Sabir people

The Sabir people or Savirs (sbr; Greek: Σάβιροι) inhabited the south-western Caspian Depression of Strabo's Sauromatae (though they are not to be confused with the Sarmatians) prior to the arrival of the Caucasian Avars from Abarshahr (Khorasan). They appear to have been an Oghur Turkic people, possibly of Hunnic origin. The name Sabir may be related to the name Siberia (which may itself be an alternative name for the Ugrian-speaking Mansi people) or with the far Eastern Hsien-pi.

The Sabir lived predominantly in the region of Azerbaijan (see Sabir, Azerbaijan) and Dagestan bounded on the east by the Caspian Sea, on the west by the Caucasus Mountains. Priscus mentions that the Sabir attacked the Saragur, Urog and Onogur tribes in 461 AD, forcing them north to the Volga once more, as a result of having themselves been attacked by the "Avars". In 515, having recovered from the Avar attacks of the 460s, they "advertised their power in a huge raid south of the Caucasus, in which they attacked Iranian and Byzantine lands with scrupulous impartiality". They eventually came into allegiance with Persia.