The Sabir people inhabited the Caspian depression prior to the arrival of the Avars.

The Sabirs appear to have been a Turkic people, probably of Hunnic origin. They 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.

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 Gokturks. 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 sources claim that a Sabir tribe or faction, called Suars, 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 belive that they are partially descended from Sabirs.

Other sources have attributed to the Sabirs the founding of some cities on the Caspian coast of Daghestan, such as Khaydan and Jidan . Other sources cite a second city called Suvar (in addition to that on the upper Volga) in Daghestan.

Much speculation appears on the Internet connecting the Sabirs with a Bronze Age Mesopotamian people known as the Subareans or Subartu , or with the Sumerians. These theories are based on mistaken etymologies and should not be taken seriously.