Twelfth century chess pieces from Nishapur, Iran. In place of the modern queen, medieval Persians pl
Twelfth century chess pieces from Nishapur, Iran. In place of the modern queen, medieval Persians played with viziers (chief ministers for the Caliph bishops were elephants. Chess came to Persia from India, where it was invented in the 6th century. Many sets in the Islamic world used abstract figurines like these because of the religious prohibition on creating human and animal images. -- source link
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