's kindness and according to His nature, He will lead many to repentance.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
readJohn 10:29

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will rejoice as they remember that they can never lose their salvation

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
readJohn 1:5

Pray that when discouraging days come, those who cross cultures for the sake of the gospel will be comforted as they remember that the light of Christ is stronger than the darkness that surrounds them.

Lezgin Across Countries (ROP3 - 105742) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

5 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
LezghiPG024469LezghiRussian Federation474,000Engaged yet UnreachedLezghianSunni Islam
LezghiPG024076LezghiAzerbaijan441,000Engaged yet UnreachedLezghianSunni Islam
LezghiPG024626LezghiTurkmenistan19,500Unengaged and UnreachedLezghianSunni Islam
LezghiPG024286LezghiKazakhstan6,200Unengaged and UnreachedLezghianSunni Islam
LezghiPG024361LezghiKyrgyzstan1,300Unengaged and UnreachedLezghianSunni Islam

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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