Mounted javelin (Atlı Cirit)

An old Turkish team game in which riders throw blunt wooden javelins at each other.

Names among the peoples

cirit (Turks of Türkiye)

About

Mounted jereed (atlı cirit) is a traditional Turkish game played on horseback by two teams: the riders throw blunt wooden javelins at the players of the other team. The word cirit is of Arabic origin and means "the stripped branch of a date palm".

According to Türkiye's Traditional Equestrian Sports Federation, mounted jereed has been played since the time of the Huns; in the Seljuk and Ottoman states both rulers and the people played it with affection. Today the game lives on above all in Erzurum, Bayburt, Kars and Uşak.

History

Jereed was often played in the palaces, before the rulers and in the presence of the commanders of the army. The teams lined up as in battle: a team of five was called a bölük, a team of seven an alay, and its leader the kolbaşı.

Until the last century jereed was one of the most widely played games in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Anatolia. The game was dangerous and deaths occurred; for that reason the Ottoman sultan Mahmud II banned it in 1826. Later it spread again as a sport; today competitions are held in the Erzurum, Bayburt, Sivas, Tokat and Söğüt areas of Türkiye.

Rules in brief

Each team starts a match with seven horses and seven players; a team whose number of players falls below five is declared the loser. The cirit is a wooden stick 100 centimetres long, and its thicker end is covered with rubber.

A player gallops forward, throws his cirit at an opponent and returns to his line; the opponent pursues him and throws in turn. A player who hits an opponent scores, and catching a thrown cirit in the air scores as well. A player who cuts off an opponent and spares him, although he could have hit him, also earns points.

Federations and competitions

Traditional Equestrian Sports Federation of Türkiye (2022).

Peoples

Turks of Türkiye

Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept