Sasanian navy

Sasanian navy
Active ?–651
Military leader Navbed
Political leader Sasanian king
Area of operations Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Mediterranean Sea
Part of Sasanian Empire
Allies Lakhmids, Himyarite Kingdom, Avars, Slavs
Opponents Arabian tribes, Kingdom of Aksum, Byzantines
Battles and wars Abyssinian–Persian wars, Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628

The Sasanian navy was the naval force of the Sasanian Empire. The leader of the navy allegedly bore the title of navbed.

Not much is known about the Sasanian navy, which never really became a major force.[1] The main role of the Sasanian navy was to protect Sasanian economic interests, not military expeditions, as the coasts of the Persian Gulf were already under rule of Sasanians or their vassals.[2]

Sasanian navy played an important role in Ardashir I's conquest of the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf. During the reign of Khosrow I (r. 531-579), he sent a force of eight ships (kashtīg) under Vahrez to conquer Yemen—each ship could carry 100 men. The men in the ships were originally prisoners, but were "given a chance to redeem themselves".[3] Six of the ships managed to reach Yemen safely.[4] During the climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, the Sasanian navy tried naval expeditions in the Mediterranean Sea—although not very successful, they managed to capture the island of Rhodes in 622/3 and several other islands in the eastern Aegean around the same time.[5][6][7][8] The weakness of the navy was evident as late as 626, when, during the same aforementioned Byzantine-Sasanian War, they were forced to rely on monoxyla of their allied Slavs in order to transport the 3,000 troops across the Bosphorus which they had promised the khagan of the Avars.[8] The Sasanian navy was disbanded during the Muslim conquest of Persia.

References

  1. ↑ Daryaee 2009, p. 46.
  2. ↑ https://www.academia.edu/29100946/T._Daryaee_The_Sasanian_Mare_Nostrum_The_Persian_Gulf_International_journal_of_the_society_of_iranian_archaeologists_2_3_2016_40-46
  3. ↑ Bosworth 1983, pp. 226-228.
  4. ↑ Daryaee 2009, p. 47.
  5. ↑ Nicolle 1996, p. 15.
  6. ↑ Kia 2016, p. 223.
  7. ↑ Greatrex & Lieu 2005, p. 197.
  8. 1 2 Howard-Johnston 2006, p. 33.

Sources

  • Bosworth, C. E. (1983). "ABNĀʾ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 3. pp. 226–228.
  • Daryaee, Touraj (2009). Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. I.B.Tauris. pp. 1–240. ISBN 0857716662.
  • Dmitriev, Vladimir (2017). "The Sasanian Navy revisited: An unwritten chapter in Iran's military history". International Journal of Maritime History. 29 (4): 727–737. doi:10.1177/0843871417726966.
  • Greatrex, Geoffrey; Lieu, Samuel N. C. (2005). The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars AD 363-628. Routledge. ISBN 978-1134756469.
  • Howard-Johnston, J.D. (2006). East Rome, Sasanian Persia and the End of Antiquity: Historiographical and Historical Studies. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0860789925.
  • Kia, Mehrdad (2016). The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1610693912.
  • Nicolle, David (1996), Sassanian Armies: the Iranian Empire Early 3rd to Mid-7th Centuries AD, Stockport: Montvert, ISBN 978-1-874101-08-6
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