The Origins of Chess
Contadini - Islamic Chessmen (Page 2)

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STYLE SET A (FIGS 9a, 10)
The King (shah) and Queen (firzan) have an identical shape variously interpreted as a stylized human figure on a throne (20) or a ruler on a throne atop an elephant's back. (21) (fig. 11) The Queen is smaller than the King. The Pawn has a more or less rounded conical shape. The Bishop (fil) is a derivation of an elephant, but only the tusks remain, expressed by two protuberances. The Knight (faras) is a derivation of a horse, but with only one protuberance for the head. The Rook (rukhkh) has a rectangular body, normally at least twice as wide as deep, with a deep cut in the middle top creating two horns on the outside, the remnants of the shape of a castle. To this group may be assigned pieces 8 and 9 (see Catalogue) in the Ashmolean collection, which are both Rooks.

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STYLE SET B - (FIG.9C)
The King and Queen are cylindrical in shape, often waisted, and normally have a domed top or a knob. The Pawn has the same shape, differing only in size: the King is the biggest, the Queen is of medium size and the Pawn is the smallest Both Bishop and Knight have a round base and a long cylindrical neck. It is not easy to distinguish between the two, but it may generally be said that either the Bishop has a neck ending with a top retaining a division into two parts (reminiscent of the tusks of the elephant), while the Knight (fig 9b) retains a single small protuberance the horse's head) at the top (in which case they are similar to the Bishop and Knight of style set A); (22) or the Bishop terminates simply with a small round head while the Knight has a flatter top. The Rook usually has a round base and an x-shaped top. To this group may be assigned pieces 1-7 and 10-12 in the Ashmolean collection

Style set A appears in early archaeological contexts (ninth century), but survives also in later sets. This is the most successful style of Islamic medieval times influencing greatly the Western medieval pieces. (23) The group is well represented by the pieces found at Nishapur, and by their Western counterparts the Nuremberg pieces (24) it represents the first style yet found and the shape would survive m the Middle East from the ninth until the twelfth century,(25) with later examples from the fifteenth century (26) and the Ottoman period. (27)

Style set B appears later, but there is less archaeological evidence for it, and in general the pieces are more difficult to date. The piece found at Ghubayra (Appendix I, no.5) is datable to the thirteenth century, and contemporary minia- tures, such as those in the Alfonso manuscript, also testify to the existence of such pieces at this time. During this period the group seems to retain the Bishop and Knight shapes of set A, but these change subsequently and become as described for set B. In set B, a change occurs in the Rook, where a flat mushroom-like top seems later to be preferred to the x-shaped top (fig.9d). I should stress that within these style sets' there are variations, especially in style B, and that what has been proposed is an initial broad classification.