Games

In Islam

In Muslim lands games were both omnipresent and suspect. While legal experts discussed whether games were licit or not, young members of the nobility exercised their minds and spirits in playful jousts and at the royal court the princes used games as an integral part of their policy of monstration.

In fact, the Qu’ran makes a clear distinction between betting games and games of chance known as kimar, and other playful activities. “They ask you concerning alcoholic drink and gambling. Say: 'In them is a great sin and (some) benefit for men, but the sin of them is greater than their benefit'[1]. Betting money entails arbitrary and useless transactions, which are forbidden by the Qur’an. The Qur’an also disapproves of the conflicts that this type of activity often causes in the community.[2]

The act of betting itself, i.e. for a gambler to submit himself to chance, is frowned upon by the strictly orthodox Muslim, who see it as a challenge to Divine will, as well as by the Mu`tazilah[3], who believe that free will is superior to chance. Such mistrust of games of chance and gambling was shared by the Christian church during the Middle Ages. To put oneself in the hands of destiny — especially by playing with dice, a pastime much enjoyed by all the classes of society — was an abomination. Just like Islam, Christianity saw in games a useless activity distracting churchgoers from their duties. Of course, despite that moral and religious condemnation, kimar was very popular. In big cities there were gambling houses (Dar al-kimar), and taverns, cafés and private houses were all places where the pleasures of games could be enjoyed.
Board games included the kharbga, a type of draughts played in the Berber region, and the nard, the Persian name for backgammon. It is still popular nowadays and combines an element of chance (the dice) with strategy. This ancestor of backgammon was also extremely popular in the West, especially between the end of the tenth and the twelfth centuries. In south-western France, in the Pilori museum in Niort, there are a few medieval backgammon pieces made out of stag antlers, as well as a late twelfth century tomb on which a small sculpted figure appears to be playing the game.

The game of chess or shatranj was also adopted early by Islam. A game of military strategy, it was devised in India, probably during the sixth or seventh century. Originally two symbolic armies fought it out on a board. They were made of four military corps similar to the army Alexander the Great fought during his march towards India: chariots, elephants, cavalry and infantry assembled around a king and his ministry. As time went by the appearance and the names of the pieces changed numerous times, and so did the moves and the board itself. Under the Sassanid Empire (226-637) the game entered Persia. From there it developed quickly on Muslim territories, especially in the higher spheres of society. During the Abbasid dynasty, in the ninth century, the games and its rules were the object of numerous books. The oldest chess pieces of the Islamic period kept in a museum date back to the ninth century and were discovered in Iran, in Nishapur[4].

The pieces were made out of ivory, rock crystal and precious stones[5]. They were collectors’ items and seem to have attracted interest in the West before the game itself did. They were brought to the West by diplomats and merchants, or brought back as war trophies, notably after the Crusades, and carefully kept in church treasure-houses. They were valued not only for the materials they were made of but also for their provenances. They came from the East, they were meant to have belonged to kings and so were surrounded by legends. The best known example may be the so-called “Charlemagne” chess set carved out of elephant ivory.
Legend has it that the set, kept in the Saint-Denis abbey near Paris since the 1270s or even earlier, was a present to the emperor from the famous caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 789-809) one of the heroes of the The Thousand and One Nights. Charlemagne was born far too early to have ever played chess but this supposed ownership bestowed upon the set - and the Abbey where it was kept - huge political and symbolic prestige. The game itself may have arrived in the West as early as the mid-tenth century through Spain, Sicily and southern Italy, regions where numerous cultural exchanges took place.
The famous Book of Games written for Alfonso X The Wise, King of Castile and Leon, contains numerous illustrations depicting chess games, sometimes played by a Christian against a Muslim – portrayed wearing distinctive outfits. The Scandinavians who traded with the Byzantine Empire introduced the game via the north of Europe at the beginning of the eleventh century. The western Roman Church and the Greek Byzantine Church disapproved of the game, especially since in the early days it was played with dice, as was the custom in the Middle East.

Some especially pious sovereigns such as King Louis XI of France, Saint Louis, were violently opposed to it. Jean de Joinville, his counsellor and biographer, told the tale of how Louis in 1250, sailing to the Holy Land, threw overboard the chess board his brothers were playing on. Most rulers however quickly embraced it. Some, like the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250), were ardent players. In the mid-thirteenth century the game, by then adapted to the mindset and symbols of feudal society, was an integral part of courtly society. Work of art, chansons de geste[6] (early epic poems) and courtly novels all depict allegorical chess games. Thus Tristan and Isolde play chess on the boat that takes them to the court of King Mark.

After the discovery in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul of a deck of Mamluk playing cards probably dating back to the fifteenth century, L. A. Mayer conclusively demonstrated that these cards were the ancestors of European decks. They are hand painted in blue, black, gold and pink and their format is longer, maybe because they are derived from Chinese playing cards. They are divided into four or five suits: the cup, the coins, the sword, the polo cross and perhaps the stick. Each series contains four court characters indicated by an inscription at the bottom of every card — king, governor, deputy governor and his assistant — and ten numbers. In Italy at the end of the Middle Ages, cards used the Muslim suits coppe, danari, spade, bastoni, and in Spain copas, oros, espadas and bastos were used.
As is the case with Eastern cards, none of the decks had a queen. The name used in Italy during the Renaissance — naibi — and still used in Spain nowadays (naipes), is derived from the Arab na’ib, meaning the person of the governor. This evidence confirms the 1379 account of Giovanni di Iuzzo di Covelluzzo[7] according to whom playing cards were introduced to Viterbo, Italy, from the “Land of the Saracens” who called it "naib". The Venetian tarot game is also supposed to be derived from the Muslim game and this supposition seems valid, given the intensity of trade, cultural and political exchanges that took place between Venice and the Middle East during the Ayyubid and Mamluk eras (thirteenth to sixteenth centuries).
Unlike gambling and games of chance, sports and games of skill were very much encouraged in medieval Muslim societies, since they were seen as indirectly preparing for war. Activities already practiced in Antiquity - wrestling, archery, swimming, running and riding were common, - were common. Specific treatises were written about them and a large numbers of objects, manuscripts, metal pieces, ivory items etc depicted people engaged in these pursuits[8]. In the Kitab al-aghani – the Book of Songs - Abu al-Faraj al-Isbahani[9] describes the splendour of sporting events organized by Umayyad caliphs. Later on, the Fatimid dynasty also organized wrestling competitions in Cairo’s squares. Physical exercise was seen as part of a healthy lifestyle and as such it was encouraged by Muslim doctors. Avicenna (980-1037) in his famous Canon of Medicine wrote that sports are beneficial to health since they encourage deep breathing.

Islam, where horsemanship was highly prized, especially developed all equestrian sports. They require skill, sense of observation, physical strength and the capacity the capacity for self-control while controlling the horse. Polo, a sport first thought to have been played by central Asian horsemen about 2,500 years ago, was very popular in Persia. It is a team sport that, in addition, provides training for elite troops. It found its way to China during the Tang dynasty (618-907). It also spread westwards, notably because of the Mongolian invasions. It was played at the court of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos as well as in Cairo in the Mamluk era. Horsemanship was a practice linked to Furusiyya, a Muslim institution that is comparable to western chivalry. It combines dressage and riding techniques, hippiatric science and moral values. Lastly the Muslim world has always had and still has a passion for horse – and camel – races. According to the hadith[10], the Prophet himself gave his authorization for these events.

Other leisure activities featured animals, especially pigeons. In Arab literature, many books have been written about pigeons. The growth of pigeon fancying is partly due to the contacts established by Muslims with the Byzantine civilization. Several caliphs, including the famous Harun al-Rashid, were pigeon fanciers. Pigeon flying competitions were very popular between the eighth and the thirteenth century. The birds were evaluated on their beauty, their pedigree and their capacity to come back to the dovecote after having flown the furthest away. It was a cheaper alternative to the princes’ hobby of falconry. Animal fights were frowned upon because the Prophet disapproved of them but they took place anyway, cockfights and dogfights for the most part.

In the ninth century, bullfighting, which had been practiced around the Mediterranean from ancient times, was integrated into the Spanish Muslim culture. In the ninth century for example, Muslim and Christian lords organized bullfighting in combat areas. Two centuries later, in Toledo, El Cid followed their example. In Granada, in the fourteenth century, Nasrid princes organized games that prefigured bullfighting. Texts describe a horseman carrying a cape in his left hand who dismounts his horse in order to fight a bull. Noble ladies would have streamers bearing their colours passed to a knight by a page. The knight would tie the streamer to his lance and fight in her name, as was the custom in courtly society in medieval Europe. Magicians and animal trainers used monkeys, bears, dogs and other animals to entertain the crowds during festivals.  

We know very little about children’s games and toys. They were mostly simple and made out of rudimentary materials: balls, balloons, clay animals and rag dolls. In the Middle Ages, childhood was not seen as a positive period of life either in the East or in the West. It was only during the Renaissance that humanistic philosophy began to see playing as a learning experience. In Islam, la‘ib, playing for no benefit or gain, was usually condemned by thinkers as futile. But as in the antique tradition[11], Muslims thinkers believed that continuous work without any distraction makes the mind numb in the end and therefore a little bit of entertainment must be tolerated. Similarly, playing must occasionally be permitted to children so that they can withstand the rigours of education.

The Hadiths[12] also mention woolly toys given to children who were fasting to distract them from their hunger. Muslim tradition[13] holds that Aicha, the Prophet’s favourite wife, first drew his attention when she was on a swing, having fun. He also walked in on her while she was playing with dolls. This was the cause of/grounds for numerous debates amongst law makers. They could not solve the paradox of the rejection of idols set out in the Qu’ran[14] and the educational value of dolls little girls use as training for future motherhood. This ambiguity could partly explain the voluntary imperfection of these toys.

In prince’s courts however very elaborate "games" were devised for entertaining the princes: automata. Unfortunately they have all disappeared but they are the subject of numerous tales of the time and entire treatises were devoted to them, including the famous Treatise on Automata written by al-Jazari in the thirteenth century. Several copies of the book are illustrated with drawings of amusing and technically advanced machines, clocks, drinking automata and other ingenious systems designed to entertain and surprise the guests at the royal table. In Fes, Morocco, part of a water clock dating back to the fourteenth century is kept in the Bu ‘Inaniya madrasah. The West, following the same ancient tradition as Islam[15], also developed the science of automata. For example, from the thirteenth century onwards there were jaquemarts, which were wooden or metal figures marking the hours by striking a clock with a hammer[16].

Important personalities also ordered game pieces that were both work of arts as well as functioning play things. The Burgos museum in Spain has an intricate ivory cylinder inscribed with the name of an Umayyad princess[17]. It is supposed to be a manqala case. Manqala was a game already played in ancient Egypt. It was also commonly played from Spain to India during medieval times and is still played nowadays in Africa and in the Middle East.
Princely festivities included various entertainments such as dancing, singing, hunting and the delights of canoeing described by the great traveller Ibn Jubayr[18] (1145-1217) in The Travels of Ibn Jubayr. Baghdadi nobility used to go canoeing on the Tiger and in the ninth century the Aghlabid rulers of Kairouan, Tunisia used to organize nautical festivities on a huge basin that is still visible today. The departure for Mecca during the annual pilgrimage presented another reason to organize large scale revelry [that included the general population.] in which the people were included. Sport competitions, fireworks displays and sumptuary parades took place in the streets. Ibn Jubayr tells of the games involving lights that Mecca children organized during the Night of Fate[19]. Each child, holding a piece of cloth soaked in oil, hid behind the crenels in the sanctuary and would light a torch one after another so as to create the illusion of a “magical” propagation of light.

Certain forms of theatre could also be associated with religious festivals. The taziyeh, meaning “expression of condolence” is a commemoration of the tragedy of Karbala where Husyan, the third Shiite imam, son of Ali (cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet), died. These commemorations took place during the first ten days of the first month of the Muslim calendar. They are comparable to the Christian mysteries and to the ritual of holy week, which remind the faithful of the stages of the Passion. They gradually became depictions of sacred tragedies with some singing parts, and they helped in the perpetuation of elements of folk culture. Shadow puppet theatre, present in the Muslim world from the Abbassid era, was a very popular form of entertainment. The stock characters and plotlines were reinterpreted according to the events of the time, rather like in Commedia dell’Arte. The Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin owns a tooled leather puppet made in Egypt in the fifteenth century. It represents one of these characters, the hunter on horseback.
This quick overview shows that games, just like diplomacy, war and trade, are powerful cultural vectors. Playing is about exchanges and is the playful reflection of the various facets of a society. It reflects the heritages that make up its past, what it borrowed as well as what it gave other civilizations.

A. M.