Forbes however who usually agrees with Madden, sees no
improbability in it or grounds for disputing, and thinks that England
may have obtained its knowledge from France between the Eighth
and Tenth centuries. It is curious that Forbes stops here like
Madden and all other writers, he evidently knew nothing of the
Roman edict of 115 B.C., and neither of them cast a thought to the
earlier reigns of Alfred, Egbert, and Offa, which were
contemporary with the Golden Age of Literature in Arabia and the
period when chess had so long travelled from Persia to other
countries, and was so well known and appreciated in Arabia;
Constantinople, Spain, and among the Aquitaines as well as by
the Carlovingian Monarchs. Al Walid the first Khalif noted for
chess, the most powerful of the house of Umeyyah, who (through
his generals Tarak and Musa invaded, conquered, and entered
Spain, reigned from 705 to 715 B.C.), and comes before Offa,
whose reign commenced five years after the foundation of the
mighty Abbasside Dynasty, which displaced the first house of
Umeyyah, and thirteen years before that of Charlemagne, with
whom he was contemporary 26 years, and Egbert was 13 years.
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