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Shatranj. The widely played Arabian predecessor of modern chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
mohsen wrote on Thu, Oct 28, 2010 03:22 PM UTC:
General is obviously a wrong translation for ferz. Original name of this
peace was 'Farzin' (that in europe spelled it 'ferz' or 'ferse') and
'Vazir' (that also spell 'Vizier'). Farzin is a persian word that
commonly precieved meaning is 'Minister' or probably 'Prime minister'
but as murray mentioned and I discussed in my comment to ferz article in
your site, this is not totally true. original meaning of farzin is wiseman.
altough there is a strong relation beetween wisemanship and role of
ministers in history. main chracteristic of persian and Islamic prime
minister was extensive Knowledge and a king must elect most wisest men for
his prime minister. this reflected in many tale, folk and storys. 'Vazir'
is an arabic word that means 'Minister' or even 'Prime minister'. there
is a rationlaity for name of 'General', in time of war 'Prime minister'
is present and act as a general but this is not his name and no one call it
General.

there is many source that translate this peace fers or vizier. if you want
to translate it, Minister or even prime minister is true. 

another wrong name in this article is 'Knight'. name of this peace in
both persian and arabic literature was a word that means horse, as sanskrit
name of peace in chaturanga and name of peace in modern chess in most
regions in asia. in europe shatranj horse changed to chess knight. I think
this transition is for giving humanistic personality to chess peaces, this
change also happend for elefant that replace with bishop and other names.