Strolling through the streets of Nicosia, one cannot fail to notice the small tables outside cafeneia and ouzeri with people focused on a curious wooden board where they move pawns. They are playing the board game backgammon, a two-player board game where counters and dice are moved on tables boards.

The history of the game dates back thousands of years and has been played in various forms all over the world. It is played with two participants and the throw of the dice determines their moves around a chequerboard which consists of two halves.

Even though the earliest record of backgammon itself dates to 17th-century England, being descended from the 16th-century so called “game of Irish”, Backgammon is now considered the national game in many countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region, like Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, Palestine, and Lebanon.

The earliest possible ancestor of the game to be found so far dates back some five thousand years to the ancient civilization of Sumer which flourished in southern Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq, when bones were used as dice.

Archaeologists found backgammon also in tables in the courtyards of just about every villa in Pompeii. The Romans were the first to make Backgammon truly popular with their version called “ludus duodecim scriptorum,” the twelve-line game, for the twelve points on each side of the board.

The history of backgammon is long, incomplete and the exact origins of the game remain unknown. However, we can say that the popularity of the game throughout the Eastern Mediterranean region seems to have strengthened during the era of the Ottoman Empire, which controlled the entire region in the early modern period.

In Cyprus, both old and young people enjoy playing Backgammon while sipping a coffee or a beer with friends. Here the game is called Tavli (Τάβλι), that in Greek means “table”.

The scene of old men playing tavli is so common in the streets of Cyprus that the artist I am Duckman decided to depict it in a large work of street art on a wall in the old centre of Nicosia, to show people passing by a piece of the soul of the island of Cyprus.

The first time I played this game was in Lebanon, in 2019, at the university cafeteria during the breaks between classes. It was my Lebanese and Syrian peers, students like me at the university, who taught me how to play what in arabic is called tawle (طاولة), an Arabic word meaning, once again, “table”.

From then on, part of my mornings at the university campus consisted of the following: someone would pull out what looked like a small wooden briefcase and say, “Do you want to play backgammon?”. And thus, in an atmosphere surrounding the table box, which was always haunted by smoke flying from cigarettes, hookahs, the fragrant coffee aroma, and other mixed noises, I learnt to play Backgammon, sharpening my skill.

That is how, a few years later, on a Saturday morning, while waiting for a friend at the kiosk in front of the OXI market, the fruit and vegetable market held in Nicosia every weekend, I decided to challenge two nice gentlemen who had just pulled out their game board. Clearly not thrilled with my proposal, as they didn’t think I was up to their game, they eventually accepted my challenge. However, my enthusiasm and passion for the game soon gave way to the predictions of the two old gentlemen, seeing me capitulate quickly in a crushing defeat.

Despite the predictable but shameful defeat, it was very nice to take part in a piece of Cypriot life, which took me back to the days of matches with Lebanese friends.

Likewise, once I arrived in Cyprus, it was surprising to discover how playing backgammon is also so common in this country, as it is throughout the neighbouring region, and I found this discovery very fascinating having previously witnessed the same custom in other Eastern Mediterranean countries.

Just as this game has been handed down and transferred over the centuries from region to region and country to country, until its exact traces have been lost, it is fascinating how it still represents a common language across the many shores of the Mediterranean Sea and why not, could one day be a vehicle to break down barriers and stereotypes, and bring people back together, united by a deep and ancient culture.

Bibliography

Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford, The History of Backgammon, from “The Backgammon Book”, The Viking Press, 1970, https://www.bkgm.com/books/JacobyCrawford/HistoryOfBG/.

Duckmandesign, Tavli player, https://duckmandesign.com/mural-painting-tavli-player.

Adhid Miri, The Game of Kings: A History of Backgammon, https://www.chaldeannews.com/features-1/2021/4/27/the-game-of-kings-a-history-of-backgammon.