Is the bishop called the swami in eastern cultures, or an iman, perhaps?  Just curious. 

actually it is called by the appelations "camel" or "boat" [or rather the translations of those two english words] and maybe other things in india depending on where you are - or so i heard -

of course now it is formally called bishop in any serious chess discussion even if they are speaking bengali or hindi - (i have some experience of living in - rather than just visiting or touring - calcutta -- none of living elsewhere in asia)

[in fact i am right now in calcutta though my body clock is on home time (BST) [british summer time] thats why i am wide awake at 5 AM local time :)]

Larry Evan's book says when chess travvelled from arabia to europe  the chess camel's represented by big minaret-like humps were mistaken for bishops' mitres - hence they became bishops. Queen's case [same ref. - chess catechism - Larry Evans] is even more interesting  - the prime minister - ferz in arabic - sounded "vierge" to  the french - so prime minister = ferz =>  vierge  = virgin => woman  => Queen

In French it's called le fou, litterally, "the fool" and in Spanish el alfil, which comes from the arabian word for "elephant" because that's the equivalent piece in the game of shatranj that the muslims brought to Europe through Spain in the XVI century. Another curiosity is that in many languages the word "Horse" is used instead of Knight.

interesting info

i was talking of 700+ years ago - then the french didnt call it "le fou" - the modern name  was prob'y the result of the french revolution i suppose

 and the knight *looks* like a horse - mean one sees the horse or at least its head but where is the knight? suddenly turned pacifist, made the horse an honourary knight, and went home i think :)

normajeanyates wrote:

interesting info

i was talking of 700+ years ago - then the french didnt call it "le fou" - the modern name  was prob'y the result of the french revolution i suppose

 and the knight *looks* like a horse - mean one sees the horse or at least its head but where is the knight? suddenly turned pacifist, made the horse an honourary knight, and went home i think :)

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I guess that was partly answered too  =). Chess evolved from shatranj, a persian game that became very popular amongst the arabs. When the arabs ruled the Iberic Peninsula they introduced chess to Europe and in Shatranj the equivalent to the bishop is the alfil, or "elephant". I don't know if in eastern cultures they still call that piece elephant, though.

By the way, the name rook also comes from the persian, ruhk, which means chariot in English. Even funnier than the warrior horse with no knight to ride it is a tower of stone that moves lol...

What pompous popery is this.