Book of Chess, Its Problems, and Its Subtleties

...and he passed by a group of people playing chess and said: "Lift this and place that," original: "arfa' hadha wa-da' hadha." This implies the scholar was offering tactical advice on moves, further proving his approval of the game. and he was asked about the game and replied: "There is no harm in it as long as one does not gamble on it, or it does not distract him from prayer, or he does not swear oaths over it." These are the reports that have been transmitted regarding the permissibility of playing it.

Concerning its Original Invention

The inventor of it was Sassa bin Dahir... the Indian. Sassa bin Dahir is the legendary figure credited in many medieval Arabic sources with inventing chess to teach a king the importance of his subjects. For al-Adli Al-Adli (c. 800–870 AD) was the first great Arab chess master and author of the Kitab al-Shatranj (Book of Chess). narrated that one of the kings of India suffered from an illness, and he was consumed by heavy thoughts during his sickness. He was prescribed an occupation to distract his mind and something to entertain him, so Sassa bin Dahir the Indian created this chess for him.

When the king expressed his admiration for the invention, he said to him, "Make a wish." Sassa wished for the doubling of its dirhams original: "tadcīfihā darāhim." This refers to the Wheat and Chessboard problem, where one coin (or grain) is placed on the first square and doubled for each subsequent square.. The king said to him, "By God, I am truly amazed by a person who could invent such a thing and then make such a humble original: "al-nazr," meaning small or insignificant. request. Give him what he asked for."

When this reached his vizier, he appeared before the king and said, "O King, even if you lived for a thousand years and possessed all the treasures of the earth at your disposal, you could not fulfill what he has requested." And the doubling of it resulted in eighteen thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand In the Arabic counting system of the time, repeating "thousand" (alf) was the way to express large powers of ten. Six "thousands" represent $10^{18}$ (a quintillion). and four hundred and forty-six thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand and seven hundred and forty-four thousand thousand thousand thousand and seventy-three...

Shatranj (Chess), Sassa bin Dahir (the legendary inventor), al-Adli (famed 9th-century chess master), Tad'if (the mathematical doubling process), al-Hind (India).