M. A. R. Barker
Encyclopedia
Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (born November 3, 1929 as Phillip Barker) is a retired professor of Urdu
and South Asia
n Studies who created one of the first roleplaying games, Empire of the Petal Throne, and has authored several fantasy
/science fantasy
novels based in his associated world setting of Tékumel
.
, Washington, descended from ancestors who had originally settled in America in 1626, Barker's childhood was spent around Washington and Idaho
. As a youth he had an interest in "fairy stories, history and literature" which would be further influenced by such films as The Thief of Bagdad
; all of which helped to turn his casual "wargames" with toy soldiers more towards fantasy. From this his fictional lands of Tsolyanu and others, in what was later to become Tékumel
, emerged and were embellished further in middle and high school years during which time he commenced construction of armies of hand-carved figures to represent his creations. Also at an early age, Barker's interest in languages was piqued by neighboring children of Basque
origin who were able to exclude others from their secret conversations in their native tongue.
under Melville Jacobs
, he became involved with small press publications, writing articles, short stories and contributing reviews to Fanscient and the local clubzine Sinisterra; the latter of which contained his review of, and content from, Jack Vance
relating to his recently published book, The Dying Earth
. Also at this time, Barker corresponded with other authors who contributed to those same publications, including Lin Carter
in whose writings and linguistic experiments he took an interest and with whom he finally put to paper the story line of his own created world.
He received a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951 to study Indian languages and on his first trip to India that year converted to Islam
; "for purely theological reasons. It seemed like a more logical religion", according to Fine, although Barker himself admitted at the time to an "[unimaginable] feeling of awe and religious ecstasy" upon hearing the recitations of the 99 Names of Allah at the Taj Mahal
.
for graduate studies, writing a dissertation on Klamath language, collecting traditional myths, legends, tales, and oral histories
and later publishing a grammar and dictionary on the language.
He taught at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University
from around 1958/9 until 1972 and became active in the development of Urdu and Baluchi instruction materials for English-speaking students following a period of two years from 1960 when he was attached to Panjab University. Some of these are still recommended university course study materials as of 2010. From 1972 he moved to teach at the University of Minnesota
in Minneapolis, where he chaired the Department of South Asian studies until his retirement in the early 1990s, a few years after that department was disbanded due to reduced funding.
Having watched the Dungeons & Dragons
games started by Mike Mornard, one of the original testers for D&D, when he moved to Minneapolis from Lake Geneva
, Barker resolved to create his own ruleset based on his own created world and the game mechanics from D&D. After six weeks, this was self-published in August 1974 as Empire of the Petal Throne and play commenced forthwith, including such occasional members as Dave Arneson
- who singled-out Barker and Tekumel as being his favorite GM
and roleplaying game, respectively - from early days.
Once Gary Gygax
's attention had been drawn to Barker's work, it was decided that TSR
would publish a revised version of the game mechanics along with a condensed version of his campaign setting
. Gygax drew comparisons between the world of Tékumel and J. R. R. Tolkien
's Middle-earth
not in terms of literature created, nor that his work was derivative of Tolkien's (being well-advanced by the time The Lord of the Rings
was released), but rather regarding the in-depth detail in the setting, mythos and linguistic backgrounds and concluded that Barker's work had the edge over Tolkien's in terms of matters relating to gamers since it had been developed by a "wargamer", whereas Tolkien had no such background and having died prior to the release of D&D was thus unable to address this new pastime personally.
Despite having had a head start on other in-depth campaign settings and seeing his game released no less than four times with various supplements and magazine articles, many which he contributed to, and having authored five books using the same setting, Barker's Tékumel in both roleplaying and literary domains is still well known to only a relatively small audience, leading German magazine Der Spiegel
in 2009 to publish an article on Barker's life entitled "Der vergessene Tolkien" ["The forgotten Tolkien"]. The article quotes friends and acquaintances who posit that this may be, at least in part, due to the unfamiliarity of the setting compared with Western society, echoing Fine's observations from 1983, and possibly even that Tékumel was released to the gaming world too early on, when players had only just started to experiment with their own invented worlds rather than fitting their play into pre-configured, non-literary domains with novel backgrounds.
In 2008, Barker founded the Tékumel Foundation along with many of his long-time players, to preserve and manage rights relating to his creations in future.
He and his wife, Ambereen, currently reside in Minneapolis.
Published by the University of California Press
:
Published by the McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies
:
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
and South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
n Studies who created one of the first roleplaying games, Empire of the Petal Throne, and has authored several fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
/science fantasy
Science fantasy
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the...
novels based in his associated world setting of Tékumel
Tékumel
Tékumel is a fantasy world created by Professor M. A. R. Barker over the course of several decades from around 1940. With time Barker also created the role-playing game Empire of the Petal Throne, set in the Tékumel fictional universe and first published in 1975 by TSR, Inc...
.
Early life
Born in SpokaneSpokane
Spokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...
, Washington, descended from ancestors who had originally settled in America in 1626, Barker's childhood was spent around Washington and Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
. As a youth he had an interest in "fairy stories, history and literature" which would be further influenced by such films as The Thief of Bagdad
The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)
The Thief of Bagdad is a 1940 British fantasy film produced by Alexander Korda, and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, and Tim Whelan, with contributions by Korda's brothers Vincent and Zoltán, and William Cameron Menzies...
; all of which helped to turn his casual "wargames" with toy soldiers more towards fantasy. From this his fictional lands of Tsolyanu and others, in what was later to become Tékumel
Tékumel
Tékumel is a fantasy world created by Professor M. A. R. Barker over the course of several decades from around 1940. With time Barker also created the role-playing game Empire of the Petal Throne, set in the Tékumel fictional universe and first published in 1975 by TSR, Inc...
, emerged and were embellished further in middle and high school years during which time he commenced construction of armies of hand-carved figures to represent his creations. Also at an early age, Barker's interest in languages was piqued by neighboring children of Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
origin who were able to exclude others from their secret conversations in their native tongue.
Academic life and creative networking
In, and just before 1950, while Barker was studying at the University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
under Melville Jacobs
Melville Jacobs
Melville Jacobs was an American anthropologist known for his extensive fieldwork on cultures of the Pacific Northwest. He was born in New York City. After studying with Franz Boas he became a member of the faculty of the University of Washington in 1928 and remained until his death in 1971...
, he became involved with small press publications, writing articles, short stories and contributing reviews to Fanscient and the local clubzine Sinisterra; the latter of which contained his review of, and content from, Jack Vance
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...
relating to his recently published book, The Dying Earth
The Dying Earth
The Dying Earth is a 1950 collection of fantasy short stories by author Jack Vance. It is the first book in the Dying Earth series. It was nominated for the Retro Hugo in 2001.-Stories:*Turjan of Miir*Mazirian the Magician*T'sais...
. Also at this time, Barker corresponded with other authors who contributed to those same publications, including Lin Carter
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...
in whose writings and linguistic experiments he took an interest and with whom he finally put to paper the story line of his own created world.
He received a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951 to study Indian languages and on his first trip to India that year converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
; "for purely theological reasons. It seemed like a more logical religion", according to Fine, although Barker himself admitted at the time to an "[unimaginable] feeling of awe and religious ecstasy" upon hearing the recitations of the 99 Names of Allah at the Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...
.
Later Academic studies and career
Barker attended the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
for graduate studies, writing a dissertation on Klamath language, collecting traditional myths, legends, tales, and oral histories
Modoc traditional narratives
Modoc traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Modoc and Klamath people of northern California and southern Oregon....
and later publishing a grammar and dictionary on the language.
He taught at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
from around 1958/9 until 1972 and became active in the development of Urdu and Baluchi instruction materials for English-speaking students following a period of two years from 1960 when he was attached to Panjab University. Some of these are still recommended university course study materials as of 2010. From 1972 he moved to teach at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
in Minneapolis, where he chaired the Department of South Asian studies until his retirement in the early 1990s, a few years after that department was disbanded due to reduced funding.
"The forgotten Tolkien"
Whilst at Berkeley, Barker had not set aside his world creation project. Indeed, despite stepping back somewhat from an active role in the published science fiction/fantasy fandom, he had commenced "proto-gaming" with a group of like-minded science fiction fans including fellow linguist Bill Shipley and Victor Golla, producing elaborate documents to support the exploration of that shared world.Having watched the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
games started by Mike Mornard, one of the original testers for D&D, when he moved to Minneapolis from Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Lake Geneva is a city in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 7,148 at the 2000 census. A resort city located on Geneva Lake, it is southwest of Milwaukee and popular with tourists from metropolitan Chicago and Milwaukee.-History:...
, Barker resolved to create his own ruleset based on his own created world and the game mechanics from D&D. After six weeks, this was self-published in August 1974 as Empire of the Petal Throne and play commenced forthwith, including such occasional members as Dave Arneson
Dave Arneson
David Lance "Dave" Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game , Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s...
- who singled-out Barker and Tekumel as being his favorite GM
Dungeon Master
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the Dungeon Master is the game organizer and participant in charge of creating the details and challenges of a given adventure, while maintaining a realistic continuity of events...
and roleplaying game, respectively - from early days.
Once Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
's attention had been drawn to Barker's work, it was decided that TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
would publish a revised version of the game mechanics along with a condensed version of his campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
. Gygax drew comparisons between the world of Tékumel and J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
not in terms of literature created, nor that his work was derivative of Tolkien's (being well-advanced by the time The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
was released), but rather regarding the in-depth detail in the setting, mythos and linguistic backgrounds and concluded that Barker's work had the edge over Tolkien's in terms of matters relating to gamers since it had been developed by a "wargamer", whereas Tolkien had no such background and having died prior to the release of D&D was thus unable to address this new pastime personally.
Despite having had a head start on other in-depth campaign settings and seeing his game released no less than four times with various supplements and magazine articles, many which he contributed to, and having authored five books using the same setting, Barker's Tékumel in both roleplaying and literary domains is still well known to only a relatively small audience, leading German magazine Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
in 2009 to publish an article on Barker's life entitled "Der vergessene Tolkien" ["The forgotten Tolkien"]. The article quotes friends and acquaintances who posit that this may be, at least in part, due to the unfamiliarity of the setting compared with Western society, echoing Fine's observations from 1983, and possibly even that Tékumel was released to the gaming world too early on, when players had only just started to experiment with their own invented worlds rather than fitting their play into pre-configured, non-literary domains with novel backgrounds.
In 2008, Barker founded the Tékumel Foundation along with many of his long-time players, to preserve and manage rights relating to his creations in future.
He and his wife, Ambereen, currently reside in Minneapolis.
Language Texts
Barker studied various languages academically and helped author and co-author various publications relating to some of those, including the following:Published by the University of California Press
University of California Press
University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
:
- Klamath Texts (1963)
- Klamath Dictionary (1963)
- Klamath Grammar (1964)
Published by the McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies
McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies
The McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies and the Islamic Studies Library were established in 1952 by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and since 1983 both have been housed in Morrice Hall on McGill's campus in downtown Montreal...
:
- A Course in Urdu (1967)
- An Urdu Newspaper Reader (1968)
- A Reader of Modern Urdu Poetry (1968)
- A Course in Baluchi (1969)
Roleplaying
Tékumel has spawned four professionally-published roleplaying games over the course of the years:- Empire of the Petal Throne (1975) as a boxed set by TSR, Inc.TSR, Inc.Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
following earlier self-publication in 1974, and reprinted later as a single book by Different Worlds PublicationsDifferent WorldsDifferent Worlds was an American role-playing games' magazine, now defunct.-History:Different Worlds was launched in 1979 by Greg Stafford to promote the role-playing games from his own editing house, Chaosium...
in 1987. - Swords & Glory (1983/4) in two volumes by Gamescience.
- Gardasiyal: Adventures in Tekumel (1994) by Theater of the Mind Enterprises; with Neil R. Cauley.
- Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne (2005) by Guardians of OrderGuardians of OrderGuardians of Order was a Canadian company founded in 1996 by Mark C. MacKinnon in Guelph, Ontario. The company's business output consisted of role-playing games . Their first game is the anime inspired Big Eyes, Small Mouth. In 2006 Guardians of Order ceased operations due to overwhelming...
; by various, with M.A.R. Barker.
Novels
Barker has written five novels set in the world of Tékumel - in chronological reading order these are:- The Man of Gold (1984)
- Flamesong (1985)
- Lords of Tsámra (2003)
- Prince of Skulls (2002)
- A Death of Kings (2003)
External links
- Official Tékumel website
- Brett Slocum's Tékumel Site
- Tékumel Discussion Group - participants include Prof. Barker and regular players in his "Thursday Night Group"
- Bibliography on SciFanSciFanSciFan is an online database for fans of science fiction and fantasy books.The site provides detailed bibliographies, linking books together into series' where appropriate and, in turn, grouping series by universe...
- Bibliography on SFBookcase.com