From Auron Tare
Memorie.al / When one of the workers clearing the soil in the ruins of the so-called Byzantine Palace on the edge of the Vivari Channel in Butrint found an ivory object in his slightly torn sieve, no one imagined that this small object would become the epicentre of one of the hottest debates in recent times in European scientific circles. Carefully cleaned by a specialist from the British Museum working for the Anglo-Albanian expedition in the Butrint Project, the object in question was examined by two British professors who within a few days concluded that they held in their hands one of the most important discoveries to date in the history of chess. A chess piece – and not just any piece coming from the depths of the centuries, but chess piece from the 5th century AD.
This news, which spread like lightning to all news agencies in the world, surprised not a few Albanians who suddenly learned from the foreign press that in one of their Ancient Cities, local aristocrats played chess as far back as antiquity. This news of the unexpected discovery in Butrint brought no little surprise to international archaeological circles, but also great curiosity to see whether the object in question was indeed an ivory piece used for the world’s most famous game.
To date, the most accepted hypothesis is that chess arrived in Europe around the 11th–12th century through Arab penetration, mainly in Sicily and southern Spain. As is well known, the European Renaissance owes much to Arab culture, which brought many valuable new things in medicine, astrology, mathematics, etc., but also brought a number of lost works of ancient authors. Through this culture, it is thought that the game of chess was also brought to Europe, quickly becoming one of the favourite pastimes of the European aristocracy.
A chess piece from the 5th century AD would also mean that all the theories advanced so far about the origin of the arrival of this game in Europe would have to be revised. But of course such a discovery cannot easily escape the attention of a number of experts in this field, who were surprised at the speed with which the two British professors had reached this conclusion.
“Le Figaro”, the well-known French newspaper, was the first to publish an article expressing doubt about this great discovery in the field of chess. Likewise, a number of international experts commented at length on the authenticity or not of this discovery, expressing their disbelief about the possibility of the existence of a 5th-century AD chess piece in Butrint. But despite the numerous debates in various newspapers and magazines, Butrint and the discovery of the strange object were arousing even more curiosity among visitors for this City that hides such surprises.
The discovery of the “chess piece” in Butrint has once again raised the question that a number of professors thought they had already answered. Was chess played in the aristocratic houses of the ancient metropolises of Rome, Constantinople or Alexandria? To date, there is no evidence that Roman aristocrats, or even provincial ones, spent their time after dinners and philosophical debates with complicated chess exercises. If the piece found in the Byzantine Palace of Butrint is confirmed by experts to indeed be a chess piece from the fifth century, then we will have the first convincing evidence that Roman aristocrats knew how to play chess.
However, for sceptical historians, there are no written sources from ancient authors that speak of the existence of this game during the Roman Empire. No Emperor in his memoirs says that before the fierce battles with the barbarian tribes threatening the Empire’s borders, he developed military tactics on the chessboard. None of the famous Church Fathers writes about the existence of this game in the 5th century – a game which in the Middle Ages would become perhaps the only game those clerics would play with the greatest desire.
Perhaps history must be rewritten? Or was the haste of the British Professors a way to attract attention, and the object found is simply an object that has nothing to do with chess? Questions that have been asked in various ways throughout this heated debate. It is a well-known fact that archaeology has contributed in not a few cases to shedding light on topics that have been considered settled issues. Many myths and legends debated for their authenticity have become credible as a result of archaeological discoveries. Perhaps this time, too, archaeology will change history?
But when was the game of chess invented? To date, it is possible that among all the cultures connected with chess; only in Islamic culture do we find a literature that tells us in detail about the rules of the game. From Arabic sources, it is possible to get acquainted with written treatises dating back to 850 AD, as well as with the only known book to date that deals with the game of chess. Before that date, only occasional references to the game of chess are known in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and Chinese literature, but sufficient to let us know that the game of chess existed.
These texts can date to around 600 AD. Before that date, to date, it is very difficult to shed any precise light on chess. Archaeology and various references from ancient texts about games used by Roman soldiers do not specify anything regarding the origin of chess or the exact period when this game was known. Research into the origin of chess is more or less like research into finding the stages of the period of human evolution.
For this reason, the authenticity of the “Butrint piece” takes on an extraordinary importance for understanding the arrival of this game in Europe as well as the complex cultural relations between the Islamic East and the Christian West. The first treatises on chess come from the Islamic world, specifically from the Court of the Abbasid Caliphate that ruled in Baghdad in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. Some experts in the history of chess think that this game may also have been known in the Byzantine court, but in a very limited form.
To date, there is no convincing evidence that chess was known in the courts of European princes in the aforementioned centuries, despite the existence of 16 carved pieces in the court of Emperor Charlemagne which are said to be a gift from Caliph Harun al-Rashid. The discovery of a board together with all the game pieces, dated to the 12th century, found by Prof. George B.’s team in Turkey, is the first evidence that chess was played in the late Byzantine period.
Objects that might be linked to this game do not exist before this date, and the finding of a 5th-century “chess piece” is a discovery that calls into question the belief that European princes had inherited not only Roman culture but also chess. From the texts known to date, one gets the conviction that in the East the game of chess had reached sophisticated levels. These treatises speak not only of the rules of the game, but of complicated problems of strategy and game analysis. A large part of these documents, still preserved to this day, show that chess was practiced at the Abbasid Court during the first half of the 9th century.
It is difficult to say for certain that chess was known in the Islamic world before this period. An interesting fact in support of this idea is the non-inclusion or non-commentary of this game in Islamic Law or the Qur’an. This must have come as a result of the Prophet Muhammad not knowing the game of chess. The position of chess in this sophisticated system of rules and laws such as the Qur’an is very doubtful, since it is mentioned nowhere as a game.
A number of sources by Islamic authors try to attribute knowledge of chess to Caliph Omar (634-644), the Prophet’s father-in-law, but to date there is no real fact to support this assumption. Perhaps these authors sought some kind of legitimacy for the game of chess, which may have been in danger of being banned by interpreters of the Sacred Laws. To date, historians can say with certainty that there is no real evidence to prove that chess was known in the Islamic world before the year 800.
However, some historians think that chess was quite well known even before the Abbasid Dynasty came to power (750). These historians refer to some facts which cannot confirm the existence of this opinion, but which are nevertheless interesting to discuss. The Arab poet al-Farazdaq, who died in 728, uses expressions in one of his poems that refer quite clearly to the game of chess. Nevertheless, it is very difficult not to accept the fact that all the Arab authors of the 9th-10th centuries were of the opinion that chess came to Islamic culture from the Persians, who had received this game from India.
Unfortunately, there is no archaeological trace to prove this fact, since to date no chess piece from this period has been found. However, linguistics has proven that the Arabic word for chess, “shatranj”, comes from the Persian “chatrang”, which itself comes from the Sanskrit “chaturanga”. Likewise, a large part of the words related to chess in Arabic come from Persian.
Before the Persian Empire was conquered by Arab armies in 640, Persia had been led by the Sasanian Dynasty since the 3rd century. Persia had its own language, writings, and the Zoroastrian religion. After Persia was conquered by Bedouin tribes, Persian culture went through several periods of transformation, but a large part of Persian literature and history was translated into Arabic. The Arabs must have easily also taken the game of chess as part of Persian culture, along with literature and other arts.
However, the history of chess in Persian culture is quite readable in one of the masterpieces of Persian literature, the Shahnama, composed by the famous Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1011. In this work, which is based on 6th-century documents on the Sasanian Dynasty, it speaks of chess quite clearly in the stories of the Vizier of King Khusrow I Anushirvan (531-579), who in his discussions with the delegation sent by the Maharaja of India manages to solve complicated chess exercises that had been sent by the King of India.
Another literary work that has come down to us from Persian literature, called Chatrang-namak, speaks in more detail about the game of chess, perhaps becoming the most important work on this game. This work, written before 800 AD, is the first pre-Islamic work that gives important details about chess, where for the first time it is said that chess was played by two people on a board of 64 squares.
Another reference to this game comes from the work Karnamak-i Artakhshir-i Papak, a book probably written around the 6th century. In one part of the book, it is emphasised that the founder of the Sasanian Dynasty, Ardashir, was very skilled in “ball game, riding, and chatrang”. In this work we have no other details except the name of the game of chess, but nevertheless we conclude that at least from the 6th century AD, the game of chess was considered one of the values of the Persian aristocracy.
Only two references from Persian literature are not enough to form an accurate idea of the game of chess, but nevertheless we must bear in mind that only 5 works of Persian literature from that time have managed to survive to this day. Of course it is difficult to find historical evidence for all these myths and legends, but one thing is quite clear: all existing hypotheses point towards Persia and India. Historians in general have accepted the fact that chess was brought from India to Persia during the reign of Khusrow I Anushirvan (531-579).
The origin of chess from India has been debated and to some extent accepted by historians, but unfortunately there are no clear references to this game in early Sanskrit writings before the year 600. The only source that can somewhat satisfy historians researching this issue is the Harshacharita, or “The Life of Harsha”, written in 625 by Bana, who describes the army of Maharaja Gupta as “arrayed like a game of chaturanga”.
All the Indian sacred writings that give references to the game of chess were written after this date, making it impossible to penetrate the mystery of the birth date of this game, but nevertheless accepting the fact that the origin of chess is India. The hypothesis that the piece found in Butrint is a chess piece dated to the 5th century would be the first evidence that this game could have come to Roman territories nearly 170 years before the known Sanskrit texts to date.
If this fact were accepted by historians, then the small ivory object would rewrite history, raising new questions about the relations between Rome and the distant lands of India. Of course, new discoveries and studies will be needed to prove such a thing, but the debates will continue, having as their epicentre the question: did the Butrint aristocrat who lived in the Byzantine Palace on the edge of the Vivari Channel play chess or not, 600 years before chess was known in Europe? / Memorie.al
