Edirne (Oil Wrestling)

if you want visit city edirne and watch oil wrestling start usually first week of july  but you check data of Turkish oil wrestling on internet
for next time 2013 .

Oil wrestling (Turkish: yağlı güreş), also called grease wrestling, is the Turkish national sport. It is so called because the wrestlers douse themselves with olive oil. It is related to the Uzbeki kurash, Tuvan khuresh and Tatar köräş. The wrestlers, known as pehlivan (meaning "hero" or "champion") wear a type of hand-stitched lederhosen called a kisbet (sometimes kispet), which is traditionally made of water buffalo hide, and most recently has been made of calfskin.
Unlike Olympic wrestling, oil wrestling matches may be won by achieving an effective hold of the kisbet. Thus, the pehlivan aims to control his opponent by putting his arm through the latter's kisbet. To win by this move is called paça kazık. Originally, matches had no set duration and could go on for one or two days until one man was able to establish his superiority, but in 1975 the duration was capped at 40 minutes for the baspehlivan and 30 minutes for the pehlivan category. If there is no winner, play continues for another 15 minutes—10 minutes for the pehlivan category, wherein scores are kept to determine the victor.
The annual Kırkpınar tournament, held in Edirne in Turkish Thrace since 1362, is the oldest continuously running, sanctioned sporting competition in the world. Oil wrestling festivals also take place in northern Greece in the Eastern Macedonia (Serres region) and West Thrace (Rhodope Mountains).In recent years, this style of wrestling has also become popular in other countries, particularly the Netherlands and Japan
1861-1886 Gaddar Kel Aliço "Ruthless Bald Aliço" (1845 - 1922), champion for 26 years. He left the sport after a defeat by Yusuf İsmail and became the coach of Adali Halil.

FATHER OF THE OiL WRESTLiNG  KOCA YUSUF(YUSUF iSMAiL)

Yusuf İsmail (1857-4 July 1898), also widely known as Yusuf ismail, was a Turkish professional wrestler who competed in Europe and the United States as Yusuf Ismail the Terrible Turk during the 1890s. During his lifetime, his native Turks knew him as Şumnulu Yusuf Pehlivan. However, writer Rıza Tevfik posthumously awarded him the honorific Koca (great) and he was later remembered as Koca Yusuf.
Widely known for his massive size and brute strength, he was recognized as one of the top three strongmen in the world by Alan Calvert, pioneer of American weight training, and photographer Edmond Desbonnet during the turn of the century. Prior to his arrival in the United States, he remained undefeated in his near four-year career and successfully challenged Evan "Strangler" Lewis for the American Heavyweight Championship in 1898. Yusuf İsmail was the original wrestler to be known as "the Terrible Turk", however several others, including Kızılcıklı Mahmut (promoted as his son) and Armenian American Robert Manoogian, also used the name throughout the first half of the 20th century.