Sini zarf and munjuq
Folk games of the Turkmens of Kirkuk.
About
Sini zerf is a game the Iraqi Turkmens play on the nights of Ramadan: in Kirkuk, Erbil and other towns where Turkmens live it begins after the tarawih prayer and goes on until the pre-dawn meal. There are two teams, each made up of a master and two apprentices. Eleven copper cups are set out on a tray (sini).
The apprentices draw a curtain between the teams, and the master hides the zerf — a bead, a ring or a die — under one of the cups. When the curtain is taken away, the master of the other team has to find which cup it is under; he has only two tries. If it is not found, as many points are written down as there are cups left on the tray; the team with the fewest points wins.
Muncuq ("bead") is counted among the oldest games of Kirkuk and is played mostly by girls. It is played with coloured beads or large prayer-bead stones on flat earth: two holes the size of a palm are dug about a metre away, and the player tries to send the bead into a hole by flicking it with the thumb only. Whoever gets the bead into the hole first wins and takes the opponent's bead; when teams play, the team that puts the most beads into the holes wins.
Peoples
Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept
Sources
- Kerkük'te ramazan gecelerinin vazgeçilmez eğlencesi «sini zarf» oyunu — Anadolu Ajansı
- Türkmenlerin Ramazan eğlencesi: Sini Zerf — Türkiye Yazarlar Birliği
- F. Mohammed, G. A. Cicioğlu, Kerkük Yöresi Geleneksel Oyunları: Sini Zarf ve Muncuğ — Gazi Üniversitesi TURGOSD 1(3), 2025, s. 71–72
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