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Chovgan

Chovgan, Chowgan or Chogan (Persian: چوگان, romanizedčōwgan), is a sporting team game with horses that originated in ancient Iran (Persia).[2][3] It was considered an aristocratic game and held in a separate field, on specially trained horses. The game was widespread among the Asian peoples. It is played in Iran, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.[4]

Chovgan
Chowgan in a Persian miniature from Tabriz, Iran of the 16th century (from Arifi's "Ball and club" manuscript)[1]
Players6
Playing time30 minutes
Chovqan, a traditional Karabakh horse-riding game in the Republic of Azerbaijan
CountryAzerbaijan
Reference00905
RegionEurope and North America
Inscription history
Inscription2013 (8th session)
Chogān, a horse-riding game accompanied by music and storytelling
CountryIran
Reference01282
RegionAsia
Inscription history
Inscription2017 (12th session)

In 2013, chovqan in the Republic of Azerbaijan was included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in urgent need of safeguarding.[5]

It was later adopted in the Western World, known today as polo.

History edit

Chovgan originated in ancient Iran (Persia) and was a Persian national sport played extensively by the nobility.[2][3] Women played as well as men. Chovgan originated in the middle of the first millennium A.D., as a team game. It was trendy during the centuries in the Middle East. Fragments of the game were periodically portrayed in ancient miniatures, and detailed descriptions and rules of the game were also given in the ancient manuscripts. Chogān is an Iranian traditional horse-riding game accompanied by music and storytelling. it has a history of over 2,000 years in Iran and has mostly been played in royal courts and urban fields.[6] Some authors give dates as early as the 5th century BC (or earlier)[7] to the 1st century AD[8] for its origin by the Medes. Certainly, the earliest records of polo are from the Median (an ancient Iranian people).[9] During the period of the Parthian Empire (247 BC - 224 AD), the sport enjoyed great patronage under the kings and noblemen. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, polo (known as čowgān in Middle Persian, i.e., chovgan), was a Persian ball game and an important pastime in the court of the Sasanian Empire (224–651).[10] It was also part of royal education for the Sasanian ruling class.[10] Emperor Shapur II learned to play polo when he was seven years old in 316 AD. Known as "chovgan," it is still played in the region today.[citation needed]

Englishmen had a significant role in the distribution and development of the game in Europe and around the world. So chovgan, brought from India to England in the 19th century, became more popular, and the addition of new rules favored the spread of this game in Europe and the United States. Namely, on the initiative of Englishmen, this game acquired its present name, "polo," and was included in the program of the Olympic Games held in 1900 in Paris.[citation needed]

Chovgan in Iran edit

Chovgan, known as chowkan in the Sasanian Empire (Middle Persian: čowkān),[11][12] was part of royal education for the Sasanian ruling class.[10] The neighboring Eastern Romans adopted chovgan from the Sasanians and called it tzykanion, which derives from the Middle Persian word.[10] During the reign of Theodosius II, the Roman imperial court started playing tzykanion in the tzykanisterion (polo stadium).[10] By the time of the Tang dynasty (618–907), records of polo were well-established in China.[9][13] According to The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, the popularity of polo in Tang China was "bolstered, no doubt, by the presence of the Sasanian court in exile".[10]

Polo was, at first, a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops.[14] In time polo became an Iranian national sport played generally by the nobility. Women as well as men played the game, as indicated by references to the queen and her ladies engaging King Khosrow II Parviz and his courtiers in the 6th century AD.[15] Certainly Persian literature and art give us the richest accounts of polo in antiquity.[citation needed] Ferdowsi, the famed Iranian poet-historian, gives several reports of royal chogan tournaments in his 9th-century epic, Shahnameh (the Book of Kings). In the earliest version, Ferdowsi romanticizes an international match between Turanian force and the followers of Siyâvash, a legendary Iranian prince from the earliest centuries of the Empire; the poet is eloquent in his praise of Siyâvash's skills on the polo field. Ferdowsi also tells of Emperor Shapur II of the Sasanian dynasty of the 4th century, who learned to play polo when he was only seven years old. Naqsh-i Jahan Square in Isfahan is a polo field which was built by king Abbas I in the 17th century.[citation needed]

 
Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan is the site of a medieval royal polo field.[16]

Sultan Qutb al-Din Aibak, the Turkic military slave from present-day Northern Afghanistan who then became Emperor of North India, ruled as an emperor for only four years, from 1206 to 1210 but died accidentally in 1210 playing polo. While he was playing a game of polo on horseback, his horse fell, and Aibak was impaled on the pommel of his saddle. He was buried near the Anarkali bazaar in Lahore (now in Pakistan). Aibak's son Aram died in 1211 CE [2], so Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, another military slave of Turkic ancestry who was married to Aibak's daughter, succeeded him as Sultan of Delhi.[citation needed]

From Persia, polo spread to the Byzantines (who called it tzykanion), and after the Muslim conquests to the Ayyubid and Mameluke dynasties of Egypt and the Levant, whose elites favored it above all other sports. Notable sultans such as Saladin and Baybars were known to play it and encourage it in their court.[17]

 
A Persian miniature from the poem Guy-o Chawgân ("the Ball and the Polo-mallet") during Safavid dynasty of Persia, which shows courtiers on horseback playing a game of polo, 1546 AD

Later on Polo was passed from Persia to other parts of Asia, including the Indian subcontinent[18] and China, where it was trendy during the Tang dynasty and frequently depicted in paintings and statues. Valuable for training cavalry, the game was played from Constantinople to Japan by the Middle Ages. It is known in the East as the Game of Kings.[15] The name polo is said to have been derived from the Tibetan word "pulu", meaning ball.[19] In 2017, Chogān in Islamic Republic of Iran was included in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List.[6]

Chovgan in Azerbaijan edit

 
A 16th century miniature depicts a chovgan game in the story of Khosrow and Shirin of Nizami Ganjavi

In Azerbaijan, chovqan (Azerbaijani: Çövkən) is considered a national sport.[20] Various antique prints and ceramics suggest that the sport has a long history there. For example, a vessel with fragment pictures of a chovgan game was found during archaeological excavations in the Oran-Gala area, suggesting indirectly that the game existed during the 11th century around Beylagan city. Mentions of the chovgan game also appear in “Khosrow and Shirin”, a poem by the Persian poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi, and in pages of the Turkic epic “Kitabi Dede Korkut”.[citation needed]

One of the varieties of this game was broadly cultivated in Azerbaijan. Here two teams strive to score a goal with special clubs. Rules in the modern edition of the game are the following: two goals with a width of 3 meters with semi-circled areas with a radius of 6 meters are fixed in enough big place. The game was held with a rubber or woven leather belt ball. Clubs can be different in form. In Azerbaijani, the clubs are reminiscent of a shepherd's crook.[4] There are six riders in each team, 4 of whom act as attackers and two as fullbacks. The latter can play only in their half of the area. Goals can be scored behind the borders of the penalty area. The duration of the game is 30 minutes in two periods.[4]

 
Azerbaijani Chovgan players in 12th All Union Cup

In 1979, a documentary called “Chovgan game”, shot by Azerbaijan's Jafar Jabbarly film studio recorded the sport's rules and historical development. However, overall the Soviet era saw a decline of the sport to near 'oblivion'[21] and the dislocations of the immediate post-Soviet period proved difficult for the breeding of horses. In recent years, however, the sport has rebounded somewhat. Since 2006, Azerbaijan has held a national tournament in December known as the President's Cup at the Republican Equestrian Tourism Center,[22] at Dashyuz near Shaki. The first of these, held from December 22 to 25 2006, pitted teams from eight cities of Azerbaijan – Shaki, Aghdam, Ağstafa, Balakən, Qakh, Gazakh, Oğuz, and Zagatala with those from Aghstafa taking overall victory.[citation needed]

In 2013, chovqan in the Republic of Azerbaijan, was included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of urgent safeguarding[5]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Л. С. Бретеницкий, Б. В. Веймарн. Искусство Азербайджана IV—XVIII веков. — М., 1976.
  2. ^ a b Massé, H. (24 April 2012). "Čawgān". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Vol. 2. Brill Online. The game originated in Persia, and was generally played on horseback (...)
  3. ^ a b "The origins and history of Polo". Historic UK. Retrieved 2020-10-04. It is since these origins in Persia that the game has often been associated with the rich and noble of society; the game was played by Kings, Princes and Queens in Persia.
  4. ^ a b c В. Парфенов. (2004). . HORSE.RU. Archived from the original on 2019-06-06. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
  5. ^ a b Chovqan, a traditional Karabakh horse-riding game in the Republic of Azerbaijan
  6. ^ a b "Chogān, a horse-riding game accompanied by music and storytelling".
  7. ^ R. G. Goel, Veena Goel, Encyclopaedia of sports and games, Published by Vikas Pub. House, 1988, excerpt from page 318: Persian Polo. Its birthplace was Asia, and authorities credit Persia with having devised it about 2000 BC..
  8. ^ Steve Craig, Sports and games of the ancients, Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 0-313-31600-7, p. 157.
  9. ^ a b Singh, Jaisal (2007). Polo in India. London: New Holland. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-84537-913-1.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Canepa, Matthew (2018). "polo". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.
  11. ^ Janin, Raymond (1964). Constantinople Byzantine. Développement Urbaine et Répertoire Topographique (in French). Paris, France: Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines. pp. 118–119.
  12. ^ "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica".
  13. ^ Finkel, Irving L; MacKenzie, Colin (2004). "Chapter 22, Polo: The Emperor of Games". Asian games: the art of contest. New York: Asia Society. p. 283. ISBN 978-0-87848-099-9.
  14. ^ Richard C. Latham. "Polo". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 26 April 2007.
  15. ^ a b . Archived from the original on 2010-09-25.
  16. ^ "Playing Polo in Historic Naqsh-e Jahan Square?". Payvand.com. 29 October 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  17. ^ "Touregypt.net". Touregypt.net. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  18. ^ Malcolm D. Whitman, Tennis: Origins and Mysteries, Published by Courier Dover Publications, 2004, ISBN 0-486-43357-9, p. 98.
  19. ^ Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th centuries by Robert Crego. page 25. Published 2003. Greenwood Press. Sports & Recreation. 296 pages ISBN 0-313-31610-4
  20. ^ David C. King (2006). Cultures of the World. Azerbaijan. Marshall Cavendish. p. 108. ISBN 0761420118.
  21. ^ Film interview at 7'36"
  22. ^ Azernews report on the 2013 President's Cup competition

External links edit

  •   Media related to Chovgan at Wikimedia Commons

chovgan, chowgan, redirects, here, places, chugan, this, article, require, copy, editing, fluent, english, assist, editing, april, 2023, learn, when, remove, this, template, message, chowgan, chogan, persian, چوگان, romanized, čōwgan, sporting, team, game, wit. Chowgan redirects here For places see Chugan This article may require copy editing for non fluent English You can assist by editing it April 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message Chovgan Chowgan or Chogan Persian چوگان romanized cōwgan is a sporting team game with horses that originated in ancient Iran Persia 2 3 It was considered an aristocratic game and held in a separate field on specially trained horses The game was widespread among the Asian peoples It is played in Iran Azerbaijan Tajikistan and Uzbekistan 4 ChovganChowgan in a Persian miniature from Tabriz Iran of the 16th century from Arifi s Ball and club manuscript 1 Players6Playing time30 minutesChovqan a traditional Karabakh horse riding game in the Republic of AzerbaijanUNESCO Intangible Cultural HeritageCountryAzerbaijanReference00905RegionEurope and North AmericaInscription historyInscription2013 8th session Chogan a horse riding game accompanied by music and storytellingUNESCO Intangible Cultural HeritageCountryIranReference01282RegionAsiaInscription historyInscription2017 12th session In 2013 chovqan in the Republic of Azerbaijan was included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in urgent need of safeguarding 5 It was later adopted in the Western World known today as polo Contents 1 History 1 1 Chovgan in Iran 2 Chovgan in Azerbaijan 3 See also 4 References 5 External linksHistory editChovgan originated in ancient Iran Persia and was a Persian national sport played extensively by the nobility 2 3 Women played as well as men Chovgan originated in the middle of the first millennium A D as a team game It was trendy during the centuries in the Middle East Fragments of the game were periodically portrayed in ancient miniatures and detailed descriptions and rules of the game were also given in the ancient manuscripts Chogan is an Iranian traditional horse riding game accompanied by music and storytelling it has a history of over 2 000 years in Iran and has mostly been played in royal courts and urban fields 6 Some authors give dates as early as the 5th century BC or earlier 7 to the 1st century AD 8 for its origin by the Medes Certainly the earliest records of polo are from the Median an ancient Iranian people 9 During the period of the Parthian Empire 247 BC 224 AD the sport enjoyed great patronage under the kings and noblemen According to The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity polo known as cowgan in Middle Persian i e chovgan was a Persian ball game and an important pastime in the court of the Sasanian Empire 224 651 10 It was also part of royal education for the Sasanian ruling class 10 Emperor Shapur II learned to play polo when he was seven years old in 316 AD Known as chovgan it is still played in the region today citation needed Englishmen had a significant role in the distribution and development of the game in Europe and around the world So chovgan brought from India to England in the 19th century became more popular and the addition of new rules favored the spread of this game in Europe and the United States Namely on the initiative of Englishmen this game acquired its present name polo and was included in the program of the Olympic Games held in 1900 in Paris citation needed Chovgan in Iran edit Chovgan known as chowkan in the Sasanian Empire Middle Persian cowkan 11 12 was part of royal education for the Sasanian ruling class 10 The neighboring Eastern Romans adopted chovgan from the Sasanians and called it tzykanion which derives from the Middle Persian word 10 During the reign of Theodosius II the Roman imperial court started playing tzykanion in the tzykanisterion polo stadium 10 By the time of the Tang dynasty 618 907 records of polo were well established in China 9 13 According to The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity the popularity of polo in Tang China was bolstered no doubt by the presence of the Sasanian court in exile 10 Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units usually the king s guard or other elite troops 14 In time polo became an Iranian national sport played generally by the nobility Women as well as men played the game as indicated by references to the queen and her ladies engaging King Khosrow II Parviz and his courtiers in the 6th century AD 15 Certainly Persian literature and art give us the richest accounts of polo in antiquity citation needed Ferdowsi the famed Iranian poet historian gives several reports of royal chogan tournaments in his 9th century epic Shahnameh the Book of Kings In the earliest version Ferdowsi romanticizes an international match between Turanian force and the followers of Siyavash a legendary Iranian prince from the earliest centuries of the Empire the poet is eloquent in his praise of Siyavash s skills on the polo field Ferdowsi also tells of Emperor Shapur II of the Sasanian dynasty of the 4th century who learned to play polo when he was only seven years old Naqsh i Jahan Square in Isfahan is a polo field which was built by king Abbas I in the 17th century citation needed nbsp Naqsh e Jahan Square in Isfahan is the site of a medieval royal polo field 16 Sultan Qutb al Din Aibak the Turkic military slave from present day Northern Afghanistan who then became Emperor of North India ruled as an emperor for only four years from 1206 to 1210 but died accidentally in 1210 playing polo While he was playing a game of polo on horseback his horse fell and Aibak was impaled on the pommel of his saddle He was buried near the Anarkali bazaar in Lahore now in Pakistan Aibak s son Aram died in 1211 CE 2 so Shams ud din Iltutmish another military slave of Turkic ancestry who was married to Aibak s daughter succeeded him as Sultan of Delhi citation needed From Persia polo spread to the Byzantines who called it tzykanion and after the Muslim conquests to the Ayyubid and Mameluke dynasties of Egypt and the Levant whose elites favored it above all other sports Notable sultans such as Saladin and Baybars were known to play it and encourage it in their court 17 nbsp A Persian miniature from the poem Guy o Chawgan the Ball and the Polo mallet during Safavid dynasty of Persia which shows courtiers on horseback playing a game of polo 1546 ADLater on Polo was passed from Persia to other parts of Asia including the Indian subcontinent 18 and China where it was trendy during the Tang dynasty and frequently depicted in paintings and statues Valuable for training cavalry the game was played from Constantinople to Japan by the Middle Ages It is known in the East as the Game of Kings 15 The name polo is said to have been derived from the Tibetan word pulu meaning ball 19 In 2017 Chogan in Islamic Republic of Iran was included in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List 6 Chovgan in Azerbaijan edit nbsp A 16th century miniature depicts a chovgan game in the story of Khosrow and Shirin of Nizami GanjaviIn Azerbaijan chovqan Azerbaijani Covken is considered a national sport 20 Various antique prints and ceramics suggest that the sport has a long history there For example a vessel with fragment pictures of a chovgan game was found during archaeological excavations in the Oran Gala area suggesting indirectly that the game existed during the 11th century around Beylagan city Mentions of the chovgan game also appear in Khosrow and Shirin a poem by the Persian poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi and in pages of the Turkic epic Kitabi Dede Korkut citation needed One of the varieties of this game was broadly cultivated in Azerbaijan Here two teams strive to score a goal with special clubs Rules in the modern edition of the game are the following two goals with a width of 3 meters with semi circled areas with a radius of 6 meters are fixed in enough big place The game was held with a rubber or woven leather belt ball Clubs can be different in form In Azerbaijani the clubs are reminiscent of a shepherd s crook 4 There are six riders in each team 4 of whom act as attackers and two as fullbacks The latter can play only in their half of the area Goals can be scored behind the borders of the penalty area The duration of the game is 30 minutes in two periods 4 nbsp Azerbaijani Chovgan players in 12th All Union CupIn 1979 a documentary called Chovgan game shot by Azerbaijan s Jafar Jabbarly film studio recorded the sport s rules and historical development However overall the Soviet era saw a decline of the sport to near oblivion 21 and the dislocations of the immediate post Soviet period proved difficult for the breeding of horses In recent years however the sport has rebounded somewhat Since 2006 Azerbaijan has held a national tournament in December known as the President s Cup at the Republican Equestrian Tourism Center 22 at Dashyuz near Shaki The first of these held from December 22 to 25 2006 pitted teams from eight cities of Azerbaijan Shaki Aghdam Agstafa Balaken Qakh Gazakh Oguz and Zagatala with those from Aghstafa taking overall victory citation needed In 2013 chovqan in the Republic of Azerbaijan was included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of urgent safeguarding 5 See also editPoloReferences edit L S Bretenickij B V Vejmarn Iskusstvo Azerbajdzhana IV XVIII vekov M 1976 a b Masse H 24 April 2012 Cawgan In Bearman P Bianquis Th Bosworth C E van Donzel E Heinrichs W P eds Encyclopaedia of Islam Second Edition Vol 2 Brill Online The game originated in Persia and was generally played on horseback a b The origins and history of Polo Historic UK Retrieved 2020 10 04 It is since these origins in Persia that the game has often been associated with the rich and noble of society the game was played by Kings Princes and Queens in Persia a b c V Parfenov 2004 Kavkazskie nacionalnye konnye igry HORSE RU Archived from the original on 2019 06 06 Retrieved 2012 09 04 a b Chovqan a traditional Karabakh horse riding game in the Republic of Azerbaijan a b Chogan a horse riding game accompanied by music and storytelling R G Goel Veena Goel Encyclopaedia of sports and games Published by Vikas Pub House 1988 excerpt from page 318 Persian Polo Its birthplace was Asia and authorities credit Persia with having devised it about 2000 BC Steve Craig Sports and games of the ancients Published by Greenwood Publishing Group 2002 ISBN 0 313 31600 7 p 157 a b Singh Jaisal 2007 Polo in India London New Holland p 10 ISBN 978 1 84537 913 1 a b c d e f Canepa Matthew 2018 polo In Nicholson Oliver ed The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 866277 8 Janin Raymond 1964 Constantinople Byzantine Developpement Urbaine et Repertoire Topographique in French Paris France Institut Francais d Etudes Byzantines pp 118 119 Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica Finkel Irving L MacKenzie Colin 2004 Chapter 22 Polo The Emperor of Games Asian games the art of contest New York Asia Society p 283 ISBN 978 0 87848 099 9 Richard C Latham Polo Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved 26 April 2007 a b Polo History Archived from the original on 2010 09 25 Playing Polo in Historic Naqsh e Jahan Square Payvand com 29 October 2007 Retrieved 25 January 2012 Touregypt net Touregypt net Retrieved 25 January 2012 Malcolm D Whitman Tennis Origins and Mysteries Published by Courier Dover Publications 2004 ISBN 0 486 43357 9 p 98 Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th centuries by Robert Crego page 25 Published 2003 Greenwood Press Sports amp Recreation 296 pages ISBN 0 313 31610 4 David C King 2006 Cultures of the World Azerbaijan Marshall Cavendish p 108 ISBN 0761420118 Film interview at 7 36 Azernews report on the 2013 President s Cup competitionExternal links edit nbsp Media related to Chovgan at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Chovgan amp oldid 1190812994, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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