Traditional games of Iran

Iran has some traditional games, sports, and martial arts that date back thousands of years.[1][2][3][4] Many of these games have started to disappear due to urbanisation, the advent of computer games, and the neglect of cultural institutions.[5][6]

History

Some of the traditional Iranian games were demonstrated at the 1974 Asian Games hosted by Iran as a way of demonstrating the ability for traditional Persian culture to coexist with modern Western culture.[7]

Traditional games

Zu (Compares with Kabaddi, of Indian origin)

This section is an excerpt from Kabaddi.[edit]
Kabaddi being played at the 2018 Asian Games
Kabaddi (/kəbədi/) is a contact team sport played between two teams of seven players, originating in ancient India.[8] The objective of the game is for a single player on offence, referred to as a "raider", to run into the opposing team's half of the court, touch out as many of their players as possible, and return to their own half of the court, all without being tackled by the defenders in 30 seconds. Points are scored for each player tagged by the raider, while the opposing team earns a point for stopping the raider. Players are taken out of the game if they are touched or tackled, but return to the game after each point scored by their team from a tag or tackle.

Zu/Zou is similar to the better-known version of the game Kabaddi of India,[9][1] and has a history going back thousands of years in the country. In this version, the attacker starts with hawling "zou" (see above reference) the entire time performing the mission without breathing until gets back to the base. Another contrast is there is no 30 second rule in Zu. [10][11]

Haft sang

This section is an excerpt from Seven stones.[edit]
Seven stones (also known by various other names) is a traditional game from the Indian subcontinent involving a ball and a pile of flat stones, generally played between two teams in a large outdoor area.

Martial arts

Pahlavani

This section is an excerpt from Pahlevani and zoorkhaneh rituals.[edit]
Pahlevani and zourkhaneh rituals is the name inscribed by UNESCO for varzesh-e pahlavāni (Persian: آیین پهلوانی و زورخانه‌ای, "heroic sport")[12] or varzesh-e bāstāni (ورزش باستانی; varzeš-e bāstānī, "ancient sport"), a traditional system of athletics and a form of martial arts[13] originally used to train warriors in Iran (Persia), and first appearing under this name and form in the Safavid era, with similarities to systems in adjacent lands under other names.[14][15] Outside Iran, zoorkhanehs can now also be found in Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan, and were introduced into Iraq in the mid-19th century by the Iranian immigrants, where they seem to have existed until the 1980s before disappearing.[16][17][18][19] It combines martial arts, calisthenics, strength training and music. It contains elements of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic culture of Iran (particularly Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and Gnosticism) with the spirituality of Persian Shia Islam and Sufism. Practiced in a domed structure called the zurkhāneh, training sessions consist mainly of ritual gymnastic movements and climax with the core of combat practice, a style of folk wrestling called koshti pahlavāni.[citation needed]

Board games

Shatranj

This section is an excerpt from Shatranj.[edit]
Two shatranj players in a detail from a Persian miniature painting of Bayasanghori Shahname made in 1430
Shatranj (Arabic and Persian: شطرنج; from Middle Persian chatrang چترنگ) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sasanian Empire. Its origins are in the Indian game of chaturaṅga.[20] Modern chess gradually developed from this game, as it was introduced to Europe by contacts in Muslim Al-Andalus (modern Spain) and in Sicily in the 10th century.

Nard

This section is an excerpt from Nard (game).[edit]
Nard (Persian: نرد, also narde or nardshir; from Middle Persian: nywʾlthšyl nēw-ardaxšīr) is an historical Persian tables game for two players that is sometimes considered ancestral to backgammon. It is still played today, albeit in a different form. As in other tables games, the playing pieces are moved around a board according to rolls of dice. It uses a standard tables board, but has a different opening layout and rules of play from that of backgammon.

Card games

Baas-o-Beyt

This section is an excerpt from Baas-o-Beyt.[edit]
Baas-o-Beyt (Sistanian: بئث و بئت) is a special kind of rhyming game common among Sistanian people and is generally considered as a genre of Sistanian poetry (called Seytak) played by composing verses of Sistanian poems, along with some Sistanian dance and music. It is very similar to Bait bazi, Antakshari and Crambo as well.[21][22]

Pasur

This section is an excerpt from Pasur (card game).[edit]
Pasur or chahar barg (Persian: پاسور; also spelled Pasour or Pasur) is a fishing card game of Persian origin.[23] Played widely in Iran, it is played similarly to the Italian games of Cassino or Scopa[24] and even more similarly to the Egyptian game of Bastra. Pasur is also known by the names Chahâr Barg (4 cards), Haft Khâj (seven clubs) or Haft Va Chahâr, Yâzdah (7+4=11, the significance being that players want to win 7 clubs in a game of 4-card hands where 11 is a winning number).

Shelem

This section is an excerpt from Shelem.[edit]
Shelem (Persian: شلم Shělěm), also called Rok or similar, is an Iranian trick-taking card game with four players in two partnerships, bidding and competing against each other. Bidding and trump are declared in every hand by the bidding winner. Both the name and the point structure of this game are similar to the American game Rook, there being a possible connection between the two games. Though it isn't clear from which game it is derived.[25]: 204f [26]

Ganjifa

This section is an excerpt from Ganjifa.[edit]
Various Ganjifa cards from Dashavatara set
Ganjifa, Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ,[27] is a card game and type of playing cards that are most associated with Persia and India. After Ganjifa cards fell out of use in Iran before the twentieth century, India became the last country to produce them.[28] The form prevalent in Odisha is Ganjapa.

As-Nas

This section is an excerpt from As-Nas § Gameplay.[edit]

In 1895, General Albert Houtum-Schindler described the rules as follows:[29]

The game of As is exactly like Poker, but without any flushes or sequences. There are four players, and each player gets five cards, dealt to the right. The dealer puts down a stake. The first player then looks at his cards. If he "goes", he says dîdam (I have seen), and covers the stake or raises it. If he does not wish to play, he says nadîdam, (I have not seen) and throws his cards. He may also "go" without looking at his cards - that is, in poker parlance, "straddle" - and says nadîd dîdam (not seeing, I have seen). The second player, if he wishes to play, must cover the stakes, and can also raise. The third player and the dealer then act in the same way just as in poker, and when the stakes of all players are equal and no one raises any more the cards are turned up and the player holding the best hand wins the stakes.

Animal events

Chovgan

This section is an excerpt from Chovgan.[edit]

Chovgan, Chowgan or Chogan (Azerbaijani: çövkən, Persian: چوگان, romanized: čōwgan), is a sporting team game with horses that originated in ancient Iran (Persia).[30][31] 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.[32]

In 2013, chovqan in the Republic of Azerbaijan was included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in urgent need of safeguarding.[33]

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

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^ a b "Molding minds and taming times: The concept of games in Iran". Tehran Times. 2012-01-07. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  2. ^ "A traditional Iranian sport has been closed off to women. One activist wants to change that". The World from PRX. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  3. ^ "Wrestling-mad Iran lays the Persian carpet for kabaddi". Hindustan Times. 2019-07-28. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  4. ^ "UNESCO - Chogān, a horse-riding game accompanied by music and storytelling". ich.unesco.org. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  5. ^ Taheri, Laleh; Chahian, Golshan (2015-05-29). "Restoration of Traditional Children's Play in Iranian Nomadic Societies (Case Study of Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad)". Children. 2 (2): 211–227. doi:10.3390/children2020211. ISSN 2227-9067. PMC 4928756. PMID 27417360.
  6. ^ "Traditional games, a potential for drawing tourists". en.irna.ir. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  7. ^ Huebner, Stefan (2016-05-11). Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia, 1913-1974. NUS Press. ISBN 978-981-4722-03-2.
  8. ^ Sudevan, Praveen (2022-10-27). "How Pro Kabaddi made kabaddi the most-watched sport in India after cricket". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  9. ^ Incheon, Rohit Brijnath, In (2014-10-05). "The art and soul of kabaddi: On India's men's and women's Asian Games gold wins in this game of catch". The Straits Times. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 2023-08-24.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Vaidya, Jaideep (2017-09-06). "From 'zouuu zouuu' to 'kabaddi kabaddi': Tracking Iran's journey to becoming India's biggest rival". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  11. ^ Schwartz, David Asa (2021-06-14). Modern Sports around the World: History, Geography, and Sociology. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-4408-6880-1.
  12. ^ official IZSF
  13. ^ "Martial art | Definition, History, Types, & Facts".
  14. ^ Traditional games of Iran at Encyclopædia Iranica
  15. ^ "Pahlevani and Zoorkhanei rituals".
  16. ^ Traditional games of Iran at Encyclopædia Iranica
  17. ^ Shay, Anthony; Sellers-Young, Barbara (2005). Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism, and Harem Fantasy. Mazda Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56859-183-4. the zurkhaneh exercises of Iran, Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan
  18. ^ Afghanistan, Foreign Policy & Government Guide. International Business Publications, USA. 2000. ISBN 978-0-7397-3700-2. UNIVERSAL SPORTS PLAYED IN AFGHANISTAN Wrestling (Palwani)
  19. ^ Elias, Josie; Ali, Sharifah Enayat (2013-08-01). Afghanistan: Third Edition. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60870-872-7. Wrestling, or Pahlwani (pahl-wah-NEE), is popular with men all over the country.
  20. ^ Jean-Louis Cazaux (2012-04-20). "Shatranj". History.chess.free.fr. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  21. ^ "11282". Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
  22. ^ "زارایا؛ سرای فرهنگ و هنر سیستان - زنان و کودکان سیستانی". Archived from the original on 2014-01-08. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
  23. ^ "Rules of Card Games: Pâsur". www.pagat.com. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  24. ^ Carlisle, Rodney P. (2009). Encyclopedia of play in today's society. Los Angeles: SAGE. ISBN 9781412966702.
  25. ^ Parlett, David (2008), The Penguin Book of Card Games (3rd ed.), Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-14-103787-5.
  26. ^ McLeod, John, ed., Iran, Card Games Website
  27. ^ Many different spellings and transliterations can be found, such as Ganjafa, Ghendgifeh, Gunjeefa, Ganjapa, Kanjifa, Kanjifah and so on. In arabic, the spellings كنجفة or جنجفة or غنجفه can be found. The Persian word is ganjifeh (گنجفه). In Hindi the term is गंजीफा.
  28. ^ At the start of the 21st Century production in India was still ongoing in the town of Sawantvadi in the west, and Odisha in the east for example. See Abram (2003: 53) and Crestin-Billet (2002: 189).
  29. ^ Quoted by Stewart Culin.
  30. ^ 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 (...)
  31. ^ "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.
  32. ^ В. Парфенов. (2004). Кавказские национальные конные игры. HORSE.RU. Archived from the original on 2019-06-06. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
  33. ^ Chovqan, a traditional Karabakh horse-riding game in the Republic of Azerbaijan