The oldestfight on earth.
Every summer, about a thousand men in leather trousers cover themselves in olive oil and wrestle on a field outside Edirne. It has happened, with a handful of interruptions, for six and a half centuries. This site explains what you are looking at: where it came from, how a bout is won, who the wrestlers are, what they wear and why the oil, and how to be there.
The bill
Seven pages · read in any order- 01
History
How a wrestling match between forty Ottoman raiders became the world's longest-running sporting event, and how it survived wars, a change of country and a change of field.
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Rules
There is no scale at Kırkpınar. Wrestlers are sorted by skill and age into thirteen classes, matched by lot, and a bout ends on the back, in the air or, since 2014, on the clock.
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The Pehlivan
A pehlivan is not a weight class or a license. He is a man raised inside a tradition of masters and apprentices, fed on honey and yogurt, and judged on one field in Edirne every July.
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Kispet, Oil and the Ritual
Oil wrestling is a sport of objects and gestures as much as of holds. This page explains the leather trousers, the olive oil, the announcer's verses, the warm-up dance and the candle that once served as the invitation.
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The Festival Week
Seven days in Edirne, three of them on the grass. What happens when, who pays for it, where to sit, and how to survive a July afternoon at Sarayiçi.
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Edirne and Sarayiçi
The border town that has hosted Kırkpınar since the 1870s. How to get there, where the field is, what to see when the wrestling stops, and what to eat and carry home.
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About Kırkpınar.com
An independent guide to the historic Kırkpınar oil wrestling, written by a small team in Istanbul that goes to Edirne every summer. Here is who we are, how we work and how to reach us.
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Start with a question
Eighteen things first-time spectators ask- Why 1362, and why forty springs?
- What does the 665 on the posters count?
- Why does nobody weigh in?
- The thirteen classes, minik to baş
- How long is a bout?
- What is a foul in oil wrestling?
- Master and apprentice
- What a pehlivan eats
- The kispet: thirteen kilos of buffalo leather
- Why olive oil, and how much
- The cazgır and the peşrev
- A glossary of the field
- When it happens
- Who is the ağa?
- Tickets and where to sit
- Getting to Sarayiçi
- Selimiye and the old town
- What to eat in Edirne
Golden belts, for keeps
The başpehlivan holds the golden belt for a year. Win it three years running and it is yours. Only a few men have done it; the full table is on the pehlivan page.
| Years | Başpehlivan | Belts |
|---|---|---|
| 1990–93 | Ahmet Taşçı | belt kept, 1992 |
| 1995–97 | Ahmet Taşçı | belt kept, 1997 |
| 2011–12 | Ali Gürbüz | two in a row |
| 2023–24 | Yusuf Can Zeybek | two in a row |
| 2026 | Erkan Taş, 665th Kırkpınar | first title |
Shoulders to the grass.
A bout is won when one wrestler's back touches the ground, when he is lifted clear and carried three steps, or, under the current regulation, on points after the clock runs out in the top classes. Below the baş class the clock is shorter. The referee's whistle is final.