Polo originated in ancient Persia

Tehran, Feb 4, IRNA - Polo, or 'Chogan' as it is known in Iran, is one of the most complex games in the world which had its origins in ancient Persia.

Based on historical evidence, the game dates back to 3,000 years. It
was the world's first team-based game which is being revived in Iran
after several thousand years.

Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in a
meeting with the head of the Physical Education Organization and his
deputies on December 28, 1996, said, "Chogan is ours; we left it and
others took it.'

The Supreme Leader advised the audience to follow the sports that are
originally Iranian. "Go for the sports that are ours originally and
people are not aware of them. For instance, (go for) chogan that is an
Iranian sport and is now played worldwide; but we do not at all know
how to play chogan; we do not know what is chogan in principle; let's
revive them since they are part of your culture and are, in principle,
part of your national identity," the Supreme Leader said.

Chogan is an ancient sport that, based on the historical evidence and
British Equestrian Society's announcement, dates as back as 525 BC.
Moreover the Society studies show that the sports' origin was Iran.

Many scholars believe that polo originated among Iranian tribes before
the reign of Darius the Great (521-485 BC) and that his polo-honed
cavalry then forged the Second Iranian dynastic empire, the
Achaemenids (550-300 BC).

It is certainly Persian literature and art which give the richest
accounts of polo in antiquity.

The great Ferdowsi, the most famous of Iran's epic-poets, gives
several accounts of royal polo tournaments in his 10th century epic,
Shâhnâmeh (The Book of Kings).

In the earliest account, Ferdowsi romanticizes an international match
between the mythical Turanian force and the followers of Siyâwash, a
legendary Persian prince from the earliest centuries of the Empire.

The poet is eloquent in his praise of Siyâwash's skills on the polo field.

Ferdowsi also writes about the Sasanian Emperor Shapour II, who learnt
to play polo when he was only seven years old.

Another 10th century historian, Dinvari, describes polo and its
general rules and gives instructions to players including such advice
as 'polo requires a great deal of exercise', 'if a polo stick breaks
during a game it is a sign of inefficiency' and 'a player should
strictly avoid using strong language and should be patient and
temperate'.

t is not clear how closely players ever managed to adhere to, at least
the last of, these suggestions.

During the 10th century the Iranian King Qabus, of the Ziyarid dynasty
and the patron of the Gonbad-e Qabus tomb, also set down some rules
for polo and especially mentioned the risks and dangers of the game.

The best-known references to polo in Persian poetry are in the
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1048-1123), where he uses polo to illustrate
philosophical points.

Many of the Persian manuscripts in which these references appear are
beautifully illustrated with miniatures depicting sovereigns and their
best horsemen playing polo.

The 12th century Iranian poet Nezami weaves the love story of the
Sasanian Emperor Khosrow II Parviz(590 AD) and his consort Shirin,
around her ability on the polo field, and describes matches between
the Emperor and his courtiers and Shirin with her ladies-in-waiting.

Polo became popular in other nations too.

To the West, the Crusader emphasis on heavy cavalry may have been the
reason why they did not take the game back to Europe with them.
However, polo certainly reached Constantinople under the Byzantines.

The 12th century ruler, Manuel I Commenos is known to have been a polo
patron and it is recorded that one of his successors, Emperor Hohannes
Chinnasus, played until his leg and arm were crushed in a bad fall
during a match.

The game spread further with the Arab Muslim conquests, including as
far as Egypt and to the Indian subcontinent.

Polo quickly occupied an exalted place in Islamic court life,
Harun-al-Rashid being the first of the Abbasid Caliphs to play.

The polo stick was an important motif in Islamic heraldry and the
Jukandar Polo Master was a well-known official in the Caliphs'
entourage.

On the Indian subcontinent, the game was adopted by the local kings
and princes as well as being played by the Muslim rulers.

In a dusty back alley near Anarkali Bazaar in Lahore stands a monument
to Sultan Qutabuddin Aibak, a 13th century king who died when his pony
fell during a polo match.

For the Chinese, polo was their royal pastime.

The polo stick appears on Chinese royal coats of arms and the game was
especially a part of court life in the golden age of Chinese classical
culture under Ming-Hung, the Radiant Emperor, who was an enthusiastic
patron of equestrian activities. Not all Chinese emperors were so
cultured: according to one source, Emperor Tai Tsu ordered all the
other players beheaded after a favorite of his was killed in a match
in 910 AD.

The Chinese were probably taught the game by the Iranian nobility who
sought refuge in Chinese courts after the Arab invasion of the Iranian
Empire during the 7th century, or perhaps learnt via Indian tribes who
had themselves studied under the Iranians. The Japanese learnt polo
from the Chinese.

It is not clear if Genghis Khan (1162-1227) knew about polo before his
armies swept down from the North to conquer the entire Iranian realm
and the rest of Asia Minor. However, if the hordes were not already
familiar with the game, they certainly learnt it then from the Iranians.

One legend has it that Tamerlane (1336-1405), inheritor of the Genghis
legend, once ordered his cavalry to play polo with the heads of their
captives. When a later descendant of Tamerlane, Babur, founded the
Mughal Empire in India in the 16th century, he established polo as the
most popular of royal sports for his successors. Akbar, Babur?s
grandson, was especially fond of the game, even playing at night by
torchlight. His vast stables, which can still be seen near Agra,
housed his many polo ponies.

The most spectacular tribute to polo, however, is an imperial city
laid out around a royal polo ground. Esfahan was the constructed
capital of Shah Abbas the Great, the Safavid Emperor (1571-1629). Shah
Abbas planned his city to be the most beautiful in the world and
centred it on his polo ground -- the Maydan-e-Shah, also known as the
Naqsh-e Jahan. This vast central square was the largest in the world
until the construction of Tien An Min. It is around 560 meters long
and 160 meters wide. At each end are stone goal posts 7.3 meters
apart, and this is today the regulation width of a polo goal.

At the south end of the field and just beyond the goal posts, Shah
Abbas constructed Masjed-e Shah, whose mosaic domes and minarets make
it one of the most beautiful mosques in the world. Beyond the northern
goal is the elaborately decorated Qaysariya Gateway leading to the
Royal Bazaar.

The polo ground was therefore very definitely at the centre of public
life in the city. To further underline this, at approximately midfield
the Shah built a six-storey palace, Âli-Qâpu. As the central feature
of the palace his architects designed a towering royal viewing
gallery, its roof supported by 18 graceful wooden columns. Shah Abbas'
stone goal posts, as well as the palace, the mosque and the bazaar can
still be seen today, although ornamental pools and gardens have
replaced the field where ponies galloped and mallets flayed centuries
ago.

The Bazaar in Esfahan offers, in addition to the normal wares of an
Eastern market, an astonishing variety of souvenirs decorated with old
polo scenes copied from Persian miniatures.

One can note at sites like Esfahan and also in early art and
literature certain differences between the polo of past centuries and
the game as we know it today. The fields were often longer and narrower.

Teams were frequently much larger than the four-a-side standard of
today. While the game was sometimes started with the ball placed at
midfield with the two teams charging one another from opposite ends,
at other times the ball was thrown into the air and hit towards one of
the goals. Mallets were of shapes which would appear curious to the
players of today.

In Japan and in Byzantium, for example, the sticks carried racquet
rather than mallet heads and a leather-covered ball was used.

For more than 2,000 yrs, therefore, polo remained a favorite of the
rulers of Asia. Queens played alongside Kings, as did the nobility and
other mounted warriors.

Even outside Iran, polo was the nearest equivalent to a national sport
in those times: from Japan to Egypt, and from India to Byzantium. As
the great Eastern Empires collapsed, however, so did the glittering
court life of which polo had been so important a part, and the game
itself was preserved only in remote villages.