"Buzurjmihr Explains the Game of Backgammon (Nard) to the Raja of Hind", Folio from the First Small Shahnama (Book of Kings)

Folio from a Shahnama

This page from the Shahnameh, copied during the Ilkhanid period, shows the wise Persian courtier Buzurgmihr demonstrating backgammon—his intellectual riposte to chess—to the Indian ruler. The foreign delegation, placed at the right-hand side of the action, is clearly designated ad Middle Eastern by the men's tunic, turbans and full beards, while the Raja of Hind and his courtiers are shown as Indian by their dark skin, bright baggy clothes and loose turbans. Here, the Raja leans forward as Buzurgmihr waves his hand across the board, either inviting a game or explainng the rules; one elderly courtier shows his surprise by placing a finger to his lips.[60] The depiction of this story and the preceding tale of Buzurgmihr's explanation of chess, in one of the earliest illustrated examples of the Shahnameh, demonstrate a commitment by the Mongol rulers of Iran to the culture of the lands which they ruled.[61]

WIlliam Greenwood in [greenwood 2014]

Footnotes:

60. Daryaee, T. (2002) Mind, body and the cosmos: Chess and backgammon in ancient Persia. Iranian Studies, vol. 35, no. 4 (Autumn), pp. 294–95.

61. See Hillenbrand, R. (2002). The arts of the book in Ilkhanid Iran. In L. Komaroff and S. Carboni, eds. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 150–55.

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

Doha. Museum of Islamic Art, Doha. "Kings & Pawns," March 18, 2014–June 21, 2014.

Dimand, Maurice S. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 29 (1934). pp. 58–60.

Wilkinson, Charles K. "Chessmen and Chess." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 1, no. 9 (May 1943). p. 273, ill. (b/w).

Simpson, Marianna. "The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts." PhD diss., Garland Publishing, Inc., 1979.

Greenwood, WIlliam. "Board Games from India to Spain." In Kings & Pawns. Doha, Qatar: Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, 2014. pp. 28–29, ill. p. 29.