Oil Wrestling

The historical Kirkpinar oil wrestling tournament usually takes place for one week at the end of June in Sarayici town of Edirne and around one thousand wrestlers attend the games each year. Since the city was taken by Ottomans in 1361, Edirne has been the host of the most famous oil wrestling competition. The history of oil wrestling in Edirne starts when the Ottomans passed to Rumelia from Anatolia during the period of Orhan Gazi and tried to conquer Edirne in the 14th century. According to the tale, the Ottomans were playing different games to keep them alive between rests and raids. Once at the camping place, forty men started wrestling for fun. Two of them wrestled for hours but neither of them managed to win. (Traditionally, a wrestling ends if one of the wrestler s belly sees the sun.) Suleyman Pasa, son of Orhan Gazi, promised the winner a kispet, which is a pair of leather pants, traditionally made of water buffalo hide or calfskin covering the wrestler from the navel to below the knees in accordance with Islamic rules. Both wrestlers continued until both of them died from exhaustion. Both pehlivan, which in Persian refers to the wrestler, were buried under a fig tree in the field where their camp was based. After the conquest of Edirne, crystal clear water around that fig tree was seen running towards a meadow. They named that place Kirkpinar, (forty-sources) referring to those forty men who first arrived to Rumelia.