History and actual image of oil wrestling
Authors: Bakhrevskiy E. 
Published: October 2024

Turkish oil wrestling (yal gre) has a great popularity in Turkey, spread in some neighboring countries (Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania), in Western Europe and Japan there are amateur clubs of this wrestling. That is complex system of accompanying rituals and attributes, it is based on ancient folklore tradition, and in modern conditions it became an important symbol of Turkish national consciousness. An Oil wrestling long enough became a subject of scientific interest there is a series of books on its history and a lot of papers. At the same time caring publicists note that still we dont have a satisfactory scientific description of oil wrestling, neither in Turkish nor in other languages. The article presents the results of a study of historical development of oil wrestling, listed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Symbolic and ritual elements of nowadays oil wrestling and Krkpnar festival (aa, cazgr, perev, kspet etc.) were analyzed. Krkpnar festival came into being in the end of the 19th century, in the period of wrestlers tekke system decay, when the well-known masters from Edirne and Constantinople began to participate to the local festival on Hdrellez, after that it became very popular even on national level. Simultaneously many legends were attached to the festival, and historians of 1920-30th years linked to it the names of state figures and events, relating to conquest of Balkans by Ottomans. The place of oil wrestling among the other traditional wrestling styles in Turkey is shown, the version of its origin was proposed. At the same time, when, how and under what influence oil wrestling was formed, remains a mystery, because nobody but Turks preserved this tradition. A survey of legends and historical information about saint patrons of oil wrestling Sar Saltk, Kzl Deli Sultan, Mahmud Pir Yar- Veli is given. The translation from the Ottoman language of parts of Travels book of Evliya elebi concerning oil wrestling is given. Many cultural spheres in Muslim civilization (poetry, music, fine art, medicine, craft technologies etc.) frequently develop within Tasavvuf (Sufism) or use its infrastructure. One of its most important features is the developed tradition of knowledge and mastery transfer within a teacher-student system. It is the perfectly suitable feature of Tasavvuf for preservation and development of cultural traditions, including martial arts. Practically all Turkish authors writing about wrestlers tekke insist that they were sport clubs of their time, that the religious terminology was used in them according to habits of the time, and totally deny the religious component in the life of these institutions and in the system of wrestlers (and also archers, mace fighters etc.) education. I think that it is a typical misconception of researches, operating the concepts of secular-atheistic world of the 20th-21st centuries, and transferring these concepts to the traditional society field. A survey of oil wrestling at Ottoman sultans court is given. After the destruction of the Ottoman Empire oil wrestling became one of the symbols of a new, nationalistic Turkey. A survey of problems caused by sportization of oil wrestling during the last decades of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries is given.