Sasanian navy

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

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

Sassanian navy played an important role in Ardashir I's conquest of the Arab side of the Persian Gulf. During the reign of Khosrow I (r. 531-579), he sent a force of eight ships (kashtig) 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". Six of the ships managed to reach Yemen safely. 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. 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. The Sasanian navy was disbanded during the Muslim conquest of Persia.