شرح شطرنج العارفين
About the text
Origin, attribution and limits of the tool.
The text
The source work is a Sufi treatise in Arabic: شرح شطرنج العارفين — Sharḥ Shaṭranj al-ʿārifīn, “Commentary on the Chessboard of the Gnostics”. Its full title is Uns al-khāʾifīn wa samīr al-ʿākifīn. The commentary is the work of Muḥammad b. al-Hāshimī al-Ḥasanī al-Tilimsānī, later al-Dimashqī.
The attribution, with caution
The board itself is attached by tradition to al-Shaykh al-Akbar, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī. We write “attached to” and not “certainly by”: the attribution is traditional, and caution is in order. The commentary itself presents it with the formula of respect قدّس الله سرّه.
A work in progress
The working source crosses the scanned board with the commentary published by Jean-Louis Michon (ARChè, 1998). The hundred squares are now reconstructed and verified against the Arabic text. The movements of the board — ascents, chains, grapnels, returns — are added gradually as they are confirmed. We forbid ourselves to invent a number, a translation, an arrow or a link that the text does not yet allow us to establish.
What this tool is not
The Chessboard of the Gnostics is offered as a tool for study, meditation and introspection. It replaces neither the guidance of a qualified master, nor personal discernment, nor the living practice of a way. It does not serve to judge others or to predict the future. It is not a game one wins, nor a personality test, nor a spiritual ranking.