When the Turkish wrestlers of Kirkpinar near Edirne fight one another, in reality each is fighting with himself. It’s not so much a one-on-one duel as a dual “one-on-oneself”. Each wrestling match reflects all the struggles that people have in their lives. Wrestling is just one of many situations in which people discover their own limits in the encounter with somebody else.

According to legend, this tradition of wrestling, slippery with olive oil, goes back to a time of war. In the year 1349, Pasha Sueleyman, brother of the Ottoman ruler Orhan Gazi, stormed the fortress of Byzantium (now Istanbul) with forty elite soldiers.

After conquering the city, they were camping on a field near Samona (in present-day Greece) when the soldiers began a wrestling tournament which lasted for hours, until just two fighters remained. These two were brothers, and because neither would admit defeat, the match had to be abandoned on orders from their commander.

But as soon as they got home, the two brothers continued fighting. They fought day and night until at last, exhausted, they both collapsed and died. Their friends buried the brothers under a fig tree, and went on their way. Years later, they passed that way again and saw that beside the grave there was now a gushing spring. In memory of the two brothers, the people of that region gave it the name Kirkpinar – “forty springs”.

A lovely legend. Legends like that are necessary in order to give meaning to certain actions, and so to keep traditions alive. The setting for this wrestling match is a green field. One might almost say: a field of hope, of a person’s hope of gaining victory and of overcoming his own fear at that moment when he seizes hold of his opponent. There is no enemy who must be destroyed, only an opponent whom one wants to get to know. The other is a person through whom one experiences the limits of one’s own being and so becomes conscious of something new. At this moment, the wrestler feels he is alive, more intensely than ever. He puts a value on his life according to what takes place, he becomes a victim of the relation which is established.

As he feels his pain and his disappointment, he also feels his last reserves of strength. “It is good to fear,” as Sartre said, “for then one is in an existential situation.” But this struggle is based on recognition and respect. One’s opponent, too, is a “pehlivan”. This concept comes from a Persian word meaning “protector” or “guard”, which in Turkish has come to mean “a supremely strong man”.

Primitive masculine instinct is evident in this combat, a special encounter of males. In a society where men walk down the street ‘hand in hand’ as a sign of warm-heartedness, wrestling allows masculinity to enjoy an encounter with its naked self. An encounter which might, from a distance, be construed as homoerotic. Not that the wrestlers consciously think of it that way, of course. For them, the fight is about defeating the opponent, about enjoying victory, pride and success. Who does not seek these things?

Already the sperm in the womb begins the long swim towards the egg. The one that reaches the egg first begins the struggle against time to bring a new creature into the world. And once the individual is conscious of his or her surroundings, in a society like ours which is based on competition, the struggle begins the moment one steps outside onto the street. Children are trained to achieve, to overcome, for life is ruled not least by envy. In the opinion of Thomas Hobbes, that is the natural condition. Without laws, without respect and recognition, this state of conflict of all against all would still be intact and there would be no peace. The constraining commandments of law, respect and recognition also apply to wrestling, for without them, there would be no encounter with oneself and one’s opponent.

This wrestling tournament, which has existed since 1924, is basically a test of strength between brothers – just as in the legend. A conflict between brothers, with no victor and no loser.