Lezgi

Member of a people of the northern Caucasus, numbering one million (1994 est), living mainly in Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Their language is Caucasian and their religion Islam.

History A free tribal union in the Middle Ages, they were ruled from the 14th century by the Mongol Empire, and from the 16th century by the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and Russia alternately; Russia from 1804. An independence movement arose 1965. With the breakup of the USSR, the Lezgistan area became a buffer zone between Azerbaijan (where the Lezgi are not recognized as a minority) and the Russian Federation.