Hamidreza Peighambari

Since ancient times, Iranians have been sailing in the Persian Gulf and surrounding waters. This is reflected in various historical sources and has been well clarified as a result of academic research. However, in the researches about Iranian seafaring, less attention has been paid to mythological and epic texts. The present study tries to investigate the theme of seafaring in these texts. The basis of this research are ancient texts such as Avesta, Pahlavi literature, as well as epic texts after Islam such as Shāhnāmah, Garshāspnāmah, Farāmarznāmah, Sāmnāmah and Dārābnāmah. In the first category of the mentioned sources, we come across seas and rivers in which the mythological aspect prevails, and sailing in them is also connected with this type of attitude. But in the second category of these sources, we are faced with a more well-known geography and we see many famous and ancient warriors of Iran appeared as sailors and went on sea voyages. In this regard, the theme of Garshāsp’s sea voyages is particularly noteworthy. It seems that the origin of these narratives is the influence of maritime culture of the early Islamic centuries, because this part of Garshāsp’s heroic stories is not found in ancient texts. At this time, the heroes of stories and anecdotes had to show themselves in new fields such as naval wars, and therefore, during the rereading and rewriting of ancient Iranian epic texts, new elements of the stories and strange stories of sailors have been added to them.