For places in Azerbaijan, see Sabir, Azerbaijan

Sabir, Azerbaijan

Sabir, Azerbaijan may refer to:*Nəbiağalı*Sabir, Shamakhi*Sabirkənd, Shamkir*Səbir...

.

Sabir is also another name for the Mediterranean pidgin language Lingua Franca

Mediterranean Lingua Franca

The Mediterranean Lingua Franca or Sabir was a pidgin language used as a lingua franca in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th century.-History:...

.

The Sabir people inhabited the Caspian Depression

Caspian Depression

Caspian Depression or Pricaspian/Peri-Caspian Depression/Lowland is a low-lying flatland region encompassing the northern part of the Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed body of water on Earth. It is the larger northern part of the wider Aral-Caspian Depression around the Aral and Caspian seas.The...

 prior to the arrival of the Avars

Eurasian Avars

The Eurasian Avars or Ancient Avars were a highly organized nomadic confederacy of mixed origins. They were ruled by a khagan, who was surrounded by a tight-knit entourage of nomad warriors, an organization characteristic of Turko-Mongol groups...

. They appear to have been a Turkic

Turkic peoples

The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...

 people, possibly of Hunnic origin. "The name Sabir has been linked by some scholars with the name Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

 (where it may have been an alternative name for the Ugrian-speaking Mansi/Vogul) and even with the far Eastern Hsien-pi

Xianbei

The Xianbei were a significant Mongolic nomadic people residing in Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and eastern Mongolia. The title “Khan” was first used among the Xianbei.-Origins:...

".

The Sabir lived predominantly in the Pontic steppe region bounded on the east by the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

, on the west by the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 and on the south by the Caucasus Mountains

Caucasus Mountains

The Caucasus Mountains is a mountain system in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region .The Caucasus Mountains includes:* the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range and* the Lesser Caucasus Mountains....

. Priscus

Priscus

Priscus of Panium was a late Roman diplomat, sophist and historian from Rumelifeneri living in the Roman Empire during the 5th century. He accompanied Maximinus, the ambassador of Theodosius II, to the court of Attila in 448...

 mentions that the Sabir attacked the Saragur

Saragur

Santhe Saraguru which is now also called as saraguru or saragur or sargur a village in the southern state of Karnataka, India.Locally there are two historical story behind the name to this village one,is from the river kabini,it runs as chain around this village.since in kannada chain means...

, Urog and Unogur tribes in 461 AD, forcing them across the Volga, as a result of having themselves been attacked by the "Avars

Eurasian Avars

The Eurasian Avars or Ancient Avars were a highly organized nomadic confederacy of mixed origins. They were ruled by a khagan, who was surrounded by a tight-knit entourage of nomad warriors, an organization characteristic of Turko-Mongol groups...

". In 515 "they advertised their power in a huge raid south of the Caucasus, in which they attacked Iranian and Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 lands with scrupulous impartiality". They eventually came into allegiance with Persia.

In 552 the Sabirs, previously allied with Sassanid Persia, switched their allegiance to the Byzantines and invaded the Caucasus. Soon afterwards, they were conquered first by the Avars

Eurasian Avars

The Eurasian Avars or Ancient Avars were a highly organized nomadic confederacy of mixed origins. They were ruled by a khagan, who was surrounded by a tight-knit entourage of nomad warriors, an organization characteristic of Turko-Mongol groups...

 and later by the Göktürks

Göktürks

The Göktürks or Kök Türks, were a nomadic confederation of peoples in medieval Inner Asia. Known in Chinese sources as 突厥 , the Göktürks under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan The Göktürks or Kök Türks, (Old Turkic: Türük or Kök Türük or Türük; Celestial Turks) were a nomadic confederation of...

. By the 700s they largely vanish from the historical record; probably being assimilated into the Khazars

Khazars

The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...

 and Bulgars

Bulgars

The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....

.

The Byzantine document, De Administrando Imperio

De Administrando Imperio

De Administrando Imperio is the Latin title of a Greek work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII. The Greek title of the work is...

 mentions that the Tourkoi (the Byzantine name for Magyars) were formerly known as Sabartoi asphaloi. This name is generally considered to mean "firm, reliable Sabir". However, Byzantine documents normally refer to Sabirs as Sabiroi.

Some modern historians speculate that a Sabir tribe or fraction, called Suars

Suars

The Suars were a Turkic-speaking people, probably of Hunnish descent, who lived in Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages....

, may have resettled in the Middle Volga region, where they later merged with Volga Bulgaria

Volga Bulgaria

Volga Bulgaria, or Volga–Kama Bolghar, is a historic Bulgar state that existed between the seventh and thirteenth centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers in what is now Russia.-Origin:...

ns. Indeed, one of the foremost cities of Volga Bulgaria was called Suar

Suar

Suar was a medieval Volga Bulgarian city, the capital of Suar Duchy in 948-975.It was situated at Volga's left tributary Ütäk river's upper stream. In the 10th century it coined its own money. Suar was a political, economical and trade center of Volga Bulgaria...

 or Suwar. Today, some Chuvash

Chuvash people

The Chuvash people are a Turkic ethnic group, native to an area stretching from the Volga Region to Siberia. Most of them live in Republic of Chuvashia and surrounding areas, although Chuvash communities may be found throughout all Russia.- Etymology :...

historians postulate that their nation is partially descended from Sabirs.