Why do Gulf Arabs and Pakistanis look so alike?

[marko5577]

I mean Arabs from countries like Yemen and Saudi Arabia, a lot of the time they look physically indiscernible from northern South Asians in particular Pakistanis.

As far as I know the two groups share no ancestral heritage so what is the reason for this.

[levi_francis]

Firstly, Yemen is not a Gulf state since it does not have a coastline along the Persian Gulf. These are the Arab Gulf countries that match that description:



The people of Yemen have the most African admixture of any country on the Arabian peninsula and few would resemble any Pakistanis.

Oman has a significant native Baloch population which are also found in Pakistan's largest province by area, Balochistan; so these two groups of people are very similar genetically.

Additionally, immigrants from South Asia make up a plurality in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain to such an extent that Urdu-Hindi and English is more widely spoken than Arabic. This skews peoples perceptions when they visit these places as the local population is so few in number (Emiratis make up only about 10% of UAE's population for example).

Arabs where known for being sailors and nomadic. They have spread their genes in neighboring areas of East Africa and South Asia. Sudan and Somalia are the most Arab admixed Africans, and Iranians and Pakistanis bordering the Gulf are also the most Arabized by the same token.

[Trouble]

Firstly Yemen is not a Gulf state since it does not have a coastline along the Persian Gulf. These are the Arab Gulf countries that match that description:

Yep, I've said this before. Yemen is not a Gulf country. Of those that are colored in, I would also exclude Iraq. Even though it has a minor coastline on the gulf, its history, culture, and to some extent geography are very distinct from the others. Long history of sedentarism, historically not an Arab country, two large rivers, and substantial Iranic cultural and genetic legacy.

[marko5577]

The people I am talking about were definitely not South Asians born in Arabia, it was rich students from Saudi Arabia living in the UK.

I didn't know that Yemeni weren't Gulf Arab.

[marko5577]

Yep Iraqi's on average don't look South Asian, but a lot of Saudi's and Emirati's etc do.

So the reason is because of the shared Baloch ancestry, that makes sense.

[Hurrem sultana]

Yep Iraqi's on average don't look South Asian, but a lot of Saudi's and Emirati's etc do.

So the reason is because of the shared Baloch ancestry, that makes sense.

lol no they do not look same

[lameduck]

its easy to tell apart if you are familiar with both groups.

[Hurrem sultana]

its easy to tell apart if you are familiar with both groups.

i am not even familiar yet i can see it ,i also can tell afghans apart very easy

[Pro.crasti.nation]

I mean Arabs from countries like Yemen and Saudi Arabia, a lot of the time they look physically indiscernible from northern South Asians in particular Pakistanis.

As far as I know the two groups share no ancestral heritage so what is the reason for this.

More like South Indians, from what I can see. Although some Pakistanis also look like that ...

[marko5577]

Yes they do here are some Arab Saudi football fans:




Besides a couple that look visibly mixed with Negroid all the rest would not look out of place amongst Pakistani's.