"Buzurgmihr Masters the Game of Chess", Folio from the First Small Shahnama (Book of Kings)

Buzurgmihr Masters the Game of Chess

The Shahnama has its own version of how the game of chess was introduced into Iran from India. In order to avoid paying tribute to the Sasanians, the rajah of Hind sent an envoy challenging the Iranian ruler Nushirvan to figure out how this war game was played. Buzurjmihr, the clever vizier, gained the tribute for his king by solving the problem.

The Iranians in attendance on Nushirvan are dressed in Mongol costumes, whereas the vizier is given an "erudite" status by his Arab-style tunic and turban. The Indian envoy, all alone among the Iranians as if underscoring his defeat at the game, is typically represented as a dark-skinned man wearing baggy clothes and a loose turban. The composition, set against a plain gold background, is strictly symmetrical, focusing attention on the three main characters in the center and especially on the stark white of the chessboard.[1]

[Komaroff and Carboni 2002].

Footnotes:

1. Simpson, Marianna Shreve. The Illustrations of an Epic: The Earliest "Shahnama" Manuscripts. Outstanding Dissertations in the Fine Arts. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1979, fig. 63; Swietochowsi, Marie Lukens and Stefano Carboni. Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian Paintings of the 1330s and 1340s. Exhib. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994, p. 123, fig. 35.


"Buzurjmihr Explains the Game of Chess to the Hindu Envoy", Folio from a Shahnama

In a famous story from the Shahnama, the king of Hind challenged Nurshivan (the Sasanian ruler Khusraw I Anushirvan, (r. 531–79), to decipher the rules of the game of chess, at that time unfamiliar to the Persians. Buzurjmihr, a wise councelor at the Iranian court not only deciphered the rules but defeated the Indian emissary and, so the story goes, proceeded to invent backgammon.

Here, as is typical in medieval chess, treatises from the Islamic world, and in manuscripts illustrating Firawsi's epic story of the invention of chess, red and black distinguish the two sides. At the time when this Shahnama was executed, Iran was still under the domination of the Mongol Ilkhanid dynasty (1256–1353) and this political situation is reflected in the distinctly Mongol appearance of the king and courtiers.

[Asia Society 2004]

[ Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, until 1934; sold to MMA]

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia 1256-1353," October 28, 2002–February 16, 2003, no. 34.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia 1256-1353," April 13–July 27, 2003, no. 34.

New York. Asia Society. "Asian Games: The Art of Contest," October 14, 2004–January 18, 2005, no. 12:6.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Asian Games: The Art of Contest," February 26, 2005–May 15, 2005, no. 12:6.

Middlebury College Museum of Art. "Asian Games: The Art of Contest," September 8, 2005–December 11, 2005, no. 12.6.

Dimand, Maurice S. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 29 (1934). pp. 58–60, ill. fig. 1 (b/w).

Swietochowski, Marie, Stefano Carboni, Tomoko Masuya, and Alexander H. Morton. Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images : Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. p. 123, ill. fig. 35 (b/w).

Carboni, Stefano. "Chessmen in the Department of Islamic Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Scacchi e Scienze Applicate suppl. no. 7, fasc. 15 (1996). ill. front cover (b/w.

Rossabi, Morris, Charles Melville, James C. Y. Watt, Tomoko Masuya, Sheila Blair, Robert Hillenbrand, Linda Komaroff, Stefano Carboni, Sarah Bertelan, and John Hirx. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353, edited by Stefano Carboni, and Linda Komaroff. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. no. 34, pp. 151, 253, ill. fig. 176 (color).

Mackenzie, Colin, and Irving Finkel, ed. Asian Games. The Art of Contest. New York: Asia Society, 2004. no. 12:6, p. 141, ill. (color).