ture battles. The central character is reputed to be based on an historical
Sumerian king (ca. 2850 B.C.); therefore, it is interesting that Enkidu specif-
ically accedes to Gilgamesh’s right to rule. Thus, although the epic offers
no detailed description of grappling in the second millennium B.C., it may
reflect a principle of “war by champions” that prevailed in the area around
this time.
Somewhat later (ca. 1000 B.C.), Semitic tribes could exercise the op-
tion of substituting single combat between champions in the place of
massed battles. The most famous of these is likely to be the battle between
David representing the Hebrews and Goliath of the Philistines, as described
in the Bible (1 Samuel). Even closer to the Gilgamesh archetype is the story
of Muhammad’s wrestling match with the skeptical sheikh, Rukana ibn
‘Abdu Yazid, as a demonstration of the power of his revelations from God.
The Prophet succeeded in his opponent’s conversion after scoring his sec-
ond fall.
As previously noted, after the initial Arab Muslim conquests of the
Middle East, the Ottoman Turks extended the boundaries of the Islamic
world and consolidated to a large degree the identity of the Middle East, at
least into the twentieth century. The ghaziswere a prime force behind the
Ottoman expansion. The Ghazi Brotherhoods are of particular relevance to
martial history. Members of the Ghazi Brotherhood were roughly compa-
rable to the European knights who were their contemporaries. They were
bound by a code of virtue within a democratic organization, and in con-
trast to the European knight, whose worth eventually became bound to an-
cestry and rank, the brother was judged on the merits of his own character
(e.g., valor, piety) rather than by his wealth or lineage. Brothers were most
often followers of Sufism, the mystical sect of Islam that gave rise to the
dervishes, whose whirling dances were mentioned above. This dervish in-
fluence may have been pervasive in the Ottoman training regimen, given
the fact that vigorous dancing even extended to the military training of
Janissaries (Christians who either had rejected their faith or had been
branded as holding heretical beliefs, who served in the Turkish army) from
the fourteenth century, continuing until their dissolution in the nineteenth
century. To return to the ghazis, however, they were sworn to the militant
expansion of Islam. With the spread of the faith came the dissemination of
Turkish martial traditions. Among the most lasting of these traditions has
been wrestling.
Turkey is a nation with a long history of wrestling excellence. Turkish
tribes originated in Asia, probably somewhere between the Ural Moun-
tains, the Caucasus, and the Caspian Sea. To the east were the Mongols;
Turkish contact was primarily with the Huns and the Tatars. Apparently,
however, they brought with them many wrestling techniques in their mi-340 Middle East