Editing Polo (section)

==== Middle Ages and Early Modern era ====
[[File:Naghshe Jahan Square Isfahan modified.jpg|thumb|[[Naqsh-e Jahan Square]] in [[Isfahan]], [[Iran]], is the site of a medieval royal polo field<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.payvand.com/news/07/oct/1296.html |title=Playing Polo in Historic Naqsh-e Jahan Square? |publisher=Payvand.com |date=29 October 2007 |access-date=25 January 2012 |archive-date=3 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203141029/http://www.payvand.com/news/07/oct/1296.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>|alt=]]
[[File:Polo Statue Located near APSACS Gilgit.jpg|thumb|left|Statue of polo player in [[Gilgit]], [[Pakistan]]|alt=]]
Valuable for training cavalry, the game was played from [[Constantinople]], where Emperor [[Theodosius II]] constructed a polo ground early in the 5th century,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Herrin|first=Judith|title=Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire|publisher=Penguin|year=2007|isbn=978-0713999976|pages=50–51}}</ref> to Japan by the [[Middle Ages]]. The game also spread south to [[Arabia]] and to India and Tibet.

[[Abbasid]] Baghdad had a large polo ground outside its walls, and one of the city's early 13th century gates, the Bab al Halba, was named after these nearby polo grounds. The game continued to be supported by Mongol rulers of Persia in the 13th century, as well as under the [[Safavid]] dynasty. In the 17th century, [[Naqsh-i Jahan Square]] in [[Isfahan]] was built as a polo field by King [[Abbas I of Iran|Abbas I]]. The game was also learnt by the neighbouring [[Byzantine Empire]] at an early date. A {{Transliteration|grc|[[tzykanisterion]]}} (stadium for playing {{Transliteration|grc|tzykanion}}, the Byzantine name for polo) was built by Emperor Theodosius II ({{reign|408|450}}) inside the [[Great Palace of Constantinople]].<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Christopher Kelly (historian) |last1=Kelly |first1=Christopher |title=Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1107038585 |page=4}}</ref> Emperor [[Basil I]] ({{reign|867|886|show=none}}) excelled at it; Emperor [[Alexander (Byzantine emperor)|Alexander]] ({{reign|912|913|show=none}}) died from exhaustion while playing Polo. {{nowrap|[[John I of Trebizond]]}} ({{reign|1235|1238}}) died from a fatal injury during a game.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Kazhdan|editor-first=Alexander Petrovich|editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|location=New York City and Oxford, United Kingdom|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3u5RAAACAAJ|isbn=978-0-19-504652-6}}</ref>
[[File:Tang court playing Polo.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|[[Tang dynasty]] Chinese courtiers on horseback playing a game of polo, 706&nbsp;AD]]
After the [[Early Muslim conquests|Muslim conquests]] to the [[Ayyubid]] and [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mameluke]] dynasties of Egypt and the [[Levant]], their elites favoured it above all other sports. Notable [[sultan]]s such as [[Saladin]] and [[Baybars]] were known to play it and encourage it in their courts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/baybars.htm |title=Touregypt.net |publisher=Touregypt.net |access-date=25 January 2012 |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922080137/http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/baybars.htm/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Saladin was known for being a skilled polo player, which contributed to his cavalry training.<ref>{{cite web |title=Saladin |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Saladin/ |website=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |access-date=13 August 2020 |archive-date=30 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430185352/https://www.worldhistory.org/Saladin/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Azzam |first1=Dr ‘Abd al-Raḥmān |title=Saladin: The Triumph of the Sunni Revival |year=2014 |publisher=Islamic Texts Society |isbn=978-1-903682-87-6 |pages=42, 50, 73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ysElngEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref> Polo sticks were featured as one of the suits on the [[Mamluk playing cards|Mamluk precursor]] to modern-day [[playing cards]]. Europeans transformed the polo stick suit into the "clubs" of the [[Playing card suit#Origin and development of the Latin suits|"Latin" decks]], as polo was little known to them at that time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pollett |first1=Andrea |title=Tûmân, or the 10,000 Cups of the Mamlûk Cards |journal=The Playing-Card |date=2002 |volume=31 |issue=1: July–August |pages=34–41}}</ref>
[[File:Georgians playing Polo by Castelli.jpg|thumb|''The [[Georgians]] Playing Polo in the [[Kingdom of Imereti]]'', by Italian missionary [[Teramo Castelli]], 1640.]]

The game spread to South Asia where it has had a strong presence in the northwestern areas of present-day [[Pakistan]] (including [[Gilgit]], [[Chitral]], [[Hunza (princely state)|Hunza]], and [[Baltistan]]) since at least the 15th to the 16th centuries.<ref>Malcolm D. Whitman, ''Tennis: Origins and Mysteries'', Published by Courier Dover Publications, 2004, {{ISBN|0-486-43357-9}}, p. 98.</ref>  [[Qutubuddin Aibak]] ({{reign|1206|1210}}), originally a [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] slave who later founded the [[Mamluk dynasty (Delhi)|Mamluk dynasty]] (1206–1290) [[Delhi Sultanate]], was accidentally killed during a game of polo when his horse fell and he was impaled on the pommel of his saddle.

Polo likely travelled via the [[Silk Road]] to China where it was popular in the [[Tang dynasty]] capital of [[Chang'an]], where it was played by women, who had to wear a male dress to do so; many [[Tang dynasty tomb figures]] of female players survive.<ref>Michaelson, Carol, ''Gilded Dragons'', pp. 72–73, 1999, British Museum Press, {{ISBN|0714114898}}; Medley, Margaret, ''T'ang Pottery and Porcelain'', pp. 49–50, 1981, Faber & Faber, {{ISBN|0571109578}}</ref> According to ''The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity'', the popularity of polo in Tang China was "bolstered, no doubt, by the presence of the Sasanian court in exile".<ref name="poloODLA"/> A "polo-obsessed" noblewoman was buried with her donkeys on 6 October 878 in [[Xi’an]], China.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Michael Price|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/polo-obsessed-chinese-noblewoman-buried-her-donkey-steed|title='Polo-obsessed' Chinese noblewoman buried with her donkey steed|journal=Science|publisher=sciencemag.org|date=16 March 2020|doi=10.1126/science.abb7559|s2cid=216498085|access-date=30 June 2022|archive-date=25 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725093724/https://www.science.org/content/article/polo-obsessed-chinese-noblewoman-buried-her-donkey-steed|url-status=live}}</ref>