Chess and Other Games Pieces from Islamic Lands (The al-Sabah Collection)

Among the many treasures of The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, are hundreds of games pieces dating from the seventh to the nineteenth century CE. Intricately crafted in a rich variety of materials, including ivory, wood, ceramic, glass, jade, and agate, these tiny objects 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.

Some of the most beautiful are a famous group of rock-crystal chess pieces that were kept in a monastery church in northern Spain for more than 800 years. They are presented here alongside other spectacular examples, some of which have never before appeared in a publication, including both early figural chess pieces that originated in India and the Sasanian empire and the more abstract forms that later became popular throughout the Islamic world. Other games pieces, such as dice and pachisi sets and an important medieval Arabic treatise on chess, complete the collection.

This volume provides the definitive catalogue of this outstanding group of games pieces, some of which scientific testing has dated with precision for the first time, and includes more than 300 striking images.