"They often manage to create things in such a way that the outer side would be an object of play for all the senses, and the inner side would be a special exercise for the minds for the purpose of drawing the ignorant of the people and making them passionately devote themselves to them, and then the knowledge of them will spread everywhere; and this is from the category perceived by the ear - instruments of harmony, from the category perceived by sight - instruments for observing the stars and instruments for determining the time, and from the category of speech - the inclusion in its content of various kinds of wise sayings. Ethics is an important part of all kind of games, including gambling and that's why online casinos with no deposit bonus codes provides all the information on ludomania. Chess is not considered as an gamble game, but still it provides all sorts of emotion, so the players really need to know, how to behave.

Imam al-Raghib, treatise "The Ethics of Chess", 11th century.

Ten centuries old al-Raghib of Isfahan first posed the question "what is chess?" and attempted to answer it. The author of the treatise (his full name was Abu al-Qasim al-Hassan bin Mohammed bin al-Mufaddal al-Raghib al-Isfahani) was a very prolific writer, theologian and philosopher. He died in 1108. His main work, The Means to the Knowledge of the Shari'ah, was widely circulated among his contemporaries. Scholars are also familiar with al-Raghib's second work, "Lectures of the Literati," which incidentally contains some information about shatranj.

"Ethics of chess" - so called al-Raghib his treatise. It consists of a short introduction, a chapter on the meaning of chess, a chapter on the permissibility of the game, a chapter on the covenant to chess players, on what they should observe. The prose text is occasionally interspersed with poems sometimes by famous poets, sometimes completely unknown. Since the scribe attributed to the side of the main text: Selected Chapters from the Ethics of Chess, it can be assumed that the original contained other chapters as well.

Imam al-Raghib's treatise is interesting for us today as an approach to the question: "What is human consciousness and culture, and what role do games play in their formation"?

The development of chess went in parallel with the development of consciousness as we understand it now. Two kinds of games are distinguishable in antiquity - dice and chess. The first chess included dice and only in Greece the quality of individualization of personality and, as a consequence, the question of freedom of choice led to the rejection of fate as an acting factor - "now, son, you are responsible for everything". Three main legends of the origin of chess can be formulated:

Appeasement of the conqueror king by the method of solving the counting problem - binary digit 8x2=16; 8x8=64; 8 8=16. Roughly: chess is counting. To count is to move through the digits. First questions: "What do you want to know? How many stars in the sky, how many fish in the ocean?" etc.

The king's son's request, "Train me to fight" - transferring childish aggression into play. The world does not suffer from training. "Whatever the child wants." Arjuna and Krishna between the armies - a point of silence, balance is achieved by shifting the action to another plane. Understanding the connectedness of the world through and through as a principle of the workings of the will.

The wise wife's ploy - "let him play rather than go out with women". Chess is a trap of attention. Attention as the ability to direct a ray of consciousness to any point of the world - visible and invisible. Telescope.

Treatise al-Raghiba raises the most important question - about the connection between chess and life. Peoples have played games to imitate their real-life situations. The Vikings, the outlaws of the North, had a game called "Protect the Conung" - the konung was placed in the center of the board and surrounded by warriors, while the enemy pressed their squad from all four sides. The task of the game was to get to the edge of the board, which marked the seashore and a rescue ship. This game has a modern analog: "Wolves and Sheep." After recognizing chess, the Vikings abandoned this game and started playing chess.

Another example - the war between Russia and Sweden left a trace in the peoples of the coast and they began to play a game like "Wolves and Sheep", only they were pressed from all sides by Muscovites. The connection in the other direction is more difficult to understand, and it can be traced only by traces.

And now a word to Imam al-Raghib.

"... A skillful joker is one who is not a stranger to the truth and shows his intelligence, and he who makes jokes is not considered a vice when he is mentioned among people of intelligence; and it is like chess, for in the hands of a strong player it is always new, and it is used to achieve the skill of deception in warfare, which is very useful in turning the enemy away from battles.

And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: War is deception! It is also said: if you are unable to win, then deceive, and be more powerful with your cunning than with your strength....

The chess player needs the frame of mind of the one who seeks revenge, the energy of the one who seeks, and the determination of the one who leaps, the willingness of the one who desires.

What a great difference there is between chess and backgammon in terms of religious law and valor! The Ulema have unanimously decided that backgammon is forbidden and the one who practices it is an impious person, while valor demands to avoid it. How disgusting it is for an intelligent person to become a slave of two stones to the extent that he puts his property and his land in their hands, and they order him and forbid him, and he obeys their guidance more than a camel obeys a camel when it is led by a little girl...!

Said one of the theologians: chess is mutazilite and backgammon is jabarite, and this is because he who plays chess has the right to make a free choice of moves and so express his preference, and he who plays backgammon has to accept the way the two dice fall out for him.

One person was asked: what is the skill of such-and-such in playing chess? And he answered: how well he plays! He was asked again: how does he play backgammon? He answered: how lucky are the dice for him? Thus he did not attribute the action to the player himself.

And we have seen that our predecessors either engaged in the game of chess, or allowed this game, or circumvented it with silence. We have not seen that the Imams, whose words can be relied upon, would consider those who play chess to be impious, nor did they consider the minds of those people who elected them to be weak.

As for the meaning of the creation of chess and backgammon, Abu Zayd al-Bahli says that he never ceases to be a fan of chess because of the fact that it reveals the effects of the wisdom of the players in everything that they had hoped to reveal, and turns the mysterious, obscure things into visual examples and pictures that are subject to observation and perception by the senses in order to bring them closer to understanding: The truest arguments and clearest proofs are all those things which are comprehended by demonstration and perceived by the senses.

They often contrive to create things in such a way that the outer side would be an object of play for all the senses, and the inner side would be a special exercise for the mind, in order to draw the ignorant of the people and make them passionately devote themselves to them, and then the knowledge of them would spread everywhere; And these are from the category perceived by the ear - instruments of harmony, from the category perceived by sight - instruments for observing the stars and instruments for determining time, and from the category of speech - inclusion in its content of various kinds of wise sayings and stories composed like parables and fables; and here in the same category are two games - backgammon and chess.

Both of them are so arranged that in their appearance they are games for everyone - for there were no two games in ancient or modern times that had such beauty of trick and such variety of possibilities as both of them, and that is why people are fond of them, and both of them have spread among all nations, and their creator claims the right to be proud of them before the generations of Byzantines and Persians; and there is no third game of the same kind as these two.

As to the inner side of them, it is pursued by this to show that both of them are the most magnificent, why men are carried away by the struggle in them, and that both of them are the most profound, and especially because in doing so minds become stumped and thought wanders....

Both are like two religious paths - predestination and fate, and free choice and necessity - for back in the olden days, the faithful sages from every religious community and every religious denomination kept arguing over these two paths. One group said that the movement of the servants of God and their actions and what befalls them in doing so, be it distress, happiness, abundance, disappointment, success, failure, are all forced, and that there is an external cause for all this, independent of themselves or their power, and it is this which gives victory and deprives them of it. Then dissent arose in this grouping, and so some of the people of these beliefs began to assert that such an external cause is the unalterable judgment which Allah has pronounced upon every creature and from which there is no deliverance. The natural scientists among them have suggested that this cause is the movement of the heavenly lights, which bring happiness or misfortune. Another group asserts: - All that which befalls people in their movements, actions and endeavors, whether happiness or success, is due to their excellent choice and their prudence; the misfortune or failure that befalls them is due to their bad choice and their omission.

As for the creator of the backgammon, by his installation he seems to speak of the first way; the point is that he has put two dice in the place of that external cause in which diligence can be applied only to the extent that it will give and provide, so that it becomes visible to the eye how the one who knows nothing and is the weakest wins, and not the one who has more rights and is more worthy because of his ability to do so; and how the weak wins when he is helped by this external reason, and deprives the prudent of victory when this reason leaves him unaided. The former wins by seizing his opponent's lines and uniting them; the latter is afraid, confused, and indecisive.

As for the creator of chess, by his setup he seems to speak of another way - for the point is that he does not establish something so external that would work for him, but gives both players equal tools instead of the forces that are embedded in people, and the cause here is based on free choice; he showed vividly how he who plays perfectly wins by constricting the ways of his opponent, seizing his lines and his tools, overpowering him..."

It is not difficult to see that in the dispute between chess and backgammon, al-Raghib stands on the side of chess, characterized by freedom of choice. This position of al-Raghib is interesting also because it seems to reflect his philosophical views.

Thus, the Encyclopedia of Islam, published in our time, says about al-Raghib that many people considered him a Mu'tazilite until a certain Fakhr al-Lin proved his orthodoxy. We did not manage to get acquainted with Fakhr al-Lin's arguments, but it follows irrefutably from "Ethics of Chess" that al-Raghib sympathizes with the Mu'tazilites, their struggle against the dogma of predestination, and sympathizes with their appeal to reason as the only source of knowledge.

The illogic and inconsistency of the dogma of predestination with human experience often caused controversy and disagreement among Muslim theologians. It was in those times that complex theories were developed with the aim of harmonizing this dogma with life practice.

The words of al-Raghib "...so that it may be seen with one's own eyes how the uninformed and the weakest wins..." suggest that he is trying to show the fallacy of the dogma of predestination by the example of the Nards, albeit in a veiled way. Moreover, from the words "...when this reason leaves him without help..., he feels fear, gets confused in his actions and shows indecision..." we can understand that al-Raghib is trying to suggest that blind faith in predestination is harmful and only hinders people.

Al-Raghib further explains what backgammon expresses:

"... As for backgammon, its creator compares the backgammon board to the Earth on which people with their sufferings and actions have established themselves, and he compares the four parts of the board to the four seasons; and the twelve divisions which are at the disposal of each of the players he compares to the twelve signs of the Zodiac which surround the Earth, and to the twelve months of the year; and the twenty-four divisions which are on the two sides of the board he compares to the twenty-four hours which are the time-hours of days, months, years . .."

Backgammon is believed to have been invented in Iran somewhat later than chess. In works devoted to the invention of backgammon, it is usually told that this game reflects the structure of the universe and has an astrological mean

The author then proceeds to describe chess. "...How many cavalry I have seen opposing cavalry, How each gives the other to drink the cup of death on the right flank, on the left and in the center. Each camp has a chief to organize the units when they clash, and he manages to reinforce the flanks. When the warriors on foot move on the offensive and the cavalry rush forward on the staircase-like ground, - before you will appear in their camp banners armed above the dust raised by the wind. When they fight, they become angry, but they remain unharmed, uninjured and unhostile, as they have been from time immemorial. And all this is for fun and a joke...".

Chess is a model of battle. This image is characteristic of many works. Here is what, for example, is said in "Shahnameh" by the great Ferdowsi (IХ century): "You will see, when you reveal the way of this game, I am the move, and the thought, and the equipment of the battle".

The next little chapter deals with the permissibility of chess and the dislike of it. In this chapter al-Raghib cites various opinions, but it is clear that his sympathies are entirely on the side of chess. Such a chapter is traditional for Arabic chess manuscripts. The explanation is that before spreading throughout the caliphate, chess had to endure a fierce battle for existence: the zealots of the faith tried to show that the game was displeasing to Allah and, along with dice and backgammon, should be forbidden. The echo of these events was reflected in literature. In order to show that chess is contrary to Islam, manuscripts usually contain lists of famous persons - caliphs, theologians, jurists - and their point of view on this issue. Among the names mentioned by the author, one Sayyid bin Jubeir is interesting. "It is said that Sayyid bin Jubeir used to play chess with his back turned due to his skill and shrewdness.

He is known for taking part in the revolt against the Caliph Abd al-Malik. After the defeat of the revolt he wandered for a long time until he was captured and executed (714). In the history of chess, his name is associated with the first mention of playing without looking at the board Such information about blind play in Europe dates back only to the 13th century. The last chapter of al-Raghib's manuscript is especially interesting for chess players as it gives practical advice. Basically, the author's recommendations are also applicable to modern chess, though the rules of shatrawdzha were somewhat different: the bishop jumped like the knight, but across one field diagonally; the queen was inferior in strength to both the bishop and the knight - it moved only one field diagonally; the strongest piece of shatrawdzha was the rook - it moved the same way as in modern chess; the knight moved the same way as now.

"...The chapter is about the covenant to chess players, about what it is necessary for them to observe, and it is borrowed from the words of al-Lajlaj. It is necessary for a chess lover to be least of all sold to care and sorrow, for care is the fetter of the soul and death to feeling; and it is necessary for him also (before the game) to work less, for fatigue stunts the ability; And let him not be overpowered by satiety, for gluttony fatigues the organs of the body and discourages intelligence - for when the stomach is full, the faculty of inference falls asleep, wisdom is numbed, and the organs refuse to think; let him not be overpowered by the frenzy of hunger and its riot, for the stomach, when it is empty, distracts the heart from thinking, and the eye from prudence.

This is all that the judges are also called upon to do when passing judgment. This is indicated by the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): 'Let not the judge judge when he is in anger!'....".

Al-Lajlaj was a prominent chess player of the tenth century who died a little after 970. He probably owes his name to a physical defect ("lajlaj" is Arabic for "stutterer"). His writings on chess are mentioned in many ancient manuscripts. The memory of him as an outstanding chess player lived for many centuries among Persians, Turks and Indians. He became a legendary figure, and some myths about the origin of chess are connected with his name. Lajlaj's works concentrated everything valuable, all the best that was then in shatraj. Lajlaj himself considered himself a pupil of al-Suli, another outstanding chess player of those times who lived a little earlier (died in 946). In his works, al-Lajlaj repeatedly expresses his gratitude to his teacher for the knowledge he received.

Some of the advice that al-Raghib considers to have come from Lajlaj actually belongs to al-Suli. However, it is not excluded that al-Raghib refers to al-Lajlaj only for authority and that such conclusions were known in those times to many strong chess players.

As for the first paragraph with medical advice to a chess player, the question about its author requires additional study.

The point is that G. Murray in his "History of Chess" (1913), describing one of the Arabic manuscripts he examined, points out "...he (Lajlaj) quotes al-Razi, who established in what cases it is unwise to play chess - when the head is occupied with other cares or after eating". It is not difficult to guess that the meaning of the above quote roughly coincides with this recommendation. Al-Razi was a famous chess player who lived somewhat earlier than al-Su-li. However, there was another al-Razi, also a native of the Iranian city of Pesht, the famous physician Abu Bekr al-Razi (864- 925), one of the founders of alchemy. It is known that he was very prolific and wrote many works on a variety of subjects, but after al-Razi's death his works were burned. It is possible that this medical advice belongs to al-Razi, not to a chess player, but to a doctor.

Al-Raghib further gives such advice:

"...And it is necessary for him, when the game is lost, to make an examination of his own and his opponent's pieces, his own king and his opponent's king. For it is said: whoever leaves the consequences without attention, the smallest outcome of his endeavor is always ruin. He ought, when he finds any thing cheap, not to buy it just to have it; he ought not to give away any of his possessions unnecessarily, except for a more valuable one. For one of the avaricious, admonishing his son, said, Be like a chess-player who takes other people's things and stoutly defends his own. In most games he should not advance the king's pawn above the fourth field, except that with it was a queens pawn, protecting his piece or interfering with another's, or if the game was completely closed and it is impossible to make it open, no other way than only with the help of this pawn. The pawn is promoted to the fourth field in most games in order that the queen has more space, and if two pawns of the first row leave him, the best opportunity for both rooks - to be in this row, otherwise it is necessary to put here at least one rook. It is well known that it is necessary to take precautions to protect the weakened border. He should not hesitate to withdraw both rooks and both knights.

And when the game opens up on both sides and widens the way for the rook, you put it so that it has the widest field of action; It is also necessary to try not to allow the opponent to occupy its place with his own pieces, and if any opponent's piece, be it large or small, enters its place, you must contrive to take it away or force it to leave; and if it is impossible to take it for nothing, you must give for it what is less valuable than itself, and then in no case will the goods be wasted.

Try to make the opponent's figure go away by itself or drive it away. It is also necessary not to put forward your knight presumptuously, so that it returns back without any use or benefit.

The best place for a rook is for it to go to the second field of his knight, and if it is in this place, then, then, the goal is achieved. The worst place for a rook is its second field, and both players should not place these two pieces on bad fields, or else make efforts to free them and take advantage of the opportunity until it is too late.

And when you press upon your opponent's king and lay siege to him, forget the matter of leniency and do not be satisfied with taking from him a knight with a queen or a rook with a knight; for in most cases a cramped rook is worse than a free knight, and a cramped knight is worse than a queen. The gambler is a merchant, who is obliged to see his own benefit, and to guard his capital, and to seek advantage in exchange, and to discard generosity.

And when he sees two moves or three, which is the right thing for him to do, he should start with the first move and not dare the second until he has also reconsidered the third and fourth.

And when the king of the enemy is besieged, let him not think at all of what he himself will lose: for he who weds a beautiful woman is not stingy with the kalym.

Let him beware that two or more strong men join together against his king: for it seldom happens otherwise that a group united against one will not defeat him.

... And let him beware of joining both rooks and both knights against his king: for in no case are not weak people when they help each other.

When three pawns in a row and you can take them, then start taking them from the middle one: with the capture of it breaks the order, disperses the aggregate and disassembles the assembly.

If the game be closed and you wish to open it in order to gain the supremacy, do not open it until none of your pieces, great or small, are firmly secured and until you have placed your king in the best side of the board, and the place for him after opening the game is that which is fortified and is secure and enables you to open the doors of his fortress; and when the king comes out to have a single combat with his opponent, he must not cool down, but fight until he has gained the upper hand over the covenant and over adversity.

A player should avoid generosity when it is necessary to be stingy, and discard stinginess when it is necessary to be generous. Sometimes a man is stingy with little and dooms much to ruin. Equally worthy of censure are the miser who shows avarice when he gives, and the giver who gives lavishly, who squanders heaps of money - for exceeding the proper measure in this the miser and the miser are the same.

He who plays chess, sitting at it, should observe what the Koreshites chastened to their ambassador - adhere to the following five rules:

• Catch an opportunity, for it is fleeting;
• make your decision at the head of the case, not at its tail;
• Beware of revealing weakness, for weakness is the most unreliable riding animal;
• Beware of interfering in things that are dangerous to you;

Thanks to the excellent second requirement, all the others become excellent as well. The words of the poet al-Sari also belong to the characterization of chess:

What agonizing desires boil both of them with their souls

And how the mind pours out during the struggle

In the arena where fate has divided the plots.

Between two knights, masters, as a place for competition.

as a place of contest.

Not a drop of blood did they both shed,

as if it were running up and down;

they both appear immediately before

thy eyes each time; as thou

Look at it up close, the one boldly attacking,

or dodging,

And as if this sober one were marching on the march

upright, and as if the intoxicated one,

walks unsteadily.

How marvelous is this war when it

gives out, you see men's blades, but you don't see

not a single man killed! ...."

These fragments allow us to evaluate what the treatise of al-Raghib is interesting, what new things it brings to the history of chess.

Firstly, the treatise al-Raghiba is the oldest known work that broadly, in a large philosophical sense, poses the question of what chess is and tries to answer it.

Secondly, the treatise shows how deeply chess was understood in the East at that time, how strongly the strategy and tactics of this game were developed - after all, Europe was only just getting acquainted with it.

Thirdly, the treatise sheds light on the personality of its author. Imam al-Raghib appears not at all an orthodox theologian, as history has so far considered him to be.

In his statements concerning chess, free-thinking is noticeable. Although very cautiously, he speaks out against the dogma of predestination and advocates freedom of choice.

And, finally, when giving advice to chess players, al-Raghib always operates with examples from people's everyday life, showing that the same rules are applicable in the game of chess as in life, in other words, that chess is not only a model of battle, but also a model of life in general.