Karakucak wrestling

An old Turkish wrestling style of Anatolia, fought standing and without oil.

About

Karakucak is a traditional Turkish wrestling style fought standing and without oil. The wrestler tries to bring his opponent down so that his back touches the ground. It is also called "dry wrestling", "threshing-floor wrestling" and "Anatolian wrestling".

Its roots go back to the physical training and preparation for war of the Turks of Central Asia; it spread to Anatolia with the migrations. The wrestlers wear special trousers called pırpıt, which reach just below the knee, and wrestle barefoot.

Karakucak is held mostly in regions without an oil-wrestling tradition — Amasya, Tokat, Çorum, Sivas, Erzincan, Erzurum, Samsun, Yozgat and Kahramanmaraş — at weddings, holidays and fairs. In Türkiye it is kept alive by the Traditional Wrestling Federation.

History

As E. Artun writes, karakucak was held most of all at weddings: "a wedding without wrestling and music was not counted a wedding". The wrestling began once the bride had been brought from her father's house, and in well-off households the wedding and the wrestling, begun on Thursday, went on through Friday. Apart from weddings there were "Friday wrestlings" in the town quarters, overseen by a meydancı.

Well-known wrestlers had trousers woven of goat hair, stronger than the leather kispet of the oil wrestlers. The winners were given a camel, a ram, cloth or trousseau towels; presents of cloth and clothing were hung on a pole called the askı, set up where all could see it. A bout opens with a prayer: in Çukurova and Anatolia the words are spoken by the salâvatçı, in oil wrestling by the cazgır.

Rules in brief

By tradition the wrestlers are divided into four classes: ön ayak, ayak, orta and baş. In competitions held on the mat a bout lasts six minutes; if it is level, three minutes of extra time are given.

By the 2023 instruction of the Turkish Traditional Wrestling Federation, juniors and seniors wrestle in nine weight classes, from 50–55 kilograms to 90 kilograms and the heavyweight (baş). A bout lasts 8 minutes, 10 in the heavyweight class; if it is level, the first to score in extra time — the "golden point" — wins. For the younger groups a bout is 6 and 4 minutes. A drummer and a zurna player must be present at the contest, and the cazgır presents the wrestlers to the crowd in verse. The "ağa of the wrestling" is chosen by open bidding: whoever offers the highest sum becomes the ağa of the following year.

Peoples

Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept

Sources

  1. Türkiyə Ənənəvi İdman Federasiyası — Vikipediya
  2. Karakucak güreşi — Vikipediya (türkcə)
  3. Karakucak Güreşi — KÜRE Ensiklopediyası
  4. Şəkil: Ebmastr, CC BY-SA 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons (karakucak finalından əvvəl, tarixi foto)
  5. E. Artun, Çukurova'da Salâvatçılık Geleneği ve Âşıkların Pehlivan Salâvatlamaları — Erdem (Atatürk Kültür Merkezi dergisi)
  6. Karakucak Güreşi Müsabaka Talimatı (14.04.2023) — Türkiye Geleneksel Güreşler Federasyonu, md. 19–21, 28