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The 'Middle East' is a historical and political region of Africa-Eurasia with no clear definition. The term "Middle East" was popularized around 1900 by the British, and has been criticized for its loose definition. The Middle East traditionally includes countries or regions in Southwest Asia and parts of North Africa. The corresponding adjective to Middle East is Middle-Eastern and the derived noun is Middle-Easterner.
The history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, and throughout its history the Middle East has been a major center of world affairs. The Middle East generally has an arid and hot climate, with several major rivers providing for irrigation to support agriculture in limited areas. Many countries located around the Persian Gulf have large quantities of crude oil. In modern times, the Middle East remains a strategically, economically, politically, culturally, and religiously sensitive region.

Contents

Etymology

Criticism and usage

Translations

History

Geography

Topography

Geology

Water resources

Territories and regions

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Religions

Languages

Economy

Regions

Notes

External links

See also

Etymology

The term "Middle East" may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office,^[1] and became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term.^[2] During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, a rivalry which would become known as The Great Game. Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf.^[3][4] He labeled the area surrounding the Persian Gulf as the Middle East, and said that after the Suez Canal, it was the most important passage for Britain to control in order to keep the Russians from advancing towards India.^[5] Mahan first used the term in his article "The Persian Gulf and International Relations", published in September 1902 in the ''National Review'', a British journal.

The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar; it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. Naval force has the quality of mobility which carries with it the privilege of temporary absences; but it needs to find on every scene of operation established bases of refit, of supply, and in case of disaster, of security. The British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden, India, and the Persian Gulf.^[6]

Mahan's article was reprinted in ''The Times'' and followed in October by a 20 article series entitled "The Middle Eastern Question", written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Chirol expanded the definition of the "Middle East" to include "those regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India."^[7] With the series end in 1903, ''The Times'' removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term.^[8]
Until World War II, it was customary to refer to areas centered around Turkey and the eastern shore of the Mediterranean as the Near East, while the Far East centered on China.^[9] The Middle East then meant the area from Mesopotamia to Burma, namely the area between the Near East and the Far East. The sense described in this article evolved during the war, perhaps influenced by the ancient idea of the Mediterranean as the "sea in the middle".
One widely used definition of the "Middle East" is that of the airline industry, maintained by the IATA standards organization. This definition — as of early 2007 — includes Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.^[10] This definition is used in world-wide airfare and tax calculations for passengers and cargo.

Criticism and usage

Many have criticized the term ''Middle East'' for what they see as Eurocentrism,^[11][12] because it was originally used by Europeans (although Alfred Mahan was American) and reflects the geographical position of the region from a European perspective. It is also criticized due to the fact that the term today is often used to only refer to the Arab world, making the situation more confused.
Today the term is used by Europeans and non-Europeans alike, unlike the similar term ''Mashreq'', used exclusively in Arabic-language contexts. The region is only east from the perspective of Europe. To an Indian, it lies to the west; to a Russian, it lies to the south. The description ''Middle'' has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, ''Near East'' was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while ''Middle East'' referred to Persia, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, present day Pakistan and Central Asia, Turkistan and the Caucasus. In contrast, ''Far East'' refers to the countries of ''East Asia'', e.g. China, Japan, Koreas, Hong Kong (China), Taiwan, etc. Such critics usually advise using an alternative term, such as "West Asia". The official UN designation of the area is "Southwest Asia".
With the disappearance of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1918, ''Near East'' largely fell out of common use in English, while ''Middle East'' came to be applied to the re-emerging countries of the Islamic world. However, the usage of Near East was retained by a variety of academic disciplines, including archaeology and ancient history, where it describes an area identical to the term ''Middle East'', which is not used by these disciplines (see Ancient Near East). So in shorter words, the term Middle East came about when the UK/French part of the world used the term.
The Eisenhower Doctrine, a 1957 policy of the United States government, was the first to officially use the term Middle East. Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles defined the Middle East as "the area lying between and including Libya on the west and Pakistan on the east and Turkey on the North and the Arabian peninsula to the south, plus the Sudan and Ethiopia." In 1958, the State Department explained that the terms "Near East" and "Middle East" were interchangeable, and defined the region as including only Egypt, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.^[13]
The Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous. It instructs:

Use ''Middle East'' unless ''Near East'' is used by a source in a story. ''Mideast'' is also acceptable, but ''Middle East'' is preferred.^[14]

Translations

There are terms similar to "Near East" and "Middle East" in other European languages, but since it is a relative description, the meanings depend on the country and are different from the English terms generally. In German the term "" (Near East) is still in common use (although nowadays the term "Mittlerer Osten" is more and more common) and in Russian '' or "Blizhniy Vostok" (Near East), Bulgarian '' (Near East) or Polish '' remains as the only appropriate term for the region. However, some languages do have "Middle East" equivalents, such as the French and the Italian .
Perhaps due to the influence of the Western press, the Arabic equivalent of “Middle East,” “‫الشرق الأوسط‬” (“ash-sharq al-’awsaT”), has become standard usage in the mainstream Arabic press, comprehending the same meaning as the term “Middle East” in North American and Western European usage. The Persian equivalent for Middle East is خاورمیانه (''Khāvarmiyāneh'').

History

Main articles: History of the Middle East

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Blue Mosque in Mazari Sharif.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque) is one of the most famous architectural legacies of the Ottoman Empire

View from Minto Park

The Middle East lies at the juncture of Eurasia and Africa and of the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is the birthplace and spiritual center of the Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Yezidi, and in Iran, Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and the Bahá'í Faith. Throughout its history the Middle East has been a major center of world affairs; a strategically, economically, politically, culturally, and religiously sensitive area. The earliest civilizations, Mesopotamia and Egypt, originated in the Fertile Crescent region of the ancient Near East, as well as the civilizations of the Levant, Persia, and Arabia, including the Persian Empire and Arab Empire.
The modern Middle East began after World War I, when the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with the defeated Central Powers, was partitioned into a number of separate nations. Other defining events in this transformation included the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the departure of European powers, notably Britain and France. They were supplanted in some part by the rising influence of the United States.
In the 20th century, the region's significant stocks of crude oil gave it new strategic and economic importance. Mass production of oil began around 1945, with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates having large quantities of oil.^[15] Estimated oil reserves, especially in Saudi Arabia and Iran, are some of the highest in the world, and the international oil cartel OPEC is dominated by Middle Eastern countries.
During the Cold War, the Middle East was a theater of ideological struggle between the two superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union, as they competed to influence regional allies. Within this contextual framework, the United States sought to divert the Arab world from Soviet influence. Throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, the region has experienced both periods of relative peace and tolerance and periods of conflict and war. Current issues include the Iraq War, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Iranian nuclear program.

Geography

Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, is located in a mountainous region, and is designated a World Heritage Site for its architecture.

King Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, one of the largest in the world

The Middle East defines a geographical area, but does not have precise defined borders. The most common and highly arbitrary definition includes: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Many Western definitions of the "Middle East" — in both established reference books and common usage — define the region as "nations in Southwest Asia, from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Egypt." The inclusion of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey is sometimes contentious as they are not Arab states. Egypt, with its Sinai Peninsula in Asia, is often considered part of the Middle East, although most of the country lies geographically in North Africa. North African nations without Asian links, such as Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, are increasingly being called North African — as opposed to Middle Eastern (Pakistan to Egypt-Asia) — by international media outlets. However, North African countries can also be considered part of the Middle East. Somalia, an Islamic country in the East Africa, is, like Pakistan also considered part of the "Greater Middle East". Other countries that are sometimes included in this definition are those of the Caucasus region (Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia), Cyprus, and North Africa (the Maghreb). Like the situation of Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, the inclusion of these countries is controversial, and often more so because they are located far outside the arbitrary geographical boundaries of the Middle East.
The Middle East primarily consists of arid and semi-arid, with grasslands, rangelands, and deserts.^[16] Water shortages are a problem in many parts of the Middle East, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water, while salinization and pollution threaten water supplies. Major rivers, including the Nile and the Euphrates, provide sources for irrigation water to support agriculture.

Topography

While Middle East mainly contains areas with low relief, portions of Turkey, Iran, and Yemen include mountainous terrain. The Anatolian Plateau is sandwiched between the Pontus Mountains and Taurus Mountains in Turkey. Mount Ararat in Turkey rises to 5,165 meters, and the tallest in the region, Mount Damavand, located in Iran's Elburz Mountains rises to 5,610 meters.^[17] The Zagros Mountains are located in Iran, in areas along its border with Iraq. The Central Plateau of Iran is divided into two drainage basins. The northern basin is Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert), and Dasht-e-Lut is the southern basin.
In Yemen, elevations exceed 3,700 meters in many areas, and highland areas extend north along the Red Sea coast and north into Lebanon. A fault-zone also exists along the Red Sea, with continental rifting creating trough-like topography with areas located well-below sea level.^[18] The Dead Sea, located on the border between the West Bank, Israel, and Jordan, is situated at 418 m (1371 ft) below sea level, making it the lowest point on the surface of the Earth.^[19]
A large lowland belt is located on the Arabian Peninsula, from central Iraq, through Saudi Arabia, and to Oman and the Arabian Sea. The Euphrates and Tigris rivers cut through the lowland belt in Iraq and flow into the Persian Gulf. Rub'al KhāLī, one of the world's largest sand deserts, spans the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula in Saudi Arabia, parts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Jebel al Akhdar is a small range of mountains located in northeastern Oman, bordering the Gulf of Oman.

Geology

Three major tectonic plates converge on the Middle East, including the African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates. The boundaries between the tectonic plates make up the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge, extending across North Africa, the Red Sea, and into Iran.^[20] The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate (Turkey) at the East Anatolian Fault,^[21] and the boundary between the Aegean and Anatolian plate in eastern Turkey is also seismically active.

Water resources

Desert in Qatar

Several major aquifers provide water to large portions of the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia, two large aquifers of Palaeozoic and Triassic origins are located beneath the Jabal Tuwayq mountains and areas west to the Red Sea.^[22] Cretaceous and Eocene-origin aquifers are located beneath large portions of central and eastern Saudi Arabia, including Wasia and Biyadh which contain amounts of both fresh water and saline water. The Nubian aquifer system underlies large areas of North Africa. The Great Manmade River project in Libya utilizes an extensive network of pipelines to transport water from the Nubian aquifer to its population centers. Recharge for these deep rock aquifers is on the order of thousands of years, thus the aquifers are essentially non-renewable resources.^[23] Flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation, covering nearly 90,000 km² across the Middle East for agriculture.^[24]

Territories and regions

Name of country, with flag	Area (km²)	Population	Population density (per km²)	Capital	GDP (Total)	GDP (Per capita)	Currency	Government	Official languages	Coat of Arms
Egypt	1,001,449	77,498,000	74	Cairo	$334 billion	$4,200	Egyptian pound	Semi-presidential republic (democracy)	Arabic
Turkey	783,562	71,158,647	204	Ankara	$708.053 billion	$9,628	Turkish new lira	Republic	Turkish
Iraq	437,072	24,001,816	55	Baghdad	$90 billion	$3,600	Iraqi dinar	Parliamentary Democracy (Developing)	Arabic
Kuwait	17,820	2,111,561	119	Kuwait City	$90 billion	$29,600	Kuwaiti dinar	Constitutional Hereditary	Arabic
'Arabian Peninsula':
Bahrain	665	656,397	987	Manama	$14 billion	$20,500	Bahraini Dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Oman	212,460	2,713,462	13	Muscat	$41 billion	$14,100	Rial	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
Qatar	11,437	793,341	69	Doha	$25 billion	$31,400	Riyal	Monarchy	Arabic
Saudi Arabia	1,960,582	23,513,330	12	Riyadh	$446 billion	$21,200	Riyal	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
United Arab Emirates	82,880	2,445,989	30	Abu Dhabi	$162 billion	$49,700	UAE dirham	Federal Constitutional Monarchy	Arabic
Yemen	527,970	18,701,257	35	Sanaá	$19 billion	$1,000	Yemeni rial	Republic	Arabic
'The Levant':
Israel	20,770	7,029,529	290	Jerusalem	$177 billion	$26,200	Israeli new sheqel	Parliamentary democracy	Hebrew, Arabic
Jordan	92,300	5,307,470	58	Amman	$28 billion	$5,100	Jordanian dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Lebanon	10,452	3,677,780	354	Beirut	$24 billion	$5,700	Lebanese lira	Republic	Arabic
Syria	185,180	17,155,814	93	Damascus	$72 billion	$5,400	Syrian pound	Presidential republic	Arabic
'Southern Asia':
Iran	1,648,195	70,049,262	42	Tehran	$610 billion	$8,900	Iranian rial	Islamic Republic	Persian
Pakistan	803,940	156,770,000	206	Islamabad	$476 billion	$3,004.5	Pakistani Rupee	Islamic Republic	Urdu
Afghanistan	647,500	31,889,923	46	Kabul	$32.4 billion	$1,490	Afghani	Islamic Republic	Pashto
'Autonomous region':
Iraqi Kurdistan	80,000	5,500,000	40	Arbil			Iraqi Dinar	Parliamentary democracy	Kurdish,Arabic
Gaza Strip	360	1,376,289	3,823	Gaza	$0.8 billion	$600	Israeli new sheqel	Palestinian National Authority Hamas	Arabic
West Bank		2,500,000		Ramallah			Israeli new sheqel	Palestinian National Authority Fatah	Arabic

''Source:''

★ The World Factbook, United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 14 November 2006. [1]

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Various ethnic and religious types in the Middle East, 19th century.

The Middle East is home to numerous ethnic groups, including Arabs, Turks, Persians, Jews, Armenians, Georgians, Egyptians, Kurds, Assyrians, Azeris, Circassians, Berbers, Samaritans, Turkmens, Pashtuns, and various South Asian and black African groups.

Religions

The Middle East is very diverse when it comes to religions, most of which originated there. Islam in its many forms is by far the largest religion in the Middle East, but other faiths, such as Judaism and Christianity, are also important. There are important minority religions like Bahai, Druze, and Zoroastrianism.

Languages

Languages of the Middle East span many different families, including Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, and Altaic.
Arabic in its numerous varieties and Persian are most widely spoken in the region, with Arabic being the most widely spoken language in the Arab countries. Other languages spoken in the region include Armenian, Syriac (a form of Aramaic), Azeri, Balochi or Baluchi, Berber languages, Circassian, Persian, Pashtu, Georgian, Gilaki language and Mazandarani languages, Hebrew in its numerous varieties, Kurdish, Luri, Turkish and other Turkic languages, Greek and Urdu. In Turkey, Kurdish, Dimli (or Zaza), Azeri, Kabardian, and Gagauz languages are spoken, in addition to the Turkish language.
English is also spoken, especially among the middle and upper class, in countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Iraq and Kuwait.^[25][26] French is spoken in Algeria, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Egypt. Urdu and other South Asian languages are spoken in many Middle Eastern countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Qatar, which have large numbers of South Asian immigrants. The largest Romanian-speaking community in the Middle East is found in Israel, where as of 1995 Romanian is spoken by 5% of the population.^[27][28] Romanian is spoken mostly as a secondary language by people from Arab-speaking countries that made their studies in Romania. It is estimated that almost half a million Middle Eastern Arabs studied in Romania during the 1980s.^[29]
Russian language is also spoken by a large portion of the Israeli population, due to emigration in the late 1990s.

Economy

Dubai skyline

The Burj al Arab artificial island

Tel Aviv skyline

Regions

Main articles: Regions of the Middle East


★ Iranian Plateau

★ Arabia, see Persian Gulf States - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, U.A.E., Oman, Yemen, Bahrain and Iraq

★ The Levant - collective name for the countries of the eastern shore of the Mediterranean

★ Pakistan, and Afghanistan are definitions of greater middle eastern countries

Notes

1. The Middle East: A Geographical Study, Beaumont, Peter , Gerald H. Blake, J. Malcolm Wagstaff, , , David Fulton, 1988,
2. Captain Mahan, General Gordon and the origin of the term "Middle East", Koppes, C.R., , , Middle East Studies, 1976
3. Melman, Billie. The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing: 6 The Middle East / Arabia, Cambridge Collections Online. Retrieved January 8, 2006.
4. Palmer, Michael A. ''Guardians of the Persian Gulf: A History of America's Expanding Role in the Persian Gulf, 1833-1992.'' New York: The Free Press, 1992. ISBN 0-02-923843-9 p. 12-13.
5. Laciner, Dr. Sedat. "Is There a Place Called ‘the Middle East’?", ''The Journal of Turkish Weekly]", June 2, 2006. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
6. Adelson, Roger. ''London and the Invention of the Middle East: Money, Power, and War, 1902-1922.'' New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-300-06094-7 p. 22-23
7. Adelson, 24.
8. Adelson, 26.
9. Where is the Middle East?, Davison, Roderic H., , , Foreign Affairs, 1960
10. Middle East, IATA. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
11. Redrawing American Cartographies of Asia Shohat, Ella
12. The Middle East, in whose world? Hanafi, Hassan
13. 'Near East' is Mideast, Washington Explains
14. Goldstein, Norm. ''The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law''. New York: Basic Books, 2004. ISBN 0465004881 p. 156
15. A Concise History of the Middle East, Goldschmidt Jr., Arthur, , , Westview Press, 1999,
16. IPCC Special Report on The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability, , , , Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ,
17. The Middle East: A Geographical Study, Beaumont, Peter, Gerald H. Blake, J. Malcolm Wagstaff, , , David Fulton, 1988,
18. Preliminary Definition of Geophysical Regions for the Middle East and North Africa Sweeney, Jerry J., William R. Walter
19. ASTER Image Gallery: The Dead Sea
20. The Middle East: A Geographical Study, Beaumont, Peter, Gerald H. Blake, J. Malcolm Wagstaff, , , David Fulton, 1988,
21. The Arabian Plate Muehlberger, Bill
22. The Middle East: A Geographical Study, Beaumont, Peter, Gerald H. Blake, J. Malcolm Wagstaff, , , David Fulton, 1988,
23. The Middle East: A Geographical Study, Beaumont, Peter, Gerald H. Blake, J. Malcolm Wagstaff, , , David Fulton, 1988,
24. Water managed areas and irrigation
25. World Factbook - Jordan
26. World Factbook - Kuwait
27. According to the 1993 ''Statistical Abstract of Israel'' there were 250,000 Romanian speakers in Israel, at a population of 5,548,523 (census 1995).
28. Reports of about 300,000 Jews that left the country after WW2
29. Evenimentul Zilei

External links

★ "Middle East" - Council on Foreign Relations: "A Resource for Nonpartisan Research and Analysis"

★ Middle East Department University of Chicago Library

★ ''Middle East Economic Digest'': "The leading information source on business in the Middle East" - magazine website

★ Middle East News from Yahoo! News

★

★ Middle East Live News

See also

★ Fertile Crescent

★ Greater Middle East

★ History of the Middle East

★ List of conflicts in the Middle East

★ Middle East Institute

★ Middle East Studies Association of North America

★ Maayan Middle East poetry magazine

★ Near East

★ Orientalism

★ Southwest Asia

★ Timeline of Middle Eastern History