TÜRK SPOR KÜLTÜRÜNÜN EŞSİZ ÖRNEĞİ: OKÇULAR TEKKESİ
A UNIQUE EXAMPLE OF TURKISH SPORT CULTURE: ARCHERY LODGES

Summary/Abstract: There are triditional laws, customs, manners, and spiritual and material bases significantly behind cultural institutions. Families, states, education, religion, arts, army and sports are some of these institutions. Lyfe styles of the Ottomans dominated sports as they did other parts of life. Archery was leading sport directly related to the lifestyle of the Ottomans. Archery that evolved with war culture within the limits of beliefs of the time made new approaches inevitable. Archery became a practical execution in line with the changing conditions of the period and attitudes of the sultans, and so turned into an organized structure. Lodges that were the bases of Ottoman and Turkish sport organizations were the keystones of these organized structures. Lodges serving to develop sporting structure as cultural events were not just sport training centres. At that time, lodges offered religious education as well as contributing to the practice of sports events. These institutions were regarded as holy places by athletes, who could not enter them drunk or impure and respected the order imposed by them. For example, educators were highly respected, athletes were not allowed to boast about their success, and the development of a person’s character and ethical values was of primary importance. Ottoman and Turkish sport organizational structure mainly relied on these lodges. In view of conditions of the period, the main hierarcical structure formed the success, character and roles of not only athletes but also managers and educators. In general, Ottoman culture and islamic ethics could best be observed in these organizations, which had a very important role in the success of sporting training and development of personality. Ottoman which foresee the future had leaved its mark on sports area and had made a major contribution to the archery. The aim of this study is to highlight the importance of archery which was an important part of Ottoman life style and to examine the function and importance of the organizational structure of archery lodges.

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