Scientists have detected the faint genetic traces left by medieval crusaders in the Middle East.
The team says it found a particular http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3507 signature which recently appeared in Lebanon and is probably linked to the crusades.
The finding comes from the Genographic Project, a major effort to track human migrations through DNA.
Details of the research have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
The researchers found that some Christian men in Lebanon carry a DNA signature hailing from Western Europe.
Thousands of men from England, France, Germany and Italy came through Lebanon on four Crusades between the 11th and 13th Centuries. Many stayed to build castles and settlements, mixing with the local populations.
The scientists also found that Lebanese Muslim men were more likely than Christians to carry a particular genetic signature. But this one is linked to expansions from the Arabian Peninsula which brought Islam to the area in the 7th and 8th Centuries.The legacy of the Muslim expansion has been demonstrated in other studies which looked at the genetics of Middle Eastern and North African populations. But signs of recent European migration to the region are more unusual.
The study focused on the Y, or male, chromosome, a package of genetic material carried only by men that is passed down from father to son more or less unchanged, just like a surname.
Pierre Zalloua, Lebanese American University
But over many generations, the chromosome accumulates small changes, or copying errors, in its DNA sequence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7316281.stm
Image: Syrian Al Qaeda jihadi Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, believed by Spanish police to be a key organising figure in the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3727 attacks on Madrid. A tall man with a pale complexion and flame red hair, Setmarian travelled widely and was often mistaken for a Westerner. He was frequently described as having “Irish looks”.
From a reader: Egyptian Mahmud Abouhalima, imprisoned for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center attack, was called “Mahmud the Red” for his flaming red hair and freckled complexion, the result, his jihadi comrades joked, of “Crusader blood.”
Crusaders are not the only source of white DNA in the Arab world, of course. North Africa was a Roman possession, under Greek Byzantine control when conquered by the Muslims, and the Germanic Vandals also established themselves there.
Other parts of the Mideast were home to various white ethnic groups, most of which have become intermixed to varying degrees with nonwhites. Among them are the Persians (Iranians), Kurds and Armenians.
On top of this is the effect of the various wars and invasions that plague(d) the Middle East, leading to genetic mixing. Many of the Turkish Sultans were, to all intents and purposes, white as a result of the harem system. All of what is now Turkey was Greek, and modern Turks show a great deal of genetic influence from this white population, expecially compared to “original” Turkic groups in Central Asia.