p(-)0ENiX
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2012
- Messages
- 1,582
- Reaction score
- 2
- Country
- Location
Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I am not saying that Pashtun are Semites. Read my post again. I said that I have met Pashtuns on this forum who have claimed that while I spoke with them. Of course Pashtuns have nothing to do with the Middle East or Semites apart from a small admixture here and there. Pashtuns are mainly of Central Asian Indo-Iranian nomadic ancestry and from South East Asia. Some claim that tribes such as Ghilzai are Turkic too.
I could show you posts where I discussed that with Pashtun members here but that would be rather pointless.
The Wikipedia link should be sufficient to say that SOME indeed make such claims. I never said that I agreed with that theory in the first place.
I understood your post the first time, my point was that mythical stories of descent originated after Islam's arrival in the Sub-Continent. The lost tribes of Israel happens to be one of those theories. People felt the desire to be closer to their new religion by linking themselves with Prophets, that's also the reason some individuals claim descent from Prophet Muhammad. In fact, it's not just Pashtuns, but a wide variety of ethnic groups have often been considered their descendants according to this theory. That includes Ehtiopian Jews, Kashmiris, Scythians, & even Anglo-Saxons according to some claims.
We both know that none of those claims are true. Historical, genetic, & linguistic evidence has never pointed us to such an origin for these ethnic groups, & the story of the lost tribes is still quite recent in my homeland. I can even post genetic studies, some of which have been conducted in Pakistan to prove my point.
Speaking of the 10 lost tribes, many people consider them to have returned in small amounts to the land of Canaan after King Cyrus freed them from Babylonian captivity. Some say that Iranian Jews may share some ancestry with them, & the vast majority would have perished making the House of Judah dominant. Regardless of what happened to the lost tribes, all the major ethnic groups in Pakistan have an Indo-Iranian & Indo-Aryan origin apart from a few that I believe lay claim to the Harappan civilization. Genetic, linguistic, & cultural evidence confirms this.
As far as claims of anti-Semitism go, in modern times the term anti-Semite as far as I know is generally considered to be synonymous to anti-Zionist. It doesn't apply to every Semitic nation obviously.
If you are interested, refer to this study below.
GENETIC DIVERSITY IN PAKISTANI POPULATIONS
Abstract
The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system, present on chromosome 6 is one of the most extensively studied regions of the human genome. The most striking feature of the HLA system is the extreme polymorphism found at some of its loci. This characteristic of the HLA system has made it an invaluable tool for population genetics analyses. Different populations exhibit characteristic allele and haplotype frequencies, which provide information about their history, migration patterns, evolution, genetics, disease susceptibility and resistance. In this study the genetic polymorphism of seven Pakistani ethnic groups was investigated at the HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB and DQB1 loci using polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP). The groups included in this study are the Baloch, Brahui, Sindhi and Parsi from the south and the Burusho, Kalash and Pathan from the north of Pakistan. The allele frequencies, three-locus haplotype frequencies for HLA-A, -C, -B and HLA-A, -B, -DRBl and two locus haplotype frequencies for HLA-A, -B, HLA-B, -C, HLA-B, -DRBl and HLA-DRBl, -DQBl along with linkage disequilibrium, relative linkage disequilibrium and their significance (p-value as determined by -l-test) were calculated. Neighbor joining trees based on allele frequencies were constructed and correspondence analysis was carried out. Variation in the allele and haplotype distribution between the seven Pakistani ethnic groups was observed. A phylogenetic tree and correspondence analysis based on HLA- A, -B, -C, -DRBl and -DQBl allele frequencies revealed the Kalash and Parsi populations to be distinct from each other and the remaining Pakistani populations. The Baloch and Brahui were closely related to one another. The Sindhi were closer to the Pathan and Burusho populations than to the neighboring Baloch and Brahui populations indicating admixture between the northern and southern populations of Pakistan. The three- and two- locus haplotypes reveal a large amount of admixture in the Pakistani populations. The haplotypes found in the Pakistani populations suggest an influence of Caucasian and Oriental populations. A phylogenetic tree and correspondence analysis comparing the Pakistani populations to various other world populations (HLA- A, -B and -C allele frequency data from the 11th and 12th International Histocompatibility Workshops) showed that the Pakistani ethnic groups, with the exception of the Parsi, lie within the cluster of the European and Asian Indian populations. The Parsi populations show a striking affinity to the Iraqi Jews, which is in accordance with historical records placing the origin of the Parsi in ancient Persia. These results not only help in studying the origins of the various Pakistani populations but also provide a background for a variety of applications including tissue typing and HLA and disease association studies in Pakistan.
It points to the ancient Indo-European or should I say Indo-Iranian & Indo-Aryan origins of Pakistani populations alongside some admixture.