The earliest Persian names for Chess pieces were, shah (king), farcin (councillor), pil (bishop), asp (knight), rukh (rook) and pijada (pawn or soldier). The Arabic names are very similar except the pawn or soldier , as we have here, was called baidaq. This piece pre-dates the Lewis Chessmen in the British Museum by around 300 years.
Early Islamic sets favoured abstract designs and often the differing pieces were determined by their decoration rather than their form. Here the jet is marked by a dot and circle motif which possibly shows an Egyptian influence as this was commonly used to denote the sun and sun-god Ra.