Tahteeb evolved from deadly contest to a noncontact form of martial arts

Reuters is out with yet another story on tahteeb, the ancient Egyptian martial art. Their angle is how the martial art evolved from being one that could see the loser injured or killed to now being non-contact, with striking not permitted. “Tahteeb requires a great deal of skill and control, and there are rules which govern how to hold the stick and the kinds of blows permitted, some of which were aimed to be deadly before the martial art became a no-contact discipline.”