a study of "y chromosomes of self-identified syeds from the indian subcontinent" by elise m. s. belle, saima shah, tudor parfitt and mark g. thomas showed that "self-identified syeds had no less genetic diversity than those non-syeds from the same regions, suggesting that there is no biological basis to the belief that self-identified syeds in this part of the world share a recent common ancestry. however, self-identified men belonging to the ‘islamic honorific lineages’ (syeds, hashemites, quraysh and ansari) show a greater genetic affinity to arab populations—despite the geographic distancethan do their neighbouring populations from india and pakistan."