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Table of Contents

The chess works mentioned in the Fihrist, and other bibliographies.—MSS. used for the present work.—Other MSS. in European libraries.—Poems and impromptus on chess, &c.

The beginnings of the vast literature of chess are to be found in the Golden Age of Arabic, the first two centuries of the ‘Abbāsid caliphate, that short period during which alone Islam has shown any powers of original thought and discovery. In b. Isḥāq an-Nadīm’s great bibliographical work, the K. al-fihrist, compiled 377/988, we find a section devoted to the authors of books on chess.

These are the chess-players who wrote books on chess.

AL-‘ADLĪ. His name is (left blank). He wrote Kitāb ash-shaṭranj (Book of the chess). He also wrote Kitāb an-nard (Book of the nard).

AR-RĀZĪ. His name is (left blank). He was of equal strength with al-‘Adlī. They used to play together before Mutawakkil (Caliph, 233/847 – 248/862). The book Latīf fī’sh-shaṭranj (Elegance in chess) is by him.

AṢ-ṢULĪ. Abū-Bakr Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā, who has been mentioned already. He wrote Kitāb ash-shaṭranj, the first work, and Kitāb ash-shaṭranj, the second work.

AL-LAJLĀJ. Abū’l-Faraj Muḥammad b. ‘Obaidallāh. I have seen him. He went to Shīrāz to the king ‘Adudaddaula (ruled 338/949 – 366/976), and died there in the year 360/970 and a few. He was excellent at the game, and among the books on it Kitāb manṣūbāt ash-shaṭranj (Book of chess-positions or problems) belongs to him.

B. ALIQLĪDISĪ. Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ. He is reckoned among the brilliant players, and wrote the Kitāb majmu‘fī manṣūbāt ash-shaṭranj (Collection of chess problems).

The other much later great Arabic bibliography, the Kashf aẓ-ẓunūn fī asāmī’l-kutub wal funūn of Ḥājjī Khalīfa (D. 1068/1658) has a shorter catalogue of chess books.

10224. Kitāb ash-shaṭranj by the authors Abū’l–‘Abbās Aḥmad b. Muḥammad as-Sarakhsī, the physician, who died in the year 286/899; Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad aṣ-Ṣūlī; and a later author who wrote in Persian and boasts not without arrogance that he was the best player of that game in our own time in the whole world. He drew the figure of the chessboard and sketched the pieces and enumerated the authors who had previously written on this game.

As-Sarakhsī¹ ranks as the most important of the pupils of the Arabic philosopher al-Kindī, who lived in Basra and Baghdād in the caliphates of al-Ma’mūn and al-Mu‘taṣim. He himself held a position at the court of al-Mu‘taḍid, but fell into disfavour by revealing a secret which this caliph had entrusted to him, and was thrown into prison and executed, 286/899. An-Nadīm, however, makes no mention of a chess work in his list of as-Sarakhsī’s writings,² nor does al-Qiftī (568/1172 – 646/1248); a later biographer of as-Sarakhsī, b. Abī Uṣaibi‘a (B. 600/1203, D. 668/1270), on the other hand, who wrote on the lives of the Arabic physicians, mentions it under the title K. fī’sh-shaṭranj al-‘ālīya (Book of the higher chess) in his K. ‘uyūn al-anbā’ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbā’.

An-Nadīm left a blank in the place of al-‘Adlī’s personal name, thereby implying that he was unable to discover it. In some modern works, e.g. in the catalogue of the Library of the Sultan ‘Abd-al-Ḥamīd Khān, however, his name is given as Abū’l-‘Abbās Aḥmad al-‘Adlī, thus making his personal name identical with that of as-Sarakhsī. I have been unable to discover the authority for the modern statement, and am inclined to think that it has arisen from the assumption that al-‘Adlī and as-Sarakhsī were one and the same person. This assumption would certainly account for the omission of al-‘Adlī’s work in Hājjī Khalīfa’s bibliography, but it introduces chronological difficulties. We know from aṣ-Ṣūlī that al-‘Adlī had stood alone in the first class of chess-players for some considerable time when he was defeated by ar-Rāzī in a match which we know from an-Nadīm was played in the presence of the caliph Mutawakkil (A.D. 847–862). After his death ar-Rāzī in his turn stood alone in the first class for some time, and was dead before aṣ-Ṣūlī came to the front under al-Muktafī (A.D. 902–8). It seems reasonable to infer that al-‘Adlī was past his prime at the time of his defeat, and that he probably did not survive it many years. As-Sarakhsī, on the other hand, must have been still a young man in Mutawakkil’s time, since his master al-Kindī flourished A.D. 813–842, and he himself only met with his death so late as A.D. 899. Moreover, the MS. RAS gives al-‘Adlī the local epithet of ar-Rūmī, which implies that he was a native of some town in the lands of the old Byzantine Empire. Had he come from Sarakhs, al-Khurāsānī would have been the more appropriate designation. On the other hand, if, as seems most likely, the two men were really distinct, the silence of all the Muslim chess writers concerning as-Sarakhsī is somewhat remarkable.

Of the other authors named above, ar-Rāzī³ has been identified with the celebrated physician Muḥammad b. Zakarīyā ar-Rāzī, the ‘Rhasis’ of mediaeval science, who died 311/923 or 318/932. This identification is palpably false. The chess-player belonged to an earlier generation and was dead before A.D. 900. Of aṣ-Ṣūlī and al-Lajlāj I shall have more to say in the following chapters; b. Aliqlīdisī is not otherwise known, but Hājjī Khalīfa’s anonymous and bombastic Persian MS. appears to be the one I refer to below as RAS.

B. ‘Arabshāh, the biographer of the great Tīmūr, in his digression upon the chess-players of the Court incidentally refers to another work by a contemporary of Tīmūr (D. 1405).

‘Alā’addīn Tabrīzī, commonly called ‘Alī ash-Shaṭranjī, has composed a treatise on the game of chess and its situations.

Finally Ahlwardt, in his Catalogue of the Arabic MSS. of the Royal Library at Berlin, gives without stating the source of his information the following list of chess works at the conclusion of his description of the chess treatises in the library.

Kitāb shaṭranj by Aḥmad b. Muḥammad as-Sarakhsī (D. 287/899). ’Istaw‘a’n-nahj fī taḥrīm al-la‘b bī’sh-shaṭranj, by Muḥammad b.‘Ali b. Muḥammad al-Hadhāmī b. an-Najār (D. 723/1323). Īqāẓ an-nāṣib fīma fī’sh-shaṭranj min al-manāṣib, by ‘Alī b. Muḥammad al-Mauṣilī b. ad-Duraihim (D. 762/1361).

I now come to the Arabic and Persian works of which I have been able to make use for this book.

There is much similarity about the MSS. which deal with the practical game, and it will be more convenient to summarize their contents in a table and so to avoid considerable repetition. There is usually an introductory section dealing with the legendary accounts of the invention of chess, and the evidence for the lawfulness of chess-playing for Muslims. Chapters dealing with the classification of players, with the relative value of the pieces, with the symbolism of the game, with the decisions as to the result in the simpler Endings of the game, with notation, and the derived chess-games generally follow. There are also chapters dealing with the normal positions for Opening play (the ta‘bīyāt), and the body of the work is devoted to a collection of manṣūbāt or problems. Less frequently we find an anthology of chess poems as a crown to the book. These MSS., it will be obvious, deal with nearly every aspect of chess.

1. AH = MS. ‘Abd-al-Ḥamīd I, Constantinople, no. 560.

2. C = MS. Khedivial Lib., Cairo, Muṣṭafa Pasha, no. 8201.

These are two MSS. of the same Arabic work, the Kitāb ash-shaṭranj mimma’l-lafahu’l-‘Adlī waṣ-Ṣulī wa ghair-huma, ‘Book of the chess; extracts from the works of al-‘Adlī, aṣ-Ṣulī and others.’

AH is one of the Arabic MSS. the knowledge of whose existence we owe to Dr. Paul Schroeder. It is no. xviii of v. d. Linde’s list (Qst., 331 seq.). It is a beautifully executed paper MS. of 142 leaves, 27.8 cm. by 21.2, written in a careful nashkī hand by Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. al-Mubārak b. ‘Alī al-Mudbahhab a1 Baghdādī, 535/1140, as we learn from a note on f. 54 b. Both the main title-page and the subsidiary one on f. 55 a are richly coloured, the titles being in the kufic character upon a blue ground.

C is no. viii of v. d. Linde’s list (Qst., 21). It consists of 157 leaves, 26 cm. by 18. From the richly illuminated title-page, now unfortunately much faded, it is evident that this MS. formerly belonged to a Sultan of Egypt, whom a former librarian, Dr. W. Spitta, identified from considerations of handwriting and ornamentation with Qāitbāi (A.D. 1468–96). He dated the MS. itself c. 770/1370.

Neither MS. gives any information as to the name of the writer who put together this compilation. A later note on a blank page at the commencement of AH attributes the work to al-Lajlāj, but the fact that this MS. includes a short treatise on chess principles, naming al-Lajlāj as its author, makes it very improbable that this player was the author of the whole work. In the official catalogue of MSS. in Constantinople libraries it is described as ‘560. Risāla fi’sh-shaṭranj, one volume in Arabic, by Abū’ l-‘Abbās Aḥmad al-‘Adlī’—an entry due to the occurrence of al-‘Adlī’s name in the title of the MS.

Neither MS. is complete. There are gaps in AH between ff. 75 and 76 (the latter leaf beginning in the middle of a problem solution), and 139 and 140 (the poem on the former leaf is incomplete). Ff. 121–123 should be placed between ff. 129 and 130, and f. 21 between ff. 22 and 23. The disarrangement of the entries on ff. 25–29 goes back to a MS. lying behind AH.⁴ C is a copy of AH, or of a MS. derived from AH.⁵ It is not so extensive, the text on ff. 133 b–142 b of AH being missing. There are also gaps between ff. 5 and 6, 17 and 18, and 23 and 24. The leaves from f. 34 onwards are now in great confusion; none, however, is missing, and they can be arranged in their original order with the help of AH.

The introduction to AH and C shows that aṣ-Ṣūlī’s book was largely a critique on al-‘Adlī’s. It runs as follows:

In the name of God, the compassionate and merciful! There is no prosperity except through God! Al-‘Adlī gives several accounts of the invention of chess, which Abū-Bakr aṣ-Ṣūlī criticizes. We narrate some of what al-‘Adlī relates, with aṣ-Ṣūlī’s criticisms thereon, and also the problems which al-‘Adlī placed in his book, with aṣ-Sūlī’s criticisms and appreciations. We have also added some problems from aṣ-Ṣūlī’s book, and some from other authors, together with the traditions which aṣ-Ṣūlī collected on the lawfulness of chess-playing.

The compiler accordingly claims to treat his authorities with some discrimination, and generally makes it clear from whom he is quoting. Extracts from previous writers are commenced by the words qāla’l-‘Adlī or’Ṣ-ṣūlī, as the case may be, and are generally in the first person.

The earlier chapters in AH are unusually full and informing. There is also near the end (AH, ff. 133 b – 135 a; not in C) an important tadhkira or treatise on chess principles by al-Lajlāj, of which I give the substance in Ch. XIV. The extensive contents of this MS. make it one of our best authorities for Muslim chess.

3. BM = MS. British Museum, Arab. Add 7515 (Rich).

This is a quarto MS. on vellum of 132 leaves, which was completed 16 Jumādā II, 655/1257. It formed part of the library that Claudius J. Rich (B. 1787, D. 1820) collected while Resident at Baghdād in the service of the East India Company, and was bought by the Museum Trustees from his widow.

Forbes (74) represented this MS. as a copy of a work written between 1150 and 1250. The arrangement of the MS. does not bear out this view. It has all the appearance of a work planned upon a larger scale than was carried out, the gaps in which the writer filled in later without regard to their surroundings. There are leaves missing between ff. 7 and 8, 16 and 17, 27 and 28, 34 and 35.

There is nothing in the MS. to show the name of its author, but he has made liberal use of al-‘Adlī’s work, and quotes from al-Lajlāj with approval. Aṣ-Ṣūlī is on the whole ignored; the few extracts from his work, e.g. from his preface on f. 8b, are unacknowledged. The text to fourteen of the problems is identical with that in AH, and it is possible that the as-Sulī extracts may have been taken at second hand from a compilation like AH. The MS. is dedicated to a Prince whose name has been erased. Forbes identified him from the special titles and epithets used with one of the Ayyūbid dynasty who ruled over Egypt, A.D. 1193–1250, but I cannot reconcile what is left of the name of the Prince in the MS. with the name of any member of this house, and Cureton (Cat. Arab. MSS. in the Brit. Mus., ii. 351, No. 784) does not pretend to identify either the Prince or his dynasty. From the compiler’s knowledge of al-Lajlāj’s work, I should be inclined to believe that the MS. was compiled farther East than Egypt, and possibly in Persia.

The most noteworthy feature of the contents is the brief chapter on the Openings of the writer’s time, f. 11 a. I quote this original contribution to the history of the ta‘bīyāt in Chapter XIV.

The front page, f. 1 a, contains a number of entries in later hands. These consist of (a) a title, Kitāb ash-shaṭranj al-Baṣrī, ‘al-Baṣrī’s chess book’, which is a manifest error due to the fact that a quotation from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (D. 110/728) stands at the top of f. 2b: (b) a title Kitāb fī’sh-shaṭranj wa mausūbāt-hi wa mulaḥ-hi, ‘Book of chess, its problems and subtleties’: (c) a note in an 18th-century hand giving the differences of move between the chess of the MS. and the chess of the writer’s day, which I quote below, p. 354: (d) a note in a 15th-century hand giving the sum of the doubling of the squares of the chessboard: and (e) a calculation of the same total in Turkish.

4. L = MS. As‘ad Efendī, Constantinople, No. 1858.

A MS. of 81 worm-eaten leaves, which was discovered by Schroeder (Qst., No. XVII, pp. 382–9). The binding bears the title Risāla al-Lajlāj fī bayān la‘b ash-shaṭranj (‘Al-Lajlāj’s treatise on the demonstration of the game of chess’), and the title-page that of Kitāb ash-shaṭranj ta‘alif Abī’ l-Muẓaffar b. Sa‘īd ‘urifa bi’l-Lajlāj, ‘Book of the chess, composed by Abū’l-Muẓaffar b. Sa‘īd who is known as al-Lajlāj’ (i.e. the stammerer). The MS. is undated, but may be as much as three centuries older than an entry on the title-page chronicling the fact that the Sultan Bāyazīd Khān gave the book to his chief butler, Yūsuf b. ‘Abdallāh, the first day of Shawwāl, 893/1487.

The MS. is a treatise on the practical game, and contains a full analysis of certain of the more popular openings, with the view of establishing the superiority of the Mujannah Opening. It is in consequence a work of prime importance for the history of the practical game: it is the only work on the subject prior to those of the first analysts of the modern European game, and, being the work of a master of the first rank, who expresses his own indebtedness to his own master, aṣ-Ṣūlī, the greatest of all the Muhammadan masters, we may safely regard it as recording the highest point of development reached in the whole history of the older chess. The MS. is incomplete at the end, where it breaks off to give a problem which al-Lajlāj had mentioned—though not in the present work—under the name ad-dūlābīya (the water-wheel). Leaf 9 is out of place, it should come between ff. 37 and 38.

5. AE = MS. As‘ad Efendī, Constantinople, No. 2866.

An undated, anonymous Persian MS. of 609 pages, with the title Kitāb ash-shaṭranj, which is No. XXI of v. d. Linde’s list (Qst., 333). V. d. Linde gives no account of the MS., but merely quotes the opinion of Aḥmad Ḥamdī Efendī, a Turkish scholar who examined it for Schroeder, that it was a work of ‘no value’. This hasty judgement cannot be accepted. The MS. proves on examination to be a compilation treating of all branches of chess. The writer, however, has carefully excluded all reference to his sources, and only names ‘Adlī and Lajlāj Shaṭranjī as supporting certain verdicts in the Endgame. After a lengthy preface on the creation, of which the noblest work was man, and on man’s glory, to wit his intellect, of which chess and nard are the most striking fruits, the work continues with a close and complete translation of al-Lajlāj’s Arabic work which we possess in L. The leaves are in some confusion, but the text affords a valuable means of testing the accuracy of L, especially as AE contains 60 diagrams showing the position at various points of the analysis. It also supplies the conclusion which is missing in L.

The second section of the MS. consists of a long list of decisions on the Endings. The third section is an extremely valuable collection of 194 problems, with which I deal in Chapter XV.

6. V = MS. Vefa (‘Atīq Efendī), Eyyub, No. 2234.

A paper MS. of 77 leaves, 24 cm. by 19, one of those discovered by Dr. Schroeder, and No. XIX of v. d. Linde’s list (Qst., 390–6). Schroeder, gave as its title Manṣūbāt li Abī Zakarīyā Yahyā b. Ibrāhim al-Ḥakīm, but the official catalogue gives no author’s name, and I think that Schroeder has in transcribing his notes confused this MS. with MS. Abd-al-Ḥamīd, No. 561 (see below). The opening leaves of the MS. are lost, and the MS. itself as a result throws no light upon the question of authorship. It was copied 21 Ramadān 618/1221 by Muḥammad b. Hawā b. ‘Othmān, the mueddib, as appears from the conclusion on f. 77 b.

In addition to the loss of leaves at the commencement of the MS., there is a gap between ff. 14 and 15 (f. 14 ends with the chapter-heading, ‘Chapter of the’ibdīyāt which the different classes of chess-players have chosen,’ and 15 begins in the middle of a problem solution). The text of this MS. is in the main identical with that of AH, without retaining the order of that MS., and the seven pages of poems (ff. 60–62 a) all occur in AH.⁶

7. H = MS. John Rylands Library, Manchester, Arab. 59.

8. Z = MS. Abd-al-Ḥamīd I, Constantinople, No. 561.

These are two MSS. of the same Arabic work, the Nuzhat al-arbāb al-‘aqūl fī’sh-shaṭranj al-manqūl (‘The delight of the intelligent, a description of chess’), by Abū Zakarīyā Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm al-Hakīm. The author flourished in the middle of the fourteenth century. He quotes from the great dictionary of his contemporary al-Fīrūzābādī (I). 817/1414, aged 85), the al-Qāmūs (H, f. 4 a), and there is a quotation from al-Ḥakīm’s book in b. Abī Ḥajala’s work, which will be described next. Neither MS. is dated, but H is ascribed to the latter half of the fifteenth century. Z is a modern MS., written perhaps towards the end of the eighteenth century.

H consists of 57 paper leaves, 175 mm. by 130. This MS. and the companion chess MS. in the Rylands Library (Man., see below) were brought to England from Damascus in the eighteenth century, and formed part of the collection of J. G. Richards, until in 1806 they passed into the possession of John Fiott, of St. John’s College, Cambridge, who subsequently took the name of Lee on inheriting property from his mother’s family.⁷ Nathaniel Bland borrowed them from Dr. Lee for use in the preparation of his paper on Persian Chess (London, 1850), but failed to return them, and subsequently efforts to recover them which were made at the instance of Prof. Duncan Forbes between 1855 and 1860 proved fruitless. Bland’s Oriental library was sold en bloc in 1866 to the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, and the ‘Lee MSS.’ passed into the Haigh Hall Library, and were duly entered in the printed Hand-list to the Oriental MSS. of that library. In 1906 Lord Crawford’s Oriental MSS. were purchased by Mrs. Rylands, who subsequently placed them in the noble library which she had founded in memory of her husband.

Z is a paper MS. of 56 leaves, 143 mm. by 70. It has no title, and the 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 in. by 7 in., written in nashkī hand. The MS. is imperfect at the end, and the leaves are in some confusion. It was presented to the Society by David Price, and was formerly catalogued as No. 260.

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 leaves on the beneficial effects of chess, (3) 7 leaves with a diagram on the Complete chess (Tīmūr’s chess), for which see Chapter XVI below, (4) 7 leaves on the invention of the ordinary chess in India, (5) 3 leaves containing sections on the relative values of the chess-pieces, on the gradation of odds, and on End-game decisions. See Bland (1–17) for a fuller account of the MS.

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.

14. R = MS. Rustem Pasha, Constantinople, No. 375.

A paper MS. of 90 leaves, 21 cm. by 15.2, which forms part of a MS. of miscellaneous contents which was written by Aḥmad b. Aḥmad al-Muhtār al-Ḥanafī al-Miṣrī at Balat, Stambul, in 983/1575. It contains nothing but problems, one to the page, with solutions.

15. S = MS. Bodleian Iib., Oxford, Arab. Pocock 16.

A small parchment MS., completed 979/1579, containing three treatises by Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Jamāladdīn b. Sukaikir ad-Dimashqī, preacher of the mosque al-‘Ādilīya at Halab (Aleppo, in Syria) (D. 987/1579). The first two treatises are theological; the third, which extends from f. 22 a to f. 39 b, treats of chess under the title Nafḥāt kimā’īm al-ward fī tafḍīl ash-shaṭranj ‘alā’n-nard (‘The fragrance of the rose: on the superiority of chess over nard’). The MS. was once in the possession of Dr. Hyde, who made large use of it for his Mandragorias.

The MS. discusses the lawfulness of chess-playing, summarizing for the purpose aṣ-Ṣūlī’s collection of traditions, but while giving the usual legends as to the invention of chess—in his day there were people who thought that aṣ-Ṣūlī had invented chess—b. Sukaikir adds some interesting particulars as to notable feats at chess, some of which had taken place in his presence. He only gives 10 problems, omitting the solutions, but indicating the number of moves to be taken. He gives a number of impromptu verses on chess.

16. Y = MS. Brit. Mus., Add. 16856.

A Persian MS. of 62 leaves, 10 ins. by 6, written in a neat nestalik hand, with ‘Unwān and gold-ruled borders, dated 1021/1612, from the library of Col. Wm. Yule. It is a Persian translation by Muḥammad b. Ḥusām ad-Daula of the Arabic work K. al-munjiḥ fī ‘ilm ash-shaṭranj (‘A book to lead to success in the knowledge of chess’) by Muḥammad b. ‘Omar Kajīnā, a work stated in the preface to be the most useful treatise on chess. As there was, however, only one copy of it in the land, and that an incorrect one, it appeared desirable to make an abridged version of it in Persian, and the author performed that task at the order of a sovereign whose titles and epithets are given at length, but whose proper name does not appear.⁸

It is divided into fourteen chapters, but the copy, although showing no sign of loss since it left the writer’s hand, is not complete; only three lines of chapter ix are given, and the termination of chapter xi and the whole of chapters xii and xiii are missing.

The chapters deal, i, with stories of early Muslim players; ii, with the question of the lawfulness of chess-playing; iii, with the advantages of chess; iv, with the invention of chess; v, with technicalities of the game; vi, with the etiquette of play; vii, with maxims for players; viii, with the Endgame decisions; ix, with the ta‘bīyāt; x, with conditional problems; xi, with problems in general; and xiv, with blindfold chess.

With this work I complete the list of the Oriental MSS. of the older chess which I have made the basis of my chapters on the practical game and the Muslim manṣūbāt. In the case of BM, H, Man., RAS, S, and Y, I have been able to refer to the original MSS. themselves. For the opportunity of consulting the other MSS. I am indebted to the generosity of Mr. J. G. White. He has placed at my service his photographic copies of AH, V, Z, RAS, Q, and R, and modern transcripts of AH, C, BM, AE, V, and F.

I now give a tabular summary of the contents of these MSS.

CONTENTS OF THE MSS. DESCRIBED ABOVE.

[The reference to AE is to the pagination of Mr. White’s copy.]

In addition to these MSS. I have, for the purposes of the problem, made use of a number of other MSS. which are based upon Muslim chess works. These are—

17. Alf. = the Spanish MS. known as the Alfonso MS.

(This MS., written in 1283, is described below in connexion with the European game, in the early history of which it is an important authority. Since, however, 89 of its 103 problems are of unmistakable Muslim origin, I have included them in my collection in Chapter XV. The derived games of this MS. will also be found in Chapter XVI.)

18. Oxf. = MS. Bodleian Lib., Oxford, Pers. e. 10.

A modern Persian MS. of 112 leaves, 7 by 5 ins., with the title Sardārnāma, by Shīr Muḥammad-khān (takhalluṣ, Īmām), who wrote it, 1211–2/1796–8 for a great lover of chess-playing, Ḥusainaddīn-khān Bahādur. who was in the service of the Niẓām of Dakhan (Deccan), Niẓām ‘Alī-khān Bahādur Nizẓm-al-mulk Āṣafjāh II (1175/1762–1217/1802). In 1810 the MS. was in the possession of Henry George Keene. The Bodleian bought it at Sotheby’s sale, Aug. 25, 1884.

The work is modern and central-Indian, and must accordingly be used with caution. It is largely based on earlier books, and much of the problem material is old: it is mainly in this connexion that I have used the MS.

It consists of an introduction and six chapters called ma‘rakāt or ‘arenas for combat’. M. i, f. 7 b, contains 99 problems of Rūmī, i.e. Turkish (or old) chess. M. ii, f. 58 b, contains 60 problems of Feringhī, i.e. European chess. M. iii, f. 88 b, 8 problems ending in burd, therefore probably Indian chess. M. iv, f. 92 b, 4 drawn games. M. v, f. 94 b, 12 problems of decimal chess. M. vi, f. 102 a, contains the Complete chess (12 × 12), with explanatory text, a Knight’s tour, and the key to the notation. This last is interesting, as it is a form of the algebraical notation that I have adopted in this work.

19. Ber. = MS. Royal Lib., Berlin, Landberg, No. 806.

A Turkish MS. of about 150 leaves, 205 by 133 mm., of which only 2 b–34 a and 51 b–97 b are filled. It was written about 1210/1795 and is in two hands, the one filling the earlier part with 128 chess problems, the other the later part with 182 dāma (Turkish draughts) problems. There are no solutions, but the number of moves is usually stated, and occasionally there are hints to the solution. The chess problems are nearly all of modern chess, and many are repeated. Their interest is, as a result, in connexion with the Turkish chess of the present day.

20. RW = MS. in possession of Mr. Rimington Wilson.

A small collection of 29 problems with a Knight’s tour, translated by Mr. George Swinton for George Walker from a modern Persian (? Indian) original. It is of little value, but was the source of a couple of papers by George Walker in the CPC., 1844, 180; and 1845, 240.

In addition to the above MSS. I have been able to consult a number of smaller treatises dealing with particular aspects of chess, generally the question of the lawfulness of chess-playing for strict Muslims, or the legend of the discovery of the game by Ṣiṣṣa b. Dāhir, and the calculation of his reward—the sum of the doubling of the squares.

Of the former⁹ are:

MS. Berlin, Wetzstein, II, 1739, ff. 57 b–68 a, the An-nāṣīha lil-ḥurr wal-‘abd bijtināb ash-shaṭranj wan-nard of ‘Abdarraḥmān b. Khalīl al-Qābūnī al-Adhra’ī Zainaddīn (D. 869/1464).

MS. Berlin, Sprenger, 850, f. 93 b, an extract from the Al-ḥāwī of the Qāḍī Abū’l-Ḥasan ‘Alī b. Muḥammad b. Habīb al-Māwardī (D. 450/1058).

Of the latter are:

MS. Bodl. Oxford, Arab. 182.

MS. Berlin, Wetzstein, II, 1149, f. 69 b (copied c. 1150/1737).

MS. Berlin, Wetzstein, II, 1127, f. 78 a (copied 996/1588).

MS. Berlin, Orient Qu., 583, f. 24 b (copied 1077/1667).

MS. Gotha, Arab. 919, Pertsch; three short treatises.

I have also seen:

MS. Khusrū Pasha, 758, Eyyub; a Turkish tract with title Risāla fi’sh-shaṭranj.

MS. Bāyazīd, Walī-addīn, 1796, Constantinople; the Persian Risāla fī dar asrār saṭranj of Sheikh ‘Alā’addaula; which treats of the parallel between chess and war.

MS. Gotha, Turc. 18, Pertsch (1033 Moeller), f. 95 a, which gives two diagrams of ta‘bīyāt.

MS. Berlin, Orient, 4°, 124, ff. 92 b, 93 a; which contains two problem diagrams (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?’