Backgammon (4)

4th History of Backgammon:
Backgammon & Babylon

4. Achieve Literary Immortality: The Old and New Testaments are not noted for their analyses of board games. You won't find Backgammon in the Bible, but it did come close. H.J.R. Murray, in A History of Board Games Other Than Chess, gives as the first reference to Backgammon in world literature—the Jewish Talmud! The Talmud, produced by 6th-century Jews living in Babylon, is a compilation of written commentaries on the Oral Laws of the Jewish people. Apparently, the rabbinical authorities of that time felt the need to at least mention Backgammon. (They didn't offer strategy hints.)

The Babylonian Jews used the Persian words for the game: nard and nardshir. Nard was the wood marker used in the game. Shir means "lion," referring to the two types of pieces then in use: plain wood markers and markers with carved lions' heads.

A century later, Backgammon (Nard, that is) is mentioned in a Persian fictional work about the invention of Chess. Backgammon was supposed to have been invented as a riddle to pose to a king. (The Persians spun the same story about Chess as well.) So chalk up an Indian and a Persian creation myth for Backgammon.


** Up next: Backgammon and Arab..... The first book about Backgammon was written by an Arab.