Syrians

Syrians (Arabic: سوريون‎), also known as the Syrian people (Arabic: الشعب السوري‎, ALA-LC: al-sha‘ab al-Sūrī; Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܝܢ‎), are the majority inhabitants of Syria, who share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indigenous elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. The mother tongue of most Syrians is Levantine Arabic, which came to replace the former mother tongue, Aramaic, in the aftermath of the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century, which led to the establishment of the Caliphate under successive Arab dynasties, who, during the period of the Abbasid Caliphate, promoted the use of the Arabic language, though a minority of Syrians retained Aramaic which is still spoken in its Syriac and Western dialects. In 2018, the Syrian Arab Republic had an estimated population of 19.5 million, which includes, aside from the aforementioned majority, ethnic minorities such as Kurds, Armenians and others.

This article is about Syrians as the majority ethnicity of the country of Syria. For other uses, see Syrian (disambiguation). For the population of the country of Syria, see Demographics of Syria. For Syrians outside of Syria, see Syrian diaspora.
Syrians
سوريون
Sūriyyīn
سوريين
Total population
19.5 million
(Syria)
10 million
(Syrian diaspora)
Regions with significant populations
 Syria19,454,263 (July 2018 estimate) [1]
 Brazil4,011,480 [2]
 Turkey2,764,500 [3]
 Lebanon1,500,000 [4]
 Jordan1,400,000 [5]
 Venezuela1,015,632 [6][7][8][9]
 Germany780,000 [10]
 Saudi Arabia500,000
 United Arab Emirates250,000 [11]
 Sweden191,530[12]
 United States187,331 [13]
 Kuwait150,000 [14]
 Netherlands98,090
 Canada77,050[15]
 Qatar54,000 [16]
 Austria49,779 [17]
 Denmark42,207[18]
 Norway34,120
 South Korea1,750
 China586
Languages
Arabic
Neo-Aramaic (Surayt/Turoyo, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Western Neo-Aramaic).
Religion
Islam (mostly Sunni and a minority of Shi'as and Alawites)
Christianity (mostly Antiochian Orthodox and Greek Catholic; a minority of Syriac Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic)
Druze
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Lebanese, Palestinians, Jordanians, Jews, Arabs, Assyrians

Before the Syrian Civil War, the Syrian diaspora consisted of 15 million people of Syrian ancestry[19] who immigrated to North America (United States and Canada), European Union member states (including Sweden, France and Germany), South America (mainly in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia), the West Indies,[20] Africa, Australia and New Zealand.[19] Six million refugees of the Syrian Civil War also live outside Syria now, mostly in Turkey.

Etymology

The name "Syrians" was employed by the Greeks and Romans to denote the inhabitants of Syria; however, they called themselves Arameans and Assyrians. The ethnic designation "Syrian" is derived from the word "Assyrian" and appeared in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Some argue that the Çineköy inscription supports this theory.

Appellation of the name

The Greeks used the terms "Syrian" and "Assyrian" interchangeably to indicate the indigenous Arameans, Assyrians and other inhabitants of the Near East, Herodotus considered "Syria" west of the Euphrates. Starting from the 2nd century BC onwards, ancient writers referred to the Seleucid ruler as the King of Syria or King of the Syrians.[21] The Seleucids designated the districts of Seleucis and Coele-Syria explicitly as Syria and ruled the Syrians as indigenous populations residing west of the Euphrates (Aramea) in contrast to Assyrians who had their native homeland in Mesopotamia east of the Euphrates.[22] However, the interchangeability between Assyrians and Syrians persisted during the Hellenistic period.[22]

In one instance, the Ptolemies of Egypt reserved the term "Syrian Village" as the name of a settlement in Fayoum. The term "Syrians" is under debate whether it referred to Jews or to Arameans, as the Ptolemies referred to all peoples originating from Modern Syria and Palestine as Syrian.[23]

The term Syrian was imposed upon Arameans of modern Levant by the Romans. Pompey created the province of Syria, which included modern-day Lebanon and Syria west of the Euphrates, framing the province as a regional social category with civic implications.[24] Plutarch described the indigenous people of this newly created Roman province as "Syrians",[25] so did Strabo, who observed that Syrians resided west of the Euphrates in Roman Syria,[24] and he explicitly mentions that those Syrians are the Arameans, whom he calls Aramaei, indicating an extant ethnicity.[26] Posidonius noted that the people called Syrians by the Greeks refer to themselves as Arameans.[27]

In his book The Great Roman-Jewish War, Josephus, a Hebrew native to the Levant, mentioned the Syrians as the non-Hebrew, non-Greek indigenous inhabitants of Syria.[28]

The Arabs called Syria and the Levant Al-Sham. The national and ethnic designation "Syrian" is one that has been reused, accepted and espoused by the Syrian people since the advent of modern nationalism, which emanated from Europe and began with the culmination of the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s.

History
Main articles: Arameans, Phoenicia, and Arabs

Syrians emerged from various origins; the main influence came from ancient Semitic peoples, populations from Arabia and Mesopotamia, while Greco-Roman influence is marginal.[29] Ancient Syria of the first millennium BC was dominated by the Aramaeans;[30] they originated in the Northern Levant as a continuum of the Bronze Age populations of Syria.[31] The Seleucids ruled the Syrians as a conquered nation; Syrians were not assimilated into Greek communities, and many local peasants were exploited financially as they had to pay rent for Greek landlords. Outside Greek colonies, the Syrians lived in districts governed by local temples that did not use the Greek civic system of poleis and colonies.[32] The situation changed after the Roman conquest in 64 BC; Syrians obtained the citizenship of Greek poleis, and the line separating between the colonists and the colonized blurred. The idioms Syrian and Greek were used by Rome to denote civic societies instead of separate ethnic groups.[33]

The Aramaeans assimilated the earlier populations through their language; combined with the common religion, Christianity, most of the inhabitants turned into Syrians (Aramaeans). Islam and the Arabic language had a similar effect where the Aramaeans themselves became Arabs regardless of their ethnic origin following the Muslim conquest of the Levant.[30] The presence of Arabs in Syria is recorded since the 9th century BC,[34] and Roman period historians, such as Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and Ptolemy, reported that Arabs inhabited many parts of Syria.[35] What antiquity writers meant by the designation "Arab" is debated; the historian Michael Macdonald suggested that the term is an ethnic designation based on an "ill-defined complex of linguistic and cultural characteristics",[36] while according to academic consensus, "Arab", in addition to it being an ethnic name, had a social meaning describing a nomadic way of life.[37] The urheimat of the Arab ethnos is unclear; the traditional 19th century theory locates this in the Arabian Peninsula,[38] while some modern scholars, such as David Frank Graf, note that the epigraphic and archaeological evidence render the traditional theory inadequate to explain the Arabs' appearance in Syria.[note 1][40] The Arabs mentioned in Syria by Greco-Roman writers were assimilated into the "Greco–Aramaean culture" that dominated the region, and the texts they produced were written in Greek or Aramaic;[43] Old Arabic, the precursor of Classical Arabic, was not a written language, and its speakers used Aramaic for writing purposes.[44]

Arabization

On the eve of the Rashidun Caliphate conquest of the Levant, 634 AD, Syria's population mainly spoke Aramaic; Greek was the official language of administration. Arabization and Islamization of Syria began in the 7th century, and it took several centuries for Islam, the Arab identity, and language to spread;[45] the Arabs of the Caliphate did not attempt to spread their language or religion in the early periods of the conquest, and formed an isolated aristocracy.[46] The Arabs of the Claiphate accommodated many new tribes in isolated areas to avoid conflict with the locals; caliph Uthman ordered his governor, Muawiyah I, to settle the new tribes away from the original population.[47] Syrians who belonged to Monophysitic denominations welcomed the peninsular Arabs as liberators.[48]

The Abbasids in the eighth and ninth century sought to integrate the peoples under their authority, and the arabization of the administration was one of the tools.[49] Arabization gained momentum with the increasing numbers of Muslim converts;[45] the ascendancy of Arabic as the formal language of the state prompted the cultural and linguistic assimilation of Syrian converts.[50] Those who remained Christian also became arabized;[49] it was probably during the Abbasid period in the ninth century that Christians adopted Arabic as their first language; the first translation of the gospels into Arabic took place in this century.[51] Many historians, such as Claude Cahen and Bernard Hamilton, proposed that the arabization of Christians was completed before the First Crusade.[52] By the thirteenth century, Arabic language achieved dominance in the region and its speakers became Arabs.[45]

Those who were able to avoid losing the Aramaic language are divided between two groups:

Garshuni sample
  • The Eastern Aramaic Syriac-speaking group, followers of the Western-rite Syriac Orthodox Church and Syrian Catholic Church; they kept the pre-Islamic Syrian (Syriac) identity throughout the ages, asserting their culture in face of the Arabic language dominance. Linguists, such as Carl Brockelmann and François Lenormant, suggested that the rise of the Garshuni writing (using Syriac alphabet to write Arabic) was an attempt by the Syriac Orthodox to assert their identity.[53] Syriac is still the liturgical language for most of the different Syriac churches in Syria.[54] The Syriac Orthodox Church was known as the Syrian Orthodox Church until 2000, when the holy synod decided to rename it to avoid any nationalistic connotations; the Catholic Church still have "Syrian" in its official name.[55]
  • The Western Neo-Aramaic-speaking group, that is, the inhabitants of Bakh'a, Jubb'adin and Ma'loula. The residents of Bakh'a and Jubb'adin converted to Islam in the eighteenth century, while in Ma'loula, the majority are Christians, mainly belonging to the Melkite Greek Catholic Church,[56] but also to the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch,[57] in addition to a Muslim minority, who speaks the same Aramaic dialect of the Christian residents.[58] The people of those villages use Arabic intensively to communicate with each others and the rest of the country; this led to a noticeable Arabic influence on their Aramaic language where around 20% of its vocabulary is of Arabic roots. Bakh'a is steadily losing its dialect; by 1971, people aged younger than 40 could no longer use the Aramaic language properly, although they could understand it. The situation of Bakh'a will eventually lead to the extinction of its Aramaic dialect.[59]

Identity

Besides religious identities, the Syrian people are split among three identities, the Arab, Syriac, and Syrian identities. Many Muslims and some Arabic-speaking Christians describe themselves as Arabs, while many Aramaic-speaking Christians and some Muslims prefer to describe themselves as Syriacs or Arameans. Also some people from Syria, mainly Syrian nationalists, describe themselves only as Syrians or ethnic Syrians. Most of the divisions in ethnic nomenclature are actually due to religious backgrounds.

Genetics
     Arabian Peninsula/East African ancestral components
     Levantine ancestral component
     Other ancestral components

Genetic tests on Syrians were included in many genetic studies.[60][61][62] The genetic marker which identifies descendants of the ancient Levantines is found in Syrians in high proportion.[63] Modern Syrians exhibit "high affinity to the Levant" based on studies comparing modern and ancient DNA samples.[64] Syrians cluster closely with ancient Levantine populations of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.[65] A Levantine ancestral genetic component was identified; it is estimated that the Levantine and the Arabian Peninsula/East African ancestral components diverged 23,700-15,500 years ago, while the divergence between the Levantine and European components happened 15,900-9,100 years ago.[66] The Levantine ancestral component is the most recurrent in Levantines (42–68%); the Arabian Peninsula/East African ancestral components represent around 25% of Syrian genetic make-up.[67][68]

The paternal Y-DNA haplogroups J1, which reaches its highest frequencies in Yemen 72.6% and Qatar 58.3%, accounted for 33.6% of Syrians.[69] The J2 group accounted for 20.8% of Syrians; other Y-DNA haplogroups includes the E1B1B 12.0%, I 5.0%, R1a 10.0% and R1b 15.0%.[62][70] The Syrians are closest to other Levantine populations: the Palestinians, Lebanese and Jordanians;[71] this closeness can be explained with the common Canaanite ancestry and geographical unity which was broken only in the twentieth century with the advent of British and French mandates.[72] Regarding the genetic relation between the Syrians and the Lebanese based on Y-DNA, Muslims from Lebanon show closer relation to Syrians than their Christian compatriots.[73] The people of Western Syria show close relation with the people of Northern Lebanon.[74]

Mitochondrial DNA shows the Syrians to have affinity with Europe; main haplogroups are H and R.[75] Based on Mitochondrial DNA, the Syrians, Palestinian, Lebanese and Jordanians form a close cluster.[76] Compared to the Lebanese, Bedouins and Palestinians, the Syrians have noticeably more Northern European component, estimated at 7%.[77] Regarding the HLA alleles, Syrians, and other Levantine populations, exhibit "key differences" from other Arab populations;[78] based on HLA-DRB1 alleles, Syrians were close to eastern Mediterranean populations, such as the Cretans and Lebanese Armenians.[79] Studying the genetic relation between Jews and Syrians showed that the two populations share close affinity.[80] Apparently, the cultural influence of Arab expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean in the seventh century was more prominent than the genetic influx.[81] However, the expansion of Islam did leave an impact on Levantine genes; religion drove Levantine Muslims to mix with other Muslim populations, who were close culturally despite the geographic distance, and this produced genetic similarities between Levantine Muslims and Moroccan and Yemeni populations. Christians and Druze became a genetic isolate in the predominantly Islamic world.[82]

Language
Further information on Syrian Arabic: Levantine Arabic

Arabic is the mother tongue of the majority[83] of Syrians as well as the official state language. The Syrian variety of Levantine Arabic differs from Modern Standard Arabic. Western Neo-Aramaic, the only surviving Western Aramaic language, is still spoken in three villages (Ma'loula, Al-Sarkha (Bakhah) and Jubb'adin) in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains by both Muslim and Christian residents. Syriac-Assyrians in the northeast of the country are mainly Surayt/Turoyo speakers but there are also some speakers of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, especially in the Khabour Valley. Classical Syriac is also used as a liturgical language by Syriac Christians. English, and to a lesser extent French, is widely understood and used in interactions with tourists and other foreigners.

Religion and minority groups
Main articles: Freedom of religion in Syria, Religion in Syria, Islam in Syria, and Christianity in Syria

Religious differences in Syria have historically been tolerated,[84][85] and religious minorities tend to retain distinct cultural, and religious identities. Sunni Islam is the religion of 74% of Syrians. The Alawites, a variety of Shia Islam, make up 12% of the population and mostly live in and around Tartus and Latakia. Christians make up 10% of the country. Most Syrian Christians adhere to the Byzantine Rite; the two largest are the Antiochian Orthodox Church and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.[86][87] The Druze are a mountainous people who reside in Jabal al-Druze who helped spark the Great Syrian Revolt. The Ismailis are an even smaller sect that originated in Asia. Many Armenian and Assyrian Christians fled Turkey during the Armenian Genocide and the Assyrian genocide and settled in Syria. There are also roughly 500,000 Palestinians, who are mostly descendants of refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab War. The community of Syrian Jews inside Syria once numbered 30,000 in 1947, but has only 200 today.[88]

The Syrian people's beliefs and outlooks, similar to those of most Arabs and people of the wider Middle-East, are a mosaic of West and East. Conservative and liberally minded people will live right next to each other. Like the other countries in the region, religion permeates life; the government registers every Syrian's religious affiliation.

Cuisine
Tabbouleh
Further information: Syrian cuisine

Syrian cuisine is dominated by ingredients native to the region. Olive oil, garlic, olives, spearmint, and sesame oil are some of the ingredients that are used in many traditional meals. Traditional Syrian dishes enjoyed by Syrians include, tabbouleh, labaneh, shanklish, wara' 'enab, makdous, kebab, Kibbeh, sfiha, moutabal, hummus, mana'eesh, bameh, and fattoush.

Before the main courses, Syrians eat meze, which is basically an appetizer. Meze is usually served with Arab-style tea - highly concentrated black tea, which is highly sweetened and served in small glass cups. Another popular drink, especially with Christians and non-practicing Muslims, is the arak, a liquor produced from grapes or dates and flavored with anise that can have an alcohol content of over 90% ABV (however, most commercial Syrian arak brands are about 40-60% ABV).

Notable people
Further information: List of Syrians
Former Syrian president Shukri al-Quwatli and his family

Scholars

Public figures and politicians

Religious Figures

Business

Entertainment

Sport

See also

Notes
  1. Regarding the urheimat of the Arab ethnos: the traditional theory, which dates to the 19th century and became dominant in the middle of the 20th century, holds that Arabs were a Semitic wave from the Arabian peninsula who infiltrated Syria. The traditional theory does not explain the early presence of the Arabs in the Levant as it lacks the evidence for when and how they allegedly arrived from Arabia.[38] Macdonald noted that there is no evidence proving that the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula, especially modern Yemen, in the early Hellenistic period (fourth century BC), used the designation "Arab", and that it took several centuries for this ethnic name to be adopted by the majority of the peninsula's inhabitants.[39] The historian David Frank Graf considered the traditional theory inadequate for explaining the Arab presence in the Near East. Graf noted the 4th century BC evidence from Edom, south of the historical region of Syria, represented in a collection of ostraca, which show that the population was either "Arabized Edmoites" or "Edomite Arabs", and that this population was an integral part of the demography of southern Palestine and not a recent infiltration.[40] The historian Robert Hoyland, noting the earliest attestation of Arabs in Assyrian sources in the Syrian desert in the 9th century, followed by their earliest attestation in Southern Arabian inscriptions in the seventh/sixth century BC, suggested that north and central Arabia was the homeland of Arabs.[41] Macdonald refused the paradigm of infiltration from Arabia, and considered the Syria/Arabia division a Western concept that would have been unrecognizable for Arabs who were supposedly migrating.[42]

References

Citations
  1. "The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  2. "Syrian Arabic Republic". www.itamaraty.gov.br. Archived from the original on 20 October 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  3. (UNHCR), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "UNHCR Syria Regional Refugee Response". unhcr.org. Archived from the original on 5 March 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  4. (UNHCR), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "UNHCR Syria Regional Refugee Response". unhcr.org. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  5. (UNHCR), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "UNHCR Syria Regional Refugee Response". unhcr.org. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  6. Jordan, Levi. "Syria Steps into Latin America". Americas Society Council of the Americas. Retrieved 15 January 2017. Syria hopes will serve as an avenue to attract investment dollars from the one-million-strong community of Venezuelans of Syrian descent
  7. Vasquez, Fidel (October 2010). "Venezuela afianza relaciones con Siria" (in Spanish). Aristobulo Isturiz PSUV. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017. En Venezuela residen un poco más de 700 mil árabes de origen sirio
  8. Nachawati, Leila (March 2013). "Cómo será recordado Chávez en Siria" (in Spanish). ElDiario.es. Retrieved 15 January 2017. Se calcula que cerca de un millón de habitantes del país tiene origen sirio, personal o familiar.
  9. Gomez, Diego (February 2012). "EL LEVANTE Y AMÉRICA LATINA. UNA BITÁCORA DE LATINOAMÉRICA EN SIRIA, LÍBANO, JORDANIA Y PALESTINA". distintaslatitudes.net (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 January 2017. de acuerdo con el Instituto de Estadística de Venezuela, cerca de un millón de venezolanos tienen orígenes sirios y más de 20 mil venezolanos están registrados en el catastro del consulado sudamericano en Damasco.
  10. https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/fluechtlinge-aus-syrien-die-tragoedie-des-21-jahrhunderts-16661310.html
  11. (UAE taking in Syrian refugees). "SThe UAE is going to start taking in Syrian refugees". swhatson.ae. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  12. http://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/START__BE__BE0101__BE0101E/FodelselandArK/table/tableViewLayout1/
  13. "SELECTED POPULATION PROFILE IN THE UNITED STATES 2016 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". American FactFinder. U.S Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 14 February 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  14. "Kuwait extends residency permits for Syrians". UNHCR. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  15. Statistics Canada (2019-02-20). "2016 Ethnic Origin, both sexes, age (total), Canada, 2016 Census – 25% Sample data: Data tables". Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  16. (Qatar population statistics). "Population of Qatar by nationality - 2019 report". http://priyadsouza.com. Retrieved 15 August 2019. External link in |website= (help)
  17. "Bevölkerung zu Jahresbeginn seit 2002 nach detaillierter Staatsangehörigkeit" [Population at the beginning of the year since 2002 by detailed nationality] (PDF). Statistics Austria (in German). 14 June 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  18. "POPULATION AT THE FIRST DAY OF THE QUARTER BY REGION, SEX, AGE (5 YEARS AGE GROUPS), ANCESTRY AND COUNTRY OF ORIGIN". Statistics Denmark.
  19. Singh, Shubha. "Like India, Syria has a large diaspora (With stories on Syrian president's visit)". Theindian News. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  20. "The Caribbean History Archives: Syrian-Lebanese community". 2011-10-03.
  21. Nigel Wilson (2013-10-31). Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. p. 652. ISBN 9781136788000.
  22. Nathanael J. Andrade (2013-07-25). Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World. p. 28. ISBN 9781107244566.
  23. Aryeh Kasher (1985). The Jews in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt: The Struggle for Equal Rights. p. 153. ISBN 9783161448294.
  24. Nathanael J. Andrade (2013-07-25). Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World. p. 29. ISBN 9781107244566.
  25. History, Universal (1779). An universal history, from the earliest accounts to the present time. p. 451.
  26. History, Universal (1779). An universal history, from the earliest accounts to the present time. p. 441.
  27. John Joseph (2000). The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East. p. 10. ISBN 978-9004116412.
  28. Flavius Josephus (2004). The Great Roman-Jewish War. p. 34,150,178. ISBN 9780486432182.
  29. Commins et al. 2018. Quote:"The Syrian people evolved from several origins over a long period of time. The Greek and Roman ethnic influence was negligible in comparison with that of the Semitic peoples of Arabia and Mesopotamia—Aramaeans, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Canaanites."
  30. Joseph 2000, p. 30.
  31. Novak 2016, p. 123.
  32. Andrade 2013, p. 7.
  33. Andrade 2013, p. 8.
  34. Graf 2003, p. 319.
  35. Macdonald 2009a, p. 298.
  36. Macdonald 2009a, p. 319.
  37. Graf 2003, p. 320.
  38. Graf 2003, p. 322.
  39. Macdonald 2009b, p. 2.
  40. Graf 2003, p. 334.
  41. Hoyland 2001, p. 230.
  42. Macdonald 2003, p. 317.
  43. Hoyland 2001, p. 69.
  44. Macdonald 2003, p. 305.
  45. al-Hassan 2001, p. 59.
  46. Schulze 2010, p. 19.
  47. Kennedy 1992, p. 292.
  48. Barker 1966, p. 244.
  49. Braida 2012, p. 183.
  50. Peters 2003, p. 191.
  51. Braida 2012, p. 182.
  52. Ellenblum 2006, p. 53.
  53. Braida 2012, pp. 185, 186.
  54. Brock 2010, p. 13.
  55. al-Bagdadi 2008, p. 280.
  56. Troupeau 1987, p. 308.
  57. Held & Cummings 2018, p. 298.
  58. Arnold 2007, p. 185.
  59. Correll 1987, p. 308.
  60. Badro et al. 2013.
  61. Haber et al. 2011.
  62. El‐Sibai et al. 2009.
  63. Perry 2007. Quote:"The marker, known as the J2 haplogroup, was found in an unusually high proportion among Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians tested by Zalloua during more than five years of research. He tested 1,000 people in the region."
  64. Marshall et al. 2016. Quote:"The mixed Near Eastern–Middle Eastern localisation of the Druze, shown using both modern and ancient DNA data, is distinct from that of neighbouring Syrians, Palestinians and most of the Lebanese, who exhibit a high affinity to the Levant."
  65. Marshall et al. 2016. Quote:" Druze exhibited genetic similarity to Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Armenians and a Chalcolithic Anatolian. In that study, Druze clustered remotely from all Bronze Age and Neolithic Levantines, whereas Palestinians, Bedouins, Syrians and a few Lebanese clustered with Levantine populations."
  66. Haber et al. 2013. Quote:"Our estimates show that the Levantine and the Arabian Peninsula/East African components diverged ∼23,700-15,500 y.a., while the Levantine and European components diverged ∼15,900-9,100 y.a."
  67. Haber et al. 2013. Quote:1-"ADMIXTURE identifies at K = 10 an ancestral component (light green) with a geographically restricted distribution representing ∼50% of the individual component in Ethiopians, Yemenis, Saudis, and Bedouins, decreasing towards the Levant, with higher frequency (∼25%) in Syrians, Jordanians, and Palestinians, compared with other Levantines (4%–20%). The geographical distribution pattern of this component (Figure 4A, 4B) correlates with the pattern of the Islamic expansion, but its presence in Lebanese Christians, Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews, Cypriots and Armenians might suggest that its spread to the Levant could also represent an earlier event."
    2-"Besides this component, the most frequent ancestral component (shown in dark blue) in the Levantines (42–68%) is also present, at lower frequencies, in Europe and Central Asia."
  68. Fernandes et al. 2015. Quote:1-"In the Near East, we included Iraq, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Turkey, Lebanon and Syria."
    2-"Here it is already possible to distinguish between a Southwest Asian/Caucasian and an Arabian/North African component; these two components have similar proportions of ∼30% each in Yemen and UAE, but the Arabian/North African proportion increases to 52–60% in Saudi and Bedouin. In Near Eastern populations, correspondingly, the Southwest Asian/Caucasian component rises to ∼50% and the Arabian/North African cluster decreases to ∼20–30%, even in Palestinians (similar to the Samaritans and some of the Druze), highlighting their primarily indigenous origin, with the most extreme values for the Druze, carrying the Southwest Asian/Caucasian component at ∼80%."
  69. El‐Sibai et al. 2009. Quote:"J1 frequencies in Syria, Akka and Jordan were more comparable to Lebanon than to the remaining Arabic countries (58.3% in Qatar and 72.5% in Yemen; Fig. 2G")
  70. Semino et al. 2000.
  71. Hajjej et al. 2018. Quote:"Using genetic distances, correspondence analysis and NJ trees, we showed earlier [61, 62] and in this study that Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and Jordanians are closely related to each other."
  72. Hajjej et al. 2018. Quote:"The strong relatedness between Levant Arab populations is explained by their common ancestry, the ancient Canaanites, who came either from Africa or Arabian Peninsula via Egypt in 3300 BC [97], and settled in Levant lowlands after collapse of Ghassulian civilization in 3800–3350 BC [98]. The relatedness is also attributed to the close geographical proximity, which constituted one territory before 19th century British and French colonization."
  73. Haber et al. 2013. Quote:"Lebanese Christians and all Druze cluster together, and Lebanese Muslims are extended towards Syrians, Palestinians, and Jordanians."
  74. Haber et al. 2011. Quote:"Syria is contained within the range of variation of the Lebanese samples. West Syrian samples lie closest to LN Sunnis, and not far from LN, LB, and LM Maronites."
  75. Badro et al. 2013. Quote:"The haplogroups' geographical distribution shows affinity between the Northern Levant (modern day Lebanon and Syria) and Europe with clear distinctions between the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula with regards to Africa (Fig. 1, Table 1). The main mtDNA haplogroups for both Europe and the Northern Levant are H and R*."
  76. Badro et al. 2013. Quote:"Yemenis and Saudis both associate strongly with Egyptians, whereas the Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian populations clustered together."
  77. Marshall et al. 2016. Quote:"Druze and Syrians possess a significantly larger amount of the Northern European component (X = 7%) when compared with their neighbouring populations, such as Palestinians (X = 5%) and Lebanese and Bedouins (X = 2%)."
  78. Hajjej et al. 2018. Quote:"On the contrary, key differences were noted between Levant Arabs (Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians), and other Arab populations, highlighted by high frequencies of A*24, B*35, DRB1*11:01, DQB1*03:01, and DRB1*11:01-DQB1*03:01 haplotype in Levantine Arabs compared to other Arab populations."
  79. Hajjej et al. 2018. Quote:"Syrians are genetically close to Eastern Mediterranean, as Cretans (-0.0001) and Lebanese Armenians (0.0050)."
  80. Hammer et al. 2000. Quote:"This Jewish cluster was interspersed with the Palestinian and Syrian populations, whereas the other Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations (Saudi Arabians, Lebanese, and Druze) closely surrounded it."
  81. Hajjej et al. 2018. Quote:1-"The extent of gene Arab exchange with these autochthonous groups is undetermined but is thought to be lower than religious/cultural influence."
    2-"On the other hand, Levant Arabs are distant from Saudis, Kuwaitis, and Yeminis, an indication that the contribution of the Arabian Peninsula populations to Levantine gene pool is low, probably due to the absence of the demographic aspect of 7th century invasion."
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