Theory has it that Queen Elizabeth II is the 43rd granddaughter of the Prophet of Islam
By Ertan Karpazli,
Excerpt:
One particular name of interest that comes up when revising the history books concerning that time period is a certain Zaida of Seville, who has been identified as a Morisco.
Morisco was a term used at the time to refer to Muslim and Jewish Moors who remained behind in territories captured by the Catholic armies and outwardly converted to Christianity to evade exile or slaughter.
Zaida was born in Andalusia, southern Spain, in 1070 and was a princess of the ruling Abbadid Dynasty, which was founded in 1023 by Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Abbad, a known descendant of Prophet Muhammad.
While scholars share varying opinions over her exact position in the Abbadid household, one popular theory is that she was the daughter of Muhammad al-Mu’tamid, the Muslim ruler of Seville.
In 1091, her family was devastated by a war with the Almoravids, an invading Berber force from Morocco. Zaida was captured by the Almoravid armies, but she escaped and fled to the city of Cordoba, where she sought refuge with Alfonso VI, the Catholic King of Castile.
Unfortunately for Zaida, however, King Alfonso VI had other plans for her. While taking her into the safety of his palace, he forced her to become his concubine and change her religion.
Zaida thereafter became Isabel, and bore Alfonso a son by the name of Sancho, and according to some historians, she was also the mother of his two daughters Sancha and Elvira.
Sancha went on to marry Rodrigo Gonzalez de Lara of Castile. One of their descendants was Princess Isabella of Castile, who lived between 1355 and 1392 and was herself married to the Duke of York Prince Edmund of Langley, son of King Edward III.
Isabella and Edmund’s son Richard of Conisburgh, Earl of Cambridge, was the grandfather of King Edward IV, a direct ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II. When all the family trees are matched up, the Queen becomes the 43rd granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad.
Among Isabella and Edmund’s descendants, one can also find Lettice Shirley, who was born in 1619 and died in 1655. She was married to William Burke, the 7th Earl of Clanricarde.
Lettice Shirley is also an ancestor to none other than Princess Diana, which would make Prince William and Prince Harry descendants of the Prophet Muhammad on both sides.
Read full: https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/queens-spanish-ancestor-who-makes-22614903
