While the Bible speaks of Giants roaming the earth in the remote past, so do many other mythologies from around the world, as quoted by the Greek poet Homer in 400 BC saying, “On the earth there once were giants”, or as communicated by native American tribes, who have a long oral tradition passed down concerning inhabitants with an unusually large demeanor.
In fact, it was non other than President Abraham Lincoln who was quoted in 1848 as saying before congress that, "The eyes of that species of extinct giant, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara as our eyes do now." What was this giant species Lincoln spoke of, a race many presume to be of a tall, strong, and intellectually sophisticated people? During the last several centuries, the remains of hundreds of Giant humans have been discovered on US soil, and reported on in a variety of news outlets, back before the media was consolidated into the hands of a few.
In Greek mythology, the underworld is where souls go after death. The original Greek idea of afterlife is that, at the moment of death, the soul is separated from the corpse, taking on the shape of the former person, and is transported to the entrance of the underworld.
Located in Rome, the Vatican is a symbol of the Roman Catholic faith, and as a City State, was founded on February 11, 1929, as the world’s smallest independent country by both population and area, but what is the ancient history of the Vatican Hill in Italy, and what are the origins of its name?
Scientists have sequenced a 37,000-year-old European genome. The results show that present-day Europeans are the closest living relatives to the first people in Europe. The genome also indicates that many European traits, including those from the Middle East, were already present in the first Europeans. The study, which was recently published in Science, sheds entirely new light on who Europeans are, which was originally a separate species from African lineages.
An international team of scientists have sequenced the genome of a 37,000-year-old male skeleton found in Kostenki in Russia. It turns out that Scandinavians, Balts and Slavs are more closely related to the Kostenki man than any other now-living population. This means that northern Europeans are the earliest Europeans.
The study, which was recently published in Science, sheds entirely new light on who we are as Europeans. "From a genetic point of view he's a European," says Professor Eske Willerslev, Director of the Centre for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen, who was involved in the new study, and adds: "Actually, he is closer to Danes, Swedes, Finns and Russians than to Frenchmen, Spaniards and Germans”. Split happened within a 8.000 year gap
The new results reveal that the man is the oldest that we know of so far to genetically represent a separate line from the forebears of present-day Asians. This is decisive when it comes to dating one of the most important events in history. "We can now date the separation time between Asians and Europeans."
He points out that the Kostenki genome sets a line 37,000 years ago. Here the lines must have split, while the 45,000-year-old genome from the recently discovered Ust' Ishim in Siberia sets the limit in the other direction.
This gives the answer to one of the biggest questions in the history of mankind; scientists now know that it is within the 8000 year gap that Europeans and Asians went their separate ways. Meta-population: sex across populations. A meta-population consists of several populations which mate with each other.
The meta-population is connected through the neighbor's neighbors, consisting of people who generally resemble each other a lot, but who also have their own unique traits. "It was a huge, complex network, and not separate branches that lived in isolation,” says Willerslev.
He believes the Europeans must have been one enormous meta-population stretching across Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. The study, which was recently published in Science, sheds entirely new light on who we are as Europeans, which was originally a separate species from African lineages.
Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. The first large-scale study of ancient human DNA from sub-Saharan Africa opens a long-awaited window into the identity and origins of prehistoric populations.
Whole-genome sequences of Sub-Saharan tribal DNA shows that the ancestors of the hunter-gatherers interbred with one or more archaic human populations, and contributed archaic genetics that diverged from modern humans around 1.2 to 1.3 million years ago, possibly the now "extinct" Homo erectus, whose DNA is not shared by modern Asians or Caucasians (Europeans).
The Hermann Monument commemorates a Germanic war chief named Arminius who famously led an alliance of Germanic tribes that ambushed and annihilated three Roman legions and their auxiliaries in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. In AD 98, the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus wrote a text called “About the Origin and Mores of the Germanic Peoples,” or Germania, as it came to be called. In the 1940's, the Germania was taught in German schools and widely celebrated as a comprehensive account of the ancient Germanic people. It describes a proud, brave and virtuous people, but The Germans were not one nation — Tacitus lists 50 tribes that were united to defeat Rome.
Robert Sepehr is an author, producer, and independent anthropologist.
Phoenicia was a sea-faring civilization, that included the coastal areas of today's Lebanon, northern Israel, and Southern Syria from about 1550 BC to 300 BC. The Phoenician writing system became widely used, spread by their merchants across the Mediterranean, where its alphabet evolved and was assimilated by many other cultures.
Dabke is a folk dance native to the Eastern Mediterranean, the Palestinian Dabke jumps may have origins in ancient Canaanite fertility rites, where the Phoenicians were probably the first teachers of the dance to the rest of the world. Generally speaking, ancient dances were often connected with religious rituals, a link that was common up to the 16th century and still continues in some countries. Robert Sepehr is an author, producer and independent anthropologist.
Ever wonder why some dogs are so intelligent that they can herd sheep, rescue people from avalanches, or sniff out drugs for police, but some can't even seem to master "sit" and "stay"? While there are many ways to define intelligence, your dog's problem-solving abilities are perhaps one of the best ways to determine how mentally adept they really are.
The finding is based on a language development test, revealing average dogs can learn 165 words (similar to a 2-year-old child), including signals and gestures, and dogs in the top 20 percent in intelligence, can learn 250 words.
So which dogs are the smartest? According to data collected from more than 200 dogs, Border collies, poodles, and German shepherds, Golden retrievers, and Dobermans, in that order. Compared with other dogs, these breeds may be smarter, in part, because we've bred them to be so.
In saliva, scientists have found hints that a “ghost” species of archaic human may have contributed genetic material to ancestors of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa today. The research adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that interracial cross-species interbreeding between different archaic human species may not have been unusual.
Robert Sepehr is an author, producer and independent anthropologist specializing in linguistics, archeology, and paleobiology (archeogenetics). Thank you for the support!
The legendary pre-flood civilizations like Atlantis, Thule, and Hyperborea were said to have been built on highly advanced science and technology, with a possibly direct connection with what is happening now around the world. In the pre-Flood world of Noah, it is written that there was cross-species (interracial) breeding going on between the “sons of God,” or the B’nai Elohim and mortal human women. The ancient rabbinic scholars believed that the term “sons of God” specifically referred to fallen angels and this was in fact the teaching of the early church for several hundred years.
The offspring of these fallen angels procreating with human women where called the Nephilim. Much of these stories have been effectively suppressed for centuries and banned from inclusion in later versions of the Bible, but have been recently re-discovered; for example in passages from The Book of Enoch. There are numerous other universal mythologies of pre-Flood legends that speak of these god men coming from the stars, or below the earth, and seeding human civilizations.
One of the forces supposedly used by certain groups in these pre-Flood times was a mysterious life energy, that the Nazis re-discovered, called the Vril force. The Vril force, the energy fields studied by Nicola Tesla, and what is now called scalar technology are based on similar theories deriving from quantum mechanics. The Nazi concept of a Vril force is based on the idea that a race of god men came from the stars in ships powered by this force and settled on the legendary island of Thule where they founded the civilization called Hyperborea.
Robert Sepehr is an author, producer, and independent anthropologist.
The Hopi Indians maintain that their ancestors did not arrive from the north, nor by boat, but instead climbed onto the surface from the underworld. The specific place of emergence of Hopi legend lies deep inside the Grand Canyon, an enchanted opening from the mysterious recesses of the earth.
Native American lore states that the Grand Canyon was formed as a result of a Great Deluge, which had drowned the previous third world that had forgotten the path of divinity. Hopi cosmology specifies that here was the place from whence the Hopi emerged from their subterranean refuge after the flood had destroyed the third world.
Several inner world entry points are said to be located on their land in the Canyon, one of which is honored in ceremony as the dwelling of an ancient parent race. A sacred site, it is strictly off-limits to all but the Hopi people. The lore further claims that the Hopi were assisted by 'insect (ant) people' who lived in the inner world of caves and caverns, pale humanoids with thin limbs and slightly arched backs.
The Smithsonian Institute may have discovered artifacts inside a massive cavern with intricate passages and rooms, including tablets bearing hieroglyphics. An article published in The Arizona Gazette on April 5, 1909, that the Grand Canyon was once home to a lost civilization, consisting of people of gigantic proportions.
It also mentions the discovery of an enormous underground citadel by an explorer named G.E. Kinkaid, who came upon it while rafting on the Colorado River. The entrance to the city was at the end of a tunnel that allegedly stretched for almost a mile underground. Could there still be civilizations that exist deep beneath the earth? If so, where are the entrances to these inner worlds, and which races inhabited them?
Author and anthropologist, Robert Sepehr, explores these questions and attempts to unlock their riddles, which have eluded any serious consideration in mainstream academia.
One of the most interesting questions that many people have pondered over the centuries is whether our planet is at least partially hollow and inhabited. Most of us are familiar with the legendary stories about the Nazis who explored the polar regions of our planet and even created secret bases in Neuschwabenland, Antarctica. These rumors are based in fact, as Nazi Germany sent an expedition to Antarctica in 1938, claimed the territory of New Swabia, and immediately began building secret deep underground bases below the ice. German Navy Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz stated in 1943: "The German submarine fleet is proud of having built for the Führer in another part of the world a Shangri-La on land, an impregnable fortress."
The Nazis continually shipped men and material to the South Pole throughout the war years and defeated a "post WW2" attack by Allied forced in 1946, led by Admiral Byrd, who retreated in disgrace after suffering substantial damage and casualties (see Operation Highjump). U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd, upon his return from a massive military expedition to Antarctica in 1947, stated it was: "necessary for the USA to take defensive actions against enemy air fighters which come from the polar regions".
Many researchers have also published material about Operation Highjump and Admiral Byrd’s journeys where extremely advanced airships (disc shaped UFOs) were seen flying around and even engaging him militarily.
Not long ago, a Top Secret map belonging to the Third Reich was recovered in which there are several secret passages depicted which were used by German U-Boats to access mysterious underground regions, as well as complete maps of both hemispheres and the mysterious kingdom of Agartha.
The possibility that the earth is hollow, and that it can be accessed through the North and/or South poles, and that ancient secret breakaway civilizations flourish within it, has spurred the imagination of people for many years following the official end of World War Two. These recently declassified maps have added fuel to the existing speculation.
We have also come across a letter, supposedly written by Karl Unger, who was aboard the German U-Boat 209, commanded by Heinrich Brodda, in which he states that the crew had reached the interior of the Earth and that they did not consider coming back.
The official Nazi instructions to reach Agartha by Submarine:
And here is the translation in English:
The stories above are backed up by maps made by famous cartographer and artist Heinrich C. Berann for the National Geographic Society in 1966. In this map, the Antarctic continent can be observed without its thick layer of ice.
But the most intriguing detail are the presence of underwater passages spanning across the entire continent and seem to converge at the exact location which is identified as the opening towards the Hollow Earth or Inner Earth.
Hitler was obsessed with mysticism and ancient history, and many of his followers knew that and supported him. The possibility that the earth is at least partially hollow, and that it can be accessed through the North and South poles, and that secret civilizations flourish within it, has gained popularity in recent years. It might just turn out to be true after all, that somehow, and somewhere, there is an access which leads to a completely different world, one that has been kept in secrecy for reasons that are just now coming to light.
The medium Maria Orsic was leader of the 'Vrilerinnen', the beautiful young ladies of the Vril Gesellschaft. In pre-WWII Germany, the sisters of Vril (light) conducted research into psychic phenomenon, advanced propulsion technology and saucer-shaped aircraft (vimanas).
Their Vril society, whose members included some who would later become notable members of the Nazi party, believed that many ancient civilizations owed their origins to refugees from Atlantis. They advanced the idea of a subterranean civilization ruled by an ancient parent-race who had mastered free energy. This Aryan breakaway civilization was said to have survived the antediluvian cataclysms which ended the ice age and continued to thrive below the surface of the earth.
Ancient Greeks, Tibetan Buddhists and Christians all located their iterations of hell in caverns under the mantle. Pilgrims used to journey to Station Island off the coast of Co Donegal where they believed there existed an entrance to Purgatory, while the old legends of Mexico describe a mountain cave near Ojinago inhabited by devilish creatures from “the way-down-deeps”.
The 18th-century Astronomer Royal Edmond Halley believed that unusual compass readings could be explained by the fact that the planet was composed of a hollow shell.
An analysis of artifacts retrieved from Bronze Age burial sites reveals that Denmark and ancient Egypt traded with one another 3,400 years ago, and possibly practiced similar religious rituals.
Scientists from the National Museum in Denmark and the Institute of Archaeo-materials Research in France used a technique called plasma mass spectrometry to examine the chemical composition of trace elements in glass that had been excavated by archaeologists in the late 19th century.
One such relic had been found in the Danish grave of a wealthy woman, lying in a hollowed-out oak trunk and wearing a belt disc, a string skirt with tinkling, shining small bronze tubes, and an overarm bracelet made of two pieces of amber and a single blue glass bead. A similar piece of jewelry, retrieved from another grave, was a necklace made with four pieces of amber and a blue bead. The analyses revealed that the chemical composition of the cobalt blue beads matched glass that had been made in ancient Egypt.
In fact, the researchers say the glass originated from the same workshops that had manufactured the blue glass inlays found in Tutankhamen's gold death mask. The beads likely came to Denmark from Egypt by way of Greece. Conversely, amber from Nordic countries was exported southward during this period. Jewelry made from amber was found among the items in the burial chambers of Tutankhamen and other pharaohs.
The Danish and French researchers believe there was a religious significance attached to the Danish jewelry. A common trait of both glass and amber is that sunlight penetrates their surfaces. When a Danish woman in the Bronze Age took a piece of jewelry made of amber and blue glass with her to the grave, the scientists say, it might have constituted a prayer to the sun to ensure that she would be re-united with it and share her fate with the sun on its eternal journey.
Although similar religious motifs can emerge independently of one another, the apparent importance of the single blue bead has led the researchers to speculate whether Nordic religious practices were influenced by Egypt, where the color blue was associated with the sun deity Amun-Ra. One of Horus' titles was "Horus of the blue eyes".
The eye of Horus, the so-called Wedjat Eye, is always blue. In the Book of the Dead, the eyes of the god Horus are described as "shining," or "brilliant," whilst another passage refers more explicitly to "Horus of the blue eyes". The rubric to the 140th chapter of said book, states that the amulet known as the "Eye of Horus," (used to ward-off the "Evil Eye"), must always be made from lapis-lazuli, a mineral which is blue in color. It should be noted that the Goddess Wadjet, who symbolized the Divine Eye of Horus, was represented by a snake (a hooded cobra to be precise), and her name, when translated from the original Egyptian, means "blue-green".
Interestingly, the ancient Scandanavians claimed that anyone who was blue-eyed (and therefore possessed the power of the Evil Eye), had "a snake in the eye," and blue eyes were frequently compared to the eyes of a serpent. In the ancient Pyramid Texts, the Gods are said to have blue and green eyes. The Graeco-Roman author Diodorus Siculus, says that the Egyptians thought the goddess Neith had blue eyes.
It is now scientifically irrefutable fact that the "human species" has been found to contain a substantial quantity of DNA (at least 20%) from other hominid populations not classified as Homo sapien; such as Neanderthal, Denisovan, African archaic, Homo erectus, and now possibly even "Hobbit" (Homo floresiensis).
If not given drugs to prevent infant death, the pregnant body of a rhesus negative mother will attack, try to reject, and even kill her own offspring if it is by a rhesus positive man.
The Domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a sub-species of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), and they produce hybrids. There are numerous other examples of where two separate species (for example with different numbers of chromosomes) can also produce viable offspring, yet are considered separate species. That said, humanity has been shown to be, genetically speaking, a hybrid species that did not all share the same ancestry in Africa.
Recent sequencing of ancient genomes suggests that cross-species interracial interbreeding went on between the members of several human-like groups more than 30,000 years ago, including an as-yet unknown human ancestor. "There were many hominid populations,” says Mark Thomas, evolutionary geneticist at University College London.
Recent genetic studies are touting shocking headlines about how ancient humans 'rampantly interbred' and indulged in inter-species interracial sex with multiple mystery sub-races in a "Lord Of The Rings"-style world of different creatures, including mystery DNA - neither human nor Neanderthal, not yet identified.
Scientific evidence refuting the theory of modern humanity’s African genesis is common knowledge among those familiar with the most recent scientific papers on the human Genome, Mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomes.
Regrettably, within mainstream press and academia circles, there seems to be a conspicuous – and dare we say it – deliberate vacuum when it comes to reporting news of these recent studies and their implications.
According to anthropologist Robert Sepehr, "the Egyptian kings lists reveal that the total number of years covered by all of their god-kings equals 36,525. This time frame perfectly matches the sudden appearance of Cro-Magnon in the human fossil record.”
In his book, Species with Amnesia, he continues, "Manetho was an Egyptian historian and priest who lived during the Ptolemaic era, the 3rd century BC. He wrote the famous Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt), which is often used by us Anthropologists to identify the chronology of the reigns of pharaohs. His translation of the Egyptian king lists reveals that the total number of years covered by all the king-lists equals 36,525. According to the chronology of Manetho, about 36,525 years ago Gods on Earth began to rule Earth, lasting until about 22,625 years ago when Demigods succeeded them, until about 11,600 years ago when mortal humans began to rule until the present day, perfectly matching the period of Cro-Magnon man in the fossil record."
Most people have heard of Jesus Christ, considered the Messiah by Christians, and who lived 2000 years ago. But very few have ever heard of Sabbatai Zevi, who declared himself the Messiah in 1666. By proclaiming redemption was available through acts of sin, he amassed a following of over one million passionate believers, about half the world's Jewish population during the 17th century.
Although many Rabbis at the time considered him a heretic, his fame extended far and wide. Sabbatai's adherents planned to abolish many ritualistic observances, because, according to the Talmud, holy obligations would no longer apply in the Messianic time. Fasting days became days of feasting and rejoicing. Sabbateans encouraged and practiced sexual promiscuity, adultery, incest and religious orgies.
After Sabbati Zevi's death in 1676, his Kabbalist successor, Jacob Frank, expanded upon and continued his occult philosophy. Frankism, a religious movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, centered on his leadership, and his claim to be the reincarnation of the Messiah Sabbatai Zevi. He, like Zevi, would perform "strange acts" that violated traditional religious taboos, such as eating fats forbidden by Jewish dietary laws, ritual sacrifice, and promoting orgies and sexual immorality.
He often slept with his followers, as well as his own daughter, while preaching a doctrine that the best way to imitate God was to cross every boundary, transgress every taboo, and mix the sacred with the profane. Hebrew University of Jerusalem Professor Gershom Scholem called Jacob Frank, "one of the most frightening phenomena in the whole of Jewish history".
Frank would eventually enter into an alliance formed by Adam Weishaupt and Meyer Amshel Rothschild called the Order of the Illuminati. The objectives of this organization was to undermine the world's religions and power structures, in an effort to usher in a utopian era of global communism, which they would covertly rule by their hidden hand: the New World Order.
Using secret societies, such as the Freemasons, their agenda has played itself out over the centuries, staying true to the script. The Illuminati handle opposition by a near total control of the world's media, academic opinion leaders, politicians and financiers. Still considered nothing more than theory to many, more and more people wake up each day to the possibility that this is not just a theory, but a terrifying Satanic conspiracy.
WHY did the Prophet Muhammad start using henna in his later years? Starting after the age of 40, he began to dye his greying beard red to gain a more youthful appearance, as the Prophet Mohammed himself was reported to have NATURALLY red hair when he was young.
Most Arabic authorities on the issue, themselves usually having brown or black hair and often a relatively dark complexion, appear to agree that Muhammad was brunet, but Henric von Schwerin has stated that:
"Red-hair is still honoured amongst Moslems as the Prophet Mohammed himself was reported to have red hair." [von Schwerin (1960) 27.]
This image (left) is said to be of actual hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammed. Known in Turkish as the Sakal-ı Şerif, the beard was said to have been shaved from Muhammad's face by his favoured barber Salman in the presence of Abu Bakr, Ali and several others. Individual hairs were later taken away, but the beard itself is kept protected in a glass container.
This politically incorrect ethnic revelation helps to explain WHY millions of Muslims today, some being of sub-Saharan African origin with black hair, also dye their beards with red henna. The Prophet Muhammad (AD 570-632), the founder of the Islamic religion, was apparently fair-skinned; a freedman, by the name of Umar, described the Prophet thus:
"his face was not fat nor rounded; it was white tinged with red". [Guillaume (1987) 726.]
The Islamic men pictured below, with reddish/orange henna-dyed beards and hair, are Muslim followers living many centuries AFTER the time of the Prophet Mohammed.
The same way that DNA evidence has demonstrated the 99% of MODERN day Egyptians are NOT genetically related to the blond and red-headed Pharaohs, the vast majority of Muslims today have no ethnic relation to the Prophet Mohammed, yet still dye themselves with RED henna out of respect, tradition, and imitation.
During her lifetime Aisha, the Prophet's beloved wife, gained the epithet humayra, a word which has been translated as "light," "reddish," or "fair," but whose meaning can be most accurately rendered as "blonde." [Baltzer (1934) 206; Lewis (1990) 36; Vollers (1910) 91.] Subsequently, she has become known to the Islamic peoples as "Aisha the Blonde." [Günther (1930) 168.]
Abu Bakr, the father of Aisha, and thus, the father-in-law of Muhammad, was the first Caliph of Islam (AD 632-634). He was slenderly built, and white-skinned; also, he dyed his grey beard red. [Günther (1930) 163.]
Caliph Ali (AD 656-661), a first cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was also renowned for his blond hair, as were his descendants, who founded the Shi'ite branch of Islam. [Grant (1981) 84-85; Lewis (1990) 36.] However, it was bitterly resented by some Muslims, that the physical features which characterised a true descendant of Muhammad, were steadily being lost, due to admixture with darker races. Thus, as the Syrian poet Abu'l-Ala (AD 973-1057), remarked in a letter:
"We often see a man of mark who has in his house women of high degree setting above them a girl in a striped gown purchased for a few coins and so we may see a man whose grandfather on the father's side is a fair-haired descendant of Ali while his maternal grandfather is a black idolator." [Lewis (1990) 89.]
There appears to have been a blond, racially Nordic element, amongst the leadership of the Arabic peoples, from the very earliest times. Thus, as the distinguished Harvard anthropologist Carleton S. Coon has noted, when referring to the population of the Yemen plateau:
"The Nordic-looking people are usually confined to the social stratum from which civil officers and religious men are drawn, and it is more than a coincidence that the acknowledged descendants of the Prophet are lighter-skinned and show greater evidence of blondism than the rest of the population. There may perhaps have been a Nordic strain associated with the holy families who entered this region from the Hejaz in early post-Islamic times." [Coon (1939) 408-409.]
Professor C. S. Coon has also stated, that amongst the people of Morocco:
"The ordinary city Arabs are little different from their pastoral and agricultural brethren, but this rule does not apply to the aristocratic families. These merchant-princes are sometimes blond, and of Nordic appearance; others of them look like Mekkan aristocrats in Arabia." [Coon (1939) 484.]
In the mid-eleventh-century, the Hispano-Muslim author Ibn García penned his Risala, which expressed similar sentiments, linking blondness with nobility:
"Of Roman origin and blond, Byzantine lineage, fostered by the possessors of inner virtue, lineal glory, and greatness among the blond ones . . . soft-skinned ones among whom neither the Egyptians nor the Nabateans have implanted; family honour well-guarded and noble lineage."
It would also appear that many of the numerous and diverse rulers of Moorish Spain, were racially Nordic; the Spanish historian Enrique Sordo, informs us that:
"Most of the caliphs were fair or ginger-haired with blue eyes, which seems to show a preponderance of Berber or Germanic blood. As they were extremely proud of their origin, some of them dyed their hair black, as if to affirm their Arab descent." [Sordo (1962) 24.]
This trend towards blondism began with the very first independent Muslim ruler of the Iberian Peninsula. Abd al-Rahman I (AD 756-788), the founder of the Cordoban Emirate, was a Syrian from the Damascus region, and belonged to the imperial Umayyad family: he was a grandson of Caliph Hisham (AD 724-743). His mother was a Berber slave-girl, and his father was the Syrio-Arab Umayyad, Muawiya. He is said to have been a "colossal red-haired man". [Grant (1981) 90; Sordo (1962) 23.]
Stanley G. Payne also provides another example of a fair-haired ruler in Muslim Spain:
"An effectively unified state was finally achieved during the long reign of Abd-al-Rahman III (912-961). The son of a Navarrese princess, this greatest of Cordoban rulers was a short, blue-eyed Muslim who dyed his red hair black to match that of most of his subjects. In 929 he took the step of raising his dominion from an emirate, or kingdom, to a caliphate, or empire." [Payne (1973) 23.]
The fourteenth-century historian Ali ibn Abd Allah, in his Roudh el Kartas, described a Moorish Sultan of the time, Muhammed ben Idriss, as "blond".
In 1232, Muhammad b. Yusuf b. Nasr from Banu 'l-Ahmar, made himself the Sultan of the kingdom of Granada, a feat which he achieved by consolidating several Muslim petty kingdoms in southern Spain. Muhammad I was known as Ibn al Ahmar (son of the red), because of his red hair; he was the founder of the Nasrid dynasty, and ruled from 1232 to 1273. [Sordo (1962) 120; Vollers (1910) 87.]
This trait appears to have continued, even into later periods. Abu 'l-Hadjdjadj Yusuf I, the Nasrid Sultan of Granada from 1333-1354, has been described in the following terms:
"He was of noble bearing and was endowed with extraordinary physical strength and good looks. His skin was too pale however, and, according to Arab historians, he increased his grave and majestic appearance by growing a beard which he dyed very black." [Sordo (1962) 120-121.]
Ultimately, Moorish Spain ended as it had begun: with a fair-haired ruler. Muhammad XII [Boabdil], was the last Sultan of Granada (AD 1482-1483, 1487-1492); Enrique Sordo depicts him thus:
"Among the paintings in the gallery of the Generalife Palace hangs Boabdil's portrait. In it his countenance is kindly, handsome and melancholy, his complexion rubicund and his hair blond." [Sordo (1962) 124.]
Islamic Egypt also possessed several Nordic rulers of significance. Al-Nasir Yusuf Salah al-Din [Saladin] (AD 1171-1193), founded the Ayyubid Dynasty (AD 1171-1254), when he was invested with the governance of Egypt and Syria. He was of Kurdish ancestry, and his contemporaries stated that he was tall, handsome, fair-skinned and light-eyed. [Fossier (1968) 315; Günther (1927) 151; Weyl (1967) 41.] Robert Gayre of Gayre informs us that:
"Salah-ed-din and many of his followers had Kurdish and northern blood which accounted for their lighter colouring..." [Gayre of Gayre (1972) 97.]
Al-Nasir al-Hasan, who was Sultan from 1347-1351, and then from 1354-1361, was one of the last rulers of the Turkic Bahri Mamluk Dynasty, which ruled Egypt from 1250-1390. According to the Medieval chronicalist Ibn Iyas, he had a blond beard and dull-blue eyes. [Baltzer (1934) 210; Vollers (1910) 95.]
Sultan Al-Nasir Faraj (AD 1399-1412), was the son of Al-Zahir Barquq [Burji] (AD 1382-1389, 1390-1399), the first of the Burji Mamluk rulers; the Dynasty reigned from 1390 to 1517, and was mostly of Circassian descent. Ibn Iyas stated that he was blond-bearded; he also noted that both Al-Nasir al-Hasan and Al-Nasir Faraj, possessed what he described as "Arab faces," which meant that they had long, noble countenances. [Baltzer (1934) 210; Vollers (1910) 95.]
Ibn Iyas also observed that Sultan Al-Mansur Qalaun (AD 1279-1290), of the Bahri Mamluk Dynasty, had fair hair and a fair complexion. [Vollers (1910) 91.]
During the period of Ottoman rule, Nordic racial elements once again achieved a position of ascendency in the Islamic world. Orhan (AD 1324-1362), the son of Osman I (AD 1280-1324), who was the founder of Ottoman rule in Anatolia, was the first of that dynasty to use the title "Sultan." He is described as being very tall, broad-shouldered, fair-skinned, light-eyed and blond-haired. The German physical anthropologist Professor Hans F. K. Günther, considers him to have been predominantly Nordic in type. [Günther (1934) 189-190.]
Mehmed II (AD 1451-1481), known as the Conqueror, was the Ottoman Sultan that ended the Byzantine Empire, and who occupied the city of Constantinople, converting it into Istanbul. A contemporary miniature of Mehmed, painted by the artist Sinan Bey, depicts him as a light-skinned, light-haired and light-eyed man. [Reader's Digest Association (1974) 127.]
Ottoman rule over North Africa — Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis — was extended and consolidated by the brothers Aruj and Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa. The name Barbarossa stems from the Italian word for "Redbeard," and the brothers acquired this surname because of their ginger hair. [Baltzer (1934) 211.] Kheir-ed-Din (d. 1546), was appointed Regent of Algiers in 1530, and his reign was largely a success. [Mitchell (1976) 137.] Hans F. K. Günther refers to him as:
"the Viking-like Khair-ed-din Barbarossa, the founder of Osman [Ottoman] rule in North Africa, the red-bearded son of a Greek from Lesbos." [Günther (1927) 173.]
The link given below, leads to a web page which contains depictions of every one of the Ottoman Sultans. It is interesting to observe how many have reddish hair, light eyes, or a fair complexion.
We may also note that the Algerian national hero Emir Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri (AD 1807-1883), who fought the French attempts to occupy his country in the 1830s and 1840s, appears to have been blue-eyed. [von Schwerin (1960) 28; von Schwerin (1964) 129-130.]
The racial trends of the Islamic past have continued into the present era; this has been demonstrated by the American author Nathaniel Weyl, who noted the relevant facts in the following manner:
"As Gayre cogently observes, there is a general correlation between blondism and Caucasoid features, on the one hand, and social status and leadership, on the other. This is by no means a recent development nor is it a reflection of the superior prestige and power which Nordics and other blond peoples have come to enjoy in the modern world...
As for the present leadership of the Arab world, Henric von Schwerin has pointed out the extent to which it tends towards blondness and the Nordic type.
The Christian minorities throughout the area are, as Dr. Gayre has observed, almost invariably superior in status, intelligence and ability to the Moslems, and are at the same time markedly blonder and more definitely Caucasoid in features. Moreover, the most vigorous, resourceful and progressive nations in the region — Lebanon and Jordan in particular — are also those with the largest Christian minorities and the greatest visible admixture of Nordic genes." [Weyl (1967) 28-29.]
The Nordic element in the Islamic world continues to play an important role — this is demonstrated by the fact that many of the leading statesmen in the recent history of the Middle East (particularly those who have organized the causes for national liberation and independence), have been predominantly Nordic in type: for instance, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938), the founder of modern Turkey. During the First World War, he fought the Allies at Gallipoli, and after the Armistice in 1918, he prevented a European conquest of Anatolia. After deposing the Ottoman Sultan, he declared himself President of Turkey (1923-1938), and initiated a rapid and thorough process of modernization and secularization, which largely succeeded in westernizing the Turkish Republic. He was blond-haired and blue-eyed — features which he seems to have inherited from his Albanian mother. As a result of this, Henric von Schwerin has stated that Atatürk:
"must be characterized as predominantly Nordic..." [von Schwerin (1960) 27; von Schwerin (1964) 128.]
Haj Amin al-Husseini (d. 1974), the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was one of the most important individuals in the recent history of the Middle East: he was, for a long period of time, the foremost leader of the movement for Palestinian liberation, as well as being the President of the World Muslim Congress. During his lifetime he was renowned not only for his political activities, but also because his beard was reddish-blond and his eyes were blue. The Swedish authoress Karin Johnsson compared the Grand Mufti to Saladin, and Henric von Schwerin considered him to be:
"one of the most pronounced Nordic types among renowned Muslims of today." [von Schwerin (1960) 27; von Schwerin (1964) 129.]
Amongst the leadership of the Algerian rebellion against France, Ferhat Abbas (b. 1899), the first President of the GPRA, from 1958-1961, had green-grey eyes. [von Schwerin (1960) 30; von Schwerin (1964) 130.] Another high official in the FLN, Ahmed Boumendjel, Head of the GPRA delegation at the negotiations in Mélun in 1960, was fair, tall and well-built. It was said that his features were almost like those of a Frenchman. [von Schwerin (1964) 130.] Colonel Houari Boumédienne [Muhammad Boukharouba] (1925-1978), was the leader of the ALN, and after independence from France was granted in 1962, he became the President of Algeria (1965-1978). He was known as "the Swede," because of his fair hair; he is described as having:
"wispy, sandy hair, a straggly, reddish mustache, and small grey-blue eyes." [von Schwerin (1964) 130.]
Habib Bourguiba (b. 1902), was a leading figure in the struggle for Tunisian independence from French rule, and in 1934 he founded the Neo-Destour Party, as a means towards this end. After independence in 1956, he became the first President of Tunisia (1956-1987); he was blue-eyed. [von Schwerin (1960) 28; von Schwerin (1964) 129.] In Syria, Sultan Atrash, the leader of the Druse rebellion against France during the 1920s, had a very fair skin and clear blue eyes. [Günther (1930) 152; von Schwerin (1960) 27; von Schwerin (1964) 128-129.] Emir Adil Arslan, another important figure of the rebellion, had bluish-green eyes and strongly Nordic features. [von Schwerin (1960) 27; von Schwerin (1964) 129.]
Muhammad Idris al-Sanusi [Idris I] (1889-1983), Emir of Cyrenaica, and King of Libya (1951-1969), was said to have "calm blue eyes". [von Schwerin (1960) 30; von Schwerin (1964) 129.] General Nuri-es-Said (1888-1958), the Iraqi premier for many years, was equally blue-eyed. [von Schwerin (1964) 128.] Finally, we should note that Muhammad Ayub Khan (1907-1974), the President of Pakistan (1958-1969), was tall, fair-complexioned and grey-eyed. It was said by certain French journalists that:
"to judge from his appearance and manners, he could well be taken for a senior British officer..." [von Schwerin (1960) 28; von Schwerin (1964) 128.]
