Star Is Descended From Kings. Of Course, Most People Are

Some people have tried to establish a documented line between Muhammad, who was born in the 6th century, and the medieval English monarchs and, thus, to most if not all people of European descent. Nobody has succeeded yet, but one proposed lineage comes close. Though it has several weak links, the line illustrates how lines of descent can wander down through the centuries, connecting famous figures of the past to millions of people living today.

The proposed genealogy runs through Muhammad's daughter Fatima. Her husband Ali, also a cousin of Muhammad, is considered by Shiite Muslims the legitimate heir to leadership of Islam.

Ali and Fatima had a son, al-Hasan, who died in the late 7th century. About three centuries -- 11 generations -- later, his descendant Ismail carried the line to Europe when he became imam of Seville.

Many genealogists dispute the connection between al-Hasan and Ismail, saying it includes characters invented by medieval genealogists to link the Abbadid dynasty, founded by Ismail's son, to Muhammad.

The Abbadid dynasty was celebrated for making Seville a great cultural center at a time when most of Europe was mired in the Dark Ages. The last emir in that dynasty is thought to have had a daughter named Zaida, who is said to have changed her name to Isabel upon converting to Christianity and to have married Alfonso VI, king of Castile and Leon.

Yet there is no good evidence demonstrating that Isabel, who bore one son by Alfonso VI, was the same person as Zaida. So the line between Muhammad and the English monarchs probably breaks at this point.

But if you give the Muhammad-Ismail connection and the Zaida-Isabel story the benefit of the doubt, the line leads, eight generations later, to Isabel's descendant Maria de Padilla (though it does encounter yet another potentially fictional character in the process).

De Padilla married another king of Castile and Leon, Peter the Cruel. Their great-great-granddaughter was Queen Isabella, who funded the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Her daughter Juana married a Hapsburg, giving rise to a Medici, a Bourbon and long line of Italian princes and dukes, spreading the Muhammadan line of descent all over Europe.

Finally, 43 generations from Muhammad, you reach an Italian princess named Marina Torlonia.

Her granddaughter is Brooke Shields.