Mahmud al-Kashgari’s dictionary of the 1070s names polo through its words.[1] Čögän is the polo stick, glossed with the Arabic ṣawlajān.[1] Two entries on the verbs for bending give the stick as their example: “he helped me bend the polo stick (or other)” and “he ordered the polo stick to be bent”.[2]
Talas is the goal-rope in horse-racing or polo.[3] Tasal is the boundary that is set up in polo. Kashgari takes it for a metathesis of talas.[4]
A match appears in a verb of rivalry: “he had a polo contest with him with trousers as the stake”.[5] The stake is part of the verb. Another entry has a man strike a ball with a forked stick. Kashgari calls this a type of game of the Turks.[6] The entry does not call it polo.[6]
The dictionary does not say how many played, whether the players rode, or what they struck.[1]
What remains is the vocabulary of a game: a stick, a goal-rope, a boundary and a stake of trousers.
References
- ^ a b c Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; al-Kāshgharī 1072–1074, p. 306
- ^ Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; al-Kāshgharī 1072–1074, p. 188, 206
- ^ Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; al-Kāshgharī 1072–1074, p. 282
- ^ Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; al-Kāshgharī 1072–1074, p. 300
- ^ Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; al-Kāshgharī 1072–1074, p. 215
- ^ a b Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; al-Kāshgharī 1072–1074, p. 399
Sources
Literature
- Maḥmūd al-Kāshgharī, Dīwān Lughat al-Turk (1072–1074)
What links here1
- Customs & Pastimes
- Stakes and Wagers
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Polo.” Turkic Atlas, revised 20 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/customs/polo/
Last revised: 20 October 2026
