The Institute for Bible Translation has published a monograph authored by the translator of the Bezhta Bible translation project, Doctor of Philology M. S. Khalilov, one of the world’s leading experts on the Bezhta people.

One of IBT’s  goals is to assist in the preservation and promotion of languages spoken by minority people groups of the Russian Federation and the CIS. One effective way of protecting endangered languages (including those without an established orthography) is translation and publication of biblical passages, as well as printing research findings. Such printed materials become exemplary models for language study, they promote the expansion and enrichment of the lexical and phraseological systems of the language, and provide a way of documenting these languages, thus creating momentum for language development.

The volume focuses on describing the rich culture of the Bezhtas, who live primarily in Dagestan, Georgia and Azerbaijan.