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]
Kabaddi being played at the
2018 Asian GamesKabaddi (/kəˈbædi/,[8]/ˈkʌbədi/)[9] is a
contactteam sport played between two teams of seven players,
originating in ancient India.[10] 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,[11][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. [12][13]
Choub bazi, choob or choobazi (
Persian: چوب بازیchub bāzi; Khorasani and
Sistani: چو بازیchu bāzi; lit. "wood play"), is one of Iranian games and traditions with an ancient history that goes back to ancient
Iran. This traditional ritual is also mentioned in
Ferdowsi's
Shahnameh. In Iran, there are two authentic types of
stick games. One is the
Sistani stick game, which is popular in the eastern half of Iran.[14] The other is the Lori, which is more popular in the southern and western parts of the country.[15]
Pahlevani and zourkhaneh rituals is the name inscribed by
UNESCO for varzesh-e pahlavāni (
Persian: آیین پهلوانی و زورخانهای, "heroic sport")[16] or varzesh-e bāstāni (ورزش باستانی; varzeš-e bāstānī, "ancient sport"), a traditional system of athletics and a form of
martial arts[17] originally used to train warriors in
Iran (
Persia)[18][19] 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.[20][21][22][23] It combines martial arts,
calisthenics,
strength training and music. It contains elements of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic
culture of Iran (particularly
Zoroastrianism 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]
Nard (
Persian: نرد, also narde or nardshir; from
Middle Persian: nywʾlthšylnēw-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.
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.[25][26]
Pasur or chahar barg (
Persian: پاسور; also spelled Pasour or Pasur) is a fishing
card game of
Persian origin.[27] Played widely in
Iran, it is played similarly to the
Italian games of
Cassino or
Scopa[28] 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 (
Persian: شلمShělěm), also called Rok or similar, is an
Iraniantrick-takingcard 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.[29]: 204f [30]
Various Ganjifa cards from
Dashavatara setGanjifa, Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ,[31] 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.[32] The form prevalent in Odisha is
Ganjapa.
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.
Chovgan, Chowgan or Chogan (
Persian: چوگان,
romanized: čōwgan,
Azerbaijani: Çövkən), is a sporting team game with horses that originated in ancient
Iran .[34][35] 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.[36]
^Elias, Josie; Ali, Sharifah Enayat (2013-08-01).
Afghanistan: Third Edition. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC.
ISBN978-1-60870-872-7. Wrestling, or Pahlwani (pahl-wah-NEE), is popular with men all over the country.
^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.
^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).
^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 (...)
^"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.
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]
Kabaddi being played at the
2018 Asian GamesKabaddi (/kəˈbædi/,[8]/ˈkʌbədi/)[9] is a
contactteam sport played between two teams of seven players,
originating in ancient India.[10] 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,[11][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. [12][13]
Choub bazi, choob or choobazi (
Persian: چوب بازیchub bāzi; Khorasani and
Sistani: چو بازیchu bāzi; lit. "wood play"), is one of Iranian games and traditions with an ancient history that goes back to ancient
Iran. This traditional ritual is also mentioned in
Ferdowsi's
Shahnameh. In Iran, there are two authentic types of
stick games. One is the
Sistani stick game, which is popular in the eastern half of Iran.[14] The other is the Lori, which is more popular in the southern and western parts of the country.[15]
Pahlevani and zourkhaneh rituals is the name inscribed by
UNESCO for varzesh-e pahlavāni (
Persian: آیین پهلوانی و زورخانهای, "heroic sport")[16] or varzesh-e bāstāni (ورزش باستانی; varzeš-e bāstānī, "ancient sport"), a traditional system of athletics and a form of
martial arts[17] originally used to train warriors in
Iran (
Persia)[18][19] 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.[20][21][22][23] It combines martial arts,
calisthenics,
strength training and music. It contains elements of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic
culture of Iran (particularly
Zoroastrianism 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]
Nard (
Persian: نرد, also narde or nardshir; from
Middle Persian: nywʾlthšylnēw-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.
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.[25][26]
Pasur or chahar barg (
Persian: پاسور; also spelled Pasour or Pasur) is a fishing
card game of
Persian origin.[27] Played widely in
Iran, it is played similarly to the
Italian games of
Cassino or
Scopa[28] 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 (
Persian: شلمShělěm), also called Rok or similar, is an
Iraniantrick-takingcard 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.[29]: 204f [30]
Various Ganjifa cards from
Dashavatara setGanjifa, Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ,[31] 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.[32] The form prevalent in Odisha is
Ganjapa.
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.
Chovgan, Chowgan or Chogan (
Persian: چوگان,
romanized: čōwgan,
Azerbaijani: Çövkən), is a sporting team game with horses that originated in ancient
Iran .[34][35] 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.[36]
^Elias, Josie; Ali, Sharifah Enayat (2013-08-01).
Afghanistan: Third Edition. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC.
ISBN978-1-60870-872-7. Wrestling, or Pahlwani (pahl-wah-NEE), is popular with men all over the country.
^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.
^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).
^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 (...)
^"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.