The Hunzibs are an indigenous people of Dagestan, Russia living in three villages in the Tsuntinsky District in the upper regions of the Avar-Koisu river area. They have their own language, Hunzib, and primarily follow Sunni Islam, which reached the Hunzib people around the 8th or 9th century. The only time that the Hunzibs were counted as a distinct ethnic group in the Russian Census was in 1926, when 105 people reported to be ethnic Hunzibs. Subsequently, they were listed as Avars in the Russian Censuses. In 1967, it was estimated that there were about 600 ethnic Hunzibs (E. Bokarev).
