Mangala (game)

Mangala (game)
Ranks	Two
Sowing	Single lap
Region	Turkey

Mangala is a traditional Turkish mancala game. It is strictly related to the mancala games Iraqi Halusa, Palestinian Al-manqala, and Baltic German Bohnenspiel. There is also another game referred as Mangala played by the Bedouin in Egypt, and Sudan, but it has quite different rules.^[1]

The game can be traced in Ottoman miniatures starting from XVI. century.^[2] According to the Turkish ethnologue Metin And, the "mancala" of The Arabian Nights (fifteenth night) could be directly related to this game.^[3] It was first described in 1694 by British orientalist Thomas Hyde.^[4] The game was also referred as Mangola in some later western works.^[5]

The classic mangala game is still known in Turkey, but mangala played in Gaziantep, in Southern Anatolia, is more similar to Syrian mancala La'b Madjnuni (Crazy Game).^[6] There are many other mancala variants played in Anatolia: Pıç in Erzurum, Altıev in Safranbolu, Meneli Taş in Ilgın, etc.^[7]

Rules

Mangala is played on a 2x6 (or 2x7) mancala board (i.e., 2 rows of 6 or 7 pits). At game setup, 5 pieces are placed in each pit. At his or her turn, the player takes all the piecess from one of his or her pits and drops them one at a time into the following pits counterclockwise. If the last piece in a distribution is dropped in a pit that contains 1 or 3 pieces (2 or 4 with the one just dropped), all those pieces are captured by the player. Also, if there is a continuous line of pits with either 2 or 4 pieces before the one where the capture has occurred, all the seeds in those pits are captured as well. Players may capture on either side of the board. The game ends when all the pits are empty. The player who captured most pieces wins the game.

References

1. ^ "Mangala I". wikinfo.org. http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Mangala_I. Retrieved 2 September 2011. 
2. ^ "History of Mangala". http://www.mangala.com.tr/history.html. Retrieved 2 September 2011. 
3. ^ M. And. "Some Notes on Aspects and Functions of Turkish Folk Games". The Journal of American Folklore, vol.92, No. 363 21, p. 44-64, 1979. http://www.turkishculture.org/lifestyles/turkish-culture-portal/turkish-childrens-games-750.htm?type=1. Retrieved 2 September 2011. 
4. ^ T. Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus, 1694, Oxford (England), p. 226-232.
5. ^ Jean Antoine Guer. "Moeurs et usages des Turcs, leur religion, leur gouvernement civil, militaire et politique" (in french). Paris, vol.1, p. 394, 1747. http://books.google.com.tr/books?id=O408AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA394&lpg=PA394&dq=Jean-Antoine+Guer+mangola&source=bl&ots=KrJWORoJ_a&sig=PRhsVy5mm-Qcx7Q9SSJrPbMKTXk&hl=tr&ei=hDtgTtKMBo2g-Ab9raEI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2 September 2011. "Le Mangola est un jeu Turc , qui se joue avec de petites coquilles." 
6. ^ "Mangala II". wikinfo.org. http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Mangala_II. Retrieved 2 September 2011. 
7. ^ M. And. "Çocuk Oyunlarının Kültürümüzde Yeri ve Önemi, 1979" (in turkish). Ulusal Kültür - Üç Aylık Kültür Dergisi, No.4. http://www.halksahnesi.org/incelemeler/oyun_cocuk/oyun_cocuk.htm. Retrieved 2 September 2011. 

External links

• Rules of Mangala at WikiManqala
• Modern Mangala Rules