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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 the booty had been returned by the Roman magister militum.