Sam Nameh

• Persian Title: سام نامه
• Transliterated Title (ALA-LC): Sām-nāmah
• English Title: The Book of Sām
• Author: Anonymous poet(s) (7th–8th c. A.H.)
• Editor: Vaḥīd Rūyānī
• Language: Persian
• ISBN: 978-203-600-049-8
• Publication Year: 2013
• Pages: 784
• Format: PDF
• Category: Persian Language and Literature
• Miras Maktoob Collection Code: 256

【Summary】

Sām-nāmah is a romantic epic poem narrating the love story of Sām, a legendary Iranian world-champion, and Parīdukht, the daughter of the emperor of China. Due to thematic and narrative overlaps with the romance Humāy o Humāyūn, the poem had long been mistakenly attributed to Khwājū Kirmānī. In the critical introduction, the editor demonstrates conclusively that the work is not by Khwājū and argues that it was likely composed by multiple poets between the 8th and 11th centuries A.H.

The poem appears to have been conceived as an attempt to fill what its composers perceived as a narrative gap in the Shāhnāmah regarding the figure of Sām, by elaborating his feats of heroism, chivalry, and love. Although the work is stylistically and linguistically uneven, reflecting its composite authorship, several sections preserve valuable material, including mythological motifs, archaic vocabulary, and noteworthy rhetorical devices. As such, Sām-nāmah constitutes an important supplementary epic within the broader Persian heroic tradition.