The area of the original Kirkpinar © MMI by Mohamed el-Fers.

One of the utmost shrines of Turkish National Pride, Kirkpinar, the place of origin of Worlds Most Macho Sport, lies just over the Greece border. This according information provided by the Ministry of Culture. For oilwrestler Murat "no problem"... even Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, was born in Greece, in Salenik (Thessaloniki) but we moved and remade his original birthhouse in Ankara."

There is a spot called Kirkpinar, but far away at the other end of Turkey, northwest of Urfa, halfway the road to Bozova. And there is a location called Pehlivanköy (Wrestlers village) south of Babaeski.

Due to the Balkan War of 1912 the Kirkpinar of Oilwrestling could no longer be held on the ground where the contest was taken since 1360. The original Kirkpinar was replaced. Initial to the village of Virantekke. According information of the Turkish Ministry to be "located between Edirne and Mustafapasha road".

You can discover Virantekke ("Abandoned Cloister" in Turkish) if you use a map of the area at least 75 years old.
The Mustafapasha road is now commonly known as the E80, Virantekke is these days called Kapitan-Andreevo. In 1924 the village was added to the Khaskovo province of Bulgaria. So that year the Kirkpinar migrated again.

The legend

The myth starts in 1346, the event that Ottoman sultan Orhan Gazi´s invaded Thrace.
Sultans eldest son, Süleyman Pasha and a 40 people frontier unit pounded the Byzantine Domuzhisar (‘Pigs Bastion') and seized several strongholds.
On their return the combatants camped at a place called Ahir Kapi Cayiri or the Ahir Köy Meadow. According the tradition the soldiers started oilwrestling. At the end two brothers, Ali and Selim Pehlivan, could not defeat each other.
Süleyman Pasha decided to stop when the night came. The incomplete match had to be continued later on the yearly spring festival. The Sultanbrother promised the winner a leather pant (kispet).

The combat initiated in the early hours of the morning, and continued all night, lighted by torches and candles.
But even these strongest men in worlds mightiest army met their limit.
They had exerted themselves so much so that both died of exhaustion .
Their comrades buried them under a fig tree in Samona village
And nailed the kispet on that wood and left.
After years the group returned in the Ahirköy area to visit the graves of the brothers.
Instead of their tombs they found a sparkling fountain "with plentiful water" on the burial site. The soldiers noticed several other springs nearby the site. So this location was named KIRKPINAR (Forty Springs). Forty in memory of the original number of members of their unit. According to the legend the contest was held for the first time in 1360. The year sultan Orhan died, 78 years old. He outlived son Süleyman. That very same year 1360 Murad I was enthroned as his second son, the later Sultan Yildirim Beyazid I was born.

Samona the original Kirkpinar

Everywhere in the Ottoman Empire were wrestling championships held. Every city and village had its annual wrestling, like nowadays. Wrestling occured in a variety of contexts, including social and ceremonial events. There was wrestling on religious festival days, during special evenings of the Moslem fasting-month of Ramadan, on agricultural events, circumcisions and weddings. On special occasions charity wrestling competitions were organized outside the palaces.

But the Grand Stand was that Kirkpinar of Oiled Wrestling, held annual "since 1360 in a field within Samona village" near Ahirköy.
Ahirköy is not difficult to find, even on old maps, but Samona?

Samona Samonás?

As Kirkpinar literally means Forty Springs, one of the most outstanding features of the Thracian landscape are the wetlands. Wetlands formed by springs that form rivers like the Evros, Maritsa and the Nestos.
Samona "just over the Greece border." That can only be the region of the Evros prefecture of Thrace, the most northeastern province of Yunanistan (Greece). Virtually untouched by tourism.
But names in Thrace can be confusing. Some have been official changed. Sometimes old names are just remembered by the old folks. But even on the most detailed maps no Samona. Not even on historical maps of the area of 1849 or 1856.
There is a tiny village called Samonás in Greece. Where an old Turkish fort is overlooking the village, But this Samonas is on Crete. A Greece island just a few miles off the Turkish coast.
Certain "just over the border".
But to far from Thrace to be the place, where, according to the Guinness Book of World Records "world's oldest continuously sanctioned sporting competition started".

Samona Samothraki (Samothrace)?

Neither could the Samona of the Kirkpinar have been Samothraki, most northerly Greece island in the Aegean? Administratively included in the Evros prefecture of Thrace.
Kirkpinar... Kiprínos in Greece? That rural tiny village between Edirne and Zóni, called Kemer in Ottoman times. The complete population was replaced after the first Balkan War. The spot is close enough to be the historic site of that legendary first Kirkpinar. But Kiprinos lacks a "nearby Samona".
Non of the small villages in that area has ever been known so. Neither Marásia, Pláti, Rízia, Stérna ("The Cistern"), Kavilli, Néa Vissa, Néa Orestiás, Váltos, Pendálofos, Petrotá, Pteléa. nor Kavílim has ever been called Samona in its past.

Samona Svilengrad?

Samona not in Greece but just like Virantekke in Bulgaria?
Kirkpinar near Svilengrad, about 6 km north-west of the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint on the Bulgarian-Turkish border?
Although it is just 6 km from Mezek, one of the strongholds known to be captured by Süleyman Pasha, there is no evidence to be found.
Fact is that Svelingrad is a place with wrestling-traces dating back centuries before the Ottoman army arrived. Samona/Svelingrad was founded on the ruins of a Thracian settlement in the close vicinity of the late-antiquity Bourdipta Sideway Station. Through which the Roman road from Philippopolis (Plovdiv) to Adrianople (Odrin) passed.
The Bourdipta stadium was wrestling ground when the Bulgars moved into the area in 681. And it remained so after Süleyman Pasha arrived to establish the Ottoman Empire. It might have been one of the many places where oilwrestling was practiced. But as Kirkpinar-ground it doesn´t fit, as the spot was already for centuries in use as wrestling ground.
After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 the Treaty of Berlin formed the Autonomous Region of Eastern Rumelia. Svilengrad just escaped to be lost and remained within the territory of the Ottoman Empire. During the Balkan War of 1912 Svilengrad was burned down and devastated by the Turks.
That year a first Kirkpinar-contest was held in the nearby village of Virantekke. And never returned to its original ground.

When the Kirkpinar was 23 years later removed again, the contest was for the first time called "National Championship of Oilwrestling". By official decree of the new Turkish Government the very first Edirne Kirkpinar winner of 1924, Pehlivan Bendi Abdüllah, was not called "Baspehlivan of Kirkpinar" but "Champion of Turkey".

Near Ahirköy

The original birthplace of the Kirkpinar has to be found just over the Ipsala-border near Ahirköy. Located between the Greece village of Péplos, Kipi, Férai and Kavisós the originar Kirkpinar. Was it near the border station of Kipi, the northeasternmost point in Greece, just opposite of Ipsala, Turkey's second important border gate on the European frontier.
From Ipsala, that wildfowl paradise, we will continue our search to the original birthplace and cradle of that glorious Most Macho of all Sports. So, check out this site regularly for new updates!

© by Mohamed el-Fers

.If anybody has information or additions, please mail it to kirkpinar@hotmail.com

Maps by http://www.expedia.com/
Khaskovska, Bulgaria Map & Placename Index
Historical Maps of The Balkans
Historical map Macedonia 1849
Balkans 1856

Links
Turkish Ministry of Culture
Guinness Book of World Records
Turkish legends from the Ox institute
Turkey history page
Historical Text Archive

Other sources:
Bulgarian Standart News in English email: komentari@standartnews.com

To some, the story of Kirkpinar was invented under Selim Sirri Tarcan (1974-1956), an officer who also invented the Sporbayram for Atatürk (page 1095 Carl Diem´s Weltgeschichte des Sport). There is also a Selim Sirri Tarcan Spor Salonu in Ankara.

Early reports of the Kirkpinar by German teacher Hermann Niebuhr (page 348 Carl Diem´s Weltgeschichte des Sport).

4650 years of oilwrestling continued...

Oilwrestlers, Babelonic bronze 2650 B.C. from Chafadji © Carl Diem Archiv, Köln, page 104 Weltgeschichte des Sports und der Leiberserziehung, Cotta Verlag 1960 Stuttgart

It is a long way from the Babelonic oilwrestlers of that 4650 year old Babelonic bronze to the nowadays Kirkpinars. Only two cities call their contest KIRKPINAR: Edirne and Amsterdam. As during the 636th annual KIRKPINAR of Edirne, the agha Hüseyin Sahin granted Mr. Veyis Güngör (chairman of Türkevi Amsterdam) and Mohamed el-Fers (MokumTV Amsterdam), who introduced traditional Turkish oilwrestling in Europe, to use the name Amsterdam KIRKPINAR.

The late Hüseyin Sahin was agha of the Edirne Kirkpinars in 1995, ¨96, ´97 and ´98. In his speech, attended by Turkish president Süleyman Demirel, Edirne-mayor Hamdi Sedefçi, Veyis Güngör and Mohamed el-Fers, Mr Sahin said that the KIRKPINAR will exceeds the borders of Turkey and unite the world.

So the Mother of All Sports came in 1997 for the first time ever as Amsterdam Kirkpinar to Europe. In a few years the Amsterdam Kirkpinar became the most important annual KIRKPINAR after Edirne.

As said the Edirne is the National Turkish Championship. As the winners of the categories of the Amsterdam KIRKPINAR in Holland are considered to be European Champions, this creates the strange fact that according international standards the Amsterdam Kirkpinar tops Edirne, as latter being the National championship of Turkey only, repudiating non-Turkish entries. The only solution seems to be to declare the Edirne official the "World Championship" to enable non-Turkish winners of the Amsterdam Kirkpinar enter what still is the Greatest Oilwrestling Event in the World.

Due to its unique opportunities for photographers and filmers alike, the Amsterdam KIRKPINAR was widely covered by the international media in the Netherlands and Turkey as well as CNN. Nowadays the Amsterdam KIRKPINAR is the most successful ethnic sportevent in the Netherlands as well as in Europe.

It is not hard to relish and enjoy the great moments of the Edirne and Amsterdam KIRKPINARs with the very best of oilwrestling filmed by MokumTV.

This local Amsterdam television broadcaster introduced as first in the world Turkish Oilwrestling on a weekly schedule on the 4th of September 1996. And the show "Most Macho" is still running every Monday evening on the local A1 channel. The very best oilwrestlingpictures are the MokumTV grabs you will find at

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