Photographer Captures the Beauty of Egypt’s “Game of Warriors”

Every year, cities in and around Upper Egypt celebrate religious festivals such as Generator With a display of skill, heroism and tremendous horsemanship called spears. Traditional sports that are often described As a “warrior’s game”, it sees knights maneuvering horses at high speeds, all while brandishing long sticks and wearing loose-fitting robes. It is a cultural performance that has always fascinated Yasser Alaa MubarakWhether on a personal or artistic level.

“Marma is a celebration of strength and courage,” the Egyptian photographer tells My Modern Met. “Imagine an open, dusty field or a narrow street filled with sound: drums beat in a hypnotic rhythm, voices rise in chant, and horses surge forward under riders who balance strength and agility in equal measure.”

While visiting the city of Qena, in southern Egypt, to attend the Prophet’s birthday, Mubarak decided to honor that chaos, rhythm and beauty through photography. The resulting compositions were able to depict marmah with intimacy and drama, showing men leading or weaving their horses gracefully through the streets. Sometimes, these scenes are lit by harsh midday light. Other times, they are mitigated by plumes of dust that obscure the sky like smog. At any moment, the mood can change, and gestures can become a blur with speed or slow to a scramble. It was precisely this unpredictability and dynamism that forced Mubarak to work as a photographer.

“What inspired me was the feeling that still photography can capture moments of transformation,” he explains. “I wanted to freeze those moments: the rise of the horse’s hoof, the children’s expressions, the blur of the flute as it moved. Photographing marmah was less like covering an event and more like stepping into a live stream.”

Condensing these living streams into a single image is of course a daunting task. To produce these images, Mubarak had to first take the pulse of his surroundings, and then “start moving with it.”

“Technically, it required improvisation,” he adds. “I learned to shoot instinctively, to pre-focus, to read the action, and to trust timing rather than control.”

But the biggest challenge facing Mubarak was neither appearance nor formation. Rather, it was closeness. With its density and agility, the Marma does not make itself an easy target. How can a photographer get close enough to the riders, especially when they could gallop their horses at any moment?

“Taking a marma photo honestly means getting close enough to feel the ground shaking under the hooves, taste the dust in the air, and share the intensity of the moment with the participants themselves,” says Mubarak. “This proximity carried risks, but also intimacy.”

Perhaps for this reason, Mubarak’s series “Al-Marmah” carries great weight. Each image offers a poignant glimpse into the connections people have fostered based on heritage, performance, ritual, land, and, in this case, chivalry. In the end, this is what Al-Marma is about, according to Mubarak.

“For someone who has never seen it before, marma may seem chaotic – dust, noise, and movement everywhere. But within this chaos there is a wonderful rhythm and respect: a dialogue between man and animal, between tradition and the present moment, between danger and beauty,” Mubarak concludes. “My goal is connection.”

To learn more about the photographer and the Marma series, visit Yasser Alaa Mubarak website.

During Qena’s visit to the Prophet’s Birthday, Yasser Alaa Mubarak took dramatic photos of the goal, a traditional display of chivalry and daring.

Marma, often described as a “warrior game,” involves knights maneuvering horses at high speeds, all while swinging long sticks and wearing loose-fitting robes.

Yasser Alaa Mubarak: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to display photographs by Yasser Alaa Mubarak.

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