Archery was for centuries Turkey’s traditional sport, and also played a central role in Islamic culture. The use of the bow and arrow as a weapon by the Turkish horsemen of Central Asia goes back far into the mists of time. Only after the invention of firearms did the bow and arrow gradually lose its […]
CIRIT – TURKEY’S TRADITIONAL EQUESTRIAN SPORT
When the Turkish people poured westwards from their Central Asian homelands in the 11th century, they came on horseback into Anatolia, the land which the poet Nazim Hikmet described as stretching like a mare’s head into the Mediterranean. The horse, which played a central role in Turkish life in the Central Asian steppes, was probably […]