The Formation of Iranian Maritime Culture in the Sasanian-Islamic Transition: A Study of 'Active Adaptation' in Nutrition and Medicine

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under (CC BY-NC 4.0) license

Authors

1 Professor, Department of History and Civilization of Islamic Nations, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 PhD student in History and Civilization of Islamic Nations, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

This article examines the mechanisms of cultural transformation within Iranian maritime communities during the transition from the Sasanian to the Islamic era—a context often overlooked in land-centric historiographies focused on centers of power. The present study posits the hypothesis that in confronting political and religious transformations, these communities neither underwent a civilizational rupture nor merely continued prior traditions, but rather employed a complex process of 'active adaptation'. This process involved the strategic preservation of material and practical knowledge based on ecological imperatives (such as diet and shipbuilding technology) while creatively reconfiguring symbolic and ideological frameworks (such as rituals and medical concepts) to align with the new Islamic socio-political order. Drawing on the method of comparative-historical analysis and integrating textual sources (Pahlavi texts, travelogues, and Islamic medical treatises) with archaeological evidence (particularly from the site of Siraf), this research demonstrates that in the domain of nutrition, the sustainable pattern of fish and date consumption persisted alongside the symbolic transformation of dietary rituals. In the field of medicine, the Sasanian pharmacological tradition blended with Galenic humoral theory and maritime empirical knowledge. By presenting the model of 'active adaptation,' this article challenges the analytical dichotomies of 'rupture' and 'continuity' and proposes a more nuanced framework for understanding civilizational transitions, especially in non-elite and peripheral societies.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Publisher: University of Tabriz       Copyright © The Authors   

   

 

This is an open access article distributed under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

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Iranian History of Culture
Volume 1, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
Spring & Summer
March 2024
Pages 217-234

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History

  • Receive Date: 21 August 2025
  • Revise Date: 14 September 2025
  • Accept Date: 07 October 2025
  • Publish Date: 20 March 2024

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