Late Queen Elizabeth’s Lineage Traced to Islam. How True?

Last week, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (Queen Elizabeth II), the longest-serving monarch of the United Kingdom, passed away, paving the way for Charles Philip Arthur George (King Charles III) to assume the throne.

Globally, encomiums of the Queen flooded tabloids and the all-accommodating online spaces with many world leaders paying her their last respects in words. The celebrated Queen who passed on at 96 — at Balmoral — according to record, ruled for 70 years.

However, claims about the Queen’s lineage traced to Prophet Muhammad were flying on various social media outlets as seen here and here among other places. Although, the claims entail some distortions.

READ: UK’s Longest Serving Monarch, Elizabeth Is Dead

An audio message addressed to the queen in 2019 by a renowned scholar in Nigeria, Sheikh Usman Dahiru Bauchi, further strenghtened the beliefs of the claimants, particularly in Nigeria.

“Let the queen, for the sake of God return to Islam because it is the religion of her ancestor,” the scholar said. “God has blessed you. You have ruled over UK since you were a child. You have been in power for over 60 years. There is no better way of showing Him gratitude than to embrace the religion of God.”

THE CLAIM

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According to the Mail UK, the Queen’s lineage was traced to the 43 generaions of Prophet Muhammad. The claim “first surfaced in 1986 after Burke’s Peerage, a British authority of royal pedigrees, discovered the link,” reports the Mail UK. “Although disputed by some historians, genealogical records of early medieval Spain also support the claim.”

Historians belive that Elizabeth II’s bloodline runs through “the Earl of Cambridge in the 14th century, across medieval Muslim Spain, to Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter,” the paper reports further.  

Interestingly, the claim was supported by Ali Gomaa, the former grand mufti of Egypt.

The historians claimed that the Queen’s lineage could be traced to one princess called Zaida, “who fled her home town of Seville in the 11th century before converting to Christianity,” the Mail notes.

It adds: “Zaida was the fourth wife of King Al-Mu’tamid ibn Abbad of Seville. She bore him a son Sancho, whose descendant later married the Earl of Cambridge in the 11th century. But British magazine the Spectator points out Zaida’s origins are ‘debatable’.”

HOW TRUE?

The lineage chain “is abridged as many people are noted to be missing in between,” writes Awwal Yasin in a Facebook post by Harouna Aliyu Maikaratu. “For instance, Na’im al Lakhmi who is shown as the direct child of Hasan as-Sibt is actually the son Zahra bint Husayn bn Hasan bn Ali bn Abi Talib KLWH.”

“So also, you can identify many points wherein people are missing, like between Muhammad bn Abbad and Zaida, but generally the chain actually connects from Zaida to Hasan as-Sibt (RTA). Zaida is actually where the twist begins. There’s two missing generations between her and Abu al-Qāsim. But she was married to Abu al Fatah al Ma’mun, King of Qurduba, who was the grandson of Muhammad bn Abbad I, before Spain was taken from the Islamic rule,” he adds.

“The Christian King Alfonso VI who conquered Spain then took her as a concubine after being told that she was daughter of Abbad II, when in fact, she was his daughter-in-law. King Alfonso VI renamed her (Zaida) as Isabella and they had an illegitimate son (Sancho) together. In other words, at this point, she is the daughter in-law (wife to the grandson) of the Abu Qāsim, NOT his daughter.

“Coupling this knowledge with the fact that Sancho is an illegitimate son of the daughter in law of Abbad II, he is also heir to King Alfonso VI, effectively cutting his lineage to the Abbadid Dynasty, and sealing it to the Alfonso’s. I beg you in the name of Allāh to stop saying she is related to the Prophet SAWS because it is simply not true,” Yassin notes.

READ: Queen Elizabeth II: End of an Era!

Conclusively, Yassin writes: “At best, you can say she sprouted from an Islamic background, because her maternal great-grandmother was once a Muslim before being taken as a refugee by King Alfonso VI, effectively Christianalizing her.”

‘IT IS POSSIBLE‘

Professor Ibrahim Maqari, the National Imam, Nigeria in a telephone interview with WikkiTimes said the claim could be possible, adding he did not read all the literatures about it.

“I read some of the literature, not all,” the imam said. “I felt it is possible that she may be a granchild of an Arabian who ruled a big parts of Europe for decades. Her lineage could be traced to them. It is possible.”

“Secondly, i respect her in person and that is the most important aspect to me. She is a revered person by her own achievement and attitude. But to say her lineage to the Prophet (S.A.W) is not what i pay much attention to.”