It is common usage to refer to all speakers of Arabic as "Arabs". But does an definite ethnic group really matches with at least a majority of the speakers of that language ? According to my observations, people living in Morocco bear little resemblance to those living in Egypt, who also bear little resemblance to those living in Saudi Arabia.
In the 7th and 8th centuries, the inhabitants of the Arabic peninsula invaded the whole Middle East, North Africa then in the following centuries also central Asia and other parts of the world to spread Islam.
These jihadi warriors became the rulers of the Muslim world from Spain to the Middle East. But they did not massacre and replace the ethnic groups living there before them. Egypt is now the most populous Arabic-speaking country (60m inhabitants), and it was already one of the most populous part of the world in the Antiquity. When the Arabs invaded Egypt in the 7th century, they were vastly outnumbered by the local population. I could imagine that the invadors made less than 1% of the total population. Of course that proportion may have increased with time, as the Arabs in power may have procreated more thanks to Islam's allowance of multiple wives and concubines for rich and powerful men. Neverthelless, we can hardly consider the rather round-faced and short-nosed Egyptians to be the same ethnic group as the elungated face, and long, aquiline nosed Arabs of Saudi Arabia.
I watch a documentary on Algeria a few weeks ago, and they mentioned that Algeria was made of 4 distinct ethnic groups : the Arabs, the Jews, the Berbers (itself of mix of various closer ethnic groups) and the descendent from the Roman empire's inhabitants (mixed Latin and Phoenician blood). Add to that the infusion of Aryan blood from the 5th and 6th century invasions of Alans (an Aryano-Iranian nomadic group originally from the Caucasus) and Vandals (an Eastern Germanic tribe), which explains the occurence of blue eyes among a tiny minority of the Maghreban population. Genetic tests have shown that most northwest Africans are predominantly of Berber origin.
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Maghreban blood
DNA analysis of the Berbers have indicated that the Y chromosomes (paternal line) is 75% of North-West African with older origins in Eastern Africa, 8% of recent sub-Saharan African, 13% of North-West African origin (maybe originally from the Near or Middle East) and 4% historic European gene.
The maternal line shows 1/3 of Near East ancestry (dating from about 50,000 years ago), 1/8 from subsaharan ancestry, and the rest (about 40%) mainly from Europe (probably Iberian, Celtic, Roman and Germanic).
This gives us a maternal line mostly European and Near Eastern (e.g. Phoenicia, aka Lebanon), and a paternal line mostly (subsaharan) African. There is fairly little presence of recent Arabic blood from the 7th-century invasion. Maghrebans are thus mostly Berbers (African paternal line and Euro-Phoenician maternal line)
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The Syrians and Iraqi also look quite different from the Saudi, as they inherited more of the original Assyrian and Babylonian blood.
Conclusion, there is an Arab race, but it is mostly limited to the Arabic peninsula, with just traces of blood found throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Within the Arabic peninsula, I noticed that the Omani had much darker skin than the Saudi. Could this be due to a blood influx from (southern) India, with which it has been trading for milllenia ?
In the 7th and 8th centuries, the inhabitants of the Arabic peninsula invaded the whole Middle East, North Africa then in the following centuries also central Asia and other parts of the world to spread Islam.
These jihadi warriors became the rulers of the Muslim world from Spain to the Middle East. But they did not massacre and replace the ethnic groups living there before them. Egypt is now the most populous Arabic-speaking country (60m inhabitants), and it was already one of the most populous part of the world in the Antiquity. When the Arabs invaded Egypt in the 7th century, they were vastly outnumbered by the local population. I could imagine that the invadors made less than 1% of the total population. Of course that proportion may have increased with time, as the Arabs in power may have procreated more thanks to Islam's allowance of multiple wives and concubines for rich and powerful men. Neverthelless, we can hardly consider the rather round-faced and short-nosed Egyptians to be the same ethnic group as the elungated face, and long, aquiline nosed Arabs of Saudi Arabia.
I watch a documentary on Algeria a few weeks ago, and they mentioned that Algeria was made of 4 distinct ethnic groups : the Arabs, the Jews, the Berbers (itself of mix of various closer ethnic groups) and the descendent from the Roman empire's inhabitants (mixed Latin and Phoenician blood). Add to that the infusion of Aryan blood from the 5th and 6th century invasions of Alans (an Aryano-Iranian nomadic group originally from the Caucasus) and Vandals (an Eastern Germanic tribe), which explains the occurence of blue eyes among a tiny minority of the Maghreban population. Genetic tests have shown that most northwest Africans are predominantly of Berber origin.
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Maghreban blood
DNA analysis of the Berbers have indicated that the Y chromosomes (paternal line) is 75% of North-West African with older origins in Eastern Africa, 8% of recent sub-Saharan African, 13% of North-West African origin (maybe originally from the Near or Middle East) and 4% historic European gene.
The maternal line shows 1/3 of Near East ancestry (dating from about 50,000 years ago), 1/8 from subsaharan ancestry, and the rest (about 40%) mainly from Europe (probably Iberian, Celtic, Roman and Germanic).
This gives us a maternal line mostly European and Near Eastern (e.g. Phoenicia, aka Lebanon), and a paternal line mostly (subsaharan) African. There is fairly little presence of recent Arabic blood from the 7th-century invasion. Maghrebans are thus mostly Berbers (African paternal line and Euro-Phoenician maternal line)
---
The Syrians and Iraqi also look quite different from the Saudi, as they inherited more of the original Assyrian and Babylonian blood.
Conclusion, there is an Arab race, but it is mostly limited to the Arabic peninsula, with just traces of blood found throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Within the Arabic peninsula, I noticed that the Omani had much darker skin than the Saudi. Could this be due to a blood influx from (southern) India, with which it has been trading for milllenia ?
etrified:
where is the other picture?