It has been a widely-held ingrained perception in modern historiography that Sasanian Iran was a power whose armed forces were represented exclusively by land forces. However, the material of primary sources allows us to confirm the existence in Sassanid Iran throughout its history of the navy, which performed the function of combat (logistic) support for the land army. The main reasons for creating the navy were the need to ensure the external security of the Persian state by establishing control over the sea lanes in the Persian Gulf region and the desire of the Persian authorities to strengthen their military and political as well as trade and economic influence of Sassanid Iran in the northern part of the Indian Ocean basin. The most dynamic phase of the Persian navy’s activities occurred during the reign of Khosrow Anushirwan (531-579), when the Persians conquered Yemen by means of their fleet and even tried to establish a naval force in the Black Sea. The last event in which the Sasanian navy took part was the Byzantine-Persian war of 602-628. In this conflict, the Persians initially were able to achieve some progress in the Mediterranean Sea but eventually they were completely defeated by the more skillful Byzantine navy. The main areas of the Persian navy’s activities were the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. The Sasanids’ attempts to establish their fleet in the Black Sea (540’s) and in the Mediterranean Sea (620’s) were foiled by Byzantium. After the fall of the Sasanian Empire, Persian ships became part of the armed forces of the Arab Caliphate and for some time continued to participate in military operations on the side of the Arabs. Victories of the Arabian fleet over the Byzantines were, to some extent, due to the naval experience which the Arab seafarers got from their Persian teachers.
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