Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

the Safawid Brotherhood (a Sufi brotherhood whose sheiks claimed descent
from Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali) maintained considerable military and
political power. This fact may have led to Ismail’s patronage of martial arts.
He was noted for his promotion of the Zour Khaneh, or Zur Khane
(House of Strength). A contemporary description (written in 1962) notes
that there was in the center of the mosquelike building an octagonal pit, 15
feet in diameter, lined in blue tile, but filled with earth. Beyond the pit lay
weight-lifting apparatus, and on the wall hung a portrait of Ali. Training
featured preliminary rhythmic calisthenics, followed immediately by
whirling dances accompanied by bells, drums, gongs, and passages sung
from the Shahnama (the great Persian epic the Book of Kings). This form
of training bears clear connections to Sufi practices that incorporate both
song and whirling dances into worship—as well as suggesting analogies to
a vast cross-cultural range of martial dances/exercises. In addition to the
more contemporary apparatus, traditional devices (dating back at least to
Ismail’s reign) are used in the Zour Khaneh. These exercise tools are essentially
oversized weapons (for example, the kadabeh, an iron bow with a
chain bowstring) that are brandished during the training dances. In addition
to these conditioning exercises, the trainees at the Zour Khaneh practice
koshti.
In the middle of the twentieth century, as Iran sought to enter the
modern world, traditional Iranian arts such as koshti were replaced by
modern wrestling systems such as the Olympic types of Greco-Roman and
freestyle. With the Islamic Revolution in 1979, whose adherents view all
pre-Islamic practices as pagan, any current prospects for development of
koshti are not bright. Iranians have excelled at modern wrestling competitions,
however, reflecting the long and distinguished history of wrestling
that exists in this nation.
Finally, the Middle East has produced at least one contemporary combat
system, as well: krav maga. Krav maga (Hebrew; contact combat) is an
Israeli martial art that was developed in the 1940s for use by the Israeli military
and intelligence services. The creator of the system was Imi Lichtenfeld,
an immigrant to Israel from Bratislava, Slovak (formerly Czechoslovakia).
Today it is the official fighting art of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and has
gained popularity worldwide as an effective and devastating fighting method.
It is a fighting art exclusively; sport variants do not exist. Krav maga techniques
are designed to be simple and direct. High kicks are used sparingly in
the art; kicks are directed at waist level or below. Knee strikes, especially
against the groin and inner thigh area, are especially used. Practitioners also
use kicks against the legs, similar to those used in Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing),
to unbalance an opponent. Punches are based on boxing moves and
are intended for vital points or to place the mass of the body behind a blow
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