ClinVar

See Elion et al. (1973) and Ren et al. (1988).

Among 598 children from the Berber population of the Mzab, Merghoub et al. (1997) found HbC and Hb D (Ouled Rabah) in the same gene frequency (0.015). Hb D(Ouled Rabah) is considered a private marker of the Kel Kummer Tuaregs. Haplotype analysis suggested a single origin of the Hb D mutation. Genetic markers calculated from blood group data clustered Mozabites and Tuaregs with the other Berber-speaking groups, Arabic-speaking populations being more distant. However, they found no specific relationship between the Mozabites and Kel Kummers. Tuaregs in general exhibit features that tend to differentiate them from other Berber-speaking groups. Merghoub et al. (1997) concluded that Hb D(Ouled Rabah) may be specific for Berber-speaking populations. Merghoub et al. (1997) noted that the origin of the Berber people is not clearly established. North Africa was peopled around the sixteenth millennium B.C.; transition to agriculture occurred around 9500 to 7000 B.C., spreading from the Near East to Egypt. The Arab invasion in the seventh and eighth centuries brought Islamization and dispersal of the Berber culture. Present-day populations of North Africa are mostly Arabic-speaking, whatever their remote origin. Berbers, however, with their languages and customs, still live in small niches of northern Morocco and Algeria, and in some northern oases of the Sahara, including those of the Mzab (Algeria). The Tuaregs also speak Berber languages. They inhabit the south of the Sahara and have been involved for centuries in trans-Saharan trade. Tuaregs have their own culture that probably diverged from the Berber world through isolation.