Tabasarans are a

Northeast Caucasian The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or ''Vainakh-Daghestani'', is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as ...

ethnic group native predominantly to southern part of the North Caucasian Republic of

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North ...

. Their population in Russia is about 150,000. They speak the

Tabasaran language Tabasaran (also written Tabassaran) is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Lezgic branch. It is spoken by the Tabasaran people in the southern part of the Russian Republic of Dagestan. There are two main dialects: North (Khanag) and South Tab ...

. They are mainly

Sunni Muslims Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

History

The earliest mention of the Tabasarans are found in 7th century Armenian sources referring to them as an independent people of Dagestan. Arab historians referred to their land as "Tabarstan". In the 8th century, the Arabs conquered parts of the Caucasus including the territory of the Tabarsarans. In the 15th century, the Tabasrans formed a powerful principality called the Maisumat of Tabarsaran. However, the state was eventually divided into two due to internal struggles and both were conquered by the Russians in the early 19th century.

Culture

Language

The main language of the Tabasaran people is the

(табасаран чIал‎, ''tabasaran ҫ̇al''), which belongs to the

Lezgic The Lezgic languages are one of seven branches of the Northeast Caucasian language family. Lezgian are literary languages aside from being extant (currently spoken). Classification * Peripheral: Archi – 970 speakers * Samur