Sabir

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Sabir is also another name for the Mediterranean pidgin language Lingua franca, from Spanish 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-speaking Mansi)", or even with the far-eastern Sibe Manchus of Xinjiang.^[1]

The Sabir lived predominantly in the Pontic steppe region bounded on the east by the Caspian Sea, on the west by the Black Sea and on the south by the Caucasus Mountains. Priscus mentions that the Sabir attacked the Saragur, Urog and Unogur tribes in 461 AD 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".^[2]

In 552 the Sabirs, previously allied with Sassanid Persia, switched their allegiance to the Romans and invaded the Caucasus. Soon afterwards, they were conquered first by the Avars and later by the Göktürks. By the 700s they largely vanish from the historical record; probably being assimilated into the Khazars and Bulgars. Some Byzantine sources mention Sabartoi asphaloi as a name by which the Magyars called themselves.

Some modern historians speculate that a Sabir tribe or faction, called Suars, may have resettled in the Middle Volga region, where they later merged with Volga Bulgarians. Indeed, one of the foremost cities of Volga Bulgaria was called Suar or Suwar. Today, some Chuvash historians postulate that their nation is partially descended from Sabirs.^[3]

Russian historian Lev Gumilev believed that Slavic tribe Severians, inhabitants of Siverian Principality of Kievan Rus and later Russian and Ukrainian ethnic group named Sevryuki had inherited their name from Sabirs. Gumilev pointed that Sevryuki were different from other Russians and Ukrainians until 17th century and there are still some towns with similar names as Novhorod-Siverskyi. ^[4]

Gumilev agreed with those who thought that Sabirs were some part of the Huns but insisted that they were probably not of Turkic but of Ugric origin. He quotes Russian historians Y.Fedorov and G.Fedorov (First Turkic Peoples at North Caucasus, Moscow, 1978, pages 149, 154-155, Russian) and writes that Savirs "are commonly counted with Hunnic tribes" but were largely assimilated with local tribes. "Their leader held the title of Elteber (Russian: "эльтебер") and was a vassal of Khazar kagan". ^[5]

[edit] References

1. ^ Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia. Blackwell Publishing, 1998. Page 279.
2. ^ Ibidem. Pages 279-280.
3. ^ (Tatar) "Suarlar/Суарлар". Tatar Encyclopedia. (2002). Kazan: Tatarstan Republic Academy of Sciences Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia.
4. ^ (Russian) Lev Gumilev. Ancient Rus and the Great Steppe, Moscow, 1989, http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/R2R/index.html (In Russian)
5. ^ (Russian) Lev Gumilev. Ancient Rus and the Great Steppe, Moscow, 1989, http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/R2R/index.html (In Russian)