Caliphal decrees prohibited the playing of chess (the pieces of which are customarily figural) for iconoclastic reasons as early as the eighth century. It is likely that chess pieces of the abstract type, such as those exhibited here, replaced the figural ones in order to circumvent those decrees.
Credit: Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Jerome A. Straka Gift, 1974
11th-12th century
Earthenware; glazed
4.4cm
1974.27.1
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019
Where you'll find this
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection