Event

Mar 21, 2025
Strategic Minds, Timeless Moves: Exploring Şatranç-nâme-i Kebîr (Great Book of Chess, 1503) by Firdevsî-i Rûmî

Abstract

The Şatranç-nâme-i Kebîr, or 'Great Book of Chess,' is a work composed by Firdevsî-i Rûmî (also known as Uzun Firdevsî, Şerefeddîn Mûsâ, 1453–after 1517) in Balıkesir in 1503 (909 AH). It was presented to Sultan Bayezid II. Copies of the manuscript are held in the Nuruosmaniye Library (Istanbul, no. 3553), the Berlin Library (no. 1631), and the Munich Library (no. 250). The book is divided into eight chapters (Bâb) and is written in a mix of poetry and prose in Ottoman Turkish. The book contains 83 chess positions, six of which are historical chess arrangements (ta’biye) played in the Middle East. The remaining 77 positions feature variations of well-known chess puzzles, such as the Dilaram problem. While the work draws upon earlier Arabic chess treatises like the 10th-century Kitāb al-Shiṭranj by As-Suli and Al-Adli, it also preserves lesser-known tales about the origins of chess, such as the legends of Islamic heroes/prophets, Idris, Cemşit, Iskender, and Suleyman. Previous scholarship on the book by Antonius van der Linde and James Murray has been limited in its introduction of the work. This lecture aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the Şatranç-nâme-i Kebîr and its author, with particular attention to the allegorical and literary dimensions of the text.

Biography

Dr. Ömer Fatih Parlak is an Assistant Professor at the Cappadocia University, Türkiye.

Address
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Room
Zoom/Online Meeting Platform
Contact and Registration

We welcome both internal and external guests. Registration is only required for physical attendance. For more information about the colloquium series, please contact Jacob Schmidt-Madsen.

Zoom link: https://eu02web.zoom-x.de/j/68564259061

About This Series

Asia is home to some of best known and longest surviving board games in the world. Backgammon originated in West Asia, Chess in South Asia, and Go in East Asia. The list goes on and can be expanded to include hundreds, if not thousands, of games that most people have never even heard of. Yet the history of their transmission, translocation, and transcreation across the Asian continent remains little explored and poorly understood. This owes in part to obvious barriers of culture and language, but also to a lack of communication between board game scholars. Even a cursory glance at the sources – whether textual, visual, material, or ethnographic – shows that they speak a common language that we as researchers do not.

The ASTRA colloquium series brings together board game scholars working with primary sources in a variety of Asian languages. It asks them to present their sources and discuss questions of context, structure, content, and language use. The goal is not only to establish connections between specific games and game cultures, but also between researchers and methodologies. The series is rooted in a larger project to build a database of ludic terminologies across linguistic glossaries in Asia. A special keynote lecture on games and language will be delivered by Alex de Voogt who has been instrumental in shaping the modern landscape of board game studies.

2025-03-21T10:00:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2025-03-21 10:00:00 2025-03-21 11:00:00 Strategic Minds, Timeless Moves: Exploring Şatranç-nâme-i Kebîr (Great Book of Chess, 1503) by Firdevsî-i Rûmî Abstract The Şatranç-nâme-i Kebîr, or 'Great Book of Chess,' is a work composed by Firdevsî-i Rûmî (also known as Uzun Firdevsî, Şerefeddîn Mûsâ, 1453–after 1517) in Balıkesir in 1503 (909 AH). It was presented to Sultan Bayezid II. Copies of the manuscript are held in the Nuruosmaniye Library (Istanbul, no. 3553), the Berlin Library (no. 1631), and the Munich Library (no. 250). The book is divided into eight chapters (Bâb) and is written in a mix of poetry and prose in Ottoman Turkish. The book contains 83 chess positions, six of which are historical chess arrangements (ta’biye) played in the Middle East. The remaining 77 positions feature variations of well-known chess puzzles, such as the Dilaram problem. While the work draws upon earlier Arabic chess treatises like the 10th-century Kitāb al-Shiṭranj by As-Suli and Al-Adli, it also preserves lesser-known tales about the origins of chess, such as the legends of Islamic heroes/prophets, Idris, Cemşit, Iskender, and Suleyman. Previous scholarship on the book by Antonius van der Linde and James Murray has been limited in its introduction of the work. This lecture aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the Şatranç-nâme-i Kebîr and its author, with particular attention to the allegorical and literary dimensions of the text. Biography Dr. Ömer Fatih Parlak is an Assistant Professor at the Cappadocia University, Türkiye. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany Zoom/Online Meeting Platform Jacob Schmidt-Madsen Jacob Schmidt-Madsen Europe/Berlin public