Alquerque is a strategy

Abstract strategy game

An abstract strategy game is a strategy game, aiming to minimise luck, and without a theme. Almost all abstract strategy games will conform to the strictest definition of: a board or card game, in which there is no hidden information, no non-deterministic elements , in which two players or teams...

 board game

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

 that is thought to have originated in the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

. It is considered to have been the parent of draughts

Draughts

Draughts is a group of abstract strategy board games between two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemy's pieces. Draughts developed from alquerque...

 (US, South Africa: checkers) and Fanorona

Fanorona

Fanorona is an abstract strategy board game indigenous to Madagascar.-Introduction:Fanorona has three standard versions: Fanoron-Telo, Fanoron-Dimy, and Fanoron-Tsivy. The difference between these variants is the size of board played on. Fanoron-Telo is played on a 3×3 board and the difficulty of...

.
The game does not appear in literature until late in the 10th century when the author Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani mentioned Qirkat in his 24 volume work Kitab al-Aghani

Kitab al-Aghani

Kitab al-aghani , is an encyclopedic collection of poems and songs that runs to over 20 volumes in modern editions by the 8th/9th-century litterateur Abu l-Faraj al-Isfahani . Abu l-Faraj claimed to have taken 50 years in writing the work, which ran to over 10 000 pages...

("Book of Songs"). This work, however, made no mention of the rules of the game.

In Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, R. C. Bell

Robert Charles Bell

RC Bell was the author of several books on board games, most importantly Board and Table Games 1 & 2...

 writes that "when the Moors invaded Spain they took El-quirkat with them".