The oil obviously makes it much more difficult to grab an opponent,
and competitors must rely on a great deal of skill to throw or take down a
wrestler. Grabbing and holding onto the pants, known as a kispet,is al-
lowed in Yagli. Both holds and throws are allowed in the sport; the match
continues until one concedes defeat or a referee stops the match to ensure
a wrestler’s safety. The lack of a time limit can make for grueling competi-
tions. In 1969, a national championship match lasted for fourteen and a
half hours. The Turkish wrestling techniques are essentially those of mod-
ern freestyle. For example, techniques include the sarma, known in con-
temporary wrestling as a “grapevine” hold. The sport is now growing on
the European continent, started by Turks who migrated from Turkey, but
now including participants from other nationalities as well.
Iranian (formerly Persian) wrestling is a second major grappling tra-
dition of the Middle East. Known for much of its history as Persia, Iran is
an ancient nation, with civilizations in this region extending as far back as
2000 B.C. Certainly by the seventh century B.C., Persian civilization had
reached one of the many high points of its power and was building itself
into an empire that covered much of the Middle East and North Africa. Ira-
nians themselves incorporated wrestling techniques into their warrior
skills, and there are accounts of Greek wrestlers and pankrationexperts
challenging these wrestlers as the two cultures met, and ultimately clashed
with, each other. Martial arts academies developed as well, known as
Varzesh-e-Pahlavani.From these sources, Iran developed its own unique
system of wrestling, koshti. Koshti apparently had both combat and sport
aspects, and koshti exponents were trained to use the system as an un-
armed battlefield art when necessary. With the Islamic invasions of the sev-
enth and eighth centuries A.D., and with Islamic discouragement of prac-
tices that were considered pagan, koshti apparently fell into unpopularity.
Iranian wrestling systems apparently employed all the aspects of
Greek wrestling. Although the systems seemed to lack any emphasis on
striking, koshti exponents used throws, takedowns, and trips, as well as
arm and leg locks and choke holds. Practitioners were expected to be able
to disarm weaponed opponents when necessary as well. It is likely that in
sport competitions, many of the more dangerous holds were not allowed.
Practitioners would compete in trousers, naked from the waist up. In many
respects, koshti, in all of its variants, may be compared to many Western
systems of wrestling and to jûjutsu from Japan.
Centuries later, however, the Iranian Shah Ismail “the Great,” after
making himself shah, made the Shiite Twelver sect of Islam (believers in the
twelve descendants of their spiritual leader Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law)
the state religion in Azerbaijan and Iran. He was noted for the persecution
of Sunnism and the suppression of non-Safawid Sufism. As a consequence,342 Middle East