By Keith Law:
1. Backgammon
Other than chess — the history of which is well-covered elsewhere — the most enduring table game of the last few centuries is backgammon, also known as “tables” early in its history.Backgammon itself is a descendant, at least in spirit if not in direct lineage, of the games of Senet and Ur.
The missing link may be the Middle Eastern game Nard or Nardshir, with rules nearly identical to backgammon’s and appearances in Babylonian and Persian literature between 300 and 850 A.D.; when the Arabs conquered Persia in the 6th century, the game spread throughout the Muslim world, moving up the Caucasus and into Central Asia as well as Spain, from which it headed further into Europe…..
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