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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.


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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