Did the Arab Conquest Replace the Ancient Egyptians? The Myth of Population Replacement

Daily News Egypt ^ | November 18, 2025 | Mohamed Samir

[Cronos]

A central claim among those who deny a link between ancient and modern Egyptians is that subsequent invasions replaced the original population. This is not supported by demographic, genetic, or linguistic evidence. Genetic studies show ancient Egypt DNA continues.

• The Greek and Roman Periods: The Ptolemaic Greeks and later the Romans ruled as small, elite minorities. Their demographic footprint on the overall gene pool of Egypt was negligible.
• The Arab Conquest (7th Century CE): This was the most significant cultural event, introducing Arabic and Islam. However, this was a case of elite dominance and cultural diffusion, not population replacement.
  • The Genetic Impact: Studies of modern Egyptians show a genetic contribution from the Arabian Peninsula, estimated to be around 17%. However, this is an addition to the pre-existing gene pool, not a substitution for it. Foundational North African genetic markers remain dominant.
  • Linguistic and Genetic Continuity: Further evidence against replacement lies in language. The Coptic language is the final developmental stage of ancient Egyptian, providing a direct, unbroken link back thousands of years. Furthermore, genetic studies of modern Coptic Egyptians, who have a lower admixture rate from later periods, show a particularly strong ancestral link to the pre-Islamic population, serving as a living testament to this continuity.
• Later Eras: Later rule by Mamluk and Ottoman elites from the 13th to the 19th centuries followed this same pattern of a foreign administrative class ruling over the native Egyptian population, with negligible genetic impact on the populace as a whole.

[BobL]

I guess you do just mean Egypt. Virtually the ENTIRE WESTERN MEDIA denies that population replacement is taking place in their own lands, and only leaders like Trump and Putin are pointing it out where it’s worst, in Western Europe.

[Cronos]

The article, the topic and the entire post is purely about “Did the Arab Conquest Replace the Ancient Egyptians? The Myth of Population Replacement”

Specifically about Egyptians. Not about Libyans, Syrians, Saudis leave alone about Europe or the Americas

[Bayard]

The reason population replacement is happening in the west is feminism and contraception.

[Kid Shelleen]

Interesting article; I put the URL in GROK and asked for a summary. This is a snippet.

Egyptians are primarily descendants of ancient Egyptians with a Northeast African core ancestry. However, they are culturally and linguistically Arab due to the 7th-century Arab conquest, which introduced Arabic as the dominant language and Islam as the majority religion

[Thommas]

I believe that Mohamed Samir, and his brethren, will uptake as many articles as necessary to obfuscate any thoughts of Population Replacement.

A recent international study found that modern Egyptians share more ancestry with sub-Saharan Africans than ancient Egyptians did,
whereas ancient Egyptians were found to be most closely related to ancient people from the Middle East and Western Asia.

This DNA analysis indicates that Population Replacement has come and gone before. Refuse such predicate to your peril.

[Doctor Congo]

The official country name is The Arab Republic of Egypt.

That should make all Egyptians’ blood boil. They are Egyptians, not Arabs.
Completely different. They were one of the greatest civilizations in the ancient world. They did it on their own, with no help from the Arabs at all.

[Wuli]

When mom and dad are looking for success of their children the encourage their children to adopt the culture (and religion) norms of the people that can give them the most benefit, or, in the case of many Arab conquests, the culture that holds the keys to success or servitude.

Egyptian people made choices and in order to get ahead they chose the religion and language of the class of their conquerors. After many generations they became Egyptian by blood only.

[marron]

Egyptian DNA survives but their culture does not. They were completely Arabized. Their language survives only as the liturgical language of the persecuted Christians. Essentially no one speaks it day to day.

[Fiji Hill]

The Arab Conquest (7th Century CE AD)

FIFY

[Uncle Miltie]

So the arab muslims committed cultural genocide in their colonial conquests.

Got it.

[Organic Panic]

The Arab IQ bell curve is not favorable for them. They were wandering violent tribes until they found oil under their scorched lands. What a cruel joke.

[SunkenCiv]

• Ancient Egypt DNA: Are Modern Egyptians Related to Ancient Egyptians? [12/11/2025]
• First complete genome data extracted from ancient Egyptian mummies [12/11/2025]

[Cronos]

It’s more nuanced than that.

historical records show that for the first 100 years or so, the Arabs did NOT want to spread their language or culture or beliefs on others - seeing it as a way to keep themselves distinct from the people they ruled.

This is similar to the way the Manchu thought they could keep themselves separate from the Han Chinese.

Or the Arian Visogoths thought they could keep themselves aloof from the Latin speaking, Catholic Ibero-Romans they ruled.

In the latter two cases (like in the case of the Turkic speaking Bulgars or the Germanic speaking Rus), the rulers got subsumed into the masses in terms of language, culture and religion.

But in the case of the Arabs, that didn’t happen - similar to the case with the Magyars/hungarians.

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The Arabs in the period from the 300s to 600s were foederati (associate states) of the Romans and the Persians. In the 100 years war between Rome and Persia (500s to 600s), the Arab Ghassanids and Lakhmid tribes fought on the Roman and Persian sides respectively, but the Romans and Persians impoverished themselves and couldn’t pay the Arabs.

So the Arabs basically thought “heck, why not just take over”.

At this point the Arabs were Judeo-Christians i.e. Ebionites. Thy were content to rule over the remains of the empires and charge much lower taxes.

The arabs did NOT want to Arabize the people or make them followers of their Christian heresy as then the converts would not pay taxes.

But, after 100 years, the Ummayyad dynasty was replaced by the Abbassid - a Arabo-Persian dynasty that took on more Zoroastrian aspects and made the “Muhammad” TITLE for Jesus into a person, like the way Robin hood was created.

Only THEN - in the 750s do we have Islam being created, Arabization happening etc. as the myth becomes a “chosen people “ myth.

From the 700s onwards Arabic becomes a prestige language - and it remained that way until the TurkiC forces came along in the 11th century and they promoted Farsi as the prestige language.

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As to cultural genocide - I don’t think the Arab empires did that purposely. People shifted to Arabic culture, language etc. organically, just like how a millennium earlier, people shifted to Aramaic.

[Cronos]

Correct. read up about the 1920s movement called Pharoanism in Egypt, which was about reclaiming their ancient heritage. Events like the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb fueled Pharaonist fervor, symbolizing national awakening.

It was a serious rival to pan-Arabism, but lost, and I don’t know why — I think it was as Pharaonism failed to connect with the broader Egyptian masses, including rural and working-class populations, who found its focus on ancient, pre-Islamic heritage abstract and irrelevant to daily life while Pan-Arabism was more accesible, more inclusive talking of through shared Arab language and culture.

[Uncle Miltie]

I’m a polemicist. Sometimes, I go on an approximate rant to make a point. In the case of the arabs, I flip the script they use against the Jews in Israel, and throw their exact words back in their face.

Is it exactly true? Probably not. Everything is always way more complex.

But it is more true of the arabs than the Jews. And I’m going to make that point as strongly as I can in order to break open and change a few minds, and deflate their argument that Jews are the interlopers in Israel.

[Uncle Miltie]

You’re an exceptionally learned guy, and I appreciate that. Feel free to correct me at any point. I’m happy for the learning.

But I may still rail at an idea to make a point in a not perfectly historically accurate way.

:-)