Muslim Fighting Arts in Africa and the Middle East

[Captain Harlock]

Found this while researching another question.

Muslim Fighting Arts in Africa and the Middle East
Hussein Al-Khanjar

The Middle East and Africa both have an extremely strong culture of Martial Arts. Unfortunately the reality of the situation today is that the majority of the techniques used by the most famous warriors of Islamic history have largely dissapeared due to the lack of systemization and a structured method of teaching them to future generations.

One of the biggest mistakes the Arab warriors made was not systemizing their combat techniques and training methods. Today the remains of those techniques can be readily viewed in traditional emptyhand, knife and sword techniques crudely displayed by older gentleman or nicely coreographed Martial dances that hold many individual techniques which can be identified by the trained viewer but are for the most part useless as a training tool for a fighter. Nowadays one can probably find more "original" Arabian sword fighting techniques within the Silat systems of the Malay Archipelago than in the Arabian Gulf itself. Due to the Islamization of the region, the way of the Mujahid (muslim warrior) was assimilated and made part of their already effective warrior traditions established during the past Hindu empires. One of the few Arab Martial techniques that can be learned and is still usable for combat is from the tip of Africa, Egypt, and the style is called Tahteeb, a very functional stick fighting and staff fighting Art with all the intricacies and training methods that a real system should have.

Tahteeb is played mostly in the Northern regions of Egypt by tuff men young and old who enjoy the challenge of a good fight, also it is a great way to show machismo and rack up potential brides. Like Surma stickfighting of southern Sudan, Tahteeb is played only by men and can get very bloody when two opponents do not particularly like one another. When Tahteeb is played nicely one man will attack and the other will only defend and then vice versa, but when men do not like each other and they play together suddenly the rules change and the real rules are announced, there are no rules. Due to the fullcontact aspect of Tahteeb, parrying and blocking are essentials to survival when playing the game, striking is the norm and joint locking is almost unheard off.

Another interesting Art is from Yemen and is called Raks Al-Khanjar, literaly “Dance of the blade”. Yemen like Oman is one of the few places on the planet where men still wear their traditional knives everyday openly in public and the methods of bledefighting can still be studied. Yemen has one of the most well preserved traditions of “man and knife” in the Middle East and is well worth a second look for anyone searching for indigineous Arab blade techniques, they do not have complete systems but they still have many guys who fought and killed with a khanjar. Just the experience alone is worth talking to them for awhile.

By far the most developed Martial Art in the Middle East is grappling. The grappling arts are called “Moussarra” in Arabic, in Persian they are called “Koshti” and in Turkish “Yagli Gures”.The history of grappling arts in the Middle East goes back many centuries and is deeply ingrained into the society and culture of the people. The techniques are usually very simple and easy to learn and execute even by smaller fighters. The finest wrestlers usually come from Iran and Turkey, they are extremely strong and agile men who range in size from small to burly. Grappling is the best preserved Martial Art from the region with different methods and teachers as abundant as anywhere else in the world. The effectiveness of the arts can be redily tested by just walking into a club and asking for a match. The Martial spirit of the Middle Eastern people is still very much intact, just changed with the times.

http://www.mubai.cc/articles/art39.htm

 

[A.R.K.]

I have quite a few Arabic and Persian MA's associates in that part of the world. They have an extremely strong Martial spirit and disciplines. Very hard core in their training. It is an honor to know them.

:asian:

 

[stone_dragone]

I brought this thread back to life to share this link.

Muslim martial arts. Interesting overview of the Islamic fighting traditions. After viewing it I found no Anti-western sentiment at all. I found it to be very well done.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-259589424681990912&q=Martial+Arts

 

[mantis]

that's what the dagger looks like btw

 

[mantis]

I brought this thread back to life to share this link.

Muslim martial arts. Interesting overview of the Islamic fighting traditions. After viewing it I found no Anti-western sentiment at all. I found it to be very well done.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-259589424681990912&q=Martial+Arts

wow, that's a really good video. i like the historical background towards the end.

 

[mrhnau]

I brought this thread back to life to share this link.

Muslim martial arts. Interesting overview of the Islamic fighting traditions. After viewing it I found no Anti-western sentiment at all. I found it to be very well done.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-259589424681990912&q=Martial+Arts

Great video, thanks for sharing it!

 

[Bigshadow]

Interesting video! Thanks for sharing!