The History of Polo

The book “The History of Polo” was written by the Iranian author Azartash Azarnoush. In the preface of this book, he states: “My regular work is not playing polo but culture and literature, and it would have been fitting to find a connection between work and sports to benefit from both. Fortunately, Persian and Arabic cultures are filled with references to horses, horsemanship, and polo, although the field remains largely untapped. The first thing that caught my attention was seeing that most of the common terminologies among equestrians are in Turkish, Arabic, or European languages, and Persian words are remarkably scant. Whereas, in classical Persian language, one can find a rich collection of beautiful, melodious words that refer to horses, their features, body parts, varied behaviors, and associated tools. Yet, none of our scholars have seriously attempted to uncover their precise meanings, leaving these words vague and unclear in books such as “Norouznameh” and “Adab al-Harb.” I personally tried to identify and define several terms in a number of articles, hoping that other researchers would continue to study this untouched field… Initially, I intended to examine the history of polo globally. However, once all the sources were collected, I realized that countries like China, India, and Japan have extensive polo traditions. Furthermore, the entry of polo into Europe and America is, in itself, a detailed story. Therefore, I thought it better to limit my work to Iran and the Arab lands and provide only a summary spanning a few pages for other countries. Thus, the work was completed. Then, we had to prepare the miniatures and illustrations that had been prearranged for publication in the book.”