MOKADDASA AL-SAFER

(9th, 10th, and 11th centuries)--Khazar priest in a nunnery. During his long life he and a monk from another monastery played chess without a board or pieces. They played one move a year on the vast stretch of space from the Caspian sea to the Black Sea, and they took turns releasing the hawk to attack the animals they used for pieces. They counted not only the square where the animals were caught, but also the above-sea-level altitude of the hunting ground. Mokaddasa Al-Safer was one of the Khazars' best dream hunters. He is believed to have shaped one of Adam Ruhani's strands of hair in his dictionary of dreams (see Masudi, Yusef).

His manner of prayer and the religious order to which he belonged led him to impregnate ten thousand virgin nuns. The last of them, Princess Ateh, according to the legend, sent his the key of her bedchamber, a small, feminine key cost Mokaddasa Al-Safer his life, because it made the kaghan jealous. He died imprisoned in a cage suspended over water.