The History of Chess. H. J. R. Murray
entry in the official catalogue (‘561. Risāla fi‘sh-shaṭranj, one volume in Arabic, by Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad aṣ-Ṣūlī’) is unwarranted by anything in the MS., which names al-Ḥakīm as its author in the opening sentence.
Al-Ḥakīm’s work is based upon the works of al-‘Adlī and aṣ-Ṣūlī, and carefully discriminates between the problem material which was taken from each of these lost works. The introduction contains a large number of stories relating to chess which are not given in any of the older MSS., and the conclusion contains a number of chess-poems, together with sections on the game at odds, and on the technical terms used in chess, and some notes on a group of famous players of the end of the 12th c.
The two MSS. are in the main identical in contents, with some variation in the order of the problems which is sufficient to show that Z is not a transcript from H. Z also omits one of the Knight’s tours included in H.
9. Man. = MS. John Rylands Library, Manchester, Arab. 93.
A MS. of 89 quarto leaves, 174 mm. by 130, copied 850/1446, bearing the title Kitāb ’anmūdhaj al-qitāl fī la‘b ash-shaṭranj (‘Book of the examples of warfare in the game of chess’), by Shihābaddīn Abū’l-‘Abbās Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. Abī Ḥajala at-Tilimsānī alḤ-anbalī (B. 725/1325, D. of the plague, 776/1375).
This work is written in eight chapters with introduction and conclusion. Each chapter concludes with five diagrams, (1) an Opening, (2) and (3) two won problems, (4) and (5) two drawn problems. The introduction deals with the stories of early Muslim players, the question whether chess was makrūh or ḥarām (see Ch. XI), under what conditions Muslims might play the game, and the correct spelling of the word shaṭranj. Ch. i (f. 14 b) treats of the invention of chess; ch. ii (f. 26 a) of the classes of players, the values of the pieces, and the symbolism of the game: ch. iii (f. 31 a) contains a long extract from aṣ-Ṣūlī giving maxims and advice for chess-players, to which b. Abi Ḥajala added a critical commentary. Aṣ-Ṣūlī’s advice is very similar to that contained in the treatise by al-Lajlaj which is contained in AH. Ch. v (f. 41 b) deals with the temperaments of chess-players: ch. vi (f. 46 b) contains quotations in praise and dispraise of chess, among others one on f. 47 b is said to be taken from the K. al-manṣūbāt of Abū Zakarīyā Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥakīm, the author of the MSS. H and Z. Ch. vii (f. 54 a) treats of the varieties of chess and exercises or puzzles (see Ch. XV); ch. viii (f. 76 b) is a poetical miscellany of extracts relating to chess; and the conclusion (f. 81 a) is a maqāma shaṭranjīya, a prose essay in the elaborate style set by al-Ḥarīrī (D. 515 or 516/1122), and dedicated to the Sultan al-Malik aṣ-Ṣāliḥ of Mārdīn.
One of the most valuable features in this MS. is the information which it supplies as to the nature of the traditional diagrams of normal positions in the Openings.
10. A1. = The chess chapters in al-Amulī’s encyclopaedia.
The encyclopaedic Persian Nafā’is al-funūn fī ‘arā’is al-‘uyūn (‘Treasury of the Sciences’) of Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Amulī (D. 753/1352) concludes with three chapters on chess. MSS. of this work are common in European libraries, though the chess chapters, as the last in the work, are often copied perfunctorily, and, if the MS. be defective or unfinished, they generally suffer. I have used eight MSS., four in the Bodleian, two in the British Museum, one in the India Office Library, and one in the Imperial Library, Vienna. None gives the diagrams complete.
The first chapter is introductory, dealing with the Indian invention of the game; the second chapter deals with the derived games of chess; the third with problems; and the work concludes with ‘some amusing and sensible remarks respecting the morals and social observances or amenities of the Royal Game’.
11. RAS = MS. Royal Asiatic Society, Persian, No. 211.
A MS. of 64 quarto leaves, 9
This appears to be Ḥājjī Khalīfa’s third chess work; since it is mainly devoted to the praise of ‘Alī ash-Shaṭranjī, the great player at Tīmūr’s court, it has been suggested that this player may be the author of the MS., in which case it may be the work mentioned by b. ‘Arabshāh.
Ff. 1 b–32 a are occupied by diagrams, one a page, with actual players depicted to the right and left of the board, which is placed with the files vertical (in my extracts from this MS. I regard the h-line as being at the foot of the page). The whole is illuminated, but the pieces are merely indicated by their names in red and black ink. At the head of the page is the heading of the problem, with the name of the player to whom the author has ascribed it. This MS. differs from all other older Muslim MSS. in giving no solutions to the problems.
The remainder of the MS., according to Forbes, can be rearranged to give (1) a single leaf forming a portion of the preface, in which the writer boastfully records his own achievements at chess, (2) 12
The MS. is probably of the 16th century.
12. F = MS. Nūri Osmānīye, Stambul, No. 4073.
13. Q = MS. Munich, 250. 25 Quatr.
These are two MSS. of the Shaṭranj nāma-i kabīr of the noted Turkish poet Firdawsī at-Tahīhal, the author of the immense Sulaiman nāma, a poem which, according to the present work (F, f. 7 b), filled 366 volumes, and contained 1,838 chapters and 890,000 verses. The chess work was compiled at Balakasri in Liva Karasi for the Sultan Bāyazīd II (A.D. 1481–1512), after the completion of the vast epic.
F is a MS. of 94 leaves, which was discovered by Dr. Schroeder, and is No. XXII of v. d. Linde’s list (Qst., 398 seq.). It was completed 907/1503 (f. 94 a). Q, a MS. of 87 leaves, 251 mm. by 180, also belongs to the sixteenth century, and was in Egypt from 1553 until the Napoleonic invasion. This MS. has several leaves missing. There are gaps between ff. 29 and 30, 41 and 42, 60 and 61, 62 and 63, 69 and 70, 73 and 74, 77 and 78, and the concluding leaves are missing.
Firdawsī arranged his work in eight chapters, in agreement with the eight squares on the edge of the chessboard. To these must be added a lengthy introduction treating of the history of the composition of the book, and a shorter conclusion. Chapter i treats of the invention of chess and legends associating the prophet Idrīs, Jimjīd, and Solomon with chess; chapter ii deals with the mastership of Lajlāj, later named in full as Abū’l-Faraj b. al-Muẓaffar b. Sa‘īd; chapter iii treats of the match which Lajlāj played with Buzūrjmihr in the presence of Nūshīrwān; chapter iv gives the rules and maxims as laid down by the prophet Idrīs; chapter v tells the story of the tribute of the grains of corn which Lajlāj demanded from Nūshīrwān, and adds chess legends of Iskander (Alexander the Great) and other rulers; chapter vi gives the ta‘bīyāt, and chapter vii the manṣūbāt; chapter viii discusses the legality of chess-playing. Almost every chapter concludes with a poem, and every problem with a couplet.
Firdawsī’s work is in the main a compilation from other works. He specially notes (F, f. 11a) his indebtedness to the Shāhnāma of his great namesake, to the ‘Ajā’ib makhlūqāt (probably by aṣ-Ṣafadī, 896/1490), to the Qābūs-nāma (written A.D. 1082–3 by ‘Unsuru’l-Ma‘ālī Kaykā’ūs, Prince of Ṭabaristān), to the Gharā’ib mawjūdāt, and to the Ikhwān aṣ-ṣafā.