D.
After the usual compliments the epistle proceeds:
"The Empress (Irene) into whose place I have succeeded
looked upon you as a Rukh, and herself as a mere Pawn,
therefore she submitted to pay you a tribute more than the double
of which she ought to have exacted from you. All this has
been owing to female weakness and timidity. Now, however,
I insist that you immediately on reading this letter repay to me
all the sums of money you ever received from her. If you
hesitate, the sword shall settle our accounts."
In reply to this pithy epistle, Harun in great wrath wrote on
the back of the leaf:
"`In the name of God the Merciful and Gracious.' From
Harun the Commander of the Faithful to the Roman dog,
Nicephorus.
"I have read thine epistle, thou son of an infidel mother. My
answer to it thou shalt see not here. Nicephorus had to sue for
peace, and to pay the tribute as before."
The above is adduced as tending to confirm by the familiar
allusion to Rukh and Pawn that the game was known to the
Greeks and Arabians in the eighth century.
NOTE. The unknown Persian philosopher in his M.S. presented by
Major Price, the eminent Orientalist to the Asiatic Society
attributes the invention of chess to Hermes, who lived in the
time of Moses.
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