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Chovgan
Chovgan, Chowgan or Chogan (Persian: چوگان, romanized: čowgân, Azerbaijani: çövkən) is a team sport with horses that originated in ancient Iran (Persia). 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. Chovgan is included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List as a "Karabakh horse-riding game" in the Republic of Azerbaijan. In 2024, The International Chovgan Federation (ICF) was established in Baku.
It considered that the polo is the adopted version of chovgan.
Chovgan originated in ancient Iran and was a Persian national sport played extensively by the nobility. Women played Chovgan as well as men. Chovgan originated in the middle of the first millennium A.D., as a team game. It was popular 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. Some authors give dates as early as the 5th century BC (or earlier) to the 1st century AD for its origin by the Persians. Certainly, the earliest records of polo are from the Persian. 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). It was also part of royal education for the Sasanian ruling class. 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. Chovgan was later brought from India to England in the 19th century it 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, known as chowkan in the Sasanian Empire (Middle Persian: čowkān), was part of the royal education for the Sasanian ruling class. The neighboring Eastern Romans adopted chovgan from the Sasanians and called it tzykanion, which derives from the Middle Persian word. During the reign of Theodosius II, the Roman imperial court started playing tzykanion in the tzykanisterion (polo stadium). By the time of the Tang dynasty (618–907), records of polo were well-established in China. 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".
Polo was, at first, a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops. 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. 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-e Jahan Square in Isfahan is a polo field which was built by king Abbas I in the 17th century.[citation needed]
Sultan Qutb al-Din Aibak, a Turkic military slave from present-day Northern Afghanistan who later became Sultan of Delhi Sultanate for only four years, died accidentally in 1210 while 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.[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.
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Chovgan AI simulator
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Chovgan
Chovgan, Chowgan or Chogan (Persian: چوگان, romanized: čowgân, Azerbaijani: çövkən) is a team sport with horses that originated in ancient Iran (Persia). 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. Chovgan is included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List as a "Karabakh horse-riding game" in the Republic of Azerbaijan. In 2024, The International Chovgan Federation (ICF) was established in Baku.
It considered that the polo is the adopted version of chovgan.
Chovgan originated in ancient Iran and was a Persian national sport played extensively by the nobility. Women played Chovgan as well as men. Chovgan originated in the middle of the first millennium A.D., as a team game. It was popular 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. Some authors give dates as early as the 5th century BC (or earlier) to the 1st century AD for its origin by the Persians. Certainly, the earliest records of polo are from the Persian. 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). It was also part of royal education for the Sasanian ruling class. 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. Chovgan was later brought from India to England in the 19th century it 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, known as chowkan in the Sasanian Empire (Middle Persian: čowkān), was part of the royal education for the Sasanian ruling class. The neighboring Eastern Romans adopted chovgan from the Sasanians and called it tzykanion, which derives from the Middle Persian word. During the reign of Theodosius II, the Roman imperial court started playing tzykanion in the tzykanisterion (polo stadium). By the time of the Tang dynasty (618–907), records of polo were well-established in China. 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".
Polo was, at first, a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops. 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. 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-e Jahan Square in Isfahan is a polo field which was built by king Abbas I in the 17th century.[citation needed]
Sultan Qutb al-Din Aibak, a Turkic military slave from present-day Northern Afghanistan who later became Sultan of Delhi Sultanate for only four years, died accidentally in 1210 while 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.[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.