Ali Nurullah Hasan was a Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 wrestler. He was known with his nickname as Filiz Nurullah Pehlivan to Turkish public whereas he used the alias Hassan Nurullah for his professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 career in Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

.

Nurullah was trained in oil wrestling

Oil wrestling

Oil wrestling , also called grease wrestling, is the Turkish national sport. It is so called because the wrestlers douse themselves with olive oil. It is related to the Uzbeki kurash, Tuvan khuresh and Tatar köräş...

 by Yusuf İsmail

Yusuf İsmail

Yusuf İsmail , also widely known as Youssouf Ishmaelo, was a Turkish professional wrestler who competed in Europe and the United States as Yusuf Ismail the Terrible Turk during the 1890s. During his lifetime, his native Turks knew him as Şumnulu Yusuf Pehlivan...

. In 1894, he accompanied him and Kara Osman

Kara Osman (oilwrestler)

Kara Osman was a 19th century Turkish oilwrestler. He was known to Turkish public as Filibeli Kara Osman after his birthplace Plovdiv. Osman and two other Turkish wrestlers, Nurullah Hasan and Youssuf Ishmaelo, were brought to the West in 1894 by French wrestler Joseph Doublier...

 of Plovdiv

Plovdiv

Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...

 on their journey to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, organised by French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 wrestler-cum-promoter Joseph Doublier. Nurullah's impressive physique (standing 2.02 m tall and weighing 150 kg, although exaggerated figures have also existed) was then noted as a tackle for finding eager opponents. Nevertheless, Nurullah trained in Greco-Roman wrestling

Greco-Roman wrestling

Greco-Roman wrestling is a style of wrestling that is practised worldwide. It was contested at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has been included in every edition of the summer Olympics held since 1908. Two wrestlers are scored for their performance in three two-minute periods, which can...

 and started competing at Folies Bergère by 1895.

Nurullah is renowned for his long rivalries with two formidable exponents of Greco-Roman wrestling; Paul Pons and Kara Ahmet.

Nurullah quit wrestling in 1911 and died a year later in İstanbul.