Chess History and ReminiscencesBird, H. E. (Henry Edward)
History
Chess History and Reminiscences
Bird, H. E. (Henry Edward)
Chess
Egyptian chronology seems not to be conclusively agreed upon;
however, the game found inscribed on the walls of Medinet Abu is
not proved to resemble chess, and is generally assumed to be
draughts, besides whether ascribed to Amenoph II 1687 to 1657
B.C., or to Ramses IV 1559 to 1493 B.C.; the date is long after the
period ascribed to the Sanskrit writings, (said to be about 3000
B.C.) even taking the shortest estimate of the age of the Ancient
Hindu and Brahman writings assigned by Sanskrit scholars.
Sir Gardiner Wilkinson says, the pieces are all of the same size
and form, and deduces from this the inference that the game
represented a species of draughts.
Mr. Lane the Egyptologist, apparently no chess player himself,
in describing the sedentary games of Egypt, says that the people
of that country take great pleasure in chess, (which they call
Sutreng), Draughts (Dameh), and Backgammon (Tawooleh).
Sir F. Madden says, it is however possible that the Ancient
Egyptians may also have possessed a knowledge of chess, for
among the plates of Hieroglyphics by Dr. Burton No. 1, we find
at Medinet Habou two representations of some tabular game, closely
resembling it, and I am informed that a more perfect representation
exists on the Temples at Thebes.
Sir John Gardiner Wilkinson, the celebrated Egyptologist,
in a note appended to Mr. George Rawlinson's of Herodotus
says:
"Still more common was the game of Draughts miscalled
chess, which is Hab, a word now used by the Arabs for Men or
Counters. This was also a game in Greece, where they often
drew for the move, this was done by the Romans also in their
Duodecim Scripta, and Terence says--
Ti ludis tesseris.
Si illud, quod maxime opus est facto non cadit.
Illud quod cecedit forte, id arte ut corrigus.
Adelph iv. 7. 22-24.
NOTES. According to Dr. Young, 1815, and M. Champollion, 1824,
Ramses III was the 15th Monarch of the 18th dynasty, the date
affixed to him being 1561 to 1559 B.C., but the British Museum
Catalogue, page 60 says: The principal part of the monuments in
this room are of the age of King Ramses II, the Sesostris of the
Greeks, and the greatest monarch of the 19th dynasty; but, in the
tables, he appears as the 14th of the 18th dynasty 1565 to
1561 B.C. and the catalogue is probably a slip.
No consensus of agreement however has been arrived as to
Egyptian Chronology. Sesostris for example 1473 to 1418 B.C.,
(Manetho, the scrolls Young, Champollion) Herodotus thought,
ascended the throne about 1360 B.C.
Some Bible Commentators have even called the Shishak of Scripture
558 B.C. Sesostris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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