Forum Archive : History

Origin of backgammon From:   Greycat Sharpclaw Address:   greycat@idt.net.spamguard Date:   7 October 1997 Subject:   Re: NARDY = BACKGAMMON? Forum:   rec.games.backgammon Google:   61c5rp$lj2@nnrp4.farm.idt.net > When I played BACKGAMMON many years ago in the USSR, > the game was called NARDY, and known to originate > somewhere from Iran-Turkey-Armenia-Azerbajan. > We used some special names for throws, > a mixture of Persian and Turkish. > > Can anybody answer the following questions: > 1. What country did BLACKGAMMON originate from? > 2. What was its original name? Apparently from Mesopotamia, several thousand years back. Some scholors have disputed the translations that this is based on, however. My limited research makes me a supporter of this theory, however. The oldest confirmed "near-modern" version is the Persian game Nard, from about 450 C.E. ... it is this that the Russian name/traditional history apparently traces. Nard is approximately modern with no doubles (6-6 gives you 2 six moves, not 4), no cube, and no gammons. The older Roman varient (Caligula was known to cheat) is "Tabula" (Latin for tables) - incidently it had 3 dice, not 2. It is from this name that the modern names in the Romance language countries tend to derive. Greycat Greycat@idt.net.spamguard Does anyone have any spare tunafish?? Remove "spamguard" from return address to reply   Did you find the information in this article useful?           Do you have any comments you'd like to add?

 

History

Backgammon in China  (Mark Driver, Jan 2001) 

Backgammon variants  (Raccoon, Aug 2003) 

Books on the history of backgammon  (Albert Steg, Aug 1998) 

Changes in backgammon over the years  (Joe Russell, July 2009) 

Doubling in the 17th Century?  (David Levy+, Dec 2003) 

Murray's "History of Boardgames Other than Chess"  (Dean Jameson, Apr 2002) 

Origin of backgammon  (Greycat Sharpclaw, Oct 1997) 

Recent changes  (Joe Russell+, July 2009) 

The effect of bots on the game  (Daniel Murphy+, May 2005) 

The name "backgammon"  (Jive Dadson+, Dec 2002) 

The name "backgammon"  (Marina Smith, Jan 1998) 

The name "backgammon"  (Albert Steg, Mar 1995) 

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