.jpg "A miniature painting entitled “The Dervish and the Shah on the Polo Field” illustrates a poem from the Guy o Chowgan (The Ball and the Polo-Mallet) by Arifi Hirawi (d.1449). The book dates back to the late 16th century.")
TEHRAN -- A book exploring the history of polo as an original Iranian game will be published in Iran in the near future.
“Polo is not an ordinary game for me, but it is an aspect of ancient Iranian culture, which began in an early period and has spanned all later periods,” Azartash Azarnush, the author of “The History of Polo”, told the Persian service of ILNA on Sunday.
“I play polo and have carried out many studies on this game since I was young,” the 75-year-old scholar added.
A professor of the University of Tehran, Azarnush said that he has spent 10 years researching various sources to write the 250-page book.
“Many countries want to register the game for their own cultures, but, fortunately we have many unique sources proving that the game belongs to the Iranian culture,” he noted.
Azarnush said that the book will be published by Mahi in two months.
According to Britannica, polo was first played in Persia at dates given from the 6th century BC to the 1st century CE. Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops.
In time polo became a Persian national sport played extensively 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 CE.
From Persia the game spread to Arabia, then to Tibet, to China, and to Japan.
Azarnush is the author of “The Clash between Arabic and Persian”, which explores how Iran’s first Arabic-Persian translation centers were established and how the modern Persian script was developed over a four-century span beginning from the seventh century CE.
He has been the director of the Arabic Department of the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia in Tehran since 1986.
Azarnush is currently working on Qayyem Nahavandi’s Farasnameh, the earliest complete source on horses and horsemanship. It may date to the twelfth century since it contains references to the historical figures of the time.
Farasnameh is a Persian term for books and manuals dealing with horses and horsemanship. There are several books by the same name in classical Persian culture.
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