KIRKPINAR :: History

The History of KIRKPINAR according to different sources

1

According to the legend the „Kırkpınar Oil Wrestlings“ have begun with the Turks comming to Thrace in 1361. In 1354 Orhan Gazi sent his eldest son Süleyman Pasha to the opposite coast by saying: “ You should take over Rumeli! ”. The soldiers and the horses were sent to the opposite coast by boats which were prepared in the middle of the night.

The first ones stepped on the opposite coast were the primary troops of the conquerors. These men happened to be the special ensigns called “ KIRKLAR ” (“ The Fourty ”). Fourty (Kırk) is according to the Turkish-Islamic history a sacred number hinting on the “ Kırk Evliya ” . Based on that ground, the primary troops of Süleyman Pasha counted fourty men.

“The Fourty” took over the Byzantine bastion called “ Domuz Hisarı ” via Gallipoli. Later on, they left the already conquered bastion to the soldiers who were following them and seperated in three different directions. Their duty was to move forward until they reach the most inner part of Rumeli and report their observations to Süleyman Pasha, who could then start the conquest of Rumeli.

To entertain themselves and to relax their muscles with wrestling while taking a break, two brothers serving in this very troop of brave men could not come to a result of their wrestling since the last two layovers. One day, while taking a break, these two brothers started to wrestle again. Their friends who realised that the two brothers will not be able to come to an end decided to separate them. The soldiers died in this very second of seperation. “The Fourty” got very sad over the death of the two brothers in the lists and they decided to bury them under a great willow before going back to their duty.

On the way back home after fulfilling their duty, “The Fourty” paid a visit to their friends’ graves who died in the lists. When arrived at their graves, “The Fourty” got very astonished since there happened to be a fountain with crystallike water gushing out of the bottom of the willow. This amazing event has then become a legend through commons.

To honour these two brave men, wrestlings have been organised on that very spot and the fountain at the top of the grave of the two brothers called “ Kırkların Pınarı ” (“ The Fountain of The Fourty ”) has become “ Kırkpınar ” (“ The Fourty Fountain ”) throughout the time.

2

After the Olympic Games according to the order by the Roman emperor Theodosius could not take place after 393, fairs ,which happened to be a Greek invention, started to take the part of amusement and sports events. But the spread of the Turkish wrestling over the fairs started after the habitation of the Pecenek Turks coming from the Danubian edges to Rumeli after the 10th century.

This implementation started by the Pecenek Turks changed the fairs influenced by the Greek, after the Turkomans came over to the West. This change occurred under the influence of the Oguz tradition by the Turkomans and it has shaped the form of the historical Kırkpınar fair with its traditional wrestlings.

However, the name of Sarı Saltuk spoken out at the fair wrestlings in Rumeli and the so-called wrestling schools established by the Ottomans and among the wrestling prayers in Endarun, has a historcal importance throughout the Turkish tradition of wrestling. Sari Saltuk was an “alperen”. He was one of the four caliphs called “car-i yar”, belonging to the Babailik religious order spread by Baba Ilyas Horasani, who immigrated to Anatolia from Horasan (Khorassan) and who finally settled down in Amasya. Later on, because of war, some Turkomans bound to Sari Saltuk immigrated to Rumeli. Sari Saltuk took away Edirne from the Bulgarians and settled down there and he lived there for almost 40 years.

Sari Saltuk was known a wrestler among the Rumeli Turks. Relating to these information, we can assume that Sari Saltuk, who had taken Edirne away from he Bulgarians 100 years before the Ottomans did, was the first Turk initiating the Turkish wrestling at the Kirkpinar fair, which is 17 km away from Edirne.

3

According to another source, the oil wrestlings were seen among the Etrüskler and the Greek as well. The Etrüskler happened to be a Turkish tribe immigrated to Italy via Middle Asian Aegean gateway. The Greek coming from Asia, beside being not Turanian, used also to be an ethnic group neighbouring with the Turks for many many years. Ergo, when we look on historical art works by the Etrüskler and the Greek, we can see the identical tradition of the Turkish wrestling.