Cavalry Games?

[John Conyard]

This looks great fun. I had never come across it before, cheers Lawrence. I pulled this off the net.

"Cirit was particularly widespread in the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century onwards, becoming the foremost martial sport. In peace time it was played to improve the cavalry’s attack and defence skills, and during campaigns to whip up their enthusiasm for battle. Some of the sultans are known to have been cirit players, and early Ottoman sultans like Yildirim Bayezid (1389-1402) and ÿelebi Mehmed (1413-1421) attached importance to cirit in the training of their armies. A superior class of cavalrymen known as cündi was formed from those skilled at cirit. However, the game was not without its dangers, and injuries and even death from falls in the attempt to catch the flying cirit sticks prompted Mahmud II (1808-1839) to ban the sport altogether after he dissolved the Janissary Corps. Although playing cirit resumed before long, particularly in the provinces, it never recovered the importance of former times. Today cirit is not as widespread as it once was, but is still played as a spectator sport, primarily in Erzurum, but also in the provinces of Artvin, Kars, Bayburt, Diyarbakir, Siirt and Konya. Folklore societies are also attempting to keep this traditional sport alive by organising tournaments."

In the UK we allow jousting, with horses getting hit in the neck with blunt lances at around 60mph (the combined speed of both horses). But throwing javelins at each other is frowned upon in case we hit the horse, even though the javelin is blunt and on occassion traveling in the same direction as the horse. We are allowed to throw javelins at infantry.

http://www.comitatus.net/events_files/K ... velin.html