The Geographer's Library

ing to the alchemical process, and therefore they vary widely in size (this one
is among the smallest; the Domesday Book mentions “ye fortresse nr to
Greate Brizes, blackened ronde the tops of the turrets, all encompassed with
foul vapours and excrescences, though none professe to live there, nor
indeed do they know who does).” Nor need they invariably be castles in
design. The ultimate and final castle is, of course, the world.
Date of manufacture: Late eleventh century a.d.
Manufacturer: Ali Rasul Ali.
Place of origin: Lahore.
The Geographer’ s Library
Last known owner: Yussef Hadras ibn Azzam Abd Salih Jafar Khalid
Idris. Stolen from his library in 1154 by Omar Iblis, born a Sicilian thief, died
a Feodosian vintner. Omar kept the castle on his person until he became
gravely ill at an unnaturally advanced age, when he buried it in a secluded
spot between his grapevines and his grand house. It remained undisturbed
there until 1943, when a series of explosions blamed on Crimean Tatar separatists
unearthed it. The bombs were, in fact, planted by KGB agent Yuri
Starpov to provide a pretext for the deportation and eventual liquidation of
the Crimean Tatar population, at Stalin’s behest. A Lithuanian Soviet army
major found the castle in a tangle of vine roots and blood and brought it back
to Svencionis, where it remained in the back of a kitchen cabinet, behind
stacks of cheap china plates and chipped glass cups, perhaps even forgotten,
until a burglary in 1974.
Estimated value: Based on sales of antique chess pieces and sales of
pre-Moghul craft, between $24,000 and $70,000. Other pieces from this
chess set exist but are scattered throughout the world. The corresponding
white rook sits in the back of an antique shop in Pecs, where the ignorant
owner’s requested price is 400 forints; the two black rooks—painted with a
mixture of goat’s blood, soil, and burned cardamom husks—sold at auction
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