- Sabir people
:"For places in Azerbaijan, see
Sabir, Azerbaijan .":"Sabir is also another name for the Mediterranean pidgin language Lingua Franca, from its word "sabir", "to know"."The Sabir people inhabited the
Caspian Depression prior to the arrival of the Avars. They appear to have been a Turkic people, possibly of Hunnic origin. "The name "Sabir" has been linked by some scholars with the name "Siberia " (where it may have been an alternative name for the Ugrian-speakingMansi )", or even with the far-eastern Sibe Manchus ofXinjiang . [Christian, David. "A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia". Blackwell Publishing, 1998. Page 279.]The Sabir lived predominantly in the Pontic steppe region bounded on the east by the
Caspian Sea , on the west by theBlack Sea and on the south by theCaucasus Mountains .Priscus mentions that the Sabir attacked theSaragur ,Urog andUnogur tribes in 461 AD, forcing them across the Volga, as a result of having themselves been attacked by the "Avars". In 515 "they advertised their power in a huge raid south of the Caucasus, in which they attacked Iranian and Byzantine lands with scrupulous impartiality". [Ibidem. Pages 279-280.] They eventually came into allegiance with Persia.In
552 the Sabirs, previously allied withSassanid Persia, switched their allegiance to the Romans and invaded the Caucasus. Soon afterwards, they were conquered first by the Avars and later by theGöktürks . By the700s they largely vanish from the historical record; probably being assimilated into theKhazars andBulgars . The Byzantine document, "De Administrando Imperio " 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 it should be noted that Byzantine documents normally refer to Sabirs as "Sabiroi".Some modern historians speculate that a Sabir tribe or faction, called
Suars , may have resettled in the MiddleVolga region, where they later merged withVolga Bulgaria ns. Indeed, one of the foremost cities of Volga Bulgaria was calledSuar or Suwar. Today, someChuvash historians postulate that their nation is partially descended from Sabirs. [TES|Suarlar/Суарлар]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.