Madrid: Readers of the Daily Mail and the online version of the mass circulation London tabloid newspaper woke up on Sunday morning to the revelation that historians believe Queen Elizabeth is a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
And according to the report, the historians have traced the lineage of Queen Elizabeth — the longest-living monarch in the world and the head of the House of Windsor that oversees the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — back over 43 generations.
She is also the Queen of Canada, Australia and New Zealand and is the head of the Commonwealth group of 53 countries made up of former colonies of the British Empire.
But the revelation isn’t exactly new news — and the lineage ties to the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) were first established in 1986. What has given the links new impetus now is that the story was picked up by a Moroccan newspaper 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 it comes to authenticating genealogical lineage in the UK, since it was founded 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 United Press International (UPI) news agency.
“Mixed in with Queen Elizabeth’s blue blood is the blood of the prophet Mohammad (PBUH), according to Burke’s Peerage, the genealogical guide to royalty,” UPI reported then. “The relation came out when Harold B. Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke’s, wrote to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to ask for better security for the royal family,” the report said.
“The royal family’s direct descent from the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) cannot be 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 a surprise to many, he added, “It is little known by the British people that the 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 Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) through the Arab kings of Seville, who once ruled Spain.
By marriage, their blood passed to the European kings of Portugal and Castile, and through them to England’s 15th century King Edward IV, the UPI report concludes.
And the historical facts seem to back up the lineage from the Middle East all the way to Buckingham Palace.
Today, genealogists point out that if we all could track our lineage back over 43 generations, we would each statistically have some 60,000 ancestors — and at a time when the world’s population is estimated to have reached one billion only in 1804 — and we are all therefore more inter-related genealogically than most of us realise or acknowledge.
The 43 generational lineage dates to the Umayyad Caliphate, and essentially switches from Arab world, through Spain and then to England, with King Edward IV being a pivotal character in tying the family lines together.
Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate was an Arab caliphate established after the death of Prophet Mohammad [PBUH]. It was a formidable force and at its peak, ruled more than 15 million square kilometres from the Caucasus Mountains of Eurasia to the Iberian Peninsula, where the Muslim empire took hold in Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar.
The capital of Islamic Iberia was Cordoba in present-day Spain, which existed 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, who was claimed by historians to have been a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) through the Prophet’s daughter, Fatima.
It was through Al Qasim bloodline that historians believed that Queen Elizabeth shared her genealogy antiquity with.
Last of the Abbasids
Al Qasim became the ruler of Seville, a territory in Muslim Spain and ruled until his death in 1042.
After two successions, his grandson Mohammad Al Mutamid took control of Cordoba 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 to King 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 three children, one being a son named Sancho.
Zaida's descendant Maria de Padilla
Two centuries later in 1352, a descendant of Zaida and King Alfonso, Maria de Padilla, had children with King Peter of Castile.
The king fathered four children with her, two of whom married sons of King Edward III of England.
Queen Elizabeth’s lineage can be readily traced back over 17 generations to Edward IV, who lived between April 28, 1442 and 1483. He died 535 years ago on 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 of
George V, King of the UK – son of
Edward VII, King of the UK – son of
Victoria, Queen of the UK – daughter of
Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn – son of
George III, King of Great Britain – son of
Frederick, Prince of Wales – son of
George II, King of Great Britain – son of
Sophia, Electress of Hanover – daughter of
Elizabeth of Bohemia – daughter of
James I/VI, King of England, Ireland & Scotland – son of
James V, King of Scots – son of
Margaret Tudor – daughter of
Elizabeth of York – daughter of
Edward IV, King of England – son of
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York – son of
Richard of Conisburgh, Earl of Cambridge – son of
Isabella Perez of Castille – daughter of
Maria Juana de Padilla – daughter of
Maria Fernandez de Henestrosa – daughter of
Aldonza Ramirez de Cifontes – daughter of
Aldonza Gonsalez Giron – daughter of
Sancha Rodriguez de Lara – daughter of
Rodrigo Rodriguez de Lara – son of
Sancha Alfonsez, Infanta of Castile – daughter of
Zaida (aka Isabella) – daughter of
Abbad II Al Mutadid, King of Seville – son of
Abu Al Qasim Mohammad Bin Abbad, King of Seville – son of
Esmail Bin Qarais – son of
Qarais Bin Abbad – son of
Abbad Bin Amr – son of
Amr Bin Aslan – son of
Aslan Bin Amr – son of
Amr Bin Itlaf – son of
Itlaf Bin Na’im – son of
Naim II Al Lakhmi – son of
Naim Al Lakhmi – son of
Zahra Bint Hussain – daughter of
Hussain Bin Hasan – son of
Hasan Bin Ali – son of
Fatima – daughter of
PROPHET MOHAMMAD (PBUH)
Key Muslim cleric stands by claim on Queen Elizabeth II lineage
Egypt’s prominent Muslim theologian Ali Gomaa has rebuffed critics of his statement that British Queen Elizabeth is a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
Gomaa, who was Egypt’s grand mufti for 10 years beginning 2003, caused a big controversy in 2015 when he first cited the lineage.
‘A person, hailing from the House of Hashem [the Prophet’s family] was arrested 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 English books on this,’ he said on a weekly show he hosts on private Egyptian television 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 Arabic and English backing up his view. They include related findings published in 1986 by British expert on royal pedigrees Burke, who confirmed the Queen’s alleged 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 Seville in Al Andalus. He was a member of the Abbadid dynasty.
After the death of his father Abbad II Al Mutadid in 1069, Al Mutamid inherited Seville as caliph.
In 1091 Al Mutamid was taken into captivity by the Almoravids and exiled to Aghmat, Morocco, where he died (or was perhaps assassinated) in 1095. His grave is located in the outskirts of Aghmat.
Al Mutamid, one of the most eminent men of 11th-century Al Andalus, was highly regarded as a writer of poetry in Arabic.
