Chess and other Games Pieces from Islamic Lands

Description

Among the many treasures of the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, are hundreds of chess and other games pieces dating from the 7th to the 19th centuries ce. Intricately crafted in a rich variety of materials, including ivory, wood, ceramic, glass, jade and agate, these tiny objects are of enormous historical and artistic significance. They not only mark the evolution of familiar games into their modern forms, but also evoke the imperial palaces, military camps and herders' tents in which they were played over many centuries, from the Sasanian period through the Islamic era in Central Asia, Iran, present-day Iraq and northern India. The chess pieces include both early figural sets and the more abstract forms that later became popular throughout the Islamic world. Dice, pachesi sets and a medieval Arabic treatise on chess complete the collection.

Deborah Freeman Fahid is an independent scholar, and former assistant curator and head of publications at The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait. She has worked in the field of Islamic art since 1995, when she was responsible for Islamic manuscripts and works on paper at Christie's, King Street, London. She has contributed to a number of catalogues on Islamic manuscripts for a private collection, and to the catalogue for a recent exhibition on chess in Doha. She has edited several catalogues for The al-Sabah Collection, published by Thames & Hudson: Splendors of the Ancient East: Antiquities from The al-Sabah Collection (2013), Persian Painting: The Arts of the Book and Portraiture (2014) and Arts of the Hellenized East: Precious Metalwork and Gems of the Pre-Islamic Era (2015).