Most of the Taskhur live in the Zakataly district, which is home to 11,500 of Azerbaijan’s 13,000 Tsakhur. A small group lives in the Kakhi district. The largest Tsakhur settlements are those of Alibairamly, Gezparak and Eni Suvagil’. Various opinions exist on how the Tsakhur arrived in Azerbaijan. Although popular legends and historical accounts made in the 19th century indicate that the Tsakhur had arrived from the opposite face of the Great Caucasian Range in modern Daghestan, historians have offered a rather convincing theory of the genetic links between the Taskhur and the Djigba, an Albanian tribe.21 In all probability, this would suggest that the Albanian tribes had a hand in establishing absolutely all ethnic groups in this region: Albanians had lived not only in the territory of contemporary northern Azerbaijan but also in southern Daghestan. Even so, historical sources have revealed that more than 400 years ago migrants from the settlement of Tsakhur, which is in a canyon by the Samur chai, crossed the western slopes of the Caucasian Mountain Range and founded the village of Sarybash, which today is an important historical and architectural site.22
Later, the Tsakhur dispersed more extensively, establishing the settlement of Ilisu, which later became a center of the Ilisu Sultanate, a vassal of the Djaro-Belokany Jamaat. The Sultanate’s first capital was Kakhi but, out of safety considerations, the ruler moved his residence to Ilisu, where he built a palace, towers and fortresses, traces of which have survived to this day.23 The population of this Sultanate consisted not only of Tsakhur but also of Azerbaijanis and Ingiloi. The Sultanate consisted of four main Jamaat—Tsakhur, Suvagil’, Karadulak and Ilisu. These were affiliated social organizations with a defined structure similar to most of the Daghestani Tokhum.
The Tsakhur had been herdsmen from ancient times and had farmed their own plots of land. Lengthy co-existence on this territory had bonded the Tsakhur and Azerbaijanis to such an extent that it is now hard to distinguish some aspects of the social and cultural existence of the Tsakhur community.
The Tats, Talyshe and Kurds, and representatives of the so-called Shakhdag group (Khynalyg, Budukha, Kryz) constitute a large group of ethnic minorities. The ethnic communities in question live in Azerbaijan and are mainly engaged in farming, hence the backwardness of there social structure. The Tats, Talyshe and Kurds plus the “Shakhdag” are largely integrated ethnically with the Azerbaijanis.