Haplogroup X is particularly common among the Druze of the Levant; they exhibit much higher levels of both X1 and X2 than nearly any other population in the world. This unique and isolated ethnic group of no more than a few hundred thousand individuals can be found in the mountainous regions of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. They practice a very specific religion related to Islam, which is usually closed to outsiders and rarely marry non-Druze.
Scholars used to believe that the high levels of X were due to the fact that the Druze are so genetically isolated from neighboring peoples and thus have unusual levels of this haplogroup. Instead, it appears that the presence of X at these levels is simply a genetic remnant of how common X used to be in the region. Over the past several thousand years, as haplogroup X dwindled among the people of the Middle East, its presence among the Druze remained relatively unchanged. It turns out that the Druze serve not only as a window into the cultural history of the Middle East, but a window into the genetic history of the region as well.
~per 23&me
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