The Sabirs (Savirs, Suars, Sawar, Sawirk among others; Greek: Σάβιροι[1]) were nomadic 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,[2] and possibly came from Western Siberia.[3][4][5] They were skilled in warfare, used siege machinery,[6] had a large army (including women[7]) and were boat-builders.[8] 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.[9]