The History of Chess. H. J. R. Murray
because war is the most effective school for teaching the value of administration, decision, prudence, caution, arrangement, strategy, circumspection, vigour, courage, force, endurance, and bravery. Balhait was charmed with the game, and did his best to induce his subjects to adopt it in the place of nard.
Al-Maṣ‘ūdī’s version of the story is very similar, but there is some variation in the characters of the story. He does not, however, give it as one story, but places the two incidents in what he considered to be their proper chronology. Thus in ch. vii of his Murūj adh-dhahab (ed. cit., i. 157), under the reign of al-Bāhbūd, the eldest son of al-Barahman, we read:
It was at this time that nard and its rules were invented. It is symbolical of property, which is not the reward of intelligence or strength in this world, just as possessions are not gained by scheming. Others say that Ardashīr b. Bābak discovered and invented this game, which was suggested to him by the contemplation of the changes and caprices of fortune. He made its points 12 after the number of the months, and the men (‘dogs’) 30, after the number of days in the month. The two dice represent fate and its capricious dealings with men. The player, when the chances are favourable, secures what he wants; but the ready and prudent man cannot succeed in gaining what a happy chance has given to the other. Thus it is that property is due in this world to a fortunate chance.
A little later in the same chapter (ed, cit., i. 159) we read:
The next king (to Dabshalim) was Balhait. At this time chess was invented, which the king preferred to nard, because in this game skill always succeeds against ignorance. He made mathematical calculations on chess, and wrote a book on it called Taraq jankā,6 which has continued popular among the Indians. He often played chess with the wise men of his court, and it was he who represented the pieces by the figures of men and animals, and assigned them grades and ranks. He likened the Shāh to the chief ruler, and similarly with the rest of the pieces. He also made of this game a kind of allegory of the heavenly bodies (the 7 planets and the 12 zodiacal signs), and dedicated each piece to a star. The game of chess became a school of government and defence; it was consulted in time of war, when military tactics were about to be employed, to study the more or less rapid movements of troops. The Indians ascribe a mysterious interpretation to the doubling of the squares of the chessboard; they establish a connexion between the First Cause which soars above the spheres and on which everything depends, and the sum of the square of its squares. This number equals 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 … The Indians explain by these calculations the march of time and of the ages, the higher influences which govern the world, and the bonds which link them to the human soul. The Greeks (al-Yūnānīyan), the Byzantines (ar-Rūm), &c. have special theories and methods about this game, as we may see in the works of the chess-players from the most ancient down to aṣ-Sūlī and al-‘Adlī, the two most famous players of our time. Balhait reigned until his death, for 84 or, as other authorities say, 300 years. [His successor was Qūrush.]
The same legend, but told more baldly and with omission of names, occurs in Man., f. 16 b. The root idea of the story is seen in the witty remark which al-Maṣ‘ūdī quotes on a later stage of the same book (ed. cit., viii. 320), at the close of some additional remarks on nard.
Lastly, a Muslim philosopher has maintained that the inventor of chess was a mu‘taẓilite believer in the freedom of the will, while the inventor of nard was a fatalist who wished to show by this game that man can do nothing against fate, and that the true wisdom is to mould one’s life in agreement with the decrees of chance.
It is assumed in this legend that nard was a game of Indian invention,, and in so far the story is opposed to the other tradition, that nard was the invention of Artakhshīr the son of Bābakān, the first of the Sāsānian kings of Persia (A.D. 226–40), which is quoted at length in BM f. 5 b, in H f. 4 b, and in Man. f. 16 a. The attempt was made by later writers to bring the two legends into harmony by introducing modifications into the chess story. The motive for the discovery of chess is no longer the moral improvement of the Indian nard-players, but becomes the humiliation of the Persians. King Balhait is represented as being so aggrieved at the boastings of the Persians because of their discovery of nard, that he called upon a philosopher of his court, Ṣaṣṣa b. Dāhir, to invent a game that should transcend nard. The game of chess was Ṣaṣṣa’s reply. We find this in the chess MSS. H (f. 5 a), and Man. (f. 16 a)—in the latter from b. Taimīya (D. 728/1328).
It is this story which is included in the life of aṣ-Ṣūlī the chess-player in the K. wafayāt al-a‘yān of b. Khallikān (D. 681/1282),7 whence it was taken by aṣ-Ṣafadī (D. 764/1363) in his Sharḥ Lāmīyat al-‘Ajam, and by b. Sukaikir (S f. 25 a).
I have met many people who thought that aṣ-Ṣūlī was the inventor of chess. This is a mistake, for chess was invented by Ṣiṣṣa b. Dāhir for King Shihrām. Ardashīr b. Bābak, the founder of the last Persian dynasty, discovered nard, which was hence named nardashīr. Balhait was King of India at that time, and Ṣiṣṣa invented chess for him. The wise men of that time held it to be more excellent than nard. It is said that when Ṣiṣṣa had invented chess and produced it to King Shihrām, the latter was filled with amazement and joy. He ordered that it should be preserved in the temples, and held it the best thing that he knew as a training in the art of war, a glory to religion and the world, and the foundation of all justice. He expressed his joyful thanks for the favour which heaven had granted to his reign through such a discovery, and said to Ṣiṣṣa, ‘Ask whatever you desire,’ &c.
There is an obvious contradiction in this allusion, and both of the later writers endeavoured to remove it. Aṣ-Ṣafadī omits all mention of Shihrām, and names the Indian monarch Balhait throughout. B. Sukaikir, on the contrary, calls the monarch Shihrām and expressly describes him as an Indian king. He adds the note: ‘Some say that it was invented for Balhith, e.g. al-Yāfi‘ī.’8
The analogy existing between chess and war is the motive for four legends which are peculiar to the chess books. In one of these (BM f. 4 a, H f. 6 a, and RAS) the game is invented to find a distraction for a king who was passionately fond of war, but who had overcome all his enemies and was falling ill from ennui at not being able to pursue his favourite occupation. A philosopher produced for him chess, and showed him how he could still conduct forces and devise tactics in this game. The king tried the game, ascertained that the philosopher had spoken truly, and found distraction and health in playing chess. All the MSS. place the scene in India, H has no names for the characters of the story, BM calls the philosopher Ṣuṣa b. Dāhir, while RAS names the king Kaid, and the philosopher Ṣaṣṣa, placing the event shortly after the invasion of Alexander the Great. In this particular version, however, Ṣaṣṣa merely abridges the ‘Complete Chess’9 by reducing the size of the board from 11 by 11 to 8 by 8 squares, and the number of pieces from 56 to 32, because the Indians were incapable of appreciating so complicated a game. The complete chess itself was the invention of a Greek sage, Hermes, and had been introduced into India by Alexander and his soldiers.
In the second of these (AH f. 3 a, C f. 4 a, V f. 5 a, from al-‘Adlī’s work, and in RAS) the game is invented to assist in the military education of a young prince who pleaded that he was incompetent to lead his armies in war owing to his want of experience. The game of chess is alleged to have given the necessary training in tactics to convert him into an efficient commander. In both manuscript accounts the scene is laid in India, but RAS alone attempts to determine the characters of the story. These are stated to have been the young son and successor of Fūr (Pauras, the opponent of Alexander) and his vizier Ṣaṣṣa b. Dāhir. RAS again substitutes the abridgement of a Greek game for the invention of a new one.
The third story again represents chess as invented for the purpose of affording an opportunity for the practice of military tactics, and only differs from the previous legend in the matter of the particular circumstance of the invention. This story occurs in AH f. 3 b (C f. 4 b, Vf. 5 b, H f. 6 a, Man. f. 15 b, Y and S) as one of the three versions occurring in al-‘Adlī’s book. Its special interest consists in the fact that the game is represented as invented for a certain king10 named Shahrām11 by the Indian sage Ṣaṣṣa b. Dāhir, who gave the game to the king ‘with the 14 ta‘bīyāt which