Mahmud al-Kashgari’s dictionary gives čališ as the Turkic word for wrestling. It glosses the word with the Arabic musāraʿa.[1] The entry is a single line.[1] It names no rules, no prize and no wrestlers.[1]
The Armenian History of the Caucasian Albanians also mentions wrestling, this time among the Huns north of the Caucasus.[2] It describes the rites that Bishop Israyēl found there in the winter of 681 to 682. At the graves of the dead, numerous groups wrestled with each other.[2] They did so among sword fights between troops and galloping horsemen, in what the translation calls an orgy.[2] The passage is the one on the funeral rites of the Huns.
The two reports stand four centuries apart, in two languages and two regions. No source connects them. Neither describes a bout.[3]
What remains is a Turkic word for wrestling and a scene of Huns wrestling at their dead. No source says how it was done.
References
- ^ a b c Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; al-Kāshgharī 1072–1074, p. 284
- ^ a b c Movsēs Dasxurancʿi, book II; Dowsett 1961, p. 156
- ^ Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; Movsēs Dasxurancʿi, book II
Sources
Literature
- Maḥmūd al-Kāshgharī, Dīwān Lughat al-Turk (1072–1074)
- Charles J. F. Dowsett (trans.), The History of the Caucasian Albanians by Movsēs Dasxuranci (1961)
What links here1
- Customs & Pastimes
- Funeral Games of the Caucasian Huns
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Wrestling.” Turkic Atlas, revised 20 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/customs/wrestling/
Last revised: 20 October 2026
