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Add MS 7515
- Record Id:
- 032-003310657
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-003310657
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100030345542.0x000001
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100048232200.0x000002
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 7515
- Title:
-
Kitāb fī al-shaṭranj wa-manṣūbātihi wa-mulaḥih كتاب في الشطرنج ومنصوباته وملحه
- Scope & Content:
-
Anonymous handbook on chess, dealing with its legality, origins, symbolism, classes of players, poetry in praise of chess, poetry to be recited at various stages of play, and chess techniques. The sections on techniques cover chess problems (منصوبات), openings (تعبيات) and puzzles (مخارق). For an outline of the contents, see Murray, 'The Earlier Arabic Literature of Chess', JRAS 69.1 (1937) pp. 171-72.
The work is a compilation of earlier chess manuals by al-‘Adlī (العدلي; fl. mid-ninth century), Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyá al-Ṣūlī (أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى الصولي; fl. early tenth century) and Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn ‘Ubaydallāh al-Lajlāj (أبو الفرج محمد بن عبيد الله اللجلاج; d. 970) amongst others.
The author of this compilation is unknown, and the name of the ruler to whom the text is dedicated has been erased (see f. 1v, line 11).
The text contains 215 diagrams of chess problems (منصوبات) and openings (تعبيات), 12 of which have been left blank (i.e. the board has been drawn but not the pieces).
The copy was completed on 6 Jumādá II 655/21 June 1257 (see colophon, f. 132r, lines 4-6, transcribed below).
Contents:
Begins (f. 1v, lines 2-4):
الحمد لله ذي العزة القاهرة الحجة الباهرة. والنعم
المتظاهرة الذي خلق الإنسان علمه البيان فقال سبحانه
وجعلنا الليل والنهار سكن
Ends (f. 131v, line 14-132r, line 1):
وإذا وقع له لعب جيد وهو لا يراه
أنشدت
سيوف لعمري يا لؤي قن غالب حداد ولكن أين بالسيف ضارب
Colophon (f. 132r, lines 2-8):
تم الكتاب
بعون الله ومنته ولطفه
بتأريخ اليوم السادس عشر
من شهر جمادى الآخرة من سنة
خمس وخمسين وستمائة هجرية
والحمد لله رب العالمين وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد خاتم النبيين
وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم
- Collection Area:
- Oriental Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-003310657", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 7515: Kitāb fī al-shaṭranj wa-manṣūbātihi wa-mulaḥih كتاب في الشطرنج ومنصوباته وملحه" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-003310657
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-003310657
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Codex; ff. i+132+i
- Digitised Content:
- https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100030345542.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Arabic
- Scripts:
- Arabic
- Start Date:
- 1257
- End Date:
- 1257
- Date Range:
- 6 Jumādá II 655
- Calendar:
- Hijri qamari
- Era:
- AH
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Eastern laid paper
Dimensions: 230 x 160 mm leaf [180 x 105 mm written]
Foliation: Eastern Arabic foliation in black ink; British Museum foliation in pencil
Ruling: No ruling visible; 17 lines per page; vertical spacing 10 lines per 10 cm
Script: Naskh
Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and diagrams in red
Binding: British Museum binding (see Thompson, 'The Rich Manuscripts', The British Museum Quarterly 27.1/2 [1963])
Condition: Minor insect damage and some repairs especially into gutter
Marginalia: Few (although see title page, f. 1r)
Seals: ff. 1r and 132v
- Custodial History:
-
- Bāyezīd II (بايزيد بن محمد خان مظفر دائمًا ), Ottoman sultan (reg. 1481-1512), his seal, undated (ff. 1r and 132v; see Chester Beatty Library Islamic Seals Database no. 2 and Suha Umar, Osmanlı Padişah Tuğraları [Istanbul: Cem Yayinevi, 1980] p. 120);
- Muṣṭafá Ṣidqī (مصطفى صدقي, d. 1183/1796-70), Ottoman bibliophile and poet, his seal (f. 1r; see Chester Beatty Library Islamic Seals Database no. 4);
- Seal with Kufic inscription ما شاء الله لا قوة إلا بالله, belonging to Muṣṭafá Ṣidqī (مصطفى صدقي, d. 1183/1796-70), Ottoman bibliophile and poet (f. 1r; see Chester Beatty Library Islamic Seals Database no. 3);
- Muḥammad Sa‘īd (محمد سعيد), his seal, dated 1140/1727-28, with associated inscription that covers most of the page (f. 1r; for edition and Spanish translation of inscription see Libro del ajedrez, ed. and trans. by F.M. Pareja Casañas [Madrid-Granada: Imprenta de Estanislao Maestre, 1935] vol. 2, pp. xxxii-xxxvii; for English translaion of inscription see Murray, A History of Chess [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1913] pp. 354-55).
- Source of Acquisition:
-
Purchased from Mary Rich (née Mackintosh), widow of Claudius James Rich (1786-1821), Political Resident in Baghdad (1808-21), 25 March 1825
- Finding Aids:
-
Cureton, William and Charles Rieu, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda, codices arabicos amplectens (London: The British Museum, 1846-71), Item 784, p. 351
- Publications:
-
Edition and Spanish translation:
- Libro del ajedrez, de sus problemas y sutilezas, de auto árabe desconocido. Según el ms. arab. add. 7515 (Rich) del Museo Británico, ed. and trans. by Félix M. Pareja Casañas, 2 vols, Publicaciones de las Escuelas de estudios árabes de Madrid y Granada; Ser. A., núm. 3 (Madrid-Granada: Imprenta de Estanislao Maestre, 1935)
Studies:
- Forbes, Duncan, The History of Chess: From the Time of the Early Invention of the Game in India, till the Period of its Establishment in Western and Central Europe (London: W.H. Allen & Co., 1860)
- Latham, J. D. 'Revd Dr. Félix M. Pareja, S. J. (1890-1983)', British Society for Middle East Studies. Bulletin 11.1 (1984), pp 107-08
- Murray, Harold James Ruthven, A History of Chess (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1913)
- Murray, Harold James Ruthven, 'The Earlier Arabic Literature of Chess. Libro del Ajedrez, de sus Sutilezas, de Autor Árabe desconcido. Por Félix M. Pareja Casañas. Publicaciones de las Escuelas de Estudios Árabes de Madrid y Granada, Serie A, Núm. 3. Madrid 1935', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 69.1 (1937) pp. 169-76
- Thompson, J.R. Fawcett, 'The Rich Manuscripts', The British Museum Quarterly 27.1/2 (1963) pp. 18-23
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)