Early Arabic chess literature
With the sole exception of two works in
Middle Persian (the
Karnamak and the
Chatranj Namak) all of the early works (
pre-1000 CE) on
chess were written by
Arabic authors. At this point in the
origins of chess the rules were those of
Shatranj.
During the
golden age of
Arabic, many works on chess were written, recording for the first time the analysis of
opening games,
chess problems, the
knight's tour, and many more subjects common in modern chess books. Many of these are missing; while we have firm evidence of their existence, no copies are known to have survived.
The earliest listing of works on chess is in the
Fihrist, a general
bibliography produced in 377
AH (
988 CE) by
Ibn al-Nadim. It includes an entire section on the topic of chess, listing:
*Al-Adli's
Kitab ash-shatranj ('Book of chess')
*Ar-Razi's
Latif fi'sh-shatranj ('Elegance in chess')
*
As-Suli's
Kitab ash-shatranj (two volumes)
*Al-Lajlaj's
Kitab mansubat ash-shatranj ('Book of chess-positions or problems')
*B. Aliqlidisi's
Kitab majmu'fi mansubat ash-shatranj ('Collection of chess problems')
There is a passage referring to chess in a work said to be by
Hasan, a philosopher from
Basra who died in
728 CE; however the attribution of authorship is dubious.
*
H.J.R. Murray (1913).
A History of Chess. ISBN 0936317019.
