A Deliberation on the Game of Chess in Eminent Poets of the Azerbaijani and Iraqi Traditions

Due to their rich cultural-literary backgrounds and to avoid redundancy and boredom and also to show their virtues، poets and mystics draw on different themes to express their mind and consciousness. One of these themes، which can cautiously be said to have its roots in the ancient Iranian culture، is the use of chess terms. Frequent usage and adaptation of chess themes from 6th to 9th centuries – stylistically concurrent with the Azerbaijani and Iraqi styles – furnished the opportunity for presenting the intricacies and delicacies of this game. The present paper aimed at a careful study of the works of the great poets and mystics to analyze correct rules and ways of playing this game together with its complexities and delicacies. The results show that the Azerbaijani style entails more attention to details and intricacies of the game than Iraqi does، probably unparalleled in the history of literature. In addition، Rumi and Khaghani outdo the rest of the poets and mystics in this respect.