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An Arab Game in the North Pole?

An Arab Game in the North Pole?

By Thierry Depaulis

Board Games Studies, Vol.4 (2001)

Introduction: The impressive so far unpublished or very little known material that is presented in the preceding pages show one evidence: the Sámi game sáhkku, the Norwegian and Danish games daldøs and daldøsa, and the tâb group of games in the Islamic world belong to the same category of games, those that I call ‘race games with direct capture’. They share so many common features that one is led to wonder about the possible links between the Nordic games and the Arab-Muslim ones. In other words did daldøs(a) and sáhkku come from the Muslim world, or the other way round? Or are they independent inventions?

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