Tâb

Tâb is a running-fight board game for two players, played in several Muslim and mostly Arab countries and recorded in Egypt in the 1820s by the English scholar Edward William Lane. The board has four rows of squares, usually an odd number from seven to fifteen long and often marked on the ground, with a piece on every square of each player's home row. Four split sticks serve as dice, and the value of a throw depends on how many flat and rounded sides land showing. A throw called a tâb is needed to move each piece for the first time. Pieces circle through the middle rows, capture enemies by landing on them, stack with friendly pieces and enter the opponent's home row only once. The game ends when one side has lost every piece. Related games are played from North Africa and West Asia to West Africa, and a poem of 1310 refers to a similar game.