The king of Hind sent his ambassador to Nushirvan with a game of chess, challenging the Iranians to figure out how it was played. Only the young Buzurjmihr was able to do so within the time limit. Here, he is seen seated opposite the Indian ambassador (traditionally depicted in Persian paintings as a religious mendicant, regardless of rank or calling), demonstrating the game to Nushirvan, who is enthroned in a pose identical to that of the ruler in several of the miniatures in the most accomplished illustrated manuscript of the period, the great Ilkhanid Shahnama made in Tabriz.
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Title:"Buzurjmihr Masters the Game of Chess", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)
Author:Abu'l Qasim Firdausi (Iranian, Paj ca. 940/41–1020 Tus)
Date:ca. 1330–40
Geography:Attributed to Iran, probably Isfahan
Medium:Ink, opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper
Dimensions:Entire Page: H. 8 1/16 (20.5 cm) W. 4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm) Painting: H. 3 1/8 in. (8 cm) W. 4 in. (10.2 cm) Mat: H. 19 1/4 in. (48.9 cm) W. 14 1/4 in. (36.2 cm) Frame: H. 22 in. (55.9 cm) W. 17 in. (43.2 cm)
Classification:Codices
Credit Line:Bequest of Monroe C. Gutman, 1974
Accession Number:1974.290.39
Folio from a Shahnama
In the earliest legends of the origins of chess, such as the Chatrang-namak (Book of Chess), and the celebrated Shahnameh of Firdausi, the game is introduced to Persia from India as a riddle. According to these stories, the Raja of Hind (India) sent an envoy bearing both a chess set and a message, written on a roll of pure silk. This informed the Shah that, unless the Persians could decifer the meaning and rules of chess by themselves, the Indian ruler would henceforth cease to pay tribute. After other members of the court had all proven unable to divine the game, the Persian vizier Buzurgmihr succeeded in only a few days where the others had failed.[57]
The Chatrang-namak gives the following account:
The explanation and the logic of chess is this: Victory through skill, in the manner which the wise have said: The victor who wins through wisdom, from having the essential lnowledge of weaponless war.[58]
The raja's envoy—shown here as an exotic outsider by his state of semi-undress, dark skin and lack of headdress—throws his arm out across the board, either in exasperation at Buzurgmihr's victory or in admiration of his genius.[59]
William Greenwood in [Greenwood 2014]
Footnotes:
57. Wilkinson, C.K., (1943) Chessmen and Chess. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, vol. 1, no. 9 (May), p.272.
58. Daryaee, T. (2002) Mind, body and the cosmos: Chess and backgammon in ancient Persia. Iranian Studies, vol. 35, no. 4 (Autumn), p. 306.
59. Gunter, A. (2004). Chess and its visual culture in west, south, and southeast Asia. In C. MacKenzie and I. Finkel, eds. Asian Games: The Art of Contest. New York: Asia Society, pp. 141–43.
Buzurjmihr Masters the Game of Chess
The king of Hind sent an embassy to Nushirvan with a chessboard and chessmen, challenging the Iranians to figure out how the game was played. If successful, the king of Hind would pay tribute, but if not, Nushirvan would pay tribute to him. The shah accepted the conditions and enlisted his counselors to puzzle it out, but they could not. Buzurjmihr then appeared and volunteered to accept the task. It took him a day and night to work out the positions of the pieces and how they moved, and he demonstrated for Nushirvan how the game was played before the astonished Indian ambassador.
The illustration has a stepped-up format to accommodate the ruler on his throne and the pair of sword-bearers behind it. Nushirvan, with one knee drawn up, watches the game in progress between Buzurjmihr and the Indian ambassador at the lower left. The Indian is pictured as a religious mendicant—already a tradition in Persian painting regardless of a person’s rank. Four standing courtiers fill the rest of the available space.
In the First Small Shahnama this illustration has a different format and composition.[1] The enthroned ruler is in the center of the composition with the chess players directly below him. On each side are three standing warriors in hats or caps with owl feathers and two seated counselors in Mongol split-brim caps. In the St. Petersburg Inju’id Shahnama of 1333, Buzurjmir and the ambassador are kneeling at the lower left and two other Indians stand at the left above them; all are black in color. Nushirvan is enthroned to the right of Buzurjmihr, with one knee drawn up. A counselor in Arab turban and a throne guardian stand behind Buzurjmir, while another counselor is seated at the right margin. A large folded red curtain extends across the top of the painting. The ground is ocher.[2] While certain features of this last painting, such as the position of the chess players and the pose of the king, are similar on the Gutman page, the style, drawing, palette, and figural and facial types are distinct enough to set the two miniatures apart.
Mary Lukens Swietochowsky in [Swietochowsky and Carboni 1994]
Notes:
1. M. S. Simpson. The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts. New York, 1979, no. 63 (MMA, 34.24.1).
2. A. T. Adamova and L. T. Giuzal'ian, Miniatiury rukopisi poemy "Shakhname" 1333 goda. St. Petersburg, 1985, no. 45.
"Buzurjmihr Masters the Game of Chess", Folio from a Shahnama
In this early depiction of the same story as in MMA 34.24.1, the contrast between the light-skinned and robed Buzurjmihr and the darker-skinned and half-naked Indian envoy is emphasized. As Buzurjmir places a piece on the board, the Indian enoy stretches out his hand, perhaps acknowledging that he has been bested. Alternatively, the artist may be depicting the envoy's challenge and Buzurjmir's response to it. At any rate, the game seems to have been in progress for some time, since the pieces have all been moved from their original positions.
[Asia Society 2004]
Ph. Walter Schulz, Leipzig, Germany (by 1914); Professor O. Moll, Düsseldorf, Germany ; Monroe C. Gutman, New York (by 1929–d. 1974; bequeathed to MMA)
New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s," February 1–May 1, 1994, no. 45.
New York. Asia Society. "Asian Games: The Art of Contest," October 14, 2004–January 18, 2005, no. 12:7.
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Asian Games: The Art of Contest," February 26, 2005–May 15, 2005, no. 12:7.
Middlebury College Museum of Art. "Asian Games: The Art of Contest," September 8, 2005–December 11, 2005, no. 12:7.
Doha. Museum of Islamic Art, Doha. "Kings & Pawns," March 18, 2014–June 21, 2014.
Schulz, Ph. Walter. Die Persisch-Islamische Miniaturmalerei. Vol. vols. I, II. Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1914. vol. 1, pp. 74–75, ill. vol. 2, pl. 17.
Greenwood, WIlliam. "Board Games from India to Spain." In Kings & Pawns. Doha, Qatar: Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, 2014. pp. 26–27, ill. p. 27.
Masuya, Tomoko. "The Condition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Small Shahnama and the Reconstruction of its Text." In Poetry and Epic Images, edited by Marie Lukens Swietochowski, and Stefano Carboni. New York, 1994. pp. 129–45.
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. no. 45, pp. 78–79, 123–24, ill. p. 123 (b/w).
Mackenzie, Colin, and Irving Finkel, ed. Asian Games The Art of Contest. New York: Asia Society, 2004. no. 12:7, p. 142, ill. (color).
Abu'l Qasim Firdausi (Iranian, Paj ca. 940/41–1020 Tus)
15th century
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