Madrid: Readers of the *Daily Mail*and the online version of the masscirculation London tabloid newspaper woke up on Sunday morning to therevelation that historians believe Queen Elizabeth is a descendant of theProphet Mohammad (PBUH).
And according to the report, the historians have traced the lineage ofQueen Elizabeth — the longest-living monarch in the world and the head ofthe House of Windsor that oversees the United Kingdom of Great Britain andNorthern Ireland — back over 43 generations.
She is also the Queen of Canada, Australia and New Zealand and is the headof the Commonwealth group of 53 countries made up of former colonies of theBritish Empire.
But the revelation isn’t exactly new news — and the lineage ties to theProphet Mohammad (PBUH) were first established in 1986. What has given thelinks new impetus now is that the story was picked up by a Moroccannewspaper and has been given a new lease of life in the Arabic press.
Burke’s Peerage is considered to be the gold standard authority when itcomes to authenticating genealogical lineage in the UK, since it wasfounded back in 1826.
In 1986, Burke’s Peerage reported the links back to Prophet Mohammad(PBUH), and the ties were picked up in report from the now defunct UnitedPress International (UPI) news agency.
“Mixed in with Queen Elizabeth’s blue blood is the blood of the prophetMohammad (PBUH), according to Burke’s Peerage, the genealogical guide toroyalty,” UPI reported then. “The relation came out when Harold B.Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke’s, wrote to Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher to ask for better security for the royal family,” thereport said.
“The royal family’s direct descent from the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) cannotbe relied upon to protect the royal family forever from Muslim terrorists,”Brooks-Baker said.
*Arab kings of Seville*
The UPI report continued: Probably realising the connection would be asurprise to many, he added, “It is little known by the British people thatthe blood of [Prophet] Mohammad [PBUH] flows in the veins of the queen.However, all Muslim religious leaders are proud of this fact.”
Brooks-Baker said the British royal family is descended from ProphetMohammad (PBUH) through the Arab kings of Seville, who once ruled Spain.
By marriage, their blood passed to the European kings of Portugal andCastile, and through them to England’s 15th century King Edward IV, the UPIreport concludes.
And the historical facts seem to back up the lineage from the Middle Eastall the way to Buckingham Palace.
Today, genealogists point out that if we all could track our lineage backover 43 generations, we would each statistically have some 60,000 ancestors— and at a time when the world’s population is estimated to have reachedone billion only in 1804 — and we are all therefore more inter-relatedgenealogically than most of us realise or acknowledge.
The 43 generational lineage dates to the Umayyad Caliphate, and essentiallyswitches from Arab world, through Spain and then to England, with KingEdward IV being a pivotal character in tying the family lines together.
*Umayyad Caliphate*
The Umayyad Caliphate was an Arab caliphate established after the death ofProphet Mohammad [PBUH]. It was a formidable force and at its peak, ruledmore than 15 million square kilometres from the Caucasus Mountains ofEurasia to the Iberian Peninsula, where the Muslim empire took hold inSpain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar.
The capital of Islamic Iberia was Cordoba in present-day Spain, whichexisted between 756 and 929.
The downfall of the Umayyad Caliphate came after the Abbasid Revolution(661-750), the second of the four major Caliphates in early Islamic history.
The Abbasid was a dynasty formed by Abu Al Qasim Mohammad Bin Abbad, whowas claimed by historians to have been a direct descendant of the ProphetMohammad (PBUH) through the Prophet’s daughter, Fatima.
It was through Al Qasim bloodline that historians believed that QueenElizabeth shared her genealogy antiquity with.
*Last of the Abbasids*
Al Qasim became the ruler of Seville, a territory in Muslim Spain and ruleduntil his death in 1042.
After two successions, his grandson Mohammad Al Mutamid took control ofCordoba in 1071. He was to be the third and last of the Abbasids.
In 1091, the Abbasid kingdom fell into the hands of the Almoravid dynasty,a Berber imperial dynasty of Morocco.
Al Qasim had a daughter named Zaida. She was a refugee Muslim, who fled toKing Alfonso VI’s court — the Spanish King of Leon, Castile and Galicia,during the attack on the Abbasid kingdom by the Almoravids.
Zaida later converted to Roman Catholicism and married King Alfonso VI.
She adopted the name Isabella after her baptism. Together, they had threechildren, one being a son named Sancho.
*Zaida’s descendant Maria de Padilla*
Two centuries later in 1352, a descendant of Zaida and King Alfonso, Mariade Padilla, had children with King Peter of Castile.
The king fathered four children with her, two of whom married sons of KingEdward III of England.
Queen Elizabeth’s lineage can be readily traced back over 17 generations toEdward IV, who lived between April 28, 1442 and 1483. He died 535 years agoon April 9.
*Here’s the ancestry of Queen Elizabeth in full:*
*ELIZABETH II, QUEEN OF THE UK* – *DAUGHTER OF*George VI, King of the UK – son ofGeorge V, King of the UK – son ofEdward VII, King of the UK – son ofVictoria, Queen of the UK – daughter ofEdward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn – son ofGeorge III, King of Great Britain – son ofFrederick, Prince of Wales – son ofGeorge II, King of Great Britain – son of*George I, King of Great Britain* – son ofSophia, Electress of Hanover – daughter ofElizabeth of Bohemia – daughter ofJames I/VI, King of England, Ireland & Scotland – son of*Mary, Queen of Scots* – daughter ofJames V, King of Scots – son ofMargaret Tudor – daughter ofElizabeth of York – daughter ofEdward IV, King of England – son ofRichard Plantagenet, Duke of York – son ofRichard of Conisburgh, Earl of Cambridge – son ofIsabella Perez of Castille – daughter ofMaria Juana de Padilla – daughter ofMaria Fernandez de Henestrosa – daughter ofAldonza Ramirez de Cifontes – daughter ofAldonza Gonsalez Giron – daughter ofSancha Rodriguez de Lara – daughter ofRodrigo Rodriguez de Lara – son ofSancha Alfonsez, Infanta of Castile – daughter ofZaida (aka Isabella) – daughter ofAL MUTAMID BIN ABBAD, KING OF SEVILLE – *SON OF*Abbad II Al Mutadid, King of Seville – son ofAbu Al Qasim Mohammad Bin Abbad, King of Seville – son ofEsmail Bin Qarais – son ofQarais Bin Abbad – son ofAbbad Bin Amr – son ofAmr Bin Aslan – son ofAslan Bin Amr – son ofAmr Bin Itlaf – son ofItlaf Bin Na’im – son ofNaim II Al Lakhmi – son ofNaim Al Lakhmi – son ofZahra Bint Hussain – daughter ofHussain Bin Hasan – son ofHasan Bin Ali – son ofFatima – daughter ofPROPHET MOHAMMAD (PBUH)
*Key Muslim cleric stands by claim on Queen Elizabeth II lineage*
Egypt’s prominent Muslim theologian Ali Gomaa has rebuffed critics of hisstatement that British Queen Elizabeth is a descendant of the ProphetMohammad (PBUH).
Gomaa, who was Egypt’s grand mufti for 10 years beginning 2003, caused abig controversy in 2015 when he first cited the lineage.
‘A person, hailing from the House of Hashem [the Prophet’s family] wasarrested in Britain where he was coerced into converting to Christianity.It was said he was the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth,’ Gomaa said.
‘This is documented and complicated talk. There are Arabic and Englishbooks on this,’ he said on a weekly show he hosts on private Egyptiantelevision CBC.
‘Denying realities and history does not lead to a good thinking,’ he added.‘I invite any one, who wants to learn more, to refer to my Facebook page.’
The 66-year-old scholar has uploaded on the page links of books in Arabicand English backing up his view. They include related findings published in1986 by British expert on royal pedigrees Burke, who confirmed the Queen’salleged connection to the Prophet’s family.
*— Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent*
*Who was Al Mutamid?*
Al Mutamid Bin Abbad was the third and last ruler of the taifa of Sevillein Al Andalus. He was a member of the Abbadid dynasty.
After the death of his father Abbad II Al Mutadid in 1069, Al Mutamidinherited Seville as caliph.
In 1091 Al Mutamid was taken into captivity by the Almoravids and exiled toAghmat, Morocco, where he died (or was perhaps assassinated) in 1095. Hisgrave is located in the outskirts of Aghmat.
Al Mutamid, one of the most eminent men of 11th-century Al Andalus, washighly regarded as a writer of poetry in Arabic. – Gulf News