Are freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling not exciting enough for you? Do you find the American wrestling shows on TV much too phony? Then you will probably enjoy Yağlı Gűreş (yaw-luh gresh), the national sport of Turkey, commonly known as oil wrestling because the wrestlers douse themselves with olive oil before the match.

The wrestlers, known as pehlivan, wear a kişbet, a pair of hand-stitched leather trunks extending from the waist to below the knee. The writing in metal studs on the wrestler's rear end indicates his name, sponsoring club, or home town. Unlike Olympic wrestling, oil wrestling matches may be won by taking effective hold of the kişbet. Thus, the pehlivan aims to control his opponent by putting his arm inside the latter's kişbet.

Before matches begin the pehlivans oil their bodies with a mixture of olive oil and water. Originally adopted as the basic method for training the Sultan's Janissaries (the Marines of the Ottoman armies), oil wrestling is more about strength and endurance than clever moves.

Originally, matches had no set duration and could go on for 1-2 days, until one man was able to establish his superiority, but in 1975 the duration was limited to 40 minutes. If no winner is determined, another 15 minutes of wrestling ensues, during which scores are kept to determine the winner.

Matches are held all over Turkey throughout the year, and in early summer Turkey’s best wrestlers – men and boys -- gather on a grass field near Edirne for the annual three-day wrestling tournament called Kırkpınar (Forty Springs) to determine who will be the başpehlivan (champion wrestler) of Turkey. Every year, around 1000 wrestlers attend the tournament.

Ottoman chroniclers attest that the Kırkpınar Games have been held since 1362, making them the world's oldest continually sanctioned sporting competition. Only about 70 times have the Games been cancelled. The 639th kırkpınar was organized in the year 2000.

For 700 years young wrestlers were brought up in Sufi lodges called "tekke", where they were trained by sheikhs who had themselves been master wrestlers when they were younger. Kırkpınar carries over the spiritual motifs of the past. Man is not simply made of muscles and bone; the other half of the human equation is our spirit. Wrestle training without spiritual discipline was considered to be harmful to the human character. Any wrestler from a traditional upbringing has an apprentice. The master trains with his apprentice: "cirak" and teaches him the art of oil wrestling. After the master wrestler retires from the "arena of the brave", his apprentice continues his tradition.

Customs & Rules

There are 13 categories, each with a 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place winner:

1) Başpehlivan "champion wrestler", 2) Başaltı "vice champion"; 3) Büyük Orta "big medium", 4) Küçük Orta Büyük Boy "small medium big size", 5) Küçük Orta Küçük Boy "small medium small size"; 6) Deste Büyük Boy "supporting big size", 7) Deste Orta Boy "supporting medium size", 8) Deste Küçük Boy "supporting small size"; 9) Toz Koparan "kickers up of dust", 10) Tesvik "encourager", 11) Minik-2 "small and sweet 2", 12) Minik-1 "small and sweet 1", 13) En İyi Peşrev "best beginner".

These divisions are not set by weight alone, as in the U.S. and Europe; rather pairs are chosen by a kind of judges' handicapping that considers size, age and "track record." The sole exception is the top category Başpehlivan, in which match-ups are decided by a lottery in full view of the stadium crowd. The age range at a modern Kırkpınar is approximately from twelve to forty.

At the end of the tournament the champions are awarded medals and purses, usually by the President of Turkey and by its political and military leaders. The cost of these is borne by the year's Ağa or "Master", a merchant benefactor who underwrites much of the festival expenses and who presides over the matches in a imperıal Ottoman-era costume.

All fighters in the same division line up along one side of the field and are introduced by the announcer. He summons them in God's name to manly valour on the field of battle, as the pairs of opponents join hands. The pipe-and-drum band begins playing and each wrestler starts his peşrev, a symbolic journey into the wilderness, a hero's quest. He wanders into the field, kneeling in supplication, leaping, working himself up for the challenge. Four times he meets his opponent, and they exchange symbolic greetings. After the last greeting they shake hands and begin the battle, each pair with its assigned referee. The match is not confined to any one part of the field, and often ranges over a large area with the referee running to keep up.

How a Winner is Decided

The first wrestler whose "umbilicus is exposed to heaven" loses the match. There are alternatives to this basic pin which also constitute a victory:

(1) The "crush." A fighter may manoeuvre his opponent onto his stomach and then trap him by sprawling on top. If he can keep him down with his face buried in the grass he can then turn his exhausted opponent with a half-nelson for a pin.

(2) Submission. Occasionally the match under a hot summer sun is so long and arduous that one fighter will simply signal his submission to the referee. Pin.

(3) Since a wrestler is not restricted from placing his hands inside his opponent's kişbet (he may not grab his balls or invade his rectum, however), he can also use the waistband to hold the other man in place. Occasionally the kişbet is yanked so far below his hips that the fighter being held cannot rise without exposing himself. Having lost his trunks he also loses the match.

(4) If a fighter is able to lift his opponent entirely off the ground and carry him five paces in any direction, that is a "carrying" pin.

(5) A running "flip" is sometimes employed, in which the wrestler causes both his opponent and himself to expose their navels during the roll. The loser is the one whose navel is first to be exposed. Unless the initiator of this move is careful, he may find himself the loser even though he was the "flipper."

The exemplary spirit of Turkish wrestlers is most clearly displayed whenever one gets a bit of grass in his eye or needs to adjust his kişbet. Without any signal from the referee they simply disengage and correct the situation. If water is needed to wash out an eye it is the opponent who runs to fetch it. Often winner and loser will walk off the field together arm in arm.