As-Nas

English

Etymology

Borrowing from Persian آس ناس.

Proper noun

As-Nas

1. A card game, formerly played in Persia, with similarities to early versions of poker.
   • 1990, David Parlett, The Oxford Guide to Card Games, Oxford University Press, page 112:

     The fact that Old Poker involved 20 cards, five-card hands, and rank-only combinations led some nineteenth-century researchers to derive it from the Persian game of As-Nas, as described by General A. Houtum Schindler in Culin's Chess and Playing Cards (1896).

   • 2002, Sally E. D. Wilkins, Sports and Games of Medieval Cultures, Greenwood Press, page 120:

     As nas was a five-handed card game played in Persia (Iran today). Although the earliest written records of the game come from the seventeenth century, we have examples of playing cards suited to the game from the medieval time, so it seems reasonable to conclude that as nas or a very similar game was played during the period.

2. A variety of playing cards used to play the game.

Anagrams

• Assan, sansa