London, April 09: In one of the most bizarre research findings of recent years, a Moroccan newspaper has claimed it has traced the Queen's lineage back to the founder of Islam, Prophet Muhammad. Although, according to the Daily Mail, the findings were first published in 1986 by Burke's Peerage, a British authority on royal pedigrees, the Morrocan newspaper has claimed to have traced back 43 generations of her family tree, asserting that the Queen is a distant descendant of the Prophet.

According to the findings, Elizabeth II's bloodline runs through the Earl of Cambridge in the 14th century, across medieval Muslim Spain, to Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. Disputed by some historians, genealogical records of early-medieval Spain support the claim, which has also been verified by Ali Gomaa, the former grand mufti of Egypt.

"It is little known by the British people that the blood of Mohammed flows in the veins of the queen. However, all Moslem religious leaders are proud of this fact," wrote Burke's publishing director, in a letter to the-then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986."The royal family's direct descent from the prophet Mohammed cannot be relied upon to protect the royal family forever from Moslem terrorists," he added.

The study by Burke's Peerage suggested that the Queen descended from a Muslim princess called Zaida, who fled her home town of Seville in the 11th century before converting to Christianity. 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. However, historians contest over Zaida's origins, some claiming she was the daughter of a wine-drinking caliph descended from the Prophet, while others say she married into his family.