Alquerque (also known as al-qirkat from Arabic: القرقات) is a strategy board game that is thought to have originated in the Middle East.

[citation needed] The game first appears in literature late in the 10th century when Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani mentioned qirkat in his 24-volume work Kitab al-Aghani ("Book of Songs").

This work, however, made no direct mention of the rules of the game, most likely because it is poetry and they would have been common knowledge in the context the book originated in.

In Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, R. C. Bell writes that "when the Moors invaded Spain they took El-quirkat with them".

[1] Rules are included in Libro de los juegos ("Book of games") commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile in the 13th century.