The History of Chess. H. J. R. Murray
(Ar. 83 and 214), one of which is attributed to the Sultan Tīmūr.
There are only two existing Muslim chess MSS., the existence of which has been recorded, which I have failed to see. These are:
K. ash-shaṭranj ta’līf al-imām al-‘ālim lisān al-adab waj al-‘arab Sadraddīn Abū’l-Ḥasan ‘Alī … , a copy of which (Qst., 333, No. XX) was formerly in the possession of Münif Pasha. Its present location is unknown to me.
MS. 12, 23476, Phillips Library, Cheltenham, Arabic, of the 18th century.
There is a number of Arabic poems on the game of chess, some being the composition of well-known poets. Two longer ones, the Urjūza shi‘rīya of Abū Ya‘la Muḥammad b. al-Habbārīya (D. 504/1100),10 and the Urjūza fī’sh-shaṭranj of Aḥmad Bek al-Kaiwānī (D. 1173/1760),11 have been often copied. According to Bland, the Brit. Mus. MS. of the Diwān of at-Tilimsānī ash-Shābb aẓ-Ẓarīf (D. 688/1289) contains a poem of 80 lines on chess. Among the poems contained in the MSS. which I have used, I have noted poems by three poets whose poems were edited by the chess master aṣ-Ṣūlī, viz. Abū Nuwās (D. 190/806), the greatest poet of his period—H, ff. 40 b, 41 a, 42 b (= V, 60 a); b. ar-Rūmī (D. 283/896)—H, f. 40 a; and b. al Mu‘tazz D. 296/908)—V, f. 60 a, which is translated below; and by Abū Fliās (D. 357/968)—V, f. 61 a; ar-Ramādī (D. 403/1012), an Arabic poet of Spain—H, ff. 41 a, 41 b; and b. Wakī‘(D. 393/1003), an Egyptian poet—H, f. 42 b.12
Chess also proved a very fruitful source of similes, metaphors, and wordplays for both Arabic13 and Persian poets. The twofold meaning of the Persian word rukh, the ‘rook in chess’, and the ‘cheek’, suggested a host of conceits and brought chess into the love poem.14 Occasionally the reference takes on a darker colour, as in the well-known quatrain from Fitzgerald’s translation of the Rubaiyāt of ‘Omar Khayyām (D. 517/1123):
’Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays;
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays
And one by one back in the Closet lays.
though the thought here is of course far older, and the setting more modern, than ‘Omar.15
The importance of these allusions for chess is to be found in the evidence they furnish for the extraordinary popularity of the game among the Muslims all through history, despite the suspicion with which Muhammadan jurists have always regarded it.
Of rather a different character are the impromptus which are made during the progress of the game, a characteristic feature of the play, and indeed of all social life in the time of the ‘Abbāsid caliphs. Of these al-Maṣ‘ūdī writes:16
Chess-players employ different kinds of pleasantry and jests designed to astound. Many maintain that these incite people to play, and add to the flow of resource and accurate deliberation.17 They have been compared to the short improvised verses which warriors employ when encountering the enemy, or which camel-drivers compose during the slow movements of the camels, or the drawers of water during the raising of the bucket. They are just as much part of the apparatus of the player, as the song and improvised verse is of the warrior. Many verses describing this have been composed; e.g. the following by a player:
Hotter than the glow of charcoal glows the player’s timely jest,
Think how many a weaker player it has helped against the best!
In the following passage the game is described with a rare felicity of expression:18
The square plain with its red surface is placed between two friends of known friendship.
They recall the memories of war in an image of war, but without bloodshed.
This attacks, that defends, and the struggle between them never languishes.
Observe with what strategy the horsemen run upon the two armies, without trumpets or flags.
Out of many poems in the same style, which are remarkable for their elegance and the neatness of the descriptions which they give, we quote this by Abū’l-Ḥasan b. Abū’l-Baghal al-Kātib, who not only distinguished himself as a scribe and agent of government, but was also renowned for his clever and polished play19:—
The skilled player places his pieces in such a way as to discover consequences that the ignorant man never sees.
He foresees the surprises of the future with the assurance of the wise man in face of foolish banalities;
And thus he serves the Sultan’s interests, by showing how to foresee disaster,
Since the strategy of the chessboard for an experienced man is equal to that of the battle-field.
Ath-Tha‘ālibī (D. 429/1038) included in his K. al-laṭa’if waẓ-ẓarā’if fī madḥ al-ashyā’ waaḍdādhā a short section containing a selection of passages in praise and dispraise of chess.20 This section is repeated in his K. yawāqīt al-mawāqīt fī madḥ ash-shai’ wadhammihi, from which Bland made some quotations, one of which—the verses of b. Mu‘tazz, that unfortunate son of a chess-playing caliph—has been repeated frequently in books on chess:
O thou whose cynic sneers express
The censure of our favourite chess,
Know that its skill is science’ self,
Its play distraction from distress.
It soothes the anxious lover’s care,
It weans the drunkard from excess;
It counsels warriors in their art,
When dangers threat, and perils press;
And yields us, when we need them most,
Companions in our loneliness.
It concludes with a number of witticisms borrowed from the language of chess: thus the sight of a beautiful girl duly chaperoned provoked the comment, ‘There goes a firzān-band’; a man of little stature might be termed a Pawn; the activity of a prominent person in his town was referred to by the remark, ‘There is a Rook on the board;’ and the assertiveness of an upstart was silenced by the inquiry, ‘Hullo, Pawn, when did you queen?’
CHAPTER XI
CHESS UNDER ISLAM
Its Persian ancestry.—The date of introduction.—The legal status of chess.—Early Muhammadan chess-players.—The game during the Umayyad and ‘Abbāsid caliphates.—Aṣ-Ṣūlī.—Later references.—Aṣ-Ṣafadī.—Chess at the court of Tīmūr.—Chess in Damascus in the sixteenth century.
That Islam derived its knowledge of chess from Persia cannot be disputed for a moment. The Arabic historians who make any reference to the matter, however much they may differ as to the ultimate origin of the game, agree in stating categorically and as an undisputed fact, ‘We learnt chess from the Persians.’ Of greater weight is the philological evidence derived from the Arabic nomenclature of chess. The Persian consonant ch has never existed in Arabic, and had to be represented in Arabic by sh or ṣ. Examples of both will be found below, p. 217, n. 20. The Arabic letter j (= Hebrew gimel), which perhaps still retained the original sound of the ‘hard’ g under the early caliphate, was used to represent the ‘hard’ Persian g. The Arabic j is still pronounced as ‘hard’ g in Egypt; elsewhere it is pronounced as the English (or even French) j. Shaṭranj,1 the Arabic name of chess, is accordingly the regular Arabicized form of the Persian chatrang. With one exception, the Persian names of the chess-pieces are retained in Arabic, and shāh, firzān, fīl, rukhkh, and baidaq or baidhaq (pron. baizaq) are the regular Arabicized forms of the Persian shāh, farzīn, pīl, rukh, and payādah. The ‘horse’