Lezgins are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group native predominantly to southern Dagestan, a republic of Russia, and northeastern Azerbaijan, and speak the Lezgin language. Their social structure is firmly based on equality and deference to individuality. Lezgin society is structured around djamaat and has traditionally been egalitarian and organised around many autonomous local clans, called syhils (сихилар).
Lezgins
Many Lezgins lived in the Persian-ruled Derbent khanate, which Russia occupied and dissolved in 1813.
Lezgins in the 1860s
An antique Lesghi rug, east Caucasus, c. 1880
Dagestan, officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Federal District. The republic is the southernmost tip of Russia, sharing land borders with the countries of Azerbaijan and Georgia to the south and southwest, the Russian republics of Chechnya and Kalmykia to the west and north, and with Stavropol Krai to the northwest. Makhachkala is the republic's capital and largest city; other major cities are Derbent, Kizlyar, Izberbash, Kaspiysk, and Buynaksk.
Sulak Canyon is one of the world's deepest canyons
Kakhib, one of many abandoned auls in Dagestan
Abandoned Lezgin village of Grar
Inside the Persian fortress of Derbent, a World Heritage Site