Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Genel Türk Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi, sa.TÜRKİYE CUMHURİYETİ'NİN 100. YILI ÖZEL SAYISI, ss.163-174, 2023 (Hakemli Dergi)
When games in the Ottoman Empire are mentioned, of course, a wide variety of games will come to mind. It may even be necessary to classify them among themselves. For example; games played by children, games played by soldiers and for educational/training purposes – we can perhaps call it as a kind of sport – and games played in various places only for entertainment and demonstration purposes – demonstrations by stunters and gypsies, encomiastic karagöz etc.-.Tomak, which is the subject of our study, is also one of the games played in the Ottoman Empire. Although its name is mentioned in archive documents, sources of different periods, modern palace and sports history studies, the most important problem that makes tomak as our research topic is that there has been no special study about it. Depending on this problematic, perhaps the most important limitation of the study is the lack of resources. Many sports and games were played in the Ottoman palace, which was the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire. The plays performed by stunters, gypsies, fireplayers etc. have just some shows to watch. Games such as javelin, soapwort, horse racing, wrestling and truncheon game should be considered both as entertainment and as training. As many scholars have already done substantial research on the aformentioned games, they are already well known to us. As far as the game called tomak is concerned, we have either limited or partially incorrect information on it, however. In this article, we have extensively examined the game of Tomak by using the Ottoman archival documents, local historians, diary writers as well as contemporary foreign sources of the time. In the lights of these extensive sources, we provide a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of the Tomak, which includes detailed information like purpose of the game, its playground, rules of the game, Ottoman sultans showing interest on the game. By studying the Tomak, which first appeared in first of quarter of 18th century and continued to be played up until the first half of the 19th century, we not only aim to contribute history of the sport and the game in general but also to show its places in the history of Ottoman sports and games in particular. For example, as will be given in our study, the game of tomak was one of the most important entertainments that the Ottoman sultans enjoyed watching at different times and in different places.