Persian manuscript from the 14th century describing how an ambassador from India brought chess to the Persian court.
The Games of Chess and Backgammon in Sasanian Persia
Touraj Daryaee
Published Online – first published as “Mind, Body, and the Cosmos: Chess and Backgammon in Ancient Persia,” Iranian Studies, vol. 35, no. 4 (2002)
Abstract
Board games were played in many parts of the ancient world and so it is very difficult to attribute the origin of any board game to a particular region or culture. Board games have been found in ancient Mesopotamia, the oldest from the city of Ur, but one must also mention the game of Senet in ancient Egypt. Often board games were placed in the tombs of the Pharaohs and sometimes the dead are shown playing with the gods, for example one scene shows Rameses III (c. 1270 B.C.) playing with Isis to gain access to the nether world. The importance of this fact is we can see that early on some board games had cosmological and religious significance and were not just games played for pleasure. Reference to board games in Persia can be found as early as the Achaemenid period, where according to Plutarch a board game with dice was played by Artaxerxes. There is also a reference to a board game being played in the Parthian period by king Demetrius, albeit in a later source, in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
The earliest historical reference to the game of chess occurs in India where it existed as early as the time of the great Indian grammarian Pānini around 500 BCE. The game is also mentioned in the great Indian epic, the Mahābhārata, where in an episode the great sage Vyāsa explains the rules of the game (Sanskrit) caturanga ; (Middle Persian) čatrang ; (Persian & Arabic) šatrang/šatranj to the great Pāndava prince Yudhisthira. Vyāsa exclaims that the board game has four groups: hasty-aśva-nauka-padāta “elephant, horse, ship, foot soldiers.” Thus the meaning of the name of the game, (Sanskrit) caturanga is not that it has four limbs but rather “army consisting of four divisions,” referring to the division of the Indian army, where according to the Amarakośa, by the sixth century CE, nauka was replaced by ratha, thus: hasty-aśva-ratha-padāta “elephant, horse, chariot, foot soldiers,” accompanying the king and the counselor. There are references to the game also by Patañjali (second century BCE), Bānā and Dandin (seventh century CE) and Ratnākara (ninth century CE).
The Games of Chess and Backgammon in Sasanian Persia
Touraj Daryaee
Published Online – first published as “Mind, Body, and the Cosmos: Chess and Backgammon in Ancient Persia,” Iranian Studies, vol. 35, no. 4 (2002)
Abstract
Board games were played in many parts of the ancient world and so it is very difficult to attribute the origin of any board game to a particular region or culture. Board games have been found in ancient Mesopotamia, the oldest from the city of Ur, but one must also mention the game of Senet in ancient Egypt. Often board games were placed in the tombs of the Pharaohs and sometimes the dead are shown playing with the gods, for example one scene shows Rameses III (c. 1270 B.C.) playing with Isis to gain access to the nether world. The importance of this fact is we can see that early on some board games had cosmological and religious significance and were not just games played for pleasure. Reference to board games in Persia can be found as early as the Achaemenid period, where according to Plutarch a board game with dice was played by Artaxerxes. There is also a reference to a board game being played in the Parthian period by king Demetrius, albeit in a later source, in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
The earliest historical reference to the game of chess occurs in India where it existed as early as the time of the great Indian grammarian Pānini around 500 BCE. The game is also mentioned in the great Indian epic, the Mahābhārata, where in an episode the great sage Vyāsa explains the rules of the game (Sanskrit) caturanga ; (Middle Persian) čatrang ; (Persian & Arabic) šatrang/šatranj to the great Pāndava prince Yudhisthira. Vyāsa exclaims that the board game has four groups: hasty-aśva-nauka-padāta “elephant, horse, ship, foot soldiers.” Thus the meaning of the name of the game, (Sanskrit) caturanga is not that it has four limbs but rather “army consisting of four divisions,” referring to the division of the Indian army, where according to the Amarakośa, by the sixth century CE, nauka was replaced by ratha, thus: hasty-aśva-ratha-padāta “elephant, horse, chariot, foot soldiers,” accompanying the king and the counselor. There are references to the game also by Patañjali (second century BCE), Bānā and Dandin (seventh century CE) and Ratnākara (ninth century CE).
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