French    German    Spain    Italian    Arabic    Chinese Simplified    Russian

Western Civilisation

Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was  superior to anything Islam had developed.  Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam.  Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions.  Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'.  Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.   

Back     Printer Friendly Version  

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Bookmark and Share

Medieval Chess reflects much about Medieval society

The modern game was developed in the Medieval period

by Ferdinand III




Chess in some variant of the modern form, was being played in India by 300 AD. It was spread along trade routes and brought to Europe by the Moslem Jihad, which slaughtered millions of Christ-followers; and forcibly converted millions of other Christians to the moon cult of Mecca. The Medieval European culture took this gift from the 'Moors' and as with so many other concepts, adapted, improved and utilized it.

The chessboard is really a miniature scale model of the Medieval European world. Pawns represent serfs, who were not slaves in any sense, and much better off as peasants in Medieval Europe, than as beggars or slaves under the Roman empire. Serfs were tied to a liege lord who rented to them their land and in exchange gave his military protection to the farmers and their families. It was a sensible solution and social compact in an age of Moslem, Viking and Avar invasion. For most of Medieval history, with the exception of England and Normandy, centralized control over 'regions' was limited, and it was the local response to attacks and raids which was paramount.

Knights of course represent the landed aristocracy, trained by birth in many regions of Medieval Europe to fight. Castles are the abodes of the nobility and owners of property. The Bishop is more powerful than the Knight and is closer to the royalty of the King or Queen. This reflects the cultural and at times political power of the Church. In good Medieval fashion, the King is the main object to take or defeat in the game of chess, being the most important personage in society. His consort the Queen, is the most powerful piece of the game, able to move on the board with a great degree of latitude and flexibility. Take the Queen from your chess opponent and you stand a good chance at winning the game.

Chess refracts the many and diverse aspects of Medieval society and its intellectual development. A 'dark age' would not invent and disseminate a mentally challenging game; nor would it adapt the contest to represent the real world and its structure of power and hierarchy. Chess is quintessentially Medieval.  



Article Comments:

Related Articles:

Medieval/Early Modern Christianity


9/24/2023:  Christian Byzantium and Greek Civilisation

5/3/2023:  Byzantium and 'The Franks'. A complex tragedy.

3/27/2023:  Byzantium and the end of glory

11/20/2022:  Christian Monks saving and building Civilisation

11/14/2022:  Saving Civilisation. The Catholic Church in the non-existent 'dark ages'

11/3/2022:  Cathophobia. A real and dangerous mental illness.

8/15/2022:  Matteo Rici and the Catholic Mission to China

4/13/2022:  Slandering Medieval Christianity while applauding Muslim Paganism.

10/27/2021:  The Fall of Rome and the Invasions of the Musulmans

8/30/2021:  Henry More and Richard the Lionheart. Two opposite ends of the Christian spectrum.

8/3/2021:  The Unenlightened Enlightenment: an age of Unreason

5/27/2021:  The myth of the 'Dark Ages'

4/11/2021:  The Age of the Ineffably Uncivilised. The Enlightenment as ‘EnDarkenment’.

3/9/2021:  ‘Reformation Myths’, #3 by Rodney Stark. More science in Medieval Universities than in the modern.

3/5/2021:  ‘Reformation Myths’, #2 by Rodney Stark

3/4/2021:  ‘Reformation Myths’, by Rodney Stark

11/14/2020:  Medieval Medicine and science. No, Moslems did not invent medicine. Christians did.

8/15/2020:  Belloc and the eternal threat of the Muhammandan death cult

6/1/2016:  Constantine, Clovis and Christianity

5/3/2016:  Middle Ages: Wonders in art, architecture, technology and yes science and math

5/3/2016:  From steel manufacturing to stained glass, the ages of the Middle Ages were full of energy.

4/20/2016:  Morris Bishop and Medieval Europe; remove Islam and society begins to flourish

3/8/2016:  'The Reformation' is more accurately called 'The Deformation'

2/13/2016:  The Incorrupted bodies of Saints - a long list of miracles that 'science' cannot explain

1/7/2016:  The modern cult of science versus reason and faith

1/3/2016:  Aquinas, Aristotle and Mad Muhammad

12/25/2015:  The birth of Christ is NOT based on the pagan festival of the Invincible Sun

12/3/2015:  Faith and science are handmaidens not opponents

10/31/2015:  In praise of the Monks, the creators of modern Europe

10/24/2015:  From Augustine to Anselm, logic and faith working together

10/17/2015:  Medieval Ontology, logic and Anselm

9/26/2015:  Medieval Faith married to reason created the modern world.

9/19/2015:  Machiavelli, another product of the insane, the illiterate, the savage

9/19/2015:  The Greatest Queen in European history - Queen Isabella.

8/30/2015:  Feudalism, pilloried and slandered without context

8/22/2015:  Frederick II, the Atheist monster of the 13th century

7/29/2015:  Parthia and the destruction of Byzantium

6/29/2015:  Pierre Duhem, the Galileo myth, and historical revisionism.

6/25/2015:  Pope Sylvester II, another Great Pope, unlike the current version.

6/23/2015:  Pope Gregory the Great and saving civilisation

6/22/2015:  Pope Gregory the Great - an inspiration to civilization.

5/22/2015:  Godefroid and Medieval astronomy. Quite modern indeed.

5/11/2015:  Saving Civilization - the 'Faith'.

5/6/2015:  Belloc and the civilizational influence of the Catholic Church

4/10/2015:  Another Moslem-Enlightenment lie; 'Christians never bathed'.....

4/6/2015:  Pierre Duham and the importance of Middle Age Science.

4/2/2015:  Modern science arose only in Christian Europe.

3/9/2015:  Philoponus, the Astrolabe and Galileo

2/6/2015:  Only in Christian Europe were schools and the university system created.

2/4/2015:  Christian genius in Mathematics. Moslems invented precious little, Christianity a treasure trove.

2/2/2015:  Christians discovered and confirmed Heliocentricity. No other culture came close to that.

1/31/2015:  The myth and nonsense of the 'Enlightenment'. Pure Atheist and Marxist propaganda.

1/24/2015:  Pointed Arches, Ribbed Vaults, Flying Buttresses and Christian Genius

11/23/2014:  Aristotle and the Church – a complex relationship.

11/21/2014:  From Epicurus to Galileo, atomism and materialism.

11/16/2014:  St. Thomas Aquinas, reason, faith and Aristotle.

8/26/2014:  Brunelleschi's amazing Dome of the early 15th century

8/24/2014:  Byzantium: A Christian and cultural Colossus

8/21/2014:  Byzantium and its legacy of legal processes

8/21/2014:  Byzantium: The forgotten influence on Western Civilization

8/19/2014:  Anglo Saxon art the lie of a 'dark age'

8/18/2014:  The Lindisfarne Gospels and civilized art

7/29/2014:  Anselm of Canterbury and the Scholastic method

7/21/2014:  Lies about Medieval Medicine

7/15/2014:  Post modern ignorance of the Medieval World 900-1300

7/9/2014:  Only a complex and wealthy society can build a Trebuchet

7/8/2014:  Medieval bathing - a legacy from Rome - and quite common

7/7/2014:  Medieval literature puts a lie to myth of a dark age

6/29/2014:  Flat earthers are more likely to be Evolutionists and Cult of Warm devotees than Christian...

6/27/2014:  Atheists are so desperate, that quacks such as Bruno are now 'scientists'

6/26/2014:  The myth of Bruno, the 'scientist' fighting against superstition and darkness.....

6/12/2014:  Medieval Christianity and the genesis of plurality and debate

6/9/2014:  Melisende and the importance of Queen's and women in Medieval history

6/5/2014:  A supposed Dark Age gave us the Magna Carta and the Provisions of Oxford

6/3/2014:  Medieval Chess reflects much about Medieval society

6/2/2014:  Skis and skates - another Medieval Christian creation

5/31/2014:  Could you create an illuminated manuscript ?

5/30/2014:  Overview of Medieval Manuscripts - where are the Moslem manuscripts and works of art ?

5/30/2014:  The labour and brilliance of Medieval Manuscripts

5/28/2014:  Book printing and binding - another Medieval innovation of the first order

5/23/2014:  Moerbeeke, translations and the medieval genius to adapt and learn

5/21/2014:  Guns, canons, explosives - another Medieval Christian invention

5/14/2014:  The most important Medieval invention – modern capitalism

5/13/2014:  51 out of the 52 most important 16th and 17th century scientists were Christian

5/13/2014:  A list of scientists in the 16th and 17th centuries

5/11/2014:  The bicycle, the engineering and science of the Middle Ages developed this mode of transport

5/9/2014:  Carracks, another Medieval European-only invention

5/3/2014:  Accounting, another Medieval Invention, generated by Capitalism

5/3/2014:  Buttons and Medieval Capitalism

5/1/2014:  Blast Furnaces were developed independently in Medieval Europe

4/26/2014:  Chiara Frugoni and Medieval Inventions

4/25/2014:  Partial list of Medieval inventions

4/21/2014:  Medieval inventions around modern grooming and shaving

4/21/2014:  Medieval invention: Artesian wells and understanding water hydrology

4/19/2014:  Technological genius; the Medieval invention of the Wind Mill

4/16/2014:  Eye-Glasses, another Medieval invention based on math and science

4/16/2014:  The chimney - another important Medieval European invention

4/14/2014:  Horses and Iron industrialization

4/12/2014:  The mighty Wheelbarrow - another Medieval invention

4/12/2014:  The modern clock - another Medieval Invention

4/8/2014:  The High Middles and the beginnings of modern science

4/7/2014:  The Middle Ages and Public Schools, funded by the Church

4/4/2014:  A very brief summary of Medieval Christian genius 1100 – 1300

3/29/2014:  The real flat earthers - modern Atheists and Secularists

3/27/2014:  The Galileo myth and the Humanist invention of conflict

3/19/2014:  Why does the earth rotate ? Science has made precious little progress since 1350

3/19/2014:  A brief list of some Medieval inventions

3/12/2014:  Christian scientists and thinkers in the Middle Ages

3/10/2014:  God's Philosophers by James Hannam - the true record of Medieval Science

3/6/2014:  St. Thomas Aquinas on the Meccan Moon Cult

2/25/2014:  The Inquisition and its myths

2/14/2014:  The magnificence of the Middle Ages - nothing like it in Islamic history

2/3/2014:  Without Christianity there is no modern world

10/20/2012:  Medieval innovations in transport and war - some examples.

9/23/2010:  Anti-Semiticism is a Muslim import.

7/10/2010:  Medieval Civilization: Venetian rise and decline.

6/10/2010:  Imperial Spain – lessons in despotism, poverty and ignorance.

4/26/2010:  Slandering Christian Europe: 'The Dark Ages'

3/23/2010:  Creating the modern world. The blessings of medieval Europe.