In contrast to camel and horse racing as well as falconry, pearl diving has not been transformed into a popular heritage sport in the countries of the Arab Gulf. One reason for this striking disinterest is that the actual practice of pearling was undertaken by impoverished and exploited workers, and this is no longer compatible with the new prevailing, self-assertive ‘tribal modern’ of the Arab Gulf.

Interdisciplinary in approach, this volume explores and deciphers the symbolic value and iconicity of the built environment in the Arab Gulf Region, its aesthetics, language and performative characteristics. Bringing together a range of studies by artists, curators and scholars, it demonstrates how Dubai appeared - at least until the financial crisis - to be leading the construction race and has already completed a large number of its landmark architecture and strategic facilities. In contrast, cities like the Qatari capital Doha still appear to be heavily ‘under construction’ and in countries like the Sultanate of Oman, ultra-luxury tourism projects were started only recently. While the construction of artificial islands, theme parks and prestige sport facilities has attracted considerable attention, much less is known about the region’s widespread implementation of innovative infrastructure such as global container ports, free zones, inter-island causeways and metro lines. This volume argues that these endeavours are not simply part of a strategy to prepare for the post-oil era for future economic survival and prosperity in the Lower Gulf region, but that they are also aiming to strengthen identitarian patterns and specific national brands. In doing so, they exhibit similar, yet remarkably diverse modes of engaging with certain global trends and present - questionably - distinct ideas for putting themselves on the global map. Each country aims to grab attention with regard to the world-wide flow of goods and capital and thus provide its own citizens with a socially acceptable trajectory for the future. By doing that, the countries in the Gulf are articulating a new semiotic and paradigm of urban development. For the first time, this volume maps these trends in their relation to architecture and infrastructure, in particular by treating them as semiotics in their own right. It suggests that recent developments in this region of the world not only represent a showcase of extraordinary initiatives by which these desert states have transformed, but also that the commodification of local ‘traditions’ acts as an essential element in the countries’ effort to design an Arab version of (hyper-)modernity and to position themselves as a regional and global archetype, which has frequently been adopted elsewhere.

Managed officially by the Turkish Wrestling Federation, neo-traditional oil wrestling with its deep historical heritage is nowadays appropriated as a typically Turkish sport. It has to navigate between national regulation demands, local dynamics, engrossments of sorts and international attention. Its summit as the main athletic event with its pompous ritual program at the annual festival of Kirkpinar in the city of Edirne presents a full-screen picture that is taken here as a prism to analyse its special attraction and the predilection of various actors.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923) as a huge multi-ethnic and multi-religious conglomerate spread across three continents, its successor, the modern Republic of Turkey, was confined in its current borders to mainly Asia Minor. Through the lens of physical culture, this article looks at the impact of the all-encompassing project of nation building as enacted by Ataturk. It traces the efforts for modernity and reform that already started in the nineteenth century but were later turned into a means to purge the newborn nation of Ottoman 'backwardness'. Catching up with the West, including the introduction of new athletic disciplines, became imperative. In view of some selected physical activities, the article discusses how the 'Sick Man of Europe', as the empire was called because its Balkan possessions were dwindling, was designed to turn into a proud and powerful, yet disciplined Turkish entity. Nevertheless, traditional sports in particular have somewhat retained and appropriated religion within a now officially secular society, providing an important cultural reservoir that could bridge some of the country's existing frictions.

The introduction aims at critically discussing 'traditional' styles vis-a-vis sportification trajectories and favours the notion of 'modified' wrestling. Though neo-traditional or 'modified' wrestling practices have reached some degree of sportification, they do not seem to be among the 'sufficiently' disciplined ones precisely because they were never fully disconnected from their festive context. Furthermore, they are linked with notions of tradition, antiquity and authenticity and at the same time with desires to be modern and perhaps even to become international or Olympic sports. This multiple in-betweenness creates tensions that influence their management and use in impressive and often unpredictable ways.

The Kirkpinar oil wrestling festival in the Turkish town of Edirne on the European side of the country close to the Greek and Bulgarian borders has been inscribed in 2010 in the 'Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity' of the UNESCO. Although this physical activity has originally a Greek-Byzantine tradition, the annual event is crowned by the victorious emergence of the so-called 'Champion of Turkey'. In the summer of 2012, the athletic meeting of some 1500 wrestlers took place supposedly for the 651th time. Hence it is said to be the oldest continuously practised sports contest on earth, thereby dwarfing the Olympic Games. However, in the course of especially its younger history throughout the long twentieth century, there are various changes in this for many reasons (re-)invented tradition. Based on field research and especially a range of Turkish sources, this article traces oil wrestling as an imperial Ottoman practice and depicts its embeddedness in wrestling lodges and palaces; it highlights the role of modern show wrestling, that even staged 'Terrible Turks', and problematises the Republican process of Turkification, the sports-oriented corset of the modern Turkish Wrestling Federation and the system logic of heritagisation.