Аббасид халифаларының сарай ғалымы Әбу Бәкір әс-Сули

Court companion of three Abbasid caliphs

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn al ‘Abbās al Ṣūlī (Arabic: أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن العباس الصولي) (born c. 870 Gorgan – died between 941 and 948 Basra) was a Turkic scholar and a court companion of three Abbāsid caliphs: al Muktafī, his successor al Muqtadir, and later, al Rāḍī, whom he also tutored. He was a bibliophile, wrote letters, editor poet, chronicler, and a shatranj player. His contemporary biographer Isḥāq al Nadīm tells us he was “of manly bearing.” He wrote many books, the most famous of which are Kitāb Al Awrāq and Kitāb al Shiṭranj.

Abū Bakr al Ṣūlī was born into an illustrious family of Turkic origin, his great grandfather was the Turkic prince Sul takin and his uncle was the poet Ibrahim ibn al 'Abbas as Suli. Al Marzubānī, a principal pupil of al Ṣūlī, who admired him and copied him in the art of compilation, borrowed much of al Ṣūlī's material for his Kitāb al Muwashshaḥ. Abū al Faraj al Iṣbahānī made extensive use of his material in his Kitāb al Aghānī. On Caliph al Rāḍī's death in 940, al Ṣūlī fell into disfavour with the new ruler due to his Shi'a sympathies and he died hiding at al Baṣrah, for having quoted a passage about ‘Alī , which caused a public scandal.

Al Ṣūlī's shaṭranj problem, called "Al Ṣūlī's Diamond", went unsolved for over a thousand years. As this is shaṭranj, the "queen" (counsellor) is a very weak piece, able to move only a single square diagonally. It is possible to win in shaṭranj by capturing all pieces except the king, unless the opponent is able to do the same on the next move. blockquote|This ancient position is so difficult that there is no one in the world who would be able to solve it, except those I have taught to do so. I doubt whether anyone did this before me. This was said by al Suli.|12th century manuscript from the library of Sultan Abdul Hamid The solution, starting with 1. Kb4, is given in Hans Ree's "The Human Comedy of Chess", and on the web.