So am I, well 1/4 Egyptian…  😜 

I love tossing that into clueless faces. Very Very few have ever heard of the Druze.

Druze: thegreat survivors

How the world’s most secretive faith

has endured for a thousand years

An Arab News Minority Report

….But the new faith would not be open to outsiders for long. Following the mysterious disappearance of one of the key historical figures in the story of the Druze, and faced with existential persecution, the elders of the faith ordered a complete halt to proselytization in 1043.

“Since then, the Druze have been an inbred community,” Abu-Izzeddin wrote.

It was the sudden dramatic reversal of fortunes in the 11th century that drove the Druze from Egypt and scattered them across the region, where they settled in the homelands that remain their strongholds to this day, “in mountain regions not easily accessible to outsiders.

“South Lebanon and Wadi Al-Taym at the foot of Mount Hermon are the principal concentrations, and the oldest, the Druze having lived there since the first years of the da’wa.”…

I ran into a group of Druze at a county fair. They all looked EXACTLY like me and my cousins. When I asked if they were Druze they acted like scared rabbits until I told them who my Grandfather was.

Genetic testing confirms 11th century origin of DruzeFebruary 11, 2015 /

Israel (Press Release) — A first of its kind genetic study confirms the history of the Druze community: The community began to form genetically in the 11th century AD, and there has since been no genetic impact of other ethnic groups on the community. This is according to a new study conducted by a team of researchers led by Prof. Gil Atzmon of the University of Haifa, Prof. Jamal Zidan of the Ziv Medical Center, Zefat, and Prof. Eitan Friedman of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer.

“This is the first genetic study to discover that the Druze community has genetic origins in the 11th century AD,” said Professor Atzmon of the University of Haifa. This genetic finding correlates with the Druze community’s beliefs regarding their origin.

Traditionally, the Druze people believe that their community was founded in the 11th century AD as a new religious movement under the sixth caliph of the Fatimid Dynasty of Egypt. There are currently 1.5 million Druze around the world, residing mainly in Syria and Lebanon, with the remainder in Israel and Jordan. According to Druze tradition, marriages take place only within the Druze community….

According to Prof. Atzmon, their research findings limit the ancestors of the Druze community to several hundred families, who founded the community in the 11th century AD. The researchers also found that there is no evidence of new genes entering the Druze gene pool over the last 1,000 years. In other words, no additional groups from the outside joined this community….

Solving the mystery of the Druze – a 2,000-year-old odyssey

…Most of the Druze, we have found, can be traced to the highest mountains in Turkey, northern Iraq and southern Armenia, and to the Zagros Mountain belt bordering Mount Ararat – very close to ancient Ashkenaz. By comparing the DNA of contemporary Druze to DNA dated 1,000-4,000 years ago from the Levant, Turkey and Armenia, my lab confirmed these findings. This means that, genetically, the Druze really are different from their neighbours. Unlike Palestinians, Bedouins and Syrians who share between 36-70 per cent of ancient Levantine ancestry, the Israeli Druze have only a minor Levantine component of 15 per cent and a significantly higher (80 per cent) ancient Armenian ancestry. Ashkenazic Jews, by contrast, had a major ancient Anatolian ancestry (96 per cent) and a residual Levantine one (0.5 per cent), in support of their non-Levantine origins.

The Druze have long preferred to live among high mountains, which has helped them maintain their close social structure, as well as providing them with protection…. 

SO, Egyptian blood line and a very ancient one at that.

And just for fun…

In Druze Genes, a Look Back at the Distant Past

….An international research group led by scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology released a study last year that found that Israel’s Druze population has a remarkable diversity of mitochondrial DNA, a type of genetic material that is passed down virtually unchanged from mother to daughter.

In most parts of the world, local populations each have a limited variety of mitochondrial DNA. But among Israel’s Druze, who number 120,000, researchers found an unprecedented variety, including strains that are generally found only in specific geographic locations as far flung as the Far East.

“We believe that the Druze are a relic of the population of people who lived here perhaps 10,000 or 15,000 or more years ago — before any of the population groups we know about — and that these people were one of the sources for the people of the planet,” said Dr. Karl Skorecki, a professor of medicine at the Technion who headed the study.

Historians have long believed that the ancestors of much of the world’s population migrated from northeastern Africa. [Egypt] The Middle East is believed to have served as a way station on this original human migration. From there, families and clans migrated to different parts of the world, each taking with them their distinct DNA. This account of migration explains why different kinds of DNA are more or less common in different parts of the world.

What was missing until Skorecki’s research was evidence proving that many of the forms of DNA now found around the world were once concentrated in the vicinity of this “migration station.” Skorecki — who describes himself as an “archaeologist” who “digs” through DNA to discover the past — called the Druze a “genetic sanctuary” of a long-gone age….

As with his research on Jewish origins, Skorecki’s work on the Druze gives credence to an oral tradition. While Jewish oral traditions claim a common origin in the Middle East, Druze oral traditions hold that the Druze come from diverse stock.

While the Druze religion was officially established in the 11th century, oral tradition maintains that the Druze people was in existence many thousands of years before and is composed of remnants of numerous ethnic groups. To the delight of Druze community leaders, who cooperated with Skorecki’s research, the study’s findings are consistent with that understanding of Druze history.

“𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼, ”Skorecki said…..

An interesting group.

My other readings showed the Druze DID NOT BELIEVE IN SLAVERY and Women were protected but given a lot of rights.