The Chessboard as a Battlefield in Math and Poetry

Most Arabic narratives on the invention of chess, the earliest of which dates back to the 3rd/9th century, contain references to two general themes. Firstly, chess is preferable to games of chance because it is a tool for learning about war; secondly, the inventor of chess, when encouraged to name his reward, asks that it be calculated by multiplying a grain on the squares of a chessboard. Versions of this basic narrative have travelled around the Mediterranean and across Europe, leaving traces in biographical, historical, and technical prose, but also finding its way into poetry. This paper reviews the use of metaphors referring to the invention of chess in Arabic poetry and explores parallels in coeval literatures.