Madrid – About 30 per cent of Spaniards may have ancestry among Jews and Muslims who lived on the Iberian Peninsula before being expelled centuries ago, press reports said Friday. The reports quoted a study by geneticists from the universities of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and of Leicester in Britain, published by American Journal of Human Genetics.
The study analyzed the Y chromosomes, which pass relatively unchanged from father to son, of 1,140 Spanish males around the country.
The structure of the chromosomes was compared with that of north Africans in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and with that of Sephardic Jews living around the Mediterranean.
Nearly 11 per cent of the Spaniards showed common genetic characteristics with north Africans and nearly 20 per cent with Jews.
The Jewish genetic component could, however, have become overrated in the study, one of its authors, Francesc Calavell, conceded.
Other Middle Eastern populations share the same genetic signature, which could also have been brought to Spain earlier by non-Jews such as Phoenicians.
The first Muslims known as Moors crossed over to Spain from North Africa in 711, when Jewish populations had already settled on the Iberian Peninsula.
Muslims ruled parts of Spain for eight centuries until 1492, when Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella completed what is known as the Christian reconquest of the country.
All Jews who refused to convert to Christianity were ordered to leave that same year, and all Muslims who did not convert where expelled in the early 17th century.
The number of expelled people is estimated at hundreds of thousands.
The amount of Spaniards with Muslim and Jewish genes indicates that there were more conversions than had earlier been believed, according to the study.
(Source: DPA / Earth Times)
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6 Responses
Interesting.
Given migration patterns, I would be surprised if there is anyone in the mediterranean area, and perhaps all of Europe and the Middle East, who is not descended in part from Jews. This is really no hiddush. Indeed, if we hold by Berishis, all the goyim are closely related to each other, and us. The idea the people are distinct and unrelated races is a non-Jewish concept.
Of course, the halachic question is, should we ever use a Shabbos goy? Can we be 100% that someone is really a goy, and not descended from a Jewish girl who was enslaved by the Romans and sold to a brothel and England, and is an ancestor of most of the people in America (by now, 100 generations later).
#3, I dont meant to take you to task again, but your statement, “enslaved by Romans and sold to a brothel in England and is an ancestor of most of the people in America”, has be baffled as your statements seem highly fragmented.
Also what is interesting regarding the mention of Phoenicians is that I once came across a secular source that cites a “small semitic tribe” among the Phoenicians as being credited with the very first alphabet in civilization.
I find comment #1 in bad taste. However, I do expect this comment from a guy or an ingorant person or even a hamor!!
#3
100 generations back would bring us close to Sinai.
You and I are roughly 130 generations from Adam.