Cirit

Jereed (also jerreed, jerid, or jerrid; Turkish: Cirit) is a traditional Turkish equestrian team sport played outdoors on horseback in which the objective is to score points by throwing a blunt wooden javelin at opposing team's horsemen. Played by Turkic peoples in Central Asia as the essential sporting and ceremonial game, it was brought to Anatolia during the westward migration in the beginning of the 11th century.

Horses have been essential and even sacred animals for Turks living as nomadic tribes in the Central Asian steppes. Turks were born, grew up, lived, fought and died on horseback. So became jereed the most important sporting and ceremonial game of Turkish people.

Jereed came to Anatolia with Turks as they migrated in 1071 from their homelands in Central Asia. Later in the 16th century, Ottoman Turks accepted it as a wargame, and it widespread from that time onwards. In peace time, jereed was played to improve the cavalry’s attack and defense skills, and during campaigns to whip up their enthusiasm for battle. Some of the Ottoman sultans are known to have been jereed players, and early sultans like Bayezid I (1389–1402) and Mehmed I (1413–1421) attached importance to jereed in the training of their armies. A superior class of cavalrymen known as "cündi" was formed from those skilled at jereed. It spread over to Arabia and European countries and, was enjoyed in German and French language speaking territories in the 17th century.

In the 19th century, it gained its highest popularity as a show sport and game at the court and in all Ottoman ruled territories. However, the game was not without danger, and injuries and even death from fall-offs in the attempt to catch the flying jereed sticks prompted Mahmud II (1808–1839) in 1826 to ban the sport after he dissolved the Janissary Corps. Although playing jereed resumed before long, particularly in the provinces, it never recovered the importance of former times.

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