In 'Backgammon the Action Game' by Prince Alexis Obolensky and Ted James it tells how the game was played in ancient Sumer, 5,000 years ago, goes on to talk about the Romans and how they played it, and then it says:

"During the first millenium after Christ, backgammon was played throughout the Middle East. Whether or not the Romans were responsible for its popularization or if it just continued to be played after Sumer crumbled is not known. However, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, H.G. Raverty, in an article entitled "The invention of chess and backgammon", writes: Ard-Shir Babakan, son of Babak of the Sasanian dynasty of Iran-Zamin or the ancient Persian empire, invented it. The game was also sometimes called Nard-i-Shir after him."

I must say, the explanation of going back and getting gammons doesn't ring true. The 'back' bit relies upon English, and in English we always called it tables, after the Latin tabula, until fairly recent times (well, until a few hundred years ago, anyway). The 'gammon' bit begs the question of why are gammons called that anyway? It seems more likely that they got called after the game than the other way around to me. So, why not the good Babakan as the origin? It sounds right. In language, we often corrupt a strange or foreign word into something that does at least sound like our own language. For example, take the English slang term 'loo' (bathroom) which is a corruption of the French 'gardez l'eau' (beware - water) a cry from the day when chamberpots were emptied out of upstairs windows onto the street (yuck, hmm?). Loo was a popular card game of the 18th century, a sandbank, and a common place name suffix. Now, if the game was revived in the West as a result of interest in the Middle East, say in the Crusades, the Persian term could have spread gradually throughout Europe as an alternative to the more popular Latin name, finally taking over in English around the 17th century. Any thoughts?

The game Babakan is said to have invented was not quite the same as backgammon, but close. If anyone is interested, I can post that bit of the book too. I would love to get hold of the article that was quoted.

By the way, I have also read somewhere, but can't remember the source, that the word Backgammon comes from the Welsh and means 'little war'. Hmm - I don't think so. The Welsh are not renowned as being backgammon players. I think this must be a happy coincidence.