Done with your fasting and dinner and don’t know what to do? Call buddies home for a game of Belut. Yes, there can’t be a better pastime in the holy month. For the uninitiated, it’s a popular card game in Saudi Arabia — a slight variant of the French card game Belote. Young and old alike play Belut, which entails four people, two to a team.
It is very common to see Belut being played by gahwa-sipping aficionados on the benches in front of their houses after futur and prayers.
And if well-known 60-something Saudi businessman Ahmed Badeeb — whose holdings include agricultural projects and resorts in the region — were to have his way, this game would become an Olympic event.
“I look at Belut as both a mental sport and an entertainment. Saudis can also use it as an occasion to get together,” said Badeeb. “Men of letters, businessmen, lawyers, employers and others are solidly behind me in my attempt to make the card game an Olympic event.”
Badeeb could be considered the godfather of Belut; he founded an annual competition in Jeddah a couple of years ago, which is part of the city’s Summer Festival.
Badeeb has also called on the Saudi sport authority, the General Presidency of Youth Welfare, to help him promote the game as an athletic event. He advocates for this the same way chess enthusiasts argue that their favorite game requires the same mental acumen of an athlete. For it’s part, the Olympics authority hasn’t been convinced about chess — much less any card game — as it requires at least 70 countries to actively promote and participate in any competition nominated for Olympic qualification.
“This is the first phase toward making it an Olympic game,” he said.
The Jeddah annual championship consists of 73 teams vying for prizes. The group has even formalized 30 rules for the game played in this competition. (The rules of the game vary considerably throughout the region.)
To Badeeb, the game offers a wholesome escape from boredom, especially in the slow summer months of time off from work and other responsibilities.
According to Al-Sharif Fuad Angawi, the author of “Belut,” published locally in Arabic, that traces the history of the game in Saudi Arabia, the game has been played in Saudi Arabia since the 19th century.
“Belut might have come to us from Europe or India,” said Badeeb. “This what Angawi said in his book and I tend to agree with him.”
The Arabic daily Al-Watan recently interviewed a number of young Saudi women who said Belut offers a wholesome alternative to shopping and gossip.
“There is no place where we can go to except malls,” says Manal, 26. “This (game) cheers us up.”
Haya, a university student in Jeddah in her 20s, told the newspaper that her friends play Belut to decide which team has to pay for breakfast the next day.
A Saudi father in his 50s said he is so thrilled that his daughter enjoys Belut matches at home that he serves her friends dinner and desserts to encourage them to stay at home rather than go to the mall to be harassed by young men.
Fluwa Al-Khatib, a sociology professor at King Saud University, told Al-Watan that nobody should consider Belut an immoral activity — especially considering the popularity of the pastime during the holy month of Ramadan.
“It’s a form of entertainment that they use to pass their time in an enjoyable atmosphere,” he said.
