The study raises the possibility that the conquest of the Maltese islands by Viking descendants originally headed by Count Roger had left a lasting genetic mark on the island inhabitants. The study suggests that the Viking conquest of Europe may have played a role in the number of ALS cases today.
Invasion and aftermath
The Norman fleet led by Count Roger I left Cape Scalambri in Sicily in June or July 1091 and arrived in Malta within two days.
At around the year 750 B.C. the Phoenicians settled in Malta. This maritime power based on trade and commerce referred to the island as Maleth, which means “shelter”.
British rule in Malta lasted until 1964 when Malta became independent. The Maltese adopted the British system of public administration, education and legislation. Modern Malta became a Republic in 1974. The foreign military bases on the island closed down permanently in 1979.
During the Middle Ages, Malta was invaded by the Arabs around 870 AD who razed most of the island, which remained uninhabited until the Moors began moving there around 1030 AD. The Normans invaded in 1091 and expelled the others, leaving only native Christian Maltese who became subjects of the Kingdom of Sicily.
As a consequence of this, Capelli et al. found in 2005 that "the contemporary males of Malta most likely originated from Southern Italy, including Sicily and up to Calabria."
The exile to Malta occurred between March 1919 and October 1920 of politicians, high ranking soldiers (mainly), administrators and intellectuals of the Ottoman Empire after the armistice of Mudros during the Occupation of Istanbul by the Allied forces.
Malta was ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire, which became known as the Byzantine Empire. However, in 870 AD Malta was conquered by the Arabs. The Arabs ruled Malta for more than 200 years and in that time the Maltese were heavily influenced by Arab civilization.
Malta in the Middle Ages
The country remained under Arab rule until 1090 when it was conquered by Count Rogerio I of Sicily and controlled by the Kingdom of Sicily until the 16th century.
The Maltese (Maltese: Maltin) people are an ethnic group native to Malta who speak Maltese, a Semitic language and share a common culture and Maltese history.
Malta was under Islamic rule for over 200 years during the Arab Conquest in 870 CE. Islam was reintroduced in the latter half of the 20th century. In present-day Malta, the Muslim community is limited to a few thousand, mostly people who are ethnically linked to North Africa and the Middle East.
Although debatable, UNESCO describes Malta's prehistoric temples as the "oldest free standing monuments on Earth". The temples date from 5,500 to 2,500 BC, making them older than Stonehenge and older than the Pyramids of Egypt (according to current perspectives).
Malta's population is composed almost entirely of ethnic Maltese, the descendants of ancient Carthaginians and Phoenicians as well as of Italians and other Mediterranean peoples.
The Vikings originated in what is now Denmark, Norway and Sweden (although centuries before they became unified countries). Their homeland was overwhelmingly rural, with almost no towns.
The homelands of the Vikings were in Scandinavia, but the countries of Scandinavia as we know them today did not exist until the end of the Viking Age. Wherever they lived, the Viking-age Scandinavians shared common features such as house forms, jewellery, tools and other everyday equipment.
Where did the Vikings live? The Vikings originated from the area that became modern-day Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. They settled in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Iceland, Greenland, North America, and parts of the European mainland, among other places.
Maltese developed from a dialect of Arabic and is closely related to the western Arabic dialects of Algeria and Tunisia. Strongly influenced by the Sicilian language (spoken in Sicily), Maltese is the only form of Arabic to be written in the Latin alphabet.
Professor Godfrey Wettinger, who specialized in Malta's medieval history, writes that the medieval Arab historian Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) puts the expulsion of Islam from Malta to the year 1249.
Malti is thought to derive from the language of the ancient Phoenicians who arrived in Malta in 750 B.C. The influence of the Arabs who made the Islands home from the 9th to 13th centuries is clear in the Maltese language whose roots are closely akin to Arabic.
The Acts of the Apostles tell the story of how Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked on an island which Chapter 28 identifies as Malta while on his way to Rome to face charges. Traditionally, St. Paul's Bay and St Paul's Island are identified as the location for this shipwreck.
The Ottomans first attempted to take Malta in 1551 but failed. In 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan, made a second attempt to take Malta. The Knights, who numbered around 500 together with approximately 6,000 footsoldiers, withstood the siege and repelled the invaders.
Malta was essential to the Allied war effort as it provided a base to disrupt Axis supply lines to Libya, and also for supplying British armies in Egypt. The German and Italian high commands also realised the danger of a British stronghold so close to Italy.
Probably the most perplexing is why Germany failed to capture the island of Malta, which, as a British air and naval base, consistently hampered Axis efforts in the area.
The Maltese soon rebelled against the French and drove the French garrison into Valletta and the Grand Harbour fortifications where they were besieged for more than two years. The French surrendered Malta when their food supplies were about to run out.
Dom Mintoff: Pugnacious Prime Minister of Malta who fought for liberation from British colonial rule.