There has recently been renewed interest in the theory that the Pathan Afridi tribe might be descendants of the lost Jewish tribe of Ephraim. The following is a chronological review of the story's latest development.Gene travel: To Malihabad via Israel?
By Ashish Tripathi - The Times of India - Nov 5, 2009
Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Immuno-Hematology, Mumbai, has been awarded a scholarship by the government of Israel for the academic year 2009-2010, to study the DNA of Afridi Pathans of Malihabad in Lucknow to confirm whether they are of Israelite origin or not.
Shahnaz Ali had collected blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad in October 2008, when she was associated with the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata. Now, with the scholarship in hand, she will conduct the analysis of the DNA at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. The study will be done under the supervision of scientist, Professor Karl Skorecki.
The theory of the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans was brought into focus by Indo-Judaic studies scholar, Navras Jaat Aafreedi. He did his doctoral and post-doctoral research at the universities of Lucknow and Tel Aviv respectively. Shahnaz's genetic research would examine Navras's theory that Afridi Pathans are descendants of the lost Israelite tribe of Ephraim, which was exiled in 721 BC.
This article was posted by Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi on his blog Navras on Nov 4, 2009. It seems that Atish Tripathi's article was never published by The Times of India. The Israeli media then picked up the story on Jan 9, 2010.
Are Taliban descendants of Israelites?
By Amir Mizroch - The Jerusalem Post - Jan 9, 2010
This intriguing question has been asked by a variety of scholars, theologians, anthropologists and pundits over the years, but has remained somewhere between the realms of amateur speculation and serious academic research.
But now, for the first time, the government has shown official interest, with the Foreign Ministry providing a scholarship to an Indian scientist to come to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and determine whether or not the tribe that provides the hard core of today's Taliban has a blood link to any of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and specifically to the tribe of Efraim.
Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Immunohaematology, Mumbai, has joined the Technion to study the blood samples that she collected from Afridi Pathans in Malihabad, in the Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh state, India, to check their putative Israelite origin.
Lucknow Pathans have Jewish roots?
By Sachin Parashar - The Times of India - Jan 11, 2010
Despite their animosity, do Jews and the Pathans in India come from the same ancestral stock — the biblical lost tribes of Israel? A subject of speculation among academicians in the past, the Israeli government has now asked an Indian geneticist, Shahnaz Ali, to study the link between the Afridi Pathans based in the Lucknow region and certain tribes of Israel who migrated from their native place to all over Asia a few thousand years ago.
Ali, who has been granted a scholarship by Israel’s foreign ministry to work on the project, is genetically analysing blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad near Lucknow which she collected earlier to confirm their Israeli origin. Ali is based in Haifa where she is working in collaboration with the prestigious Technion — Israel Institute of Technology.
‘‘Shahnaz’s research would be important if it does establish the genetic link between Pathans and Jews, as it could be seen as a scientific validation of a traditional belief about the Israelite origin of Pathans and can have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large,’’ Dr Navras Aafreedi, a researcher in Indo-Judaic studies and one of the first proponents of the common-origin theory in India, told TOI.
Taliban may be descended from Jews
By Dean Nelson - Daily Telegraph - Jan 11, 2010
The ethnic group at the heart of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan may be descended from their Jewish enemy, according to researchers in India.
Experts at Mumbai's National Institute of Immunohaematology believe Pashtuns could be one of the ten "Lost Tribes of Israel".
The Israeli government is funding a genetic study to establish if there is any proof of the link.
An Indian geneticist has taken blood samples from the Pashtun Afridi tribe in Lucknow, Northern India, to Israel where she will spend the next 12 months comparing DNA with samples with those of Israeli Jews.
The samples were taken in Lucknow's Malihabad area because it was regarded as the only place safe enough to conduct such a controversial project for Muslims.
Shanaz Ali a senior research fellow, will lead the study at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Tel Aviv.
There are an estimated 40 million Pashtuns around the world including more than 14 million in Afghanistan and 28 million in Pakistan, mainly in the North West Frontier Province and Tribal areas but also with a strong presence in Karachi.
Many have grown up with stories of their people being "Children of Israel". According to legend, they are descended from the Ephraim tribe which was driven out of Israel by the Assyrian invasion in around 700BC.
Israelis and Taliban Separated at Birth? Israel Finances Study About Pashtun Bloodlines
By Simon McGregor-Wood - ABC News - Jan 12, 2010
Don't tell the Taliban, but their ancestors may be Jewish. Israel's foreign ministry is funding research into whether members of the ethnic tribe from which the Taliban draws its manpower have Jewish ancestors.
Pashtuns are the largest ethnic community in Afghanistan. It is widely believed they are an offshoot of the Pathans whose members are scattered across northern India and Pakistan. Both are today exclusively Muslim. Neither has any sympathy for modern Israel.
Scientists are now trying to determine whether the Pathans themselves are directly descended from the tribe of Ephraim which was exiled from the land of Israel by the invading Assyrians in 721 B.C. Pathan folklore and culture are filled with references to an Israelite past.
Et si les talibans étaient juifs?
By Marie-France Calle - Namaste! Salam! - Jan 13, 2010
Les talibans sont peut-être juifs... Du moins d'origine juive. C'est - en raccourci - ce que tente de vérifier le gouvernement d'Israël. Le ministère israélien des Affaires étrangères a décidé de financer des recherches visant à établir pour de bon si oui ou non, les Pachtouns (ethnie dont sont issus les talibans) descendent bien de l'une des dix tribus perdues d'Israël. Et c'est en Inde que s'effectueront ces recherches. Pour une raison évidente : elles sont impossibles à mener en Afghanistan et au Pakistan.
On le sait depuis longtemps, les Pachtouns - ou Pathans - qui peuplent essentiellement le Sud et le Sud-est de l'Afghanistan et l'Ouest et le Nord-ouest du Pakistan seraient des descendants de l'une des tribus perdues d'Israël. Similitudes dans les rites, les vêtements, les traditions familiales, culinaires... tout porte à croire que les Pachtouns ont des ancêtres juifs. Ce que l'on sait moins, c'est qu'il existe en Inde plusieurs communautés pachtounes. Une aubaine pour les scientifiques qui tentent d'établir la véracité de l'origine israélite des Pachtouns. Ils peuvent travailler tranquillement au nord de l'Inde, à Lucknow, la capitale de l'Uttar Pradesh.
''Malihabad, un district de Lucknow, est le seul territoire pachtoun, ou pathan, sûr et facilement accessible à tous ceux qu'intéressent la probable origine israélite des Pathans. Il n'est certainement pas possible de récolter des échantillons ADN en Afghanistan ou dans les Zones tribales de la Province du Nord-ouest frontalière de l'Afghanistan (NWFP), où vivent la plupart des Pachtouns'', note à juste titre Navras Jaat Aafreedi, professeur à l'Université de Lucknow.
Could the Taliban be genetically linked to the Jews?
By Haaretz Service - Jan 14, 2010
Israel has asked an Indian geneticist to study the link between the Indian Pathans tribe and certain tribes of Israel, the Times of India reported this week.
Geneticist Shahnaz Ali has been asked to study the link between the Afridi Pathans, based in the Lucknow region of India, and certain tribes of Israel who migrated across Asia thousands of years ago.
Ali is based in Haifa where she is working in collaboration with Israel's prestigious university the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
Some experts attribute Israel's decision to fund the research to a theory supported by many that Afghanistan's Pashtun fighters, the community from which the Taliban draw their strength, are descendants of Afridi Pathans.
This is not the first time speculations of a deep rooted connection between the two seemingly unrelated people have been raised, yet this is the first time Israel's Foreign Ministry has offered to fund the research. Ali has been genetically analyzing blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad which she collected earlier to confirm their Jewish origin.
Pashtun clue to lost tribes of Israel
By Rory McCarthy - The Guardian - Jan 17, 2010
Genetic study sets out to uncover if there is a 2,700-year-old link to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Israel is to fund a rare genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.
Historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggests a connection, but definitive scientific proof has never been found. Some leading Israeli anthropologists believe that, of all the many groups in the world who claim a connection to the 10 lost tribes, the Pashtuns, or Pathans, have the most compelling case. Paradoxically it is from the Pashtuns that the ultra-conservative Islamic Taliban movement in Afghanistan emerged. Pashtuns themselves sometimes talk of their Israelite connection, but show few signs of sympathy with, or any wish to migrate to, the modern Israeli state.
Now an Indian researcher has collected blood samples from members of the Afridi tribe of Pashtuns who today live in Malihabad, near Lucknow, in northern India. Shahnaz Ali, from the National Institute of Immunohaematology in Mumbai, is to spend several months studying her findings at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa. A previous genetic study in the same area did not provide proof one way or the other.
Background articles from Wikipedia
Ten Lost Tribes
History of the Jews in Afghanistan
Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites
and one from the Jewish Virtual Library
The Virtual Jewish History Tour - Afghanistan - by Alden Oreck
Neither the theory of the Pathans' Jewish origins nor the story about the Malihabad Pathans is new to the Indian media.
Malihabad’s Israeli connection
By The Times of India - Nov 13, 2002
Here’s a juicy bit of information for all those who thought Malihabad is only famous for its delicious mangoes. Dr Tudor Parfitt, a professor of Jewish Studies at the London University has taken up research on the resident Afridis in Malihabad in order to confirm their claims of Jewish descent through DNA tests.
Barely 25 kms from Lucknow, Malihabad enjoys a distinguished place on the national map for its delicious mangoes, but it is the presence of Afridi Pathans that grants an aura of mystery to it. It is said that the Afridis trace their descent to a lost Israelite tribe of Ephraim, forced into exile and oblivion in 722 BC by the Assyrians. Amishav (a Jerusalem based organisation, solely dedicated to the task of finding the lost tribes of Israel) wants the Afridis to migrate to Israel. Another Israeli organisation-‘Beit Zur’ too has welcomed them. Parfitt aims to fully confirm any doubts on the matter.
A lost tribes enthusiast as he was, Yitzhak Ben Zvi (Israel’s 2nd president and a prominent historian) interviewed Afghan-Jewish immigrants in Israel and drew information about a number of Jewish customs practised by the Pathans, and found many similarities between the Pathan code of honour-Pathanwali/ Pakhtunwali/Pashtunwali and the Jewish law-Mishna.
Afridi is a tribe that emigrated to the hill country from the eastern spurs of the Safad Koh (Afghanistan) to the borders of the Peshawar district inPakistan. A sprinkling of them settled in India in Malihabad and Qaimganj in 1761 when they came with Ahmad Shah Abdali to fight the Marathas at Panipat. The origin of the Afridi is uncertain, but they themselves believe to be one of the lost tribes of Israel and call themselves “Ben-i-Israel”.
Is it the Lost Tribe of Israel?
By Farzand Ahmed - India Today - Nov 6, 2006
Malihabad, the small orchard town on the outskirts of Lucknow, will appeal to your senses straightway. While it is renowned for the sweet and fragrant Dussheri mango, the place has given birth to some of the finest Urdu and Persian poetry. And its claim to fame does not end there. The dusty town now stands home to something which can be traced back to biblical times. Among the inhabitants of Malihabad are a clan of tall, fair, well-built people who call themselves Afridi Pathans—warrior and poets. In fact, a huge arch at the entry to the town is dedicated to Bab-e-Goya, a famous warrior and poet. Growing evidence, however, suggests that their ancestry is not Muslim but Israelite and they are not originally from the Afghanistan-Pakistan area but are, in fact, one of the ‘lost tribes’ of Israel. In Malihabad, in the heart of Uttar Pradesh, they certainly stand out with their unique physical features.
Now a study by one of their own tribe, Navras Jaat Afridi, and published recently in the form of an e-book titled The Indian Jewry & The Self-professed ‘Lost Tribes of Israel in India’ traces their lineage to one of the ‘lost tribes’ of Israel. Says Navras, “The main purpose of the research (for a doctorate from Lucknow University) was to trace the Afridi Pathans’ ancestry.” To make his study credible, he got help from an international research team which included Professor Tudor Parfitt, director of the Centre of Jewish Studies, London University and Dr Yulia Egorova, a linguist and historian from Russia. The team visited Malihabad and collected dna samples from 50 paternally unrelated Afridi males to confirm their Israelite descent. The reserachers looked at Israel’s connections with Pathans in the Frontier areas of Pakistan and their links with Afridi Pathans in Uttar Pradesh’s Malihabad and Qaimganj (Farrukhabad) as well as with Pathans in Aligarh, Sambhal and Barabanki besides tribes in Kashmir, Manipur and Guntur of Andhra Pradesh.
When a Pathan called a Jew
By Agniva Banerjee - The Times of India - May 20, 2007
About an hour's drive from Lucknow is Malihabad, an affluent farming settlement of ancient Muslim households and sprawling mango orchards where there is a calm reassurance that life is leisure. Here, in a palace called Bada Mahal, the same place where the character played by Shashi Kapoor tried to win over a lovely Englishwoman played by Nafisa Ali in Junoon, another Pathan is going through a conflict of emotions. This time, it's not a matter of the heart.
Sitting cross-legged on a charpoy under the grand canopy of Bada Mahal, Qavi Kamaal Khan, the 92-year-old patriarch of the house, ruminates over the identity of his Afridi tribesmen, originally warriors from Afghanistan who over the last millennium settled in a dozen locations in UP and the rest of India. Liberal by political temperament but pious by Islamic persuasion, Khan is bracing himself to face the result of his 28-year-old nephew's research into the clan's ancestry.
The nephew, Navras Jaat Aafreedi, is part of an international project to trace the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. It takes some courage to tell a Muslim warrior community that it was once Jewish. Aafreedi took the chance, inspired by ancient literary references and common Semitic customs that link the Afridis to one of the Lost Tribes. To prove the premise conclusively, DNA samples of Afridi men were collected at Malihabad five years ago. Kamaal Khan knows that the result of the DNA analysis may be out any time. He doesn't want to live to hear that he is descended from a Jew.
Looking for lost tribes of Israel in Malihabad
By Ashish Tripathi - The Times of India - Nov 12, 2007
It was not just the delightful dussehri mangoes which made Eyal Beeri come all the way from Jerusalem to Malihabad, a township 25 kilometres from Lucknow. A librarian and student adviser in the Lander Institute of Jerusalem, the historian is the latest one to arrive in search of the lost tribes of Israel, which have brought many scholars from world over to India since ages. But Beeri’s visit is significant as he is the first Jew and Israeli to visit the Pathan settlement of Malihabad.
History has it that the 10 Israelite tribes of the northern Kingdom of Israel were exiled by the Assyrians invaders in 721 BC. The tribes eventually went into oblivion with the passage of time. Since then efforts are being made to track them down. It is also believed that some of the descendants of the tribes settled in India. Afridi Pathans of Malihabad are said to be one of them. Prof Tudor Parfitt and Dr Yulia Egorova of London University had visited Malihabad in 2002 to take DNA samples of the Afridi Pathans to ascertain whether they had an Israeli lineage or not.
In league with the famous losttribes-explorers like Benjamin of Tudela and Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, Beeri arrived in India on September 16. During his three weeks expedition, he first visited Pathan settlements in Rajasthan. His second stop was Malihabad before leaving for Qayamganj in Farrukhabad. The purpose of his visit is to study the age-old customs and traditions of Pathans and find if they have any resemblance to the Israeli traditions. His objective was to educate the Pathans about Israel and to help them form relationship with the Jewish community the world over.
A Biblical Connection
By The Times of India - Mar 11, 2008
Known for its delightful mangoes, Malihabad, situated 25 km from the state capital, is all set to become a part of the Jewish tourist circuit in the country.
The tehsil houses 650 Afridi Pathans believed to be decedents of one of the ten lost Biblical Israelite tribes. The fact has prompted two leading Israeli travel companies to market Malihabad as a tourist destination for Jewish community world over with the theme "The Lost Tribe Challenge".
As a first step in this direction, Mosh Savir of Shai Bar Ilan Geographical Tours and Dudu Landau of Eretz Ahavati Nature Tours recently toured Malihabad along with Indian tour operator Col SP Ahuja to conduct a ground survey for facilitating the first "theme tour", expected in November 2008.
The tours will showcase the lifestyle of Afridi Pathans and include dialogue between the natives and the visitors in addition to sightseeing, lectures and exposure to local handicraft such as Chikan and Zardozi. Malihabad is also the birth place of famous Urdu poet Josh Malihabadi, who was also an Afridi Pathan. Another illustrious Afridi Pathan from Malihabad is Ghaus Mohammed Khan, first Indian to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1939.
The tour will also include Qayamganj in Farrukhbad district of UP. Qayamaganj has produced famous Afridi Pathan like Zakir Husain, India's third President. While Afridi Pathans are Muslims, some of their old customs have slight resemblance with Israeli traditions.
Israeli and Jewish media have also previously picked up the story.
Our Brethren the Taliban?
By Shalva Weil - The Jerusalem Report - Oct 22, 2001
IN 1935, GABRIEL BARUKHOFF, a Bukharan Jewish barber, was traveling to Kabul when he came upon an encampment of nomadic Afghan Pathan tribesmen who claimed that they were descendants of the Children of Israel. In the early 50s he told Israel's second president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who was researching his book "The Exiled and the Redeemed," that these fierce tribesmen wore an embroidered Hanukkah lamp on their backs. He had heard that they had mezuzot on their doorposts, wrapped themselves in tallitot (prayer shawls), and lit candles on Friday night. When Barukhoff cut their hair, they insisted on keeping their pe'ot (sidecurls).
Pathan legend has it that King Saul fathered a son by the name of Jeremiah, whose birth is not recorded in Jewish texts. Jeremiah fathered a royal prince called Afghana, whose descendants fled to Jat in Afghanistan. In 662 CE the descendants of Afghana were converted to Islam at the explicit request of Mohammed. The mission was accomplished by his emissary Khalid ibn al-Walid, who returned to his master in Arabia with "proof" of his activities - 76 converts and seven leaders of the "Children of Israel," including a descendant of Afghana named Kish. Kish later changed his name to Ibn Rashid, and was entrusted by Mohammed with the task of spreading the Islamic word. Many of today's Taliban claim descent from Ibn Rashid. Sitting in an orchard in Kashmir at the foot of the snow-topped Himalayas, Muhammad Wali, a Pathan from the Yusuf-Zai ("Children of Joseph") tribe, repeated this story to me. When I asked him who Yusuf was, he readily answered: "Ibn Yaacob" ("Son of Jacob").
Is One of the Lost Tribes the Taliban?
By Ilene R. Prusher - Moment Magazine - April 2007
It was Seder night in Kabul......
......A few days before the Seder, I found myself in an unexpected conversation with Mashal. He and I were on one of our long car trips through the ragged slate-gray Afghan hinterlands, scouting stories about Al Qaeda’s evasion of U.S. forces and local warlords who were besting America’s plans for the region. Somewhere between Khost and Kabul, Mashal raised a subject I had considered best to avoid in these precincts.
“I, I, I want to find out more about the Jews,” he said from the front seat, craning his neck to talk to me as we bounced over the rocky road like hot popcorn kernels. I didn’t respond; instead, I continued to stare out the window at the packed-mud buildings dotting the remote landscape, careful as ever to avoid direct eye contact with the men we passed. “Because I believe that they are related to us,” Mashal continued, “and that maybe we, we were once Jews.”
I learned about Dr. Navras J. Aafreedi's work and his blog some years ago when searching "pathan" in Google Images. At the same occasion I found the following page by Qazi Fazli Azeem.
B'ni Israel in Pakistan - The Israeli History of the Pathan Tribes
Around 722 BC, Israeli civil war and changing strategic interests forced Assyria to deport ten tribes to the east, towards Persia (Iran). A hundred years later, the Babylonians deported the remaining tribe of Yehudah and some Benjaminites to Babylon (Iraq). The Yehudah returned to Israel with the help of Cyrus the great of Persia, but the other ten tribes never retuned. The search for the “Ten tribes of Israel” is a very controversial issue because their descendants lost most of their Israelite traditions and do not possess the Talmud (Oral Torah similar to the hadith of the Muslims). Perhaps the focal point which has dissuaded Israelites from searching openly for their brethren is the Israelite civil war after King Solomon’s reign, which pitted Yehudah (Judah) against all the other tribes and eventually brought their collective downfall. Hence the descendants of the “Lost Tribes” have lived and spread in the lands east of Israel which are now known as Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, India, Burma and even western China.
The Pakhtuns have been living in the Afghanistan area for over 2,000 years. Their language Pashto/Pakhto borrows widely from the Arab-ized Persian of their neighbors (now Iran), yet it was a purely spoken dialect. There was no Pakhto/Pashto written script whatsoever, the first Pashto book appearing about the 1500s. Hence the traditions, customs, tribal genealogy and law orally transferred from father to son. The first book on Pakhtun genealogy, the Makhzan-al-Afghani was written in 1613, and contained for the first time a printed table of descent from Abraham to the Pakhtun tribes, through the tribe of Binyamin. While the book was not accepted initially by British historians, modern historians consider it the most accurate account as compared to the other theories proposed by classical historians.
