The mountainous north was inhabited by Tsakhurs and the low country by Azerbaijanis and Ingiloys (Muslim Georgians).

The history of the Sultanate begins north of the mountains in the upper reaches of the Samur River (Rutulsky District) with the Tsakhur people – a western branch of the Lezgians.

In the 15th century the Tsakhurs began moving to south over the mountain crest toward the Alazani River.

In the early 17th century, Shah Abbas I of Persia took these lands from the king of Kakheti and granted them to the Dagestani feudal clans who enjoyed a degree of autonomy (Djar-Beylakan society, the sultanate of Ilisu).

At the beginning of the 18th century, the capital moved south from the town of Tsakhur to İlisu and we now hear of the Elisu Sultanate.

As soon as he left the Begs, who had fled to the mountains, returned and replaced his puppet Sultan.

The Djaris did not pay tribute, blamed the Sultan and in 1805 he was replaced by Akhmed Khan who went to Tiflis (Tbilisi) to offer submission.

During the Persian War in 1826 Akhmed Khan was driven out by the Begs and replaced by Bala-Aga-Beg.

In 1842, when the Murid War was going poorly for the Russians, the Sultanate was placed under the Djaro-Belokani Military Okrug under General Schwartz.

His descendants live today in Azerbaijan, in the сities of Qakh, Shaki, Nəbiağalı, Goychay, Ganja, and Baku, and use the surname Sultanov as male and Sultanova as female.