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Who Is Bozorgmehr?

Bozorgmehr challenges the Indian envoy to a game of chess

Anyone who can answer that question without reading further than this first statement should be given a backgammon geek award! Seriously, I have to admit that I didn’t even recognize the name when I first read it. So are you ready to find out who it is and why he is relevant to backgammon?

Well, Bozorgmehr is only the person who has been credited with creating backgammon in its first “scientific version.” I am not so sure as to the veracity of this claim but hey, we know that the game originated in the Middle East of old. So I think that the idea has its merits. From the Iranian News and Culture Journal, we have this info on Bozorgmehr:

Bozorgmehr was a chess master and created the game of Backgammon in its ancient scientific version. Touraj Daryaee on the subject of the early precursors of backgammon wrote that, “The game of backgammon is first mentioned in Bhartrhari’s Vairagyasataka, composed around the late sixth or early seventh century AD”.

The rules of the game, however, first appeared in the Middle Persian text Wızarisnı Catrang ud Nihisnı New Ardaxsır (Explanation of Chess and Invention of Backgammon), composed in the sixth century during the rule of the Sassanid King Khosrow. The text assigns its invention to the Persian sage Wuzurgmihr (Bozorgmehr), the minister of King Khosrow, as a challenge for the Indian sages.

That information seems pretty convincing to me. Has anyone here ever heard of Bozorgmehr before? Any other info that might shed light on his identity and role in the invention of backgammon?