Backgammon and chess
object · 2 works · 2 mentions · 2 anchored passages
al-nard · al-nard wa-al-shaṭranj · al-shaṭranj · backgammon · chess · النرد والشطرنج
spoken of as
1 expressionChess and backgammon1 mention
al-Saʻādah fī falsafat al-akhlāq (Arabic)
yet we see that one who has the mastery of some victory — even in a base matter such as chess or backgammon — may have food and a bedmate offered to him, and leaves it for what he gets in exchange of the delight of victory.
in the texts
Mukhtaṣar fī ʻilm al-nafs al-insānīyah
The board games backgammon and chess, cited as pursuits whose small intellectual pleasure already outweighs hunger and thirst.
if there were no pleasures other than these bodily ones, the players of backgammon and chess would not attain patience and forbearance under hunger and thirst and the rest (2), in proportion to the pleasure that accrues from these things.
al-Saʻādah fī falsafat al-akhlāq
Two board games, named by Ibn Sīnā as a base occasion whose delight of victory outranks eating and sex.
yet we see that one who has the mastery of some victory — even in a base matter such as chess or backgammon — may have food and a bedmate offered to him, and leaves it for what he gets in exchange of the delight of victory.