THE SHIP OF FOOLS
Etymology of AZART
AZ-HAR means "flower" in the Moorish language and a flower was depicted on that side of the gambling dice that spelled instant loss.
So in Portuguese AZAR came to mean "bad luck".
During the crusades the very popular game - and word - spread all over Europe, by which the Spanish AZAR and the Catalan ATZAR got their meaning of "fate" and the French HAZARD "opportunity, chance".
That the game was exiting might be proved by the Italian AZZARDO for "venture" or the English HAZARD for "risk, danger".
Through German aristocratic circles, where HAZARD was a popular gambling game, the word reached in the 18-th century Russia, where AZART came to mean "the passion to put everything at stake".
In 1989 The Ship Of Fools was purchased and called AZART (ART from A to Z).
In 1994 Amsterdam Town Council named its homeport AZART SQUARE.