Traditional sports in Azerbaijan: Chovgan.
Chovgan (in Azerbaijani: "çovqan" or "çövkən") is a traditional Azerbaijani sport game.
In Azerbaijan, chovgan is considered a national sport. Various antique prints and ceramics suggest that the sport has a long history there. For example, a vessel with fragment pictures of a chovgan game was found during archaeological excavations in the Oran-Gala area, suggesting indirectly that the game existed during the 11th century around Beylagan city. Mentions of the chovgan game also appear in “Khosrow and Shirin”, a poem by the Azerbaijani poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi, and in pages of the Azerbaijani classic epic “Kitabi Dede Korkut”.
One of varieties of this game was broadly cultivated in Azerbaijan. Here two teams strive for scoring a goal with special clubs. Rules in the modern edition of the game are the following: two goals with a width of 3 meters with semi-circled areas with a radius of 6 meters are fixed in an enough big area. The game was held with a rubber or woven from leather belts ball. Clubs can be different in forms. In Azerbaijani horsemen they remind of shepherd's yarlyg. There are 6 riders in each team, 4 of whom act as attackers and two as fullbacks. The latter can play only on their half of the area. Goals can be scored behind the borders of penalty area. Duration of the game is 30 minutes in two periods. Traditionally Karabakh horses are the mount of choice thanks to their combination of agility and relatively calm temperament.
In 1979, a documentary called “Chovgan game”, shot by Azerbaijan's Jafar Jabbarly film studio, recorded the sport's rules and historical development. Since 2006, Azerbaijan holds a national tournament in December known as the President's Cup at the Republican Equestrian Tourism Center, at Dashyuz near Shaki. The first of these, held from December 22 to 25 2006, pitted teams from eight cities of Azerbaijan – Shaki, Agdam, Aghstafa, Balakan, Qakh, Gazakh, Oghuz and Zagatala with those from Aghstafa taking overall victory.
In 2013, chovqan in the Republic of Azerbaijan, was included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of urgent safeguarding.
Photos: I photo: Chovqan players in Azerbaijan (XX century); II photo: National Chovqan team in Shaki, Azerbaijan; III photo: Azerbaijani Chovgan players in 12th All Union Cup.
Miniature: A 16th century miniature depicts a chovgan game in the story of Khosrow and Shirin of Azerbaijani poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi.