Interesting read. Thanks for the ping.
Why is it that journalists and historians conveniently forget the 400 years prior to the crusades? The muslims controlled the mediteranean sea and raided the coast of southern europe for centuries. Just where did that dark pigment find itself into the Spanish and Italian gene pool? By inter-racial dating. I don't think so. Serious scholars have found a strong economic and strategic military motive for these invasions which aimed at reclaiming European control over mediteranean shipping lanes.