Editing Shatranj (section)

=== Middle Persian literature ===
Three books written in [[Pahlavi scripts|Pahlavi]], ''[[Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan]]'', ''[[Khosrow and ridag]]'', and ''Wizārišn ī čhatrang'' ("Treatise on Chess"), also known as the ''Chatrang Nama'' ("Book of Chess"), all mention ''chatrang''. In ''Kār-nāmak'' it is said that Ardashīr "with the help of the gods became more victorious and experienced than all others in polo, horsemanship, chess, backgammon, and other arts," and in the small treatise on ''Khosrow and ridag'', the latter declares that he is superior to his comrades in chess, backgammon, and ''hašt pāy''. [[Bozorgmehr]], the author of ''Wizārišn ī čhatrang'', describes how the game of chess was sent as a test to [[Khosrow I]] (r. 531–79) by the "king of the Hindus Dēvsarm" with the envoy Takhtarītūs and how the test was answered by the vizier Bozorgmehr, who in his turn invented the game [[Backgammon]] as a test for the Hindus. These three Middle Persian sources do not give any certain indication of the date when chess was introduced into Persia. The mentions of chess in ''Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan'' and ''Khosrow and ridag'' are simply conventional and may easily represent late Sasanian or even post-Sasanian redactions.<ref>{{cite web|title=CHESS|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/chess-a-board-game|publisher=ENCYCLOPÆDIA IRANICA | access-date=18 January 2016}}</ref> According to [[Touraj Daryaee]], ''Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan'' is from 6th century.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Daryaee|first1=Touraj|title=Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire|date=2009|publisher=I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd|isbn=9781850438984|page=114}}</ref> ''Wizārišn ī čhatrang'' was written in the 6th century.<ref>[http://www.rahamasha.net/uploads/2/3/2/8/2328777/chess.pdf Explanation of chess and disposition of backgammon] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150612220623/http://www.rahamasha.net/uploads/2/3/2/8/2328777/chess.pdf |date=2015-06-12 }}</ref>