A new genetic study is reshaping how we understand medieval Ibiza, revealing that this small Mediterranean island was deeply connected to a vast world stretching from Europe to North Africa and even the Sahel.
Researchers analysing ancient DNA from a medieval Islamic cemetery have found that Ibiza’s population was far more diverse than previously thought, reflecting centuries of migration, trade, and cultural exchange across the medieval Mediterranean and beyond.
A Crossroads in Medieval Iberia
Map by DaniCBP / Wikimedia Commons
Ibiza became part of the Islamic world in the year 902, when it was conquered by the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba. Settlement followed rapidly, taking place within little more than a generation, and by the twelfth century the island had developed into a modest but active urban centre within al-Andalus.
Positioned along key maritime routes, Ibiza was not an isolated outpost but part of a dynamic network linking Iberia, North Africa, and the wider Mediterranean. This broader context helps explain the striking diversity uncovered in the new study, published in Nature Communications.
DNA from a Medieval Cemetery
The research team analysed 13 individuals buried between the tenth and twelfth centuries in the Maqbara of Madina Yabisa, a Muslim cemetery discovered in Ibiza town. The site originally contained around 125 burials, with individuals interred according to Islamic customs—laid on their right side and facing toward Mecca, typically in simple, unadorned graves .
Despite this uniform burial practice, the genetic data revealed a highly varied population. Some individuals had predominantly European ancestry, others North African, while many showed a mixture of both. This diversity reflects the demographic changes following the Islamic conquest, as newcomers from North Africa and beyond settled alongside local populations.
Evidence of Long-Distance Connections
Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela working in his lab – Photo: David Díez del Molino / Stockholm University
Perhaps the most striking finding is the presence of individuals with Sub-Saharan African ancestry. One individual’s genetic profile points to origins in Senegambia in West Africa, while another traces back to southern Chad in central Africa .
“These genomes show that people from both western and central Sahel became part of communities in Islamic Iberia,” says Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela, lead author of the study. “This is direct genetic evidence of the long-distance networks reaching the Sahel, as described in historical sources.”
These results provide rare biological confirmation of trans-Saharan connections described in medieval Arabic texts, including the movement of people through trade, military activity, and slavery.
When Did These Populations Mix?
Using advanced genomic analysis, the researchers were able to estimate when this mixing of populations occurred. Their findings suggest that North African gene flow into Ibiza began only a few generations before the individuals lived—likely within decades of the island’s incorporation into al-Andalus. In fact, the main admixture event dates to around the late ninth century, just before or shortly after the Islamic conquest .
“These genomes capture the moment when the Islamic world and the Christian societies of Iberia began to reshape each other,” says Anders Götherström, senior author of the study. “With ancient DNA we can begin to see how these large historical processes unfolded in the lives of real people.”
Disease and Daily Life
The study also offers insights into health in medieval Ibiza. One individual was found to be infected with Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterium responsible for leprosy. This represents the first genetically confirmed case of the disease from Islamic-period Iberia.
Despite this, the individual was buried according to standard Islamic practices, with no indication of social exclusion. “There is no evidence in the burial context that he was treated differently from others, a pattern also reported in contemporaneous Christian communities,” says Zoé Pochon, co-author of the study.
Further analysis suggests that the strain of leprosy identified in Ibiza was part of a wider lineage circulating across Europe between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, pointing to the island’s role in broader epidemiological networks.
A Diverse Medieval Society
Taken together, the findings paint a picture of medieval Ibiza as a place of movement and interaction rather than isolation. Its population included people of European, North African, and Sub-Saharan African origins, brought together through the political and economic networks of the medieval Islamic world.
Far from being a quiet island on the fringes of Europe, Ibiza emerges as a microcosm of the interconnected medieval Mediterranean—a place where cultures, peoples, and diseases all moved across vast distances, leaving their mark on the lives of those who lived there.
Analysis of medieval burials from Ibiza reveals genetic and pathogenic diversity during the Islamic period,” by Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela, Zoé Pochon, Alex Mas-Sandoval, Reyhan Yaka, Cesar A. Fortes-Lima, Almudena García Rubio, Nicholas Márquez-Grant, Juanjo Marí, Glenda Graziani, Antoni Ferrer Abárzuza, Mário Vicente, Lander Lorca-Francisco, Anna Linderholm, Vendela K. Lagerholm, Lara R. Arauna, Patxi Pérez-Ramallo, Maja Krzewińska, Carina M. Schlebusch and Anders Götherström, appears in Nature Communications. Click here to read it.
Top Image: Ibiza depicted in this detail from a map by Willem Barents (1550?-1597)
A new genetic study is reshaping how we understand medieval Ibiza, revealing that this small Mediterranean island was deeply connected to a vast world stretching from Europe to North Africa and even the Sahel.
Researchers analysing ancient DNA from a medieval Islamic cemetery have found that Ibiza’s population was far more diverse than previously thought, reflecting centuries of migration, trade, and cultural exchange across the medieval Mediterranean and beyond.
A Crossroads in Medieval Iberia
Ibiza became part of the Islamic world in the year 902, when it was conquered by the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba. Settlement followed rapidly, taking place within little more than a generation, and by the twelfth century the island had developed into a modest but active urban centre within al-Andalus.
Positioned along key maritime routes, Ibiza was not an isolated outpost but part of a dynamic network linking Iberia, North Africa, and the wider Mediterranean. This broader context helps explain the striking diversity uncovered in the new study, published in Nature Communications.
DNA from a Medieval Cemetery
The research team analysed 13 individuals buried between the tenth and twelfth centuries in the Maqbara of Madina Yabisa, a Muslim cemetery discovered in Ibiza town. The site originally contained around 125 burials, with individuals interred according to Islamic customs—laid on their right side and facing toward Mecca, typically in simple, unadorned graves .
Despite this uniform burial practice, the genetic data revealed a highly varied population. Some individuals had predominantly European ancestry, others North African, while many showed a mixture of both. This diversity reflects the demographic changes following the Islamic conquest, as newcomers from North Africa and beyond settled alongside local populations.
Evidence of Long-Distance Connections
Perhaps the most striking finding is the presence of individuals with Sub-Saharan African ancestry. One individual’s genetic profile points to origins in Senegambia in West Africa, while another traces back to southern Chad in central Africa .
“These genomes show that people from both western and central Sahel became part of communities in Islamic Iberia,” says Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela, lead author of the study. “This is direct genetic evidence of the long-distance networks reaching the Sahel, as described in historical sources.”
These results provide rare biological confirmation of trans-Saharan connections described in medieval Arabic texts, including the movement of people through trade, military activity, and slavery.
When Did These Populations Mix?
Using advanced genomic analysis, the researchers were able to estimate when this mixing of populations occurred. Their findings suggest that North African gene flow into Ibiza began only a few generations before the individuals lived—likely within decades of the island’s incorporation into al-Andalus. In fact, the main admixture event dates to around the late ninth century, just before or shortly after the Islamic conquest .
“These genomes capture the moment when the Islamic world and the Christian societies of Iberia began to reshape each other,” says Anders Götherström, senior author of the study. “With ancient DNA we can begin to see how these large historical processes unfolded in the lives of real people.”
Disease and Daily Life
The study also offers insights into health in medieval Ibiza. One individual was found to be infected with Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterium responsible for leprosy. This represents the first genetically confirmed case of the disease from Islamic-period Iberia.
Despite this, the individual was buried according to standard Islamic practices, with no indication of social exclusion. “There is no evidence in the burial context that he was treated differently from others, a pattern also reported in contemporaneous Christian communities,” says Zoé Pochon, co-author of the study.
Further analysis suggests that the strain of leprosy identified in Ibiza was part of a wider lineage circulating across Europe between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, pointing to the island’s role in broader epidemiological networks.
A Diverse Medieval Society
Taken together, the findings paint a picture of medieval Ibiza as a place of movement and interaction rather than isolation. Its population included people of European, North African, and Sub-Saharan African origins, brought together through the political and economic networks of the medieval Islamic world.
Far from being a quiet island on the fringes of Europe, Ibiza emerges as a microcosm of the interconnected medieval Mediterranean—a place where cultures, peoples, and diseases all moved across vast distances, leaving their mark on the lives of those who lived there.
Analysis of medieval burials from Ibiza reveals genetic and pathogenic diversity during the Islamic period,” by Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela, Zoé Pochon, Alex Mas-Sandoval, Reyhan Yaka, Cesar A. Fortes-Lima, Almudena García Rubio, Nicholas Márquez-Grant, Juanjo Marí, Glenda Graziani, Antoni Ferrer Abárzuza, Mário Vicente, Lander Lorca-Francisco, Anna Linderholm, Vendela K. Lagerholm, Lara R. Arauna, Patxi Pérez-Ramallo, Maja Krzewińska, Carina M. Schlebusch and Anders Götherström, appears in Nature Communications. Click here to read it.
Top Image: Ibiza depicted in this detail from a map by Willem Barents (1550?-1597)
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