Monday, January 19, 2009

Moorish Genes in the Iberian Peninsula

AMDG , who blogs at La Yijad in Arabia, was prompted by a post that appeared here a few weeks ago to write his own account of the genetic history of the Iberian peninsula. Below are some excerpts:

Moors, Jews and Christians. The genetic legacy of Spanish unique history.

Summary: The same authors of the study that showed the persistence of North African genes in the Spanish population published another article in 2003 showing the radical genetic separation between the populations of both sides of the Gibraltar Straits.

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The findings of the study published last December in the American Journal of Human Genetics have inspired several articles in the world media. Gates of Vienna has already shown that the presentation of those findings has been used to whitewash Islam and to paint Christianity in the worst possible light (Colonization and Intolerance). My purpose is, first, to show that many of the statements in those articles are plain nonsense and, second, to point out that the authors of that study had done a similar investigation in 2003 that highlighted the opposite conclusions.

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The article commented at GoV, Spanish Inquisition couldn’t quash Moorish, Jewish genes, should not have passed the most generous filter on historical accuracy. Starting with the title, it should be noted that, first, the Inquisition had no jurisdiction on non-Christians and, second, that its purpose was not to quash genes, but memes, that is, to suppress ideas, unorthodox, heretic ideas. The sentences that I find more intellectually outrageous in the article are the following:

The Moorish invasion of Spain was never completely repelled, a new genetic analysis reveals.

Nonsense. The Reconquista was an ideological, not a race battle. As a result of it, Muslim rule was eradicated from Spain, which can claim to be one of the few countries that has ever done it successfully. I think we can be proud of our ancestors.

As many as one in 10 men from Spain and Portugal still carry genetic evidence of North African ancestry, and nearly twice that number had Sephardic Jewish ancestors, reveals a study in the Dec. 12 American Journal of Human Genetics. Those results don’t fit with expectations from the historical record.

The results may not fit with the wrong conclusions drawn by not-so-well-intellectually-gifted journalists, but they actually fit with the standard historical accounts. To start with, there were historical migrations through the Strait well before the 8th Century. There is no reason not to find some genetic commonality between Spaniards and North Africans, irrespective of the Reconquista. Another reason to find common genes is that many (probably most of the) Moriscos expelled were genetically Spanish. In this sense, and contrary to the interpretation of the study, the commonality found in the genetic material would show that Islam was thoroughly eradicated.

AMDG goes on to outline the Jewish component of Spain’s genetic makeup, and points out the absurdity of conflating genetic history with cultural history:
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The second article, “DNA study shows Spain’s Jewish and Muslim ancestry”, is mostly correct as far as the Jewish genetic heritage is concerned. Still, we find statements like this one:

The new finding bears on two very different views of Spanish history: One holds that Spanish civilization is Catholic and all other influences are foreign, the other that Spain has been enriched by drawing from all three of its historical cultures — Catholic, Jewish and Muslim.

This is ludicrous. Ideology has nothing to do with genetics. The “enriching” influence of the “historical cultures” should be looked for in the culture not in the genes of Spaniards.

Spain’s MSM — as progressive as any of the Western media — has jumped on the bandwagon:

It goes without saying, Spanish media have also reflected on those studies in a biased pro-Islamic way. Two examples:


AMDG lays out the historical background showing the extent of genetic mixing between North Africa and Iberia, which went on long before the Muslim conquest, all the way back to the Roman Empire and even earlier.

You’ll want to visit his article to read his conclusions, and also to see the maps and illustrations.

6 comments:

Homophobic Horse said...

It's the most crass variety of racism, from NYT no less.

This NYT has always obediently promoted fascism, from "genocide" in Yugoslavia, WMD in Iraq, to fascist demagogue Bari Soetero.

(-lefty rant mode off-)

Afonso Henriques said...

Let's clarify things.

1) "Summary: The same authors of the study that showed the persistence of North African genes in the Spanish population published another article in 2003 showing the radical genetic separation between the populations of both sides of the Gibraltar Straits."

Thank you ADMG for such an information. I say this although I cannot say that the first study was right and the second wrong. In fact, due to the many other similar studies I have seen - all of them showing results that go against this particular study - I cannot trust these authors. This said, all the studies showed that particular fact: "A Radical genetic separation between the populations of both sides of the Gibraltar Straits", DESPITE some MINOR genetic similarities.

2) "it should be noted that, first, the Inquisition had no jurisdiction on non-Christians and, second, that its purpose was not to quash genes, but memes, that is, to suppress ideas, unorthodox, heretic ideas."

2.1) The Inquisition did not had jurisdiction over non-Christians. That is true, but only in theory. You see, the whole Inquisition had in practice jurisdiction over non-Christians because it was "of National" as well as International (The Vatican/Catholicism/Christendom) character.
It's jurisdiction was not over individual persons - you could not opt to be under or out the jurisdiction of the Inquisition - but otherwise, it's jurisdiction was effective under a Kingdom. I don't know if you people remember but for long, one of the most important personalities of Portugal was the "Grande Inquisidor", usually - if not always - someone of the High Nobility chosed personally by the King as long as it was accepted by the Vatican (And yes, "Always the most loyal Catholic of cleen blood"). I bet in Spain it was the same and I bet that in Spain the "Grande Inquisidor" had even more power than the Portuguese one, although the powers of the Portuguese "Grande Inquisidor" were almost illimited. He had just to answer to very few Institutions, among them: The Catholic Church, The King (the institution of the King/the Crown) and the "Cortes".
(It is very difficult for me to translate the term "cortes" to English but it was an institution by which the King would hear the different Social Classes that made up His subjects. The "cortes" would only come together when the King would call for it. However, and despite the fact that the King would only take advice from the "cortes", the "cortes" also limited the power of the King. The "cortes" were one of the institutions that could legitimate or depose the King.)

So. Portugal and Spain of the time were Catholic States. All of Portugal and Spain were Catholic dominions. The Inquisition had in fact - and this is unquestionable - jurisdiction over all the territorry and all the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula. All the subjects of the Portuguese and Spanish Kingdoms were under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition regardless of their religion. In fact, after the edicts of expulsion it was illegal in all of Portugal and Spain to be a non-Christian.

2.2) It is true that the Inquisition had never as a goal to "quash genes". In practice, that's what the Inquisition did. Especially Jews once the muslims (the open enemy) were driven out rapidly. That is History. And more than the Inquisition, which was an arm of the Catholic Church, it was the Nobility who standed for this, as we can see by the Laws of Purity of Blood. The people liked it also, and was the driven force against the "ethnic minorities". If you want, I can offer links and evidences that corruburate this although a simple fair, logical and balanced analysis of History would be enough. The "anti-Semitism" in all the Peninsula (felt more harshly by the Catholic peasentry but also quiet palpable along the higher classes and of course, the Clergy) was comparable to that of 1930s Germany. And this Hispanic anti-Semitism was way more understandable than the German one.
I'll retire now, but I will comeback later to continue commenting this.

Afonso Henriques said...

Continuing clarifying things:

3) "The Reconquista was an ideological, not a race battle."

I strongly disagree. It was a foreign people trying to gain the upper hand over us, over our people. It was not a race battle, it was a race war. In fact, few other wars were so "racial". It was North African Berbers and Arab armies fighting European Hispanics or, Romano-Hispano-Godos if you prefer. It was a racial distinct and foreign people fighting us for our land and people and for dominance over our culture and religion and over the destiny of our sons and daughters, it could not have been more "racial". I find your anti-racism to be disturbing.

4) About the percentages of x ancestors, I have to say that those different "markers" do not qualiffy for any x modern ethnicity, nor a past one for that matter. It does however coorelate to geography and thus to people from the given geographical location. In the Iberian Peninsula there is an average of 10% North African genes. It does not mean that it all came from the moors. In fact, the Iberians are thought to have come from North Africa and the pre-Roman population of the Iberian Peninsula is thought to have been composed of Celts and Iberians and in some places, cultural and genetical mixes of these two peoples. In present Iberian Peninsula, the genetic linages proper from Western Europe are in the order of the 65% to 70% in average while the North African contribution is of 10%. The Jewish contribution, or the Semitic one, or the one from the Eastern Mediterranean for that matter is LESS than the North African one. Some say, about a half (5%). And I mean the Eastern Mediterranean and not the specifically Jewish countribution. The Eastern Mediterranean Countribution may come from Lebanon (Phoenicians), Italy, Greece, and the Arabs, all peoples who share many genes with Jews and have "visited" Iberia.

5) "The second article, “DNA study shows Spain’s Jewish and Muslim ancestry”, is mostly correct as far as the Jewish genetic heritage is concerned."

I don't know why everybody need so much to whitewash the Jew and forgive him for everything the Jew eventually has done wrong. That Jewish ancestry is not correct. We are way much closer to North Africans genetically than to Jews.
I must remind you that THIS IS THE FIRST STUDY claiming that the "Jewish component" on the Iberian Peninsula's peoples amount to 20%. But let's be fair and analise the sudy that you can read here. I quote from the study:

"The researchers in this study used genetic markers found in North African populations, specifically Morocco and Algeria, to trace the North African contribution in the Iberian Peninsula. Sephardic Jewish genetic markers came from populations in Israel and Turkey."

Israelis and Turks are Jews, huh?
So, with this little information we found that the "Jewish markers" on the Iberian peninsula are in reality those markers found in the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. For instance, this, this and this.

And, according to that study, for what Portugal and Spain concerns, BEHOLD THE JEWISH MAP OF EUROPE! In terms of "Jewish" genetic impact that is.

Again, quoting from the study itself:

"Sephardic Jewish roots run deep in the peninsula, the researchers found. Nearly 20 percent of men in the study showed evidence of Sephardic Jewish ancestry.
We think it might be an over estimate,” says Francesc Calafell, a human population geneticist at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. Calafell and Mark Jobling at the University of Leicester in England led the study.
The genetic makeup of Sephardic Jews is probably common to other Middle Eastern populations, such as the Phoenicians, that also settled the Iberian Peninsula, Calafell says. “In our study, that would have all fallen under the Jewish label.”

So, all from Central and South Italy to the East is Jewish! They confess that their "Jewish" is in reality "Eastern Mediterranean". Take another look to the Eastern Mediterranean gene map of Europe and tell me if it is all Jewish.

I do not understand - and it really repulses me - why people are so subservient to "the Jews". Even the sacro-sant Fjordman came here claiming that the Jews in Portugal and Spain were a functional element and that the Jews did not stood with the muslims and that the muslims were worst towards Jews than the Christians were. That is not truth.
It also surprises me how ADMG merely believes that he has more Jewish blood than North African blood. It surprises me how he thinks that the Jews are a primordial element in Portugal and Spain. For God's sake, there have been traditionally more Jewish influence in Greece, Morocco and especially England and the Netherlands (and Flanders) than in Portugal and Spain. That's to where out Sephardic Jews went when they were expelled. The Jews here only had the importance the muslims gave them. And I say this despite admiring some local Jews or descendents of Jews but it is enough to wash Portuguese and Hispanic Culture as Jewish. It is enough!
And I really do not understand this irrational philo-Semitism going on here where people are almost indiferent to the deaths of tens of Palestinian civilians... How people react badily to Halal food but respect Kosher food, being the two very closely related. This... I don't understand...

This is how the SEPHARDIC JEWS SEE THEMSELVES AND THEIR HISTORY!!! Why invite them to the club if they don't want to come in?
Haplogroups of Europe

Afonso Henriques said...

A final note that I forgot:

"La Vanguardia: “Catalonia and the Basque Country are the Spanish regions with purest Iberic roots”"

It is true. Relating to Basque it is so true that it hurts! The Basques were already here before the Romans have arrived!!! For God's sake! When the Romans arrived they fought Celtic, Iberian and Celtiberian tribes... but they also fought the Basques who were already here!!! The language of the Basques does not come from Latin!!! It was already here! And it also preceeded the Celtic languages!!
Concerning Catalonia, Catalonia, differently from Castille and Portugal has mainly Iberian and Mediterranean roots instead of Celtic and Atlantic ones. That's why they are "purer" Iberian.
And of course, I recently read a study that claimed that those North African + Eastern Mediterranean influences in the cost of Spain ranged from 15% in Catalonia towards 30% in Cadiz. Once again, the Nationalists are right and the pretenders to Holly Roman Emperors of Hispania are wrong...

"the extent of genetic mixing between North Africa and Iberia, which went on long before the Muslim conquest, all the way back to the Roman Empire and even earlier."

Even eariler indeed. Iberians, they were North Africans.

P.S. - Sorry for the lenghty comments but I felt I had to say a word about all this. Truth matters.

AMDG said...

BTW: This is from last August: The Genetic Map of Europe. We are in the periphery (indeed), but there is no discontinuity between Spain and Europe. I will try to have a look to the study if I find it online.

I will read your posts later, Afonso.

Vitor Santos said...

My guess is that the Sephardic Jews where in the Peninsula, much before the Moorish Invasion. Therefore it is not improbable that they left more genetical marks than the Moors, whom only stood along about 800 years, if you consider the period starding with the first invasions and the year of their defeat by the King of Spain.