Editing Backgammon (section)

==== Early backgammon ====

Backgammon's immediate predecessor was the 16th century tables game of [[Irish (game)|Irish]].<ref name=Cram/> Irish was the Anglo-Scottish equivalent of the French ''Toutes Tables'' and Spanish ''Todas Tablas'', the latter name first being used in the 1283 ''[[El Libro de los Juegos]]'', a translation of Arabic manuscripts by the [[Toledo School of Translators]]. Irish had been popular at the Scottish court of James IV and considered to be "the more serious and solid game" when the variant which became known as Backgammon began to emerge in the first half of the 17th century.<ref name="Howell 1635, Vol. 2, No. 68"/>  In medieval Italy, [[Barail]] was played on a backgammon board, with the important difference that both players moved their pieces counter-clockwise and starting from the same side of the board.<ref>Murray, H.J.R. 1951. A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 122</ref> The game rules for Barail are recorded in a 13th-century manuscript held in the Italian National Library in Florence.<ref>Ms National Library Florence, Banco Rari, 6 p. 2 no. 1</ref>
[[File:Darnica Gurieli by Christoforo de Castelli mid 17th century.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|A [[Georgians|Georgian]] [[noblewoman]] 
[[Danica (given name)|Darnica]] [[Gurieli]] with backgammon in the foreground, circa 1635]]
The earliest mention of backgammon, under the name ''Baggammon'', was by James Howell in a letter dated 1635.<ref>Howell (1650), p. 105.</ref>{{efn|The fact that this is the earliest mention is stated in Fiske (1905), p. 285.}} In English, the word "backgammon" is most likely derived from "back" and {{langx|enm|gamen}}, meaning "game" or "play". Meanwhile, the first use documented by the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1650.<ref name="oed">{{cite book|chapter=backgammon|title=The Oxford English Dictionary|edition=Second|url=http://dictionary.oed.com/|year=1989|access-date=2006-08-05|archive-date=2006-06-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625103623/http://dictionary.oed.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1666, it is reported that the "old name for backgammon used by Shakespeare and others" was Tables.<ref>Wheately (1666), p. 70.</ref> However, it is clear from Willughby that "tables" was a generic name and that the phrase "playing at tables" was used in a similar way to "playing at cards".<ref name=Willughby>Willughby (c. 1660-1672), entries for "Cards", "Tables", "Irish" and "Back Gammon."</ref> The first known rules of "Back Gammon" were produced by [[Francis Willughby|Francis Willoughby]] around 1672;<ref>Willughby (c. 1672)</ref> they were quickly followed by [[Charles Cotton]] in 1674.<ref>Cotton (1674), pp. 156–158.</ref>

[[Image:Hoyle-backgammon.png|thumb|upright=0.75|right|''A Short Treatise on the Game of Back-Gammon'']]

In the 16th century, Elizabethan laws and church regulations had prohibited "playing at tables" in England, but by the 18th century, Backgammon had superseded Irish and become popular among the English clergy.<ref name="murray"/> [[Edmond Hoyle]] published ''A Short Treatise on the Game of Back-Gammon'' in 1753; this described rules and strategy for the game and was bound together with a similar text on [[whist]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Allee|first=Sheila|url=http://www.utexas.edu/supportut/news_pub/yg_foreedge.html|title=A Foregone Conclusion: Fore-Edge Books Are Unique Additions to Ransom Collection|publisher=The University of Texas at Austin|access-date=2006-08-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060621093338/http://www.utexas.edu/supportut/news_pub/yg_foreedge.html|archive-date=2006-06-21|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The early form of backgammon was very similar to its predecessor, Irish. The aim, board, number of pieces or "men", direction of play and starting layout were the same as in the modern game.{{efn|Charles Cotton (1674) gives an alternative starting layout as well as the familiar one.}} However, there was no doubling die, there was no bar on the board or the bar was not used (men simply being moved off the table when hit) and the scoring was different. The game was won double if either the winning throw was a doublet or the opponent still had men outside the home board. It was won triple if a player bore all men off before any of the opponent's men reached the home board; this was a ''back-gammon''. Some terminology, such as "point", "hitting a blot", "home", "doublet", "bear off" and "men" are recognisably the same as in the modern game; others, such as "binding a man" (adding a second man to a point) "binding up the tables" (taking all one's first 6 points), "fore game", "latter game", "nipping a man" (hitting a blot and playing it on forwards) "playing at length" (using both dice to move one man) are no longer in vogue.<ref name=Cotton>Cotton (1674), pp. 154–185.</ref><ref name=Willughby/>