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Bird, H. E. (Henry Edward), 1830-1908

"Chess History and Reminiscences"

63 Citirt) of the account of
the moves in every copy of the Shahnama. I, on the other hand
pledge my truth and honour (!!) Linde), that the account of the
moves does occur in every one of the manuscripts as well as in
Macan's printed edition (Vgl. App. p. x. lin. 6 unt.). The
misconception on the part of Alpha arose from a very simple (:)
circumstance. In Firdausi's account of the game the story
happens to be interrupted (:) in the middle of the insertion of
two other long stories, as we often see in the Arabian nights.
"In matters of this sort it is only the truth that offends.
"(Man vergleiche hierzu noch seine Schnapserklurung der
Weisheit des Buzurdschmir, p. 54.)"
Forbes also adds p. 56. And I am quite ready to point out the
passage in all of them to any gentleman and scholar who may have
the least doubt on the matter.
Historians of the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries who lived before
Masudi, deemed the game worthy of notice and recommendation,
Razi and Firdausi thought so too, and Hippocrates and Galen
before them refer very favourably to its advantages, describing
it as beneficial in many ailments, and we may reasonably assume
that they at least, as well as the poets and philosophers before
them, back to the fifth century B.


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