Political and transportation map of the Middle East today
The
Middle East (or, formerly more common, the
Near East) is a
region that spans southwestern
Asia and northern
Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to
Near East, in opposition to
Far East. The corresponding adjective to the 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 centre of world affairs. The Middle East is also the historical origin of three of the world’s major religions -
Judaism,
Christianity, and
Islam. 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.
Etymology
The term "Middle East" may have originated in the 1850s in the British
India Office, and became more widely known when
American naval strategist
Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term. 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. 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
British India. 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.
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 Sir Ignatius 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." After the series ended in 1903,
The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term.
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,
and the Middle East then meant the area from
Mesopotamia to
Burma, namely the area between the Near East and the Far East. In the late 1930s, the British established the
Middle East Command, which was based in
Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term "Middle East" gained broader usage in Europe and the United States, with the
Middle East Institute founded in
Washington, D.C. in 1946, among other usage.
Criticism and usage
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Many have criticized the term Middle East due to its implicit Eurocentrism. In contemporary Western academic & media venues, the term is often bandied about by both Europeans and non-Europeans; this stands in contrast to the similar designation,
Mashriq, which is deployed primarily in Arabic-language contexts.
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
Iran,
Afghanistan, and Central Asia,
Turkestan, and the
Caucasus. In contrast, "Far East" referred to the countries of
East Asia (e.g. China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, etc.). Some critics usually advise using an alternative term, such as "
Western Asia", which is the official designation of the
UN.
With the disappearance of the Ottoman 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).
The first official use of the term "Middle East" by the
United States government was in the 1957
Eisenhower Doctrine, which pertained to the
Suez Crisis. 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,
Syria and
Iraq 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.
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.
At the
United Nations, the numerous documents and resolutions about the Middle East are in fact concerned with the
Arab-Israeli conflict, in particular the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and, therefore, with the four states of the
Levant. The term Near East is occasionally heard at the UN when referring to this region.
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 "
Naher Osten" (Near East) is still in common use (nowadays the term "Mittlerer Osten" is more and more common in press texts translated from English sources, albeit having a distinct meaning) and in
Russian Ближний Восток or "Blizhniy Vostok",
Bulgarian Близкия Изток,
Polish Bliski Wschód or
Croatian Bliski istok (meaning
Near East in all the four Slavic languages) remains as the only appropriate term for the region. However, some languages do have "Middle East" equivalents, such as the
French Moyen-Orient,
Spanish Oriente Medio or Medio Oriente, and the
Italian Medio Oriente..
Perhaps due to the influence of the Western press, the Arabic equivalent of “Middle East,” “الشرق الأوسط” (“
ash-sharq-l-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).
Territories and regions
Greater Middle East
History
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem
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
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
ancient Egypt, originated in the
Fertile Crescent and
Nile Valley regions of the
ancient Near East, as well as the civilizations of the
Levant,
Persia, and
Arabian Peninsula. The
Near East was first unified under the
Achaemenid Empire followed later by the
Macedonian Empire and later
Iranian empires, namely the
Parthian and
Sassanid Empires. However, it would be the
Arab Caliphates of the
Middle Ages, or
Islamic Golden Age, that would first unify the entire Middle East as a distinct region and create the dominant
ethnic identity that persists today. The Turkic
Seljuk,
Ottoman and
Safavid empires would also later dominate the region.
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. 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. Of course, besides the political reasons there was also the "ideological conflict" between the two systems. Moreover, as Louise Fawcett argues, among many important areas of contention, or perhaps more accurately of anxiety, were, first, the desires of the superpowers to gain strategic advantage in the region, second, the fact that the region contained some two thirds of the world's oil reserves in a context where oil was becoming increasingly vital to the economy of the Western world [...] 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 US
Occupation of Iraq and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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,
Kurds,
Aramean Syriacs,
Armenians,
Azeris,
Circassians,
Greeks and
Georgians.
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 also important minority religions like
Bahá'í,
Yazdanism,
Zoroastrianism.
Languages
Languages of the Middle East span many different families, including
Indo-European,
Afro-Asiatic, and
Altaic.
Arabic, in its sometime mutually unintelligible
numerous varieties, is the most widely spoken language in the Middle East, being official in all the
Arab countries. It is also spoken in some adjacent areas in neighbouring Middle Eastern non-Arab countries. It is a
Semitic language. Second most-numerous language is
Persian, and while it is confined to
Iran and some border areas in neghbouring countries, the country is one of the region's largest and most populous. It is an
Indo-European language. Third most numerous is the
Turkish language, also confined to Turkey (also one of the region's largest and populous countries) and areas with neighbouring countries. It is an
Altaic language with origins in
Central Asia.
Other languages spoken in the region include
Syriac (a form of
Aramaic),
Armenian,
Azeri,
Berber languages,
Circassian,
Gilaki language and
Mazandarani languages,
Hebrew,
Kurdish,
Luri, and other
Turkic languages,
Somali and
Greek. In Turkey,
Kurdish,
Dimli (or Zaza),
Azeri,
Kabardian, and
Gagauz languages are spoken, in addition to the
Turkish language. Several
modern South Arabian languages are also spoken.
English is also spoken, especially among the
middle and
upper class, in countries such as
Egypt,
Jordan,
Israel,
Iraq, and
Kuwait.
French is spoken in Algeria, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Egypt.
Urdu is spoken in many Middle Eastern countries, such as Arab states the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Qatar, which have large numbers of
Pakistani immigrants. The largest
Romanian-speaking community in the Middle East is found in
Israel, where Romanian is spoken by 5% of the population. 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.
Russian language is also spoken by a large portion of the Israeli population, due to emigration in the late 1990s.
Economy
Middle Eastern economies range from being very poor (such as Gaza and Yemen) to extremely wealthy nations (such as Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia). Overall, , according to the CIA World Factbook, all nations in the Middle East are maintaining a positive rate of growth.
According to the
World Bank's
World Development Indicators database published on July 1, 2009, the three largest Middle Eastern economies in 2008 were Turkey ($ 794,228,000,000), Saudi Arabia ($ 467,601,000,000) and Iran ($ 385,143,000,000) in terms of
Nominal GDP.
[ Data for the year 2008. Last revised on July 1, 2009.] In regards to nominal GDP per capita, the highest ranking countries are Qatar ($93,204), the UAE ($55,028), Kuwait ($45,920) and Cyprus ($32,745). Turkey ($ 1,028,897,000,000), Iran ($ 839,438,000,000) and Saudi Arabia ($ 589,531,000,000) had the largest economies in terms of
GDP-PPP.
[ Data for the year 2008. Last revised on July 1, 2009.] When it comes to per capita (PPP)-based income, the highest-ranking countries are Qatar ($86,008), Kuwait ($39,915), the UAE ($38,894), Bahrain ($34,662) and Cyprus ($29,853). The lowest-ranking country in the Middle East, in terms of per capita income (PPP), is the autonomous Palestinian Authority of Gaza and the West Bank ($1,100).
The economic structure of Middle Eastern nations are different in the sense that while some nations are heavily dependent on export of only oil and oil-related products (such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait), others have a highly diverse economic base (such as Cyprus, Israel, Turkey and Egypt). Industries of the Middle Eastern region include oil and oil-related products, agriculture, cotton, cattle, dairy, textiles, leather products, surgical instruments, defence equipment (guns, ammunition, tanks, submarines, fighter jets, UAVs, and missiles). Banking is also an important sector of the economies, especially in the case of UAE and Bahrain.
With the exception of Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and Israel, tourism has been a relatively undeveloped area of the economy, due in part to the socially conservative nature of the region as well as political turmoil in certain regions of the Middle East. In recent years, however, countries such as the UAE, Bahrain, and Jordan have begun attracting greater number of tourists due to improving tourist facilities and the relaxing of tourism-related restrictive policies.
Unemployment is notably high in the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly among young people aged 15–29, a demographic representing 30% of the region’s total population. The total regional unemployment rate in 2005, according to the
International Labor Organization, was 13.2%, and among youth is as high as 25%, up to 37% in
Morocco and 73% in
Syria.
See also
- Maayan Middle East poetry magazine
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