"O, King, may you live as long as the celestial spheres continue
to revolve; I pray of you to examine this chess board, and to lay
it before such of your people as are most distinguished for learning
and wisdom. Let them carefully deliberate, one with another;
and if they can, let them discover the principles of this wonderful
game. Let them find out the uses of the various pieces, and how
each is to be moved, and in to what particular squares. Let them
discover the laws which regulate the evolutions of this mimic
army, and the rules applicable to the Pawns, and to the Elephants,
and to the Rukhs (or warriors), and to the Horses, and to the
Farzin, and to the King. If they should succeed in discovering
the principles and expounding the practice of this rare game,
assuredly they will be entitled to admission into the number of
the wise, and in such case I promise to acknowledge myself, as
hitherto, your Majesty's tributary. On the other hand, should you
and the wise men of Iran collectively fail in discovering the nature
and principles of this cunning game, it will evince a clear proof
that you are not our equals in wisdom; and consequently you will
have no right any longer to exact from us either tribute or impost.
On the contrary we shall feel ourselves justified in demanding
hereafter the same tribute from you; for man's true greatness
consists in wisdom, not in territory, and troops, and riches, all
of which are liable to decay."
When Naushirawan had perused the letter from the Sovereign
of Hind, long did he ponder over its contents. Then he carefully
examined the chess board and the pieces and asked a few questions
of the Envoy respecting their nature and use.
The latter, in general terms, replied, Sire, what you wish to
know can be learned only by playing the game, suffice it for me,
to say, that the board represents a battle field, and the pieces
the different species of forces engaged in the combat. Then the
King said to the Envoy, grant us the space of seven days for the
purpose of deliberation; on the eighth day we engage to play with
you the game, or acknowledge our inferiority.
Then followed the assembling of the men esteemed learned and
wise, the sages of Iran, and seven days of perplexity. At last
Buzerjmihr hastened to the presence of Naushirawan and said:
"O, King of victorious destiny, I have carefully examined this
board and these pieces, and at length by your Majesty's good
fortune, I have succeeded in discovering the nature of the game.
It is a most shrewd and faithful representation of a battle field,
which it is proper your Majesty should inspect in the first place.
In the mean time let the Indian Ambassador be summoned into
the royal presence together with the more distinguished among
his retinue, also a few of the wise and learned of our own court
that they may all bear witness how we have acquitted ourselves in
accomplishing the task imposed upon us by the King of Kancj.
When Buzerjmihr had explained the evolutions of the ebony and
ivory warriors, the whole assembly stood mute in admiration and
astonishment. The Indian Ambassador was filled with mingled
vexation and surprise, he looked upon Buzerjmihr as a man
endowed with intelligence far beyond that of mere mortals, and
thus he pondered in his own mind: How could he have discovered
the nature and principles of this profound game? Can it be
possible that he has received his information from the sages of
Hind? Or is it really the result of his own penetrating research,
guided by the acuteness of his unaided judgment? Assuredly
Buzerjmihr has not this day his equal in the whole world. In the
meanwhile Naushirawan in public acknowledged the unparalleled
wisdom of his favourite Counsellor. He sent for the most costly
and massive goblet in his palace and filled the same with the
rarest of jewels. These, together with a war steed, richly
caparisoned, and a purse full of gold pieces he presented to
Buzerjmihr."
The other version of the first receipt of chess in Persia, based
upon eastern works and perhaps more reasonable, if not resting
upon yet better attestation, records that Burzuvia, a physician,
and the most expert that could be found in the knowledge of
languages, and art and ability in acquiring them, at the request
or command of Chosroes, King of Persia, undertook to explore the
national work of the Brahmans and the famous book, the Kurtuk
Dunmix, and the result of his mission and labours were, after
considerable research in India, the materials for and production
of the Culila Dinma, a national work greatly treasured by Chosroes
and future kings of Persia, and which work contained the art of
playing chess. This work is said to have been jointly translated
by Burzuvia and Buzerjmihr the vizier of Chosroes and it is highly
probable that the latter did assist, and thus learnt the secret, and
this seems to form the most likely solution of the circumstance of
his unraveling the mysteries of chess as alleged, without the
slightest clue, to the amazement and delight of Chosroes and his
court, when it was received as a test of wisdom and profound
secret from the King of Hind. Writers who concur in or do not
dissent from either of these accounts, yet differ as to which should
take priority in point of date, the more reasonable supposition
seems to be, that Burzuvia not unwilling to propitiate Chosroes'
favourite vizier and Counsellor, reserved his knowledge from all but
Buzerjmihr in which no doubt he exercised wise policy and did
not himself go unrewarded. The chief Counsellor and vizier of a
great King was a desirable person to conciliate in those days, and
afterwards as is abundantly proved throughout Eastern history
and dynastics from the time of Abu Bekr, Omar, Osman, Abdullah,
and the Prophet, and later from Harun, and Al Mamun (786-833)
even to the time of the enlightened Akbar, (1556-1605), continued
examples are to be found in the reigns of the rulers through all
these ages where the real sway vested in the vizier who frequently
combined a great knowledge of learning with an extraordinary
capacity for war.
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THE TEN ADVANTAGES OF CHESS ACCORDING TO THE PERSIAN
PHILOSOPHER, ARE THUS GIVEN IN TRANSLATION.
The "first advantage" of which the commencement is wanting
in the M.S., turns chiefly on the benefits of food and exercise
for the mind in which chess is marked out as an active agent,
intended by its inventor to conduce to intellectual energy in
pursuit of knowledge, for as the human body is nourished by
eating which is its food, and from which it obtains life and
strength, and without which the body dies, so the mind of man is
nourished by learning which is the food of the soul, and without
which he would incur spiritual death; that is ignorance, and it is
current that a wise man's sleep is better than a fool's devotion.
The glory of man then is knowledge, and chess is the nourishment
of the mind, the solace of the spirit, the polisher of intelligence,
the bright sun of understanding, and has been preferred by the
philosopher its inventor, to all other means by which we arrive
at wisdom.
The Second Advantage is in Religion, illustrating the Muhammedan
doctrines of predestination (Sabr and Cadar) by the free
will of man in playing chess, moving when he will, or where he
will, and which piece he thinks best, but restricted in some
degree by compulsion, as he may not play against certain laws,
nor give to one piece the move of another, whereas, on the
contrary, Nerd (Eastern Backgammon) is mere free will, while in
Dice again all is compulsion. This argument is pursued at some
length in the text. Passing from this singular application of
theology to chess play, we find the Third Advantage relates to
Government, the principles of which the author declares to be
best learned from chess. The board is compared to the world,
and the adverse sets of men to two monarchs with their subjects,
each possessing one half of the world, and with true eastern
ambition desiring the other, but unable to accomplish his design
without the utmost caution and policy. Perwiz and Ardeshir are
quoted as having attributed all their wisdom of government to
the study and knowledge of chess.
The Fourth Advantage relates to war, the resemblance to which
of the mimic armies of chess, is too obvious to detain the
philosopher long.
The Fifth Advantage of chess is in its resemblance to the
Heavens. He says, the board represents the Heavens, in which
squares are the Celestial houses and the pieces Stars. The
superior pieces are assimilated to the Moving Stars, and the Pawns
which have only one movement to the Fixed Stars. The King is
as the Sun, and the Wazir in place of the Moon, and the Elephants
and Taliah in the place of Saturn; and the Rukhs and Dabbabah
in that of Mars, and the Horses and Camel in that of Jupiter,
and the Ferzin and Zarafah in that of Venus, and all these pieces
have their accidents, corresponding with the Trines and Quadrates,
and Conjunction and Opposition, and Ascendancy and Decline,
such as the heavenly bodies have, and the Eclipse of the Sun is
figured by Shah Caim or Stale Mate. This parallel is completed
by indicating the functions of the different pieces in connection
with the influence of their respective planets, and chess players
are even invited to consult Astrology in adapting their moves to
the various aspects.
The Sixth Advantage is derived from the preceding, and assigns
to each piece, according to the planet it represents, certain
physical temperaments, as the Warm, the Cold, the Wet, the Dry,
answering to the four principal movements of chess, (viz, the
Straight, Oblique, Mixed or Knights, and the Pawns move). This
system is extended to the beneficial influence of chess on the
body, prescribing it as a cure for various ailings of a lighter
kind, as pains in the head and toothache, which are dissipated by
the amusement of play; and no illness is more grievous than
hunger and thirst, yet both these, when the mind is engaged in
chess, are no longer thought of.
Advantage Seven, "In obtaining repose for the soul." The
Philosopher says, the soul hath illnesses, like as the body hath,
and the cure of these last is known, but of the soul's illness there
be also many kinds, and of these I will mention a few. The first is
Ignorance, and another is Disobedience, the third Haste, the
Fourth Cunning, the fifth Avarice, sixth Tyranny, seventh Lying,
the eighth Pride, the ninth Deceit, and Deceit is of two kinds,
that which deceiveth others, and that by which we deceive
ourselves; and the tenth is Envy, and of this also there be many
kinds, and there is no one disorder of the soul greater than
Ignorance for it is the soul's death, as learning is its life; and
for this disease is chess an especial cure, since there is no way by
which men arrive more speedily at knowledge and wisdom, and in
like manner, by its practice all the faults which form the diseases
of the soul, are converted into their corresponding virtues. Thus,
Ignorance is exchanged for learning, obstinacy for docility, and
precipitation for patience, rashness for prudence, lying for truth,
cowardice for bravery, and avarice for generosity, tyranny for
justice, irreligion for piety, deceitfulness for sincerity, hatred
for affection, emnity for friendship.
The Eighth may be called a social advantage of chess, bringing
men nearer to Kings and nobles, and as a cause of intimacy and
friendship, and also as a preventive to disputes and idleness and
vain pursuits.
The Tenth and last advantage is in combining war with sport,
the utile with the dulce, in like manner as other philosophers
have put moral in the mouths of beasts, and birds, and reptiles,
and encouraged the love of virtue and inculcated its doctrines by
allegorical writings such as the Marzaban, Namah, and Kalila wa
Dimnah, under the attractive illusion of fable.
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