History
Ashyk game is a traditional sport that takes its name from the game material "knucklebone" and is known as the ancestor of the marble.
The first written source in which ashyk game is encountered is Divanu Lugat'it-Türk, written by Kaşgarlı Mahmut between 1072 and 1074. At the same time, it is mentioned that children play ashyk in the story "Boğaç Khan, Son of Dirse Khan", which is the first of the Dede Korkut Stories. Knucklebone (ashyk) has been a hard bone to find in the past due to living conditions. For this reason, in Anatolia, in order to win an ashyk and to compete, people invited each other to a game. In order to express mastery, the winner says “You cannot compete with (aşık atmak) me.” At the same time, the hollow face of the ashyk was called "cuk", and if the player put her thumb here while throwing and won as many as he/she wanted, it was called "snap into place like a clockwork (cuk oturdu)". In this way, the ashyks were won and the player was considered the winner of the game. Ashyk game is among the traditional games played not only in Anatolia, but also in Central Asia and Europe. The Ashyk game was enrolled on the Representative List of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2017.
Rules
Before starting the game played by at least 2 people, two lines are drawn facing each other and with at least five steps between them. All players gather in one line. They throw the heavier ashyk called “enek” in their hands to the opposite line, one by one. After all the throws are made, the owner of the ashyk closest to the line becomes the winner; this order is followed. The main goal in this game is to hit the head. The head is one of the right or left ashyks determined by the last player. The player who hit the head takes all the ashyks. If the player hits another ashyk, not the head, and takes that ashyk out of line along with his/her own ashyk, he/she takes all the ashyks on the opposite side of the head, starting from the removed ashyk. The remaining ashyks are lined up again and the throwing continues with the next person. The game continues until the ashyks on the ground run out and the player with the most ashyks becomes the winner of the game.
