Genetics of the Maltese People: Latinized Arab Christians of the Mediterranean? 

A wee correction, Malta isn't associated with the Knights Templar, they're associated with the other military order, the Knights Hospitaller.

10:17 A combination of Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Vikings, damn what a combo

I am Maltese and friends from Lebanon, Egypt, and Palestine can understand me to a point as the language is mostly Arabic. There are words similar to Italian and Spanish as well

We WUZ Templars n sheeeit

I've visited the island nation of Malta and it was a rather pleasant experience for the week I stayed there. The people were all very friendly, the food was nice and the country itself was beautiful. My only complaint really was the heat. Too damn hot and sunny in Malta! But I'm always a very pasty pale Irish ginger so my kind don't go well in the heat or sun.

Hey Masaman, Im Maltese and study Archaeology. Malta was never colonized by the ancient Greeks only the Byzantines.

I never clicked on a video as fast as I did today! I am Maltese-American! Thank you for making this video! Edit post video: The freemason crap is all conspiracy bullshit. Also the Templar link is minor, as Malta was host and owned by the Knights Hospitalor, not Templar. We I first saw pictures of Maltese people from the home land I was blown away by how much they looked like my older relatives! short, dark skinned, huge ears, meaty noses. MOST Maltese diaspora is in Australia. They even have Maltese restaurants there. There are also some in Brazil, Mexico, and Canada. If you include visitors and tourists into the numbers on any given day Malta is more Catholic then the Vatican. Now I want some Pastizzi....

The siege of Malta is one of the craziest stories. For three Months 40, 000 Ottomans fought 6, 000 Maltese. The Maltese sere so tired that they had to sit on top wall as they speared the invaders. Talk about glory.

Welcome back!

A lot of my family comes from Sicily and Malta and I’m even Maltese but I consider myself European and white.

This actually remains one of my favorite episodes of your work (I say “episode” instead of videos because they seem more then that for some reason), and I really appreciate that there is a great RU-vid like you to take the time and help understand the world’s ethnicities and complex culture at the same time. Keep it up bro!

I once dated a British girl whose mother was from Malta. Holy shit, was this chick beautiful. She had brown skin and beautiful eyes.

Do you think you can go a deeper? Malta has some of the oldest early man temples and heritage sites in the world. The Hypogeum of Neolithic times for example.

Latinized Arab Christians that's a mouth full. However it is a fascinating amalgamation of the Levant and the EU.

The Maltese on average are almost identical to Southern Italians/Sicilians although some regions having somewhat more Near Eastern influences although not extremely significant. I've seen many GEDmatch results of the Maltese and they're pretty much displaced Sicilians (i.e. genetically speaking)

I am a Maltese American trying to learn about my family's heritage. This was pretty cool to hear, as it puts a lot of context to my last name, and things like why we emigrated during the World Wars.

Fun fact: In Latvia we have town named Malta.

Thanks from Malta💞

Malta was never under the Knights Templar the Knights Templar were abolished and dissolved by the Pope and the king of France in 1312. It was in the hands of the Hospitaller Knights of St.John of Jerusalem who after being expelled from Rhodes by Suleiman the Magnificent were leased the island of Malta by the King of Aragon for a falcon every year. Although its true that after there dissolution some of the Knights Templar joined ranks with the Knights Hospitaller.

Malta is one of the most culturally and historically rich places I've ever been to. It's a beautiful country and, despite being a bit crowded, I think I'd like to live there for a while!

Thanks for that. I’m a Canadian with both parents having been born in Malta I know quite a bit about our modern history but that was definitely enlightening for me.

Can you do a video about what happened to carthigian people and norman people

They're not Arabs they're native to their island. DNA studies show that they're descendants of the first inhabitants who migrated to Malta from Sicily. As for the language it actually comes from Phoenician not Arabic. So I guess you can say they're Semitic Europeans.

A video on the Normans would be awesome!

Proud to be Maltese !!! and as someone else mentioned below the word SICULO is pronounced as SEEKULO with a K not an S phonetically. And yes Maltese history is phenomenal but as a kid I absolutely hated it. Way too much going on and too many nations to remember who came and conquered us when. Could not be bothered. Now being away from Malta all that history makes me feel super unique. And even though I get from folks thinking I am Italian I quickly correct them. "Nope I am Maltese." Cheers

Cossaks please

I'm so glad you did this video. I love the channel. Thank you

My mum is Maltese and I have 49% Sicilian dna

It's interesting to think that had the Crusader states lasted longer, the Levant could have very well ended up similar to Malta in terms of language and culture

Amazing that there is not a single reference to the knights of Malta who run the island in its most heroic period until the Napoleonic period.

My father was born & raised in Malta before coming to the USA. I am 1st generation American. I had my DNA done w/the following results: 5% Mid-East; 5% North African; 12% Caucuses: 28% Greek; 50 % Italian (my mother).

I'm a native Maltese and the results I got from a DNA test are as follows; 45.9% Italian, 27.6% Southern Italian & Greek, 17% North African, 7% West Asian & 2.5% Iberian.

we are Maltese and appreciate your immense accurate information on our island. thank you for informing your audience with your work. thank you

As a maltese we identify as Europeans although we look and sound Arabic. Nice work displaying a small part of our history. Impressed :)

I'm full Maltese and have had a DNA test and this is correct. I have 16% middle Eastern, 56% Italian, 10% euro Jewish, and the rest was ancient European

about Pantelleria , they say that the Bey of Tunisia gave it as a gift to Italians on exchange of an italian woman who gave him birth of a son after long time waiting...

This was quite interesting. It makes me think a vid dedicated to the Great Siege of Malta by the Ottomans in 1565 would make good content...a heroic commander in Hospitaller knight Vallette, heroic Maltese defenders (even the galley slaves), the Turkish sultan sending two navies to besiege the island and then putting an infamous pirate in charge of both admirals, top-notch strategy and tactics by the crusader knights, it has everything!

I'm from Malta, but I consider myself European and white.

Isn´t the opposite? arabized europeans? since they speak a semitic language formed in the middle ages from arabic and genetic studies shows that they are related genetically more to italians to any other people

Video request: Arab slave trade. Most people don’t know about this as much as the Atlantic slave trade so it’s spreading awareness.

This whole analysis also applies to Sicilians. There is little to no difference in genealogic terms between Sicilians and Maltese people. The Maltese are practically a subset of Sicilians.

Ethnically Maltese are for a 80% Sicilians. In 1600 most of migrantions started from Sicily until Malta.

I have a date with a guy from Malta, I’m here to know more about where he’s from, I hadn’t much knowledge on the place till well.. now 🤷‍♀️ thanks for the video 🙂

Thanks just doing my family geneology in Malta. Most of what you said came up on my DNA test so you just filled in some blanks, so awesome.

Hey man, the normans were mostly French, with only a tiny bit of Scandinavian in there blood. Many genetic test, and historical documents support this. The Vikings who settled in France married French men and women, and then their children married Frenchmen and women... (P.s. love your channel, just informing you)

Plenty of Maltese here in Sydney... Great people

Malta was never colonized by the Greeks so you can take that off your list. The Maltese are a definite mix of Phoenicians, Arabs, Spanish, Italian, French and British. The colonization of the islands happened in this order: Neolithic People and Temple People with ties to Sicily, Bronze Age People, Phoenicians and Punics(Carthaginese), Romans, possibly the Ostrogoths, Visogoths or Vandals (not confirmed), Arabs, Normans, Hohenstaufen Dynasty, Angovines, Aragones, Knights of St. John, French, British..... ...and finally an independent Republic. Phew....what a list.... Super interesting and concise video Mason!

You forgot to mention Malta received the Victoria cross in wwII

Maltese = Latin Arabic

We're Mediterranean. A lot of cultures & ways of life combined. It's all a mix in the end, and there's a lot to learn there. We have a lot to learn from our relatives.

Interesting that masaman didn't go into detail about knights Templars or freemasons. Maybe masaman is a mason?

Maltese people are the descendants of Sicilian and Calabrese Colonists with genetic admixtures. From the Wikipedia article: "The current Maltese people, characterised by the use of the Maltese language and by Roman Catholicism, are the descendants - through much mixing and hybridisation - of colonists from Sicily and Calabria who repopulated the Maltese islands in the beginning of the second millennium after a two-century lapse of depopulation that followed the Arab conquest by the Aghlabids in AD 870. A genetic study by Capelli et al. indicates that Malta was barely inhabited at the turn of the tenth century and was likely to have been repopulated by settlers from Sicily and Calabria who spoke Siculo-Arabic. Previous inhabitants of the islands - Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines - did not leave many traces, as most nameplaces were lost and replaced. The Normans conquered the island in 1091 and completely re-Christianised them by 1249. This re-Christianisation created the conditions for the evolution of the Maltese language from the now extinct Siculo-Arabic dialect. The influences on the population after this have been fiercely debated among historians and geneticists. The origins question is complicated by numerous factors, including Malta's turbulent history of invasions and conquests, with long periods of depopulation followed by periods of immigration to Malta and intermarriage with the Maltese by foreigners from the Mediterranean, Western and Southern European countries that ruled Malta. The many demographic influences on the island include: -The exile to Malta of the entire male population of the town of Celano (Italy) in 1223 -The stationing of Swabian and Sicilian Italian troops on Malta in 1240 -The removal of all remaining Arabs from Malta in 1224 -The arrival of several thousands Aragonese (i.e. Catalans, Valencians, Majorcans and proper Aragonese, from current Spain) soldiers in 1283 to 1425. -Further waves of European repopulation throughout the 13th century -The settlement in Malta of noble families from Sicily (Italy) and the Crown of Aragon (now mostly part of Spain) between 1372 and 1450 -The arrival of several thousand Greek Rhodian sailors, soldiers and slaves with the Knights of St. John -The introduction of several thousand Sicilian laborers in 1551 and again in 1566 -The emigration of some 891 Italian exiles to Malta during the Risorgimento in 1849 -The posting of some 22,000 British servicemen in Malta from 1807 to 1979 (only a small number of whom remained in the islands), as well as other British and Irish who settled in Malta over the decades -The mass emigration occurring after World War II and well into the 1960s and 70s. Many Maltese left the island for the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the USA. Following Malta's accession to the EU in 2004 expatriate communities grew in European countries such as the one in Belgium.

The majority of North African are berber (amazigh) even before islamic invasion. Amazigh were connected to the Italian peninsula.

Did you also know that some maltese and their decendants are also located in Alexandria in Egypt ? of which that city has a maltese \ egyptian population of 200,000, meaning one quarter of alexandrias population. Increadible yet so true :) Keep up the good work :)

You want to know my thoughts? You put together great videos and I've never seen you grovel for "likes" or subscriptions. That's top notch in my book. I'm going to subscribe just for that reason.

Your back, Finally😁

Siculo with a hard "c" (k) bro, not "Sissulo"

the maltese language is almost the same like the North african Arab dialects. "fetah il bieb, u hares lein esama, blu bhal il bhar" that is actually maltese lol

I first learned about Malta when I was about 8 or 9 years old because my cousin had the opportunity of studying journalism abroad there, I had always assumed it was just part of Italy! Thank you so much Mason!

Maltese is one of the relatively few even halfway-major languages that are mixed or hybrid languages, in this case a mix of Arabic and Italian (many Italian words - and those from other languages as well - superimposed over Arabic). English - yes, English - is another example, with much French/Latin/Greek origin vocabulary being superimposed over Germanic roots.

Do a video about the origin of the Albanians!

The Maltese are genetically indistinguishable from Cypriots and Sicilians and under DNA.land and other third parties, these people are identified as Mediterranean Islander. I’m 1/8 Mediterranean Islander via my Sicilian great-grandmother.

Great shot of Marsaxlokk at 1:19 I have found the best capers in the world in the local market there during a vacation a few years ago. I loved that vacation and I'm sure to go back. The language is very interesting too, essentially a highly modified version of Arabic. From conversations with a few native Maltese I gathered that they understand Arabic, but that Arabs don't really understand Maltese because of the degree to which the language had diverged from its origin. This is an interesting parallel to my native language (Romanian) and the way I understand Italian without ever having learned it, but Italians don't really understand Romanian too well without studying it because of all the foreign influences it has accrued from its Latin origins.

Before living in Malta I had already lived in Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. In my opinion, Maltese look so different to other Europeans, not only on the phyisical aspect, but also the language. I am not saying that's bad, it's amazing to see how they grow up speaking 3 languages(Maltese, English and Italian)

I’m Arab from Kuwait & I’ll visit Malta soon, I think their language very similar to Arabic language & maybe they have some Arab blood DNA

genetically, they are same as Sicilians. They adopt Arabic language when they was under Arabic rule.

More Malta ... always. Most interesting country and people in the world. I stand by that statement as a American. Malta is fascinating from 20,000 B.C.. to 2019! Now if only I could afford to visit!!!

Your channel has just been great video after great video! Whatever you're doing, keep it up!

Damn Maltese and tunisian are very close.

I thought the original Maltese people where descendants of Phoenicians aka Canaanites.

Wow thanks. I was doing research about the Maltese people and coincidentally you made a video a week ago. 👍

Awesome to finally see the first episode after all the sneak peeks! The pixel game looks was a pleasant surprise :o

Knights Templar and Malta???? It was the Knights Hospitaller that controlled Malta until Napoleon rolled through.

You said the Normans "re-Italianized" Sicily. This is not true. Before the Normans, Sicilian Christians were culturally Byzantines. They spoke Greek and practiced Greek Orthodoxy. The Normans were more threatened by the Byzantine Empire than the Arab states, so they Italianized the Greek Sicilians while adopting some Arab culture.

Do a video on the Himalayan kingdoms (Ladakh, Sikkim, Nepal) i.e., "greater Tibet."

Interesting video as always

NO! it’s highly offensive to us when foreigners call us arab

thanks from malta

Yes, do one on ethnic Germans - in the Baltic states, Czech republic and Slovenia, Russia and France.

I am of Maltese origin and I live in France, and people always give me a strange look or outright assume I'm lying when I explain to them that I'm not North African and Muslim, but Maltese and Christian.

I have a video request. Could you do a video on the ethnic/cultural makeup of the southern United States please? I'm a huge fan of your channel btw!

'Danes' does not fucking equal 'vikings'. Viking is a profession. If normans 'descended from vikings', then americans descended from shady businessmen.

I honestly love your videos. I love studying the demographics of regions and this channel really makes me love that even more. I really want this channel to be successful, but to do that it’ll need to do two things. First off, although I am unsure if this channel is monetized or not, I think once you reach a sizable number like 100k, then you should monetize your videos. Then you should get a more professional editor because, although I do love seeing images of people and other works, that would not grab someone’s attention as much as other forms of editing. If that’s too much of a hassle, other RU-vid videos can probably teach you yourself. You can learn anything on the internet these days lol.

Excellent as always

Many maltes are descendants from Lebanese Christians Maronites who went the knights templars to Malta and originally Malta was a Phoenician base this still obvious from the family names of Lebanese Maronites

Do video about estonia.

Love it. Got any more videos on Malta? Gonna share this

Malta is super cool I think the language deserves to be studied

I've always regarded Malta as a rather latinised, Europeanised, Christianised part of Tunisia (or Tunisha as Americans call it) I'm a Tunisian Arab and I can understand them (for the most part) near perfectly even though their language is heavily polluted with Italian ( or Sicilian dialect) loan words

Can you do a vid about the ethnic Persians (ajams, huwalas) in the Persian gulf isles (uae, bahrain, kuwait, iraq and qatar)?

Very nice . I enjoy it so much !!

Great-report-of-Malta-well-researched-thanks-for-the-history

interesting video.... yes i am Maltese and i dont especialy consider my self as european or africaan or arab etc etc... I am Maltese thats it.....

*8 to 16% dna of the average maltese orginates in north africa* The sources you cited the description don't back up this claim

It would be interesting to talk about the syncretic culture that developed in Sicily following the Norman conquest, consisting of Norman, Byzantine Greek, Arab, and Sicilian influences. If I remember an old article I read correctly, the Norman king of Sicily Roger II, despite being a Norman Catholic, spoke fluent Arabic, and allowed many people of different origins into his court, such as the Greek general and diplomat George of Antioch and the Muslim Andalusian geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi.

I thought to myself: I wonder if Masaman have made a video about maltese people? I'm not surprised he have.

Do the Syriacs!

Do sicily or sardinia

We’re not Arabs and the language is not Arabic but derived from it,it’s Maltese like English is not German but derived from German language.

really interesting great channel very educational keep it up