Wooden Carved Backgammon – Persian Lion

Backgammon

Backgammon is one of the oldest known board games. Its history can be traced back nearly 5,000 years to archeological discoveries in Mesopotamia. It is a two-player game where each player has fifteen pieces that move between twenty-four triangles according to the roll of two dice.

In Persian, the game of backgammon is known as takht-e-nard.  Its exact origin is unclear, but it is thought to have first been played in Mesopotamia and Sumer about 5,000 years ago. The modern game seems to have developed directly from the Persians. According to H.G. Raverty, in an article entitled “The Invention of Chess and Backgammon“: “Ard-Shir Babakan, son of Babak of the Sassanian dynasty of Iran-Zamin or the ancient Persian empire, invented it. The game was also sometimes called  Nard-i-Shir after him.” (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, ca. 1886).