Sām (), also transliterated Saam, is a mythical hero of ancient
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
, and an important character in the
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...
epic. He was the son of
Nariman, grandson of
Garshasp and father to
Zāl. Disheartened by his son Zāl being born with white hair, he ordered that Zāl be left at the Alborz mountains which were home to the
Simurgh. The Simurgh cared for the young Zāl until Sām was influenced by a dream to reunite with his son. Sām was Iran's champion during the rule of
Fereydun,
Manuchehr and
Nowzar. He was appointed by Manuchehr to rule
Zabulistan (Sistan), and then Mazandaran. After Manuchehr, because of Nowzar's corrupted and failed rulership, Iranian champions asked Sām to rule Iran. Sām did not accept; he supported Nowzar and advised him to follow Fereydun and Manuchehr. Sām returned to
Mazandaran, and died soon after that.
Afrasiab then attacked Zabulistan.
In Persian, based on the ''
Dehkhoda Dictionary'', Sām or Saam means Fire.
References
External links
A king's book of kings: the Shah-nameh of Shah Tahmasp an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Sam
Kayanians
Shahnameh characters
Heroes in mythology and legend
{{Shahnameh-stub