Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling
For 630 years the celebrated Kırkpınar oil wrestling tournament has commenced with a special chant. The master of the festival, known as the cazgir, recites a prayer for the wrestlers. Then the drums zurna (a wind instrument with a double reed) begin to play, hundreds of wrestlers bow in salute, and the first pairs lock in combat on the green meadow.
There are several versions of the story about how the Kırkpınar wrestling tournament began, the best known relating how Sultan Murad I's general Süleyman Paşa crossed the Dardanelles with a vanguard of forty warriors on two rafts, and commenced the march through Thrace. At every halt the men engaged in wrestling bouts as a way of forgetting the hardships of the journey. One day when they reached a meadow at Ahırköy near Edirne they began wrestling as usual. As the sun set only two wrestlers remained, neither able to inflict defeat on the other. They continued to wrestle nto the night until finally both collapsed and died of exhaustion. They were buried where they fell, and the next day a spring of crystal clear water appeared on the spot.
Today, hundreds of wrestlers from all over Turkey who have been preparing for the tournament over the previous year, pour into Edirne for this festive event. Just as they have been for centuries, makeshift restaurants, coffee houses, stalls and funfairs are set up Sarayiçi. The 2005 tournament will take place from June 24-30.
The mood at the wrestling field itself is one of intense excitement. Wrestlers wearing the traditional tight pants made of calf or goat's leather grease their bodies not with the butter of yesteryear, but with olive oil poured in ewers from huge cauldrons.
The event begins with the ceremonial auction of a ram to the highest bidder, who becomes the master of that year's tournament. The scene takes on a dreamlike unreality, all other sounds eliminated by the relentless beat of the music. For three days the wrestling field is never empty. If enthusiasm shows any sign of waning the musicians switch to a faster rhythm.
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The tournament, which dates back to the 14th century, takes its name from the place where, until recently, it was always held. According to legend, Kirkpinar was the scene of a fierce battle between Turks and Bulgars in which 40 Turkish warriors, all renowned wrestlers, were slain. As the spot where each man fell is said to have become a tiny spring, the Turks named the meadow Kirkpinar, or "Forty Springs" and - in honor of the dead - have held an annual wrestling tournament there ever since.
When Kirkpinar was recaptured in 1912 by the Bulgarians, the site of the tournament was moved to the former Ottoman capital of Edirne, near the present-day Turkish-Bulgarian border. But the name and the traditions prevailed.
As in days of old, greased wrestlers from all over Turkey still come to the Kirkpinar Tournament each June to match their strength and skill for the sport's most coveted trophies - and cash prizes. Last year, over 300 wrestlers took part Bouts are held in five categories: from wiry, agile lightweights to hulking, stolid heavyweights. But the main interest centers on the battle for the heavyweight crown.
At Kirkpinar, wrestling is more than just a sport. The tournament begins with prayers at the Edirne cemetery, where some of Turkey's most famous wrestlers are buried. This is followed by the auction of a sacrificial lamb. The highest bidder becomes the agha, or master of ceremonies, of the tournament and his bid - this year 105,000 Turkish pounds ($6,000) - becomes the prize money. During the contests, the agha, dressed in the rich red and purple gold-embroidered costume of an Ottoman lord and escorted by black-clad bodyguards, struts around the arena or sits grandly in a special box smoking a water pipe.
The wrestlers fight in relays, with as many as 20 individual contests going on in the square arena at one time. As there is no time limit, each bout ends when one of the wrestlers pins his opponent's shoulders to the ground.
Before each bout, competitors douse themselves and their opponents with olive oil from huge, metal cauldrons hanging in the wrestlers' compound. They then line up and, yelling bloodcurdling battle cries, execute a series of aggressive leaps and slow-motion maneuvers designed to unnerve the opposition -and oddly similar to the traditional warming-up exercises of Japanese sumo wrestlers. Drums and horns are played throughout the contests.
Getting a firm hold on a slippery opponent and maintaining it long enough to twist him on his back require both strength and speed. One favorite trick of greased wrestlers is to force one hand down the top of an opponent's thick, black buffalo-hide breeches and the other up the leg, clasp him in the middle, heave him off the ground by the breeches, and hurl him on his back. They also use such conventional holds as the headlock, hammerlock and half nelson.
As the ranks of the contenders are thinned excitement mounts, and as the finals approach thousands of people converge on Edirne: wrestling fans, gypsy fortune-tellers, politicians, belly dancers, traders, pickpockets, fair folk and families. As one result the old bustle and importance that Edirne enjoyed as capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1362 to 1453 is revived. As another a contagious carnival atmosphere spreads through the streets and, apart from those who absolutely cannot avoid working, everyone takes a week off to join in.
Wrestling has long been a favorite sport of the Turks, but they adopted the use of oil from the Byzantines when they first conquered Edirne. Then it became a favorite court sport of the Ottoman sultans, who personally presided over the annual Kirkpinar Tournament. Several sultans, in fact, were wrestlers in their own right; Sultan Murat IV, for example, died an unbeaten champion. Turkish wrestlers reached their zenith in 1898, when Koca ("Big") Yusif Ismail toured the world, trouncing all comers. But on his way back to Turkey after an unbeaten tour of the United States, his ship, unfortunately, sank and Koca Yusif, who kept his winnings in gold in a money belt drowned.
Actually wrestling goes back much further than the Turks and the Byzantines. Hundreds of holds are depicted in the murals at Beni Hassan, Egypt dating from before 2000 B.C., and a bronze figurine of two wrestlers, cast about the same time, was found at Khafajah, near Baghdad, Iraq. The Greeks introduced wrestling into the Olympic Games about 708 B.C. In the Far East the two sons of the Japanese emperor wrestled for the throne in 858, and in Europe the sport reached its pinnacle in 1520, when King Henry VIII of England challenged Francis I of France to a bout at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The Frenchman won.
In recent years, especially in the television era, wrestling in the United States and Western Europe has degenerated into a frequently prearranged display of rough-and-tumble theatrics. But it is still taken very seriously in Turkey. Turks start off as children thrashing around in the dust of Anatolian villages. The best of them finish up on the grassy meadow at Kirkpinar. And Kirkpinar champions usually make it to Turkey's national wrestling team. In international bouts, the competition may be tougher - but at least your opponent isn't covered all over with grease. -
Wrestling with a Twist
