disc▪ BadawiHinds1986: from Pers mars ‘a round in backgammon in which the winner removes all his chips from the board before his opponent removes any, a gammon’. But this item is not to be found in Steingass or other dictionaries of Pers.
▪ Nişanyan (#mars, 2.9.14) sees the word as a vn. of ↗marasa ‘to soak’, in the specialized sense of ‘to sink’ (s.o.’s “ships” in a game). But this is unlikely: in Ottoman, the word is written with ʔalif, and the usual rendering of Ar mars should be *mers.
▪ Redhouse1890 identifies Ott mars (written mārs) as »T[urkish]«.