The Sabirs ( Savirs , Suars , Sawar , Sawirk among others; Greek : Σάβιροι , ) were a nomadic Turkic equestrian people who lived in the north of the Caucasus beginning in the late-5th–7th century, on the eastern shores of the Black Sea , in the Kuban area, and possibly came from Western Siberia . They were skilled in warfare, used siege machinery, had a large army (including women ) and were boat-builders. They were also referred to as Huns , a title applied to various Eurasian nomadic tribes in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe during late antiquity . Sabirs led incursions into Transcaucasia in the late-400s/early-500s , but quickly began serving as soldiers and mercenaries during the Byzantine–Sasanian Wars on both sides. Their alliance with the Byzantines laid the basis for the later Khazar -Byzantine alliance.
41-1317: Sabir may refer to: People [ edit ] Peoples and language [ edit ] Sabir people , 5th–7th century nomadic people who lived in the north of the Caucasus Sabir language , or Mediterranean Lingua Franca , a pidgin language People with the name [ edit ] Salimallah Sabir (born 1988), Kurdish peace activist Adib Sabir , 12th-century royal poet of Persia Agha Sabir (born 1981), Pakistani cricketer Arman Sabir (fl. from 1993), Pakistani investigative journalist Ayub Sabir (born 1940), Pakistani writer Irfan Sabir (born 1977), Canadian lawyer and politician Kenny Sabir (born c. 1975), Australian musician Mirza Alakbar Sabir (1862–1911), Azerbaijani satirical poet and teacher Mohammad Sabir (disambiguation) , several people) Mohammed Sabir (fl. 2006), British businessman Naeem Sabir (died 2011), Pakistani human rights activist Nazir Sabir (fl. from 1974), Pakistani mountaineer Rafiq Sabir (born 1950), Kurdish poet Rafiq Abdus Sabir (fl. 2005), American doctor convicted of supporting terrorism Rashid Sabir (1945–2012), Pakistani film, TV, radio and stage artist Rizwaan Sabir , one of
82-526: A yurt ) previously considered unobtainable. His first stop after leaving Kashgar was Tumxuk . From there, he proceeded to Kucha , where he found documents in the lost language of Kuchean . These documents were later translated by Sylvain Lévi, Pelliot's former teacher. After Kucha, Pelliot went to Ürümqi , where they encountered Duke Lan , whose brother had been a leader of the Boxer Rebellion . Duke Lan, who
123-456: A career as a foreign diplomat. Accordingly, he studied English as a secondary school student at La Sorbonne , then studied Mandarin Chinese at the École des Langues Orientales Vivantes (School of Living Oriental Languages) . Pelliot was a gifted student, and completed the school's three-year Mandarin course in only two years. His rapid progress and accomplishments attracted the attention of
164-522: A daring one-man foray to the rebels' headquarters, where he used his boldness and fluency in Mandarin to impress the besiegers into giving him fresh fruit for those inside the legation. For his conduct during the siege, as well as for capturing an enemy flag during the fighting, he was awarded the Légion d'Honneur upon his return to Hanoi. In 1901, when only 23 years old, Pelliot was made a professor of Chinese at
205-410: A large number of them. However, Stein had no knowledge of the Chinese language, and had no way to be selective in which documents he purchased and took back to Britain. Pelliot, on the other hand, had an extensive command of Classical Chinese and numerous other Central Asian languages, and spent three weeks during April 1908 examining manuscripts at breakneck speed. Pelliot selected what he felt were
246-549: A photograph with her. Mannerheim and Pelliot did not get along, and parted ways two days after leaving Irkeshtam Pass. The French team arrived in Kashgar at the end of August, staying with the Russian consul-general (the successor to Nikolai Petrovsky ). Pelliot amazed the local Chinese officials with his fluent Chinese (only one of the 13 languages he spoke). His efforts were to pay off shortly, when his team began obtaining supplies (like
287-619: A photographer. Aboard the train in Samarkand, the Frenchmen met Baron Gustaf Mannerheim , a colonel in the Russian Imperial Army and the last Tsarist agent in the Great Game . Pelliot had agreed to allow the army officer, disguised as an ethnographic collector, to travel with his expedition. Mannerheim was actually carrying out a secret mission for Tsar Nicholas II to collect intelligence on
328-454: A research scholar at the École Française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO, "French School of the Far East") . In February of that year, Pelliot was sent to Peking (modern Beijing ) to locate and buy Chinese books for the school's library. Between July and August 1900, Pelliot was caught up in the siege of the foreign legations during the Boxer Rebellion . At one point, during a ceasefire, Pelliot made
369-489: A sample Dunhuang manuscript. Recognizing its antiquity and archaeological value, Pelliot quickly set off for Dunhuang, but arrived there months after the Hungarian-British explorer Aurel Stein had already visited the site. At Dunhuang, Pelliot managed to gain access to Abbot Wang 's secret chamber, which contained a massive hoard of medieval manuscripts . Stein had first seen the manuscripts in 1907 and had purchased
410-500: A special chair for him: the Chair of the Languages, History, and Archaeology of Central Asia. The chair was never filled after Pelliot's death, leaving him the only person to have ever held it. In 1920, Pelliot joined Henri Cordier as co-editor of the preeminent sinological journal T'oung Pao , serving until 1942. After Cordier's death in 1924, Pelliot edited T'oung Pao alone until he
451-443: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Sabir people Gyula Németh and Paul Pelliot considered Turkic etymology for Säbir / Sabïr / Sabar / Säβir / Sävir / Savar / Sävär / Sawār / Säwēr from the root * sap- 'to go astray', i.e. the 'wanderers, nomads', placed in a group of semantically similar names: Qazar , Qazaq , Yazar , and Qačar. Al-Masudi recorded that
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#1732852198059492-766: The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591 , in 572–573, Sabirs lost as part of the Sasanian mixed army against the Marcian near Nisibis . In 578, some eight thousand Sabirs and Arab allies were on the side of the Persians and raided territory around Resaena and Constantia . The Syriac translation of the Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor 's Ecclesiastical History (c. 555) in Western Eurasia recorded thirteen tribes, including
533-676: The Khazars were named as such in Persian, while in Turkic it is Sabir , implying the same semantic meaning, and related ethnogenesis. However, Golden notes that root * sap-' s aorist (ending in -ar ) is sapar ; according to Gerard Clauson , the meanings "to go astray, to deviate" of root sap- ~ sep- only appeared as new words in later medieval period. Golden suggests possible derivations (though still problematic) from other roots: sav- "to drive away, repulse, avoid, escape from", which fits better into
574-519: The sbr (Sabir). They are described in typical phrases reserved for nomads in the ethnographic literature of the period, as people who "live in tents, earn their living on the meat of livestock and fish, of wild animals and by their weapons (plunder)". The Armenian and Arabic sources placed them in the North Caucasus, near Laks , Alans , Filān, Masqat, Sāhib as- Sarīr and the Khazar town Samandar . By
615-584: The Byzantine Empire against the Sasanian Empire. They were led by Balmaq (Turkic barmaq , "finger" ), Kutilzis (Turkic *qut-il-či , with qut meaning "majesty") and Iliger (Turkic Ilig-ār , "prince-man"). They won against the three thousand Dilimnites near Archaeopolis. Eight hundred Dilimnites were killed in a failed rush. In the same year, some five thousand Sabirs allied to the Persians were killed by three thousand Roman horsemen. As part of
656-614: The Byzantines, and successfully attacked two Hunnic leaders Astera/Styrax (executed in Constantinople) and Aglanos/Glones (Sasanian ally). She ruled over 100,000 people and could field 20,000 strong-men army. At the Battle of Satala (530) , a mixed Persian army led by Mihr-Mihroe consisted of circa three thousand Sabirs. In December 531, many Sabirs were summoned by the Persians to plunder around Euphratesia , Cyrrhus , Cilicia , but some of
697-649: The EFEO. Pelliot stayed in Hanoi until 1904, when he returned to France in preparation for representing the EFEO at the 1905 International Conference of Orientalists in Algiers . While in France, Pelliot was chosen to direct a government-sponsored archaeological mission to Chinese Turkestan (modern Xinjiang ). The group departed in June 1906 and spent several years in the field (see below ). By
738-503: The Hungarian-British explorer Aurel Stein 's book, Ruins of Desert Cathay , appeared in 1912. In his book, Stein supported Pelliot's accounts and made it clear that he had left manuscripts behind in Dunhuang after his visit, which vindicated Pelliot and silenced his critics. In 1911, as recognition of Pelliot's broad and unique scholarship, the Collège de France made him a professor and created
779-835: The Hungarians and the Sabirs led Lev Gumilev to speculate that rather than Oghuric they may have been Ugric speakers (both terms being of the same etymological origin). Al-Biruni remarked that the language of the Volga Bulgars and Sawârs was "compounded of Turkic and Khazar ", while modern scholars like Gyula Németh, Lajos Ligeti and Peter Benjamin Golden consider that the Sabirs spoke standard Turkic rather than Oghuric Turkic. A number of Caucasian toponyms derive from their name; Šaberan, Samir, Samirkent, Sabir-xost, Sibir-don, Sivir-don, Savir, Bila-suvar, Sebir-oba, Sevare, Suvar, and as well as
820-473: The North Caucasus and after 558 retreated to the Volga, came there as the result of the Khazar state creation, or were tribes who never went to the North Caucasus, but stopped on the Volga. Ahmad ibn Fadlan recorded that in the 10th century they still had their own leader with the title Wirgh (* Vuyrigh , Turkic Buyruq ), and there were some Suwār-Bulghar hostilities. There is no reliable information supporting
861-618: The Nottingham Two Sahib Shah Sabir (1956–2007), poet of the Pashto language Sharif Sabir (1928–2015), a Pakistani-Punjabi scholar and poet Places [ edit ] Jabal Sabir , a mountain in Yemen Sabir, Azerbaijan (disambiguation) , the name of several places See also [ edit ] All pages with titles beginning with Sabir All pages with titles containing Sabir Topics referred to by
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#1732852198059902-683: The Persians in their war against the Byzantine Empire . It has been proposed that the 20,000 Huns led by Zilgibis were Sabirs. They made treaties with both Justin I and Kavadh I, but decided on the former, which resulted in mutual agreement between Justin I and Kavadh I, and the former devastating attack on Zilgibis and his army. In 520s, the Queen Boareks, widow of the Sabir chieftain Balaq (Turkic balaq ) through Justinian I 's diplomacy came closer to
943-656: The Sabirs attacked the Saragurs , Oghurs and Onogurs , as a result of having themselves been attacked by the Avars. It has been suggested that the nomadic motion began with the Chinese attack in 450–458 against the Rouran Khaganate . In 504 and 515, they held raids around the Caucasus , which was the Sasanian northern frontier during the rule of king Kavadh I , causing problems to
984-509: The Sinologist Édouard Chavannes , the chair of Chinese at the Collège de France , who befriended Pelliot and began mentoring him. Chavannes also introduced Pelliot to the Collège's Sanskrit chair, Sylvain Lévi . Pelliot began studying under the two men, who encouraged him to pursue a scholarly career instead of a diplomatic one. In early 1900, Pelliot moved to Hanoi to take up a position as
1025-687: The booty had been returned by the Roman magister militum . During the Lazic War (541–562), in 548, along with the Alans they allied with Gubazes II of Lazica and conquered the Petra from the Persians. In 551, some Sabirs were allied to Bessas in the successful attempt to wrest Petra from the Persians, meanwhile, other four thousand led by Mihr-Mihroe were part of the unsuccessful siege of Archaeopolis . In 556, two thousand Sabirs served as heavy infantry mercenaries of
1066-470: The category of ethnonyms denoting nomads; or sipir- "to sweep, [...] to drive out, to send away", whose derivative would mean "those who sweep away [their foes]", even though the a / ä vocalization is unattested (unlike sipir- > süpür- ). Walter Bruno Henning considered to have found them in the Sogdian Nafnamak (near Turpan ) long after the 5th century. Some scholars related their name to
1107-667: The late 6th century, the coming of the Pannonian Avars into Europe terminated the Sabir union in the North Caucasus. According to Theophylact Simocatta , when the Barsils , Onogurs and Sabirs saw the invading Uar and Chunni they panicked because thought the invaders were the Avars. Menander Protector placed the events between 558 and 560. He mentioned them last time in connection with the Byzantine conquest in Caucasian Albania during
1148-506: The manuscripts and written his report from a library full of reference books. Pelliot was publicly accused of wasting public money and returning with forged manuscripts. The campaign came to a head with a December 1910 article in La Revue Indigène by Fernand Farjenel (d. 1918) of the Collège libre des sciences sociales. At a banquet on 3 July 1911, Pelliot struck Farjenel, and a court case followed. The charges were not proven false until
1189-497: The most valuable documents he had found and mailed it back to Europe, where it was published upon its arrival. In the report, Pelliot included extensive biographical and textual data and precise dates from many of the manuscripts, which he had examined for only a few minutes each and then later recalled their details from memory while writing his report. That intellectual feat was so astonishing that many who were unfamiliar with Pelliot and his prodigious memory believed he had faked all
1230-410: The most valuable of the manuscripts, and Wang, who was interested in continuing the refurbishment of his monastery, agreed to sell them to Pelliot for a price of 500 taels (roughly equivalent to US$ 11,000 in 2014). Pelliot returned to Paris on 24 October 1909 to a vicious smear campaign mounted against himself and Édouard Chavannes . While at Dunhuang, Pelliot had written a detailed account of some of
1271-560: The name of Siberia (e.g. Harmatta ), with a far-eastern Xianbei (e.g. Pritsak ) and Finno-Ugric origin (e.g. Artamonov ). The ancient historians related and differed them from the Huns , implying their mixed descent. Byzantine documents normally refer to Sabirs as Sabiroi , although the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (908–959) writes in his De Administrando Imperio that he
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1312-515: The payment even doubled. The expedition traveled to Chinese Turkestan by rail through Moscow and Tashkent to Andijan , where they mounted horses and carts to Osh. From here, they travelled across the Alai Mountains of southern Kyrgyzstan over the Taldyk Pass and Irkeshtam Pass to China. Near the town of Gulcha, the expedition met Kurmanjan Datka , the famed Muslim Queen of Alai and posed for
1353-669: The reform and modernization of the Qing Dynasty . The Tsar was assessing the possibility of a Russian invasion of Western China. Pelliot fully endorsed Mannerheim's participation, and even offered himself as an informant to the Russian General Staff. In return, the Frenchman demanded free passage on the Trans-Caspian Railway, a personal and confidential payment of ten thousand francs and a Cossack escort. These were granted, and
1394-457: The reign of Tiberius II Constantine (578–582), but the large sums were not enough to stop them to rejoin the Persians. They were assimilated into the Khazars and Bulgars confederations. The tribe Suwāz in Volga Bulgaria is related to the city Suwār in the same state, and North Caucasian kingdom Suwār. However, it is uncertain whether these Suwār i.e. Sawâr are the Sabirs who gone to
1435-407: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Sabir . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sabir&oldid=1127452137 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
1476-566: The subdivisions Sabar and Sabur/Sabïr of the Kyrgyzes . Chuvash historians postulate that their nation is descended from Sabirs. In the Mari language modern Volga Tatars are called Suas ; Chuvash also are known as Suasenmari (which means Suar -icized Mari), or in Finnish Suaslanmari . Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 1878 – 26 October 1945)
1517-583: The time the expedition reached Dunhuang , Pelliot had learned Mongolian , Arabic , Persian , the Turkic languages , Tibetan , and Sanskrit , among others, which proved invaluable while examining the many non-Chinese items among the Dunhuang manuscripts inside the Mogao caves . Pelliot's expedition left Paris on 17 June 1906. His three-man team included Dr. Louis Vaillant , an Army medical officer, and Charles Nouette ,
1558-520: The view of Mikhail Artamonov , who has claimed the intermixing of the Sabirs and Khazars was facilitated by their common Bulgar ethnicity, or that they were Turkicized Ugrians . Károly Czeglédy considered that the Khazar state was composed of three basic groups, including the Sabirs. Dieter Ludwig suggested that the Khazars were Sabirs who had formed an alliance with the Uar of Khwarezm . The intimate ties between
1599-547: Was a French Sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire -era manuscripts and Chinese texts at the Sachu printing center storage caves (Dunhuang), known as the Dunhuang manuscripts . Paul Pelliot was born on 28 May 1878 in Paris, France , and initially intended to pursue
1640-690: Was the deputy chief of the Peking gendarmerie and participated in the siege, was in permanent exile in Ürümqi. In Ürümqi, Pelliot heard about a find of manuscripts at the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang from Duke Lan. The two had a bittersweet reunion. Pelliot had been in the French legation in Peking while Duke Lan and his soldiers were besieging the foreigners during the Boxer Rebellion. They reminisced about old times and drank champagne. Duke Lan also presented Pelliot with
1681-669: Was told by a Hungarian delegation visiting his court that the Tourkoi (the Byzantine name for the Hungarians ) used to be called " sabartoi asphaloi ", generally considered to mean "steadfast Sabirs", and still regularly sent delegations to those who stayed behind in the Caucasus region near Persia. Possibly some Hungarian group derived from the Sabirs as their name is reflected in Szavard, and personal clan name Zuard. In 463 AD, Priscus mentions that