Entwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval peoples of the Swahili coast

[Reformed J]

The early Swahili study was finally published

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05754-w

The urban peoples of the Swahili coast traded across eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean and were among the first practitioners of Islam among sub-Saharan people1,2. The extent to which these early interactions between Africans and non-Africans were accompanied by genetic exchange remains unknown. Here we report ancient DNA data for 80 individuals from 6 medieval and early modern (AD 1250–1800) coastal towns and an inland town after AD 1650. More than half of the DNA of many of the individuals from coastal towns originates from primarily female ancestors from Africa, with a large proportion—and occasionally more than half—of the DNA coming from Asian ancestors. The Asian ancestry includes components associated with Persia and India, with 80–90% of the Asian DNA originating from Persian men. Peoples of African and Asian origins began to mix by about AD 1000, coinciding with the large-scale adoption of Islam. Before about AD 1500, the Southwest Asian ancestry was mainly Persian-related, consistent with the narrative of the Kilwa Chronicle, the oldest history told by people of the Swahili coast3. After this time, the sources of DNA became increasingly Arabian, consistent with evidence of growing interactions with southern Arabia4. Subsequent interactions with Asian and African people further changed the ancestry of present-day people of the Swahili coast in relation to the medieval individuals whose DNA we sequenced.​

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The Shirazi narrative wasn't a myth.

Also, one of the guys from Songo Mnara (I7944, dated 1516-1667 AD) had majority Cushitic ancestry

 

[Garaad diinle]

The early Swahili study was finally published

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05754-w

The urban peoples of the Swahili coast traded across eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean and were among the first practitioners of Islam among sub-Saharan people1,2. The extent to which these early interactions between Africans and non-Africans were accompanied by genetic exchange remains unknown. Here we report ancient DNA data for 80 individuals from 6 medieval and early modern (AD 1250–1800) coastal towns and an inland town after AD 1650. More than half of the DNA of many of the individuals from coastal towns originates from primarily female ancestors from Africa, with a large proportion—and occasionally more than half—of the DNA coming from Asian ancestors. The Asian ancestry includes components associated with Persia and India, with 80–90% of the Asian DNA originating from Persian men. Peoples of African and Asian origins began to mix by about AD 1000, coinciding with the large-scale adoption of Islam. Before about AD 1500, the Southwest Asian ancestry was mainly Persian-related, consistent with the narrative of the Kilwa Chronicle, the oldest history told by people of the Swahili coast3. After this time, the sources of DNA became increasingly Arabian, consistent with evidence of growing interactions with southern Arabia4. Subsequent interactions with Asian and African people further changed the ancestry of present-day people of the Swahili coast in relation to the medieval individuals whose DNA we sequenced.​

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The Shirazi narrative wasn't a myth.

Also, one of the guys from Songo Mnara (I19547, dated ~1508-1648 AD) had majority Cushitic ancestry

Great find the shirazi narrative was also found on the somali coast and much of the architect said to be "arabian" is actually reminiscent of persian architect. One of the mosque in mogadishu if i remember correctly had the name khosrow inscribed on it and the somali clan of shanshi are originally from tashkent originally called shash.

 

[Step a side]

Wasn’t this study out already? I remember reading some of the samples had Arabian lineages (J1p58).

 

[Reformed J]

Wasn’t this study out already? I remember reading some of the samples had Arabian lineages (J1p58).

Yeah, the pre-print was out since July but it's cool they provided the BAM files on ENA now with the publication. I wonder if that Cushitic Swahili was Somali

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www.ebi.ac.uk

122 modern Swahili genotype data too: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/NC28XW

 

[Burqad]

 

[Reformed J]

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[Step a side]

Are the hoteps coping because they found out that the Swahili culture they had was heavily Persian/Indian/ Arab influenced?

 

[Step a side]

I’ve read that the periplus written by the Greeks have stated that Sabeans always had control and exerted influence over the southern city states like Sarapion southern Somalia all the way to Rhapta in modern Tanzania/Mozambique. The men even intermingled with the native women and learned their language and customs. There is also the presence of an Iron Age J2 clade found among an ashraaf from Bay region who has a 4000 year old TMRCA with 2 Saudis. Reformed J, Garaad diinle what do you think about this

 

[Garaad diinle]

I’ve read that the periplus written by the Greeks have stated that Sabeans always had control and exerted influence over the southern city states like Sarapion southern Somalia all the way to Rhapta in modern Tanzania/Mozambique. The men even intermingled with the native women and learned their language and customs. There is also the presence of an Iron Age J2 clade found among an ashraaf from Bay region who has a 4000 year old TMRCA with 2 Saudis. Reformed J, Garaad diinle what do you think about this

There is nothing about a yemeni presence in east africa aside from raphta in the periplus. According to the greek traveller the coastal cities in what is now somalia was small city states ruled by local elders while in raphta their were arabs from yemen that intermixed with the locals and even learned the local language.

On the other hand there is a report of a brief yemenis presence in what is now bari in northern somalia 700 bc which coincides with the yemeni invasion or geez invasion of northern eritrea. Yemenis probably tried to take over the east african coast but only succeeded in taking over northern eritrea and raphta.


https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/aae.12202

I don't know much about the iron age j2 clad it would be interesting to investigated further. It might point to trade between east africa and yemen back in the iron age.

 

[kaahin13]

Very cool. I wonder if the Persians who landed in the Swahili coast were actual persians rather than Iranic people from places like Uzbekistan

 

[Step a side]

There is nothing about a yemeni presence in east africa aside from raphta in the periplus. According to the greek traveller the coastal cities in what is now somalia was small city states ruled by local elders while in raphta their were arabs from yemen that intermixed with the locals and even learned the local language.

On the other hand there is a report of a brief yemenis presence in what is now bari in northern somalia 700 bc which coincides with the yemeni invasion or geez invasion of northern eritrea. Yemenis probably tried to take over the east african coast but only succeeded in taking over northern eritrea and raphta.


https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/aae.12202

I don't know much about the iron age j2 clad it would be interesting to investigated further. It might point to trade between east africa and yemen back in the iron age.

Yes I know about Barbaria being ruled by proto Somalis but Sarapion is shown yellow and thus part of Himyarite on this map. What does it mean.

I’ve seen those Sabean inscriptions in northern Somali and found it very interesting. I’ve spoken about them on another thread. The Sabeans were truly hard working and adventurous business men. Their whole civilisation was build in trade.

also I realised that when the periplus was written in roughly 100 AD , Somalis who are under E-Y18629 were only roughly 700 years old. Meaning there numbers was still very very small. I wonder who occupied the entire “Barbaria” from Avalites to Opone. Also considering the fact that most Somali major Somali tribes claim origin in and around the Hararghe region like Dir/ Hawiye for example. It looks like there were other E-Z830 as well as E-Y18629 tribes who’s lineages died out and got replaced by modern Somali E-Y18629. T carriers also happen to have just arrived on the scene when the periplus was written.

 

[The alchemist]

Are the hoteps coping because they found out that the Swahili culture they had was heavily Persian/Indian/ Arab influenced?

*Afrocentrists, not Hoteps.

The Afrocentric pull was a needed balance. For centuries, the study tradition of anthropology was way off the mark with the eurocentric interpretation of African history. Both are generally wrong, but the Afrocentric yank was an understandable reaction, granted it was an over-correction. Both were more ideological than honest.

As I have observed through the years, the majority of Humanities is ideology, very down to intricate systemized formations of inference methodology into technical aspects of information gathering and dissemination.

This finger-pointing at Afrocentrism in the form of ridicule is usually ignorant hypocrisy. Note the reference point of those people falls back on the faux pretense of educational integrity presented by the Eurocentric tradition. The mistake of centrality to validity as something representing universal perception is a fallacy. As time passes, we see more and more how wrong it was as things reconfigure anew.

 

[The alchemist]

Some important contextual historical backdrop (sources in the description):

 

[The alchemist]

Scaled Swahili samples from that study:

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[The alchemist]

Averages:

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Modern "Swahili" samples with Madagascar and Emirati coordinates:

 

[Burqad]

Crescent and the Horn is a good book about coastal East African Muslim societies.

 

[Reformed J]

*Afrocentrists, not Hoteps.

The Afrocentric pull was a needed balance. For centuries, the study tradition of anthropology was way off the mark with the eurocentric interpretation of African history. Both are generally wrong, but the Afrocentric yank was an understandable reaction, granted it was an over-correction. Both were more ideological than honest.

As I have observed through the years, the majority of Humanities is ideology, very down to intricate systemized formations of inference methodology into technical aspects of information gathering and dissemination.

This finger-pointing at Afrocentrism in the form of ridicule is usually ignorant hypocrisy. Note the reference point of those people falls back on the faux pretense of educational integrity presented by the Eurocentric tradition. The mistake of centrality to validity as something representing universal perception is a fallacy. As time passes, we see more and more how wrong it was as things reconfigure anew.

The peer reviewers didn't take all that well to the authors' postcolonial crusade in the intro portion of the preprint.

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The peer reviewers bullied the authors into omitting “autochthonous development of coastal settlement” used in the preprint. Instead they final publication they emphasized their mixed heritage.

The authors approach the project with the intention to disprove the "racist" colonial Eurocentric analysis, despite their very own research proving otherwise

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[Angelina]

I’ve heard rumors of Shanshi having Persian heritage for years. Also, recently on TikTok a lot of Banadiri people have been doing 23&me DNA tests and they overwhelming end up having South Asian and Persian heritage.

Why did those groups claim mostly Arab heritage when they’re in fact mixed with Pakistani/Indian and Persian?

 

[Step a side]

I’ve heard rumors of Shanshi having Persian heritage for years. Also, recently on TikTok a lot of Banadiri people have been doing 23&me DNA tests and they overwhelming end up having South Asian and Persian heritage.

Why did those groups claim mostly Arab heritage when they’re in fact mixed with Pakistani/Indian and Persian?

Because some of them indeed do have Arab ancestry. If you look closer at their DNA test results they tend to have much higher percentage of Arabian than your average Somali.

 

[Angelina]

Because some of them indeed do have Arab ancestry. If you look closer at their DNA test results they tend to have much higher percentage of Arabian than your average Somali.

Yes, I’ve heard the high % of Eritrean and Ethiopian DNA they get is actually Arab. I think one of the lads here mentioned i can’t remember if it was @Shimbiris or @Reformed J or maybe someone else.

But my point is, even if they have high percentage of Arabian it pales in comparison to Indian and Iranian. I suppose in Somali culture historically those with Arab ancestry were perceived better than those with Indian and Iranian which is why they over-emphasized one part of their heritage over the other. That’s my theory.