<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-2169" title="800px-francisco_ricci_-_auto_de_fe_1683jpeg" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/800px-francisco_ricci_-_auto_de_fe_1683jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="194" />
With the return of Christian rule to Spain in 1492 after nearly 800 years of Muslim rule, hundreds of thousands of people – both Muslim and Jewish – were faced with the choice of exile, conversion or occasionally even death.
Exile or Conversion
Historical accounts estimate that nearly 400,000 Jews and Muslims were expelled from Spain or Portugal within only 100 years.
But what about those who didn&#8217;t leave?
Many Muslims and Jews converted to Christianity, only to face the scrutiny of the Spanish Inquisition.   Can the descendants of those converts still be found among modern Spanish and Portuguese peoples today?   These very questions were at the heart of the <a id="h60k" title="new study" href="http://www.cell.com/AJHG/abstract/S0002-9297%2808%2900592-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new study</a> by geneticist Mark Jobling and his colleagues at Leicester University.
In order to answer these questions, Jobling and his colleagues performed genetic analyses on 1,140 males from the Iberian Peninsula.   They focused on the Y-chromosome DNA, which is passed down from father to son and can be used to trace paternal ancestry.   Jobling and his team found a surprisingly large percentage of DNA types that can be traced back to either Jewish (19.8%) or North African Muslim (10.6%) populations.
These levels stand in contrast to historical accounts, which emphasize the expulsion of these two minority groups from Spain and Portugal.   According to Jobling, “These findings attest to a high level of religious conversion (whether voluntary or enforced) driven by historical episodes of religious intolerance.”
The genetic evidence lends support to the idea that most Jews and Muslims preferred conversion to Christianity, as opposed to expulsion from the region.   Ultimately, the descendants of those who converted began to integrate into the Christian population.   Today, most of these descendants remain unaware of their ancestors’ religious conversion.
The conclusions reached by Jobling and his colleagues illustrate how useful genetic analysis can be in assessing the historical record. Since researchers began using genetics to understand the past about two decades ago, they have focused their attention on prehistoric events such as the origin of the human species in Africa, the migration of people into new territories and the expansion of innovations such as agriculture and pottery.
But the gradual accumulation of data now allows scientists to tackle more recent and localized events. Just last month, researchers with the National Genographic Project used the genetic diversity of modern populations around the Mediterranean to piece together <a id="h_id" title="Phoenician" href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/ripples-in-the-mediterranean-tracing-the-genetic-origins-of-the-phoenicians" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Phoenician</a> trade routes from nearly 3,500 years ago.
This latest study shows that genetic data can actually be used to test historical claims and assumptions, and even to overturn conventional wisdom. In fact, the results of this research actually contradict some historians&#8217; beliefs about the fate of the majority of Jews and Muslims living in the Iberian Peninsula during the Inquisition.   Clearly, using genetic data to test hypotheses based on historical or archaeological evidence promises to be surprisingly informative in the future.
Photograph of &#8220;Auto de Fe&#8221; by Francisco Ricci from Wikimedia Commons.

Genetics Sheds Light on the Spanish Inquisition

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-1261" title="samaritans" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/samaritans.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="186" srcset="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/samaritans.jpg 350w, https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/samaritans-300x159.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" />
Upon hearing the name &#8220;Samaritans,&#8221; many people are immediately reminded of the famous passage from the Gospel of Luke (10: 25-37), the so called ‘Good Samaritan’ parable. Jesus tells of a Levite (a Jew) who is beaten and left on the side of the road. None who pass by the injured man stop to help, save a Samaritan. This parable was originally meant to highlight the fact that, even when two groups of people disapprove of each other (as did the Jews and the Samaritans), a single person from one group can still show kindness towards a member of the other.
<h2>Who Are The Samaritans?</h2>
Many people who know this parable or the term ‘Good Samaritan’ are unaware of who the Samaritans really are. In actuality, the Samaritans are a unique people whose history can be traced to Biblical times.
They are not considered ethnically Jewish or Arab, despite the fact that Samaritans have lived in close proximity to both groups for thousands of years. Though they used to be numerous, there are now only about 700 Samaritans left, divided between two towns near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They rarely marry non-Samaritans, and their religious practices are distinct from all Jewish sects.
Their ability to remain both (seemingly) genetically and culturally isolated in one of the most diverse regions on Earth has piqued the interest of both geneticists and historians, who have spent years trying to understand this unique group of people tucked away in the Levantine desert.
<h2>The Origins of the Samaritans</h2>
The origins of the Samaritans have always been clouded in uncertainty.
The traditional view is that, when the Jews were captured by the Assyrians in 721 BC as part of the infamous Babylonian Captivity, the Assyrians then repopulated Israel with people from the land of Samaria to the east. Then, when the Jews finally returned from exile 200 years later, they found these Samaritans already living in their ancestral homeland. As can be expected, tensions between the Samaritans and the Jews quickly escalated and would persist for the next several hundred years.
<h2>New Insights</h2>
However, recent archaeological findings, coupled with a deeper examination of religious texts, have led researchers to propose that the Samaritans were Jews themselves.
(Learn more about your ancestry and trace your family tree with 23andMe&#8217;s <a class="waffle-rich-text-link" href="https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/">DNA Ancestry service</a>, or sign-up for a <a class="waffle-rich-text-link" href="https://www.23andme.com/membership/">membership</a> for advanced ancestry reports and features.)
Specifically, researchers argue that during the Babylonian Captivity, not all Jews were rounded up by the Assyrians. Some stayed behind, possibly marrying other Assyrian exiles who themselves had been relocated. This would make sense given that, even though Samaritans are not considered Jews, they share many of the same ancient Hebrew rituals.
While these rituals have evolved for hundreds of years among most Jewish sects, they remain unchanged among the isolated Samaritans, even to this day. This also fits well with the historical animosity of Jews toward Samaritans because of their association with non-Jews.
<h2>The Genetics of Samaritans</h2>
But what do the genetic data reveal about the Samaritans&#8217; origins? Luckily, there have been many genetic studies of the Samaritans, both to uncover their origins and to understand how they have survived so many generations of isolation.
One such study by Peidong Shen and colleagues in the Journal Human Mutation has used both mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome DNA of modern-day Samaritans to discover their origins and genetic relationship to Near Eastern Jews. Their results are fascinating.
The mitochondrial DNA results, which show maternal history (i.e. your mother’s mother’s mother, etc.), reveal no major difference between the Samaritans, Jews, or Palestinians in the Levant who were also sampled. These three groups have relatively similar maternal genetic histories.
<h2>Insights from the Y-Chromosome</h2>
However, the story of the Y-chromosome, which shows paternal history (i.e. your father’s father’s father) is quite different. Indeed, not only are the Y-chromosomes of the Jews and Samaritans more similar to each other than either is to the Palestinians&#8217;, the Y-chromosomes of the Samaritans show striking similarities to a very specific Y-chromosome most often associated with Jewish men. Although the Samaritan type is slightly different from the Jewish type, it is clear that the two share a common ancestor, probably within the last few thousand years.
As a result, Shen and colleagues argue that the traditional hypothesis, that the Samaritans were transported into the Levant by the Assyrians and have no Jewish heritage, is largely incorrect. Rather, these Samaritan lineages are remnants of those few Jews who did not go into exile when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC. Those who remained in the Levant may have take non-Jewish wives, which would account for the genetic admixture on the female side. But according to the authors the Y-chromosome clearly shows that the Samaritans and the Jews share common ancestry dating to at least 2,500 years ago.
The similarity between the Y chromosomes of Samaritans and Jews illustrates that groups considered quite distinct today can actually have relatively recent genetic connections. Indeed, we are all connected to each other in some way through our shared genes, shared ancestry, and shared history. The research into the origin of the Samaritans is just one example of this connection.
<h2>Learn More</h2>
Explore more about 23andMe&#8217;s ancestry reports <a href="https://www.23andme.com/ancestry-composition-guide/">here, or </a> find out if your <a href="https://www.23andme.com/test-info/genetic-health/">genetics</a> might Increase your risk for any health conditions with 23andMe.

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Genetics Sheds Light on the Spanish Inquisition

The Genetic History of the Samaritans

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