Middle East

The Middle East (from a European perspective)^[1] is a region that encompasses southwestern Asia and Egypt. In some contexts, the term has recently been expanded in usage to sometimes include Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and North Africa. It's often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East. The corresponding adjective 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. When discussing ancient history, however, the term Near East is more commonly used. The Middle East is also the historical origin of major religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Baha'i Faith. 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 1 Etymology 1.1 Criticism and usage 1.2 Translations 2 Territories and regions 2.1 Traditional definition of the Middle East 2.2 Greater Middle East 3 History 4 Demographics 4.1 Ethnic groups 4.2 Religions 4.3 Languages 5 Economy 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

Etymology

The term "Middle East" may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office.^[2] However, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902^[3] to 'designate the area between Arabia and India'.^[4][5] 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.^[6][7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9]

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 Middle East to include "those regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India."^[10] After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term.^[11]

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,^[12] and the Middle East then meant the area from Mesopotamia to Burma, namely the area between the Near East and the Far East.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[13]

Criticism and usage

Many have criticized the term Middle East due to its implicit Eurocentrism.^[14][15] In contemporary English-language academic & media venues, the term is used by both Europeans and non-Europeans.

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."^[12] 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.^[16]

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.^[17]

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, Swedish Mellanöstern, Spanish Oriente Medio or Medio Oriente, and the Italian Medio Oriente.^[18]

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 designation, Mashriq, also from the Arabic root for east, also denotes a variously defined region around the Levant, the eastern part of the Arabic-speaking world (as opposed to the Maghreb, the western part).^[19] The Persian equivalent for Middle East is خاورمیانه (Khāvarmiyāneh).

Territories and regions

Traditional definition of the Middle East

Country, with flag	Area		Population	Density		Capital	GDP (Total)	Per capita	Currency	Government	Official languages
	km2	sq mi		/km2	/sq mi
Anatolia:
Turkey1	783,562	302,535	73,914,000	91	240	Ankara	$1.028 trillion[20] (2008)	$13,920[20][21] (2008)	Turkish lira	Parliamentary democracy	Turkish
Arabian Peninsula:
Bahrain	665	257	656,397	987	2,560	Manama	$26.970 billion (2008)	$34,605 (2008)	Bahraini Dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Kuwait	17,820	6,880	3,100,000	119	310	Kuwait City	$137.190 billion (2008)	$39,849 (2008)	Kuwaiti dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Oman	212,460	82,030	3,200,000	13	34	Muscat	$66.889 billion (2008)	$24,153 (2008)	Omani Rial	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
Qatar	11,437	4,416	793,341	69	180	Doha	$94.249 billion (2008)	$85,867 (2008)	Qatari Riyal	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Saudi Arabia	1,960,582	756,985	23,513,330	12	31	Riyadh	$593.385 billion (2008)	$23,834 (2008)	Riyal	Absolute monarchy	Arabic
United Arab Emirates	82,880	32,000	5,432,746	30	78	Abu Dhabi	$184.984 billion (2008)	$38,830 (2008)	UAE dirham	Federal Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Yemen	527,970	203,850	18,701,257	35	91	Sanaá	$55.433 billion (2008)	$2,412 (2008)	Yemeni rial	Semi-presidential republic	Arabic
Fertile Crescent (Levant and Mesopotamia):
Gaza Strip (not fully sovereign)	360	140	1,376,289	3,823	9,900	Gaza	$770 million (2008)	$2,900 (2008)	Israeli new sheqel	Autonomous republic Palestinian National Authority Hamas	Arabic
Iraq	437,072	168,754	31,001,816	70.93	183.7	Baghdad	$202.3 billion (2008)	$6,500 (2008)	Iraqi dinar	Parliamentary republic	Arabic, Assyrian, Kurdish
Israel	20,770	8,020	7,465,000	290	750	Jerusalem2	$200.630 billion (2008)	$28,206 (2008)	Israeli new sheqel	Parliamentary democracy	Hebrew, Arabic
Jordan	92,300	35,600	5,307,470	58	150	Amman	$32.112 billion (2008)	$5,314 (2008)	Jordanian dinar	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Lebanon	10,452	4,036	3,677,780	354	920	Beirut	$49.514 billion (2008)	$13,031 (2008)	Lebanese pound	Republic	Arabic
Syria	185,180	71,500	17,155,814	93	240	Damascus	$94.408 billion (2008)	$4,748 (2009)	Syrian pound	Presidential republic	Arabic
West Bank (not fully sovereign)	5,860	2,2603	2,500,0005	432	1,1203,4	Ramallah			Israeli new sheqel	Autonomous republic Palestinian National Authority Fatah	Arabic
Iranian Plateau:
Iran	1,648,195	636,372	71,208,000	42	110	Tehran	$819.799 billion (2008)	$11,250 (2008)	Iranian rial	Islamic republic	Persian
Mediterranean Sea:
Cyprus	9,250	3,570	792,604	90	230	Nicosia	$22.703 billion (2008)	$29,830 (2008)	Euro	Presidential republic	Greek, Turkish
North Africa:
Egypt	1,001,449	386,662	77,498,000	74	190	Cairo	$442.640 billion (2008)	$5,898 (2008)	Egyptian pound	Semi-presidential republic	Arabic
Source: International Monetary Fund, April 24, 2009, PPP GDP 2008 World Bank, July 1, 2009, PPP GDP 2008 Notes: 1 The figures for Turkey includes Eastern Thrace, which is not a part of Anatolia. 2 Under Israeli law. The UN doesn't recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. 3 Includes the whole of the West Bank, according to the pre-1967 boundaries. 4 In addition, there are around 400,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, of which half are in East-Jerusalem.

Greater Middle East

Country, with flag	Area (km²)		Population	Density (per km²)		Capital	GDP (Total)	Per capita	Currency	Government	Official languages
	km2	sq mi		/km2	/sq mi
Caucacus:
Armenia	29,800	11,500	2,968,586	111.7	289	Yerevan	$18.715 billion (2008)	$5,272 (2008)	Armenian dram	Semi-presidential republic	Armenian
Azerbaijan	86,600	33,400	8,621,000	97	250	Baku	$74.734 billion (2008)	$8,620 (2008)	Azerbaijani manat	Semi-presidential republic	Azerbaijani
Georgia	20,460	7,900	4,630,841	99.3	257	Tbilisi	$21.812 billion (2008)	$4,957 (2008)	Georgian lari	Semi-presidential republic	Georgian
South Asia:
Afghanistan1	647,500	250,000	31,889,923	46	120	Kabul	$21.340 billion (2008)	$758 (2008)	Afghani	Islamic republic	Persian, Pashto
Pakistan	880,940	340,130	169,300,000	206	530	Islamabad	$439.558 billion (2008)	$2,738 (2008)	Pakistani Rupee	Islamic republic	Urdu, English
Central Asia:
Kazakhstan	2,724,900	1,052,100	15,217,711	5.4	14	Astana	$177.545 billion (2008)	$11,416 (2008)	Kazakhstani tenge	Semi-presidential republic	Kazakh, Russian
Uzbekistan	447,400	172,700	27,372,000	59	150	Tashkent	$71.501 billion (2008)	$2,629 (2008)	Uzbekistani som	Semi-presidential republic	Uzbek
Turkmenistan	488,100	188,500	5,110,023	9.9	26	Ashgabat	$30.091 billion (2008)	$5,710 (2008)	Turkmenistani manat	Presidential republic	Turkmen
Tajikistan	143,100	55,300	7,215,700	45	120	Dushanbe	$13.041 billion (2008)	$2,019 (2008)	Somoni	Semi-presidential republic	Tajik
Kyrgyzstan	199,900	77,200	5,356,869	26	67	Bishkek	$11.580 billion (2008)	$2,180 (2008)	Kyrgyzstani som	Semi-presidential republic	Kyrgyz, Russian
North Africa (Maghreb and Nubia):
Algeria	2,381,740	919,590	33,333,216	14	36	Algiers	$233.098 billion (2008)	$6,698 (2008)	Algerian dinar	Semi-presidential republic	Arabic
Mauritania	446,550	172,410	33,757,175	70	180	Nouakchott	$6.221 billion (2008)	$2,052 (2008)	Ouguiya	Military junta	Arabic
Western Sahara	163,610	63,170	10,102,000	62	160	El Aaiun			Moroccan dirham		Arabic
Libya	1,759,540	679,360	6,036,914	3	7.8	Tripoli	$90.251 billion (2008)	$14,533 (2008)	Libyan dinar	Jamahiriya	Arabic
Morocco	446,550	172,410	33,757,175	70	180	Rabat	$136.728 billion (2008)	$4,349 (2008)	Moroccan dirham	Constitutional monarchy	Arabic
Tunisia	163,610	63,170	10,102,000	62	160	Tunis	$82.226 billion (2008)	$7,962 (2008)	Tunisian dinar	Semi-presidential republic	Arabic
Sudan	2,505,813	967,500	39,379,358	14	36	Khartoum	$87.885 billion (2008)	$2,305 (2008)	Sudanese pound	Presidential republic	Arabic
Horn of Africa:
Comoros	2,235	863	798,000	275	710	Moroni	$772 million (2009)	$1,159 (2009)	Comorian franc	Federal republic	Comorian, Arabic, French
Djibouti	23,200	9,000	496,374	34	88	Djibouti	$1.877 billion (2008)	$2,392 (2008)	Djiboutian franc	Parliamentary republic	Arabic, French, Somali, Afar
Eritrea	117,600	45,400	4,401,009	37	96	Asmara	$3.739 billion (2008)	$747 (2008)	Nakfa	Provisional government	Tigrinya, Arabic
Somalia	637,661	246,202	9,588,666	13	34	Mogadishu	$5.524 billion (2008)	$600 (2008)	Somali shilling	Semi-presidential republic	Somali, Arabic
Source: International Monetary Fund, April 24, 2009, PPP GDP 2008 World Bank, July 1, 2009, PPP GDP 2008 Notes: 1 Afghanistan is often considered Central Asian[22][23]

History

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.^[24] 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 [...]^[25] 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

The Middle East is home to numerous ethnic groups, including Arabs, Turks, Persians, Jews, Kurds, Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs, Armenians, Azeris, Circassians, Greeks and Georgians.

Religions

The Middle East is very diverse when it comes to religions, many 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, Yazdânism, Zoroastrianism.

Languages

The three top languages, in terms of numbers of speakers, are Arabic, Persian and Turkish, representing Afro-Asiatic, Indo-European, and Turkic language families respectively. Various other languages are also spoken in the Middle East.

Arabic 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 member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages.

The second-most widely spoken language is Persian. 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 belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the family of Indo-European languages. It is much influenced by Arabic (through Islam) and Aramaic (the pre-Arabic lingua franca of the Middle East).

The third-most widely spoken language, Turkish, is confined to Turkey, which is also one of the region's largest and most populous countries. It is present in areas in neighboring countries. It is a member or the Turkic languages, which have their origins in Central Asia.

Other languages spoken in the region include Syriac (a form of Aramaic), Armenian, Azerbaijani, Berber, Circassian, smaller Iranian languages, Hebrew, Kurdish, smaller Turkic languages, Greek, and several Modern South Arabian languages.

English is commonly spoken as a second language, especially among the middle and upper classes, in countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.^[26][27] It is also a main language in some of the Emirates of the United Arab Emirates. French is spoken in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia. Urdu is widely spoken in many Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia(where 20-25% of the population is South Asian), the United Arab Emirates(where 50-55% of the population is South Asian), Israel, and Qatar, which have large numbers of Pakistani and Indian immigrants. The largest Romanian-speaking community in the Middle East is found in Israel, where as of 1995^[update] Romanian is spoken by 5% of the population.^[28][29][30] Russian 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, as of 2007^[update], 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.^[31] In regards to nominal GDP per capita, the highest ranking countries are Qatar ($93,204), the UAE ($55,028), Kuwait ($45,920) and Cyprus ($32,745).^[32] Turkey ($ 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.^[20] 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%,^[33] and among youth is as high as 25%,^[34] up to 37% in Morocco and 73% in Syria.^[35]

See also

• Central Asia
• Fertile Crescent
• Greater Middle East
• History of the Middle East
• List of conflicts in the Middle East
• Maayan Middle East poetry magazine
• Middle East Institute
• Middle East Studies Association of North America
• Middle East Youth Initiative
• Near East
• Orientalism
• Timeline of Middle Eastern History
• Waithood
• Western Asia

Notes

References

• Adelson, Roger (1995). London and the Invention of the Middle East: Money, Power, and War, 1902-1922.. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300060947. 
• Anderson, R., Seibert, R., & Wagner, J. (2006). Politics and Change in the Middle East (8th ed.). Prentice-Hall. 
• Barzilai, Gad.,Klieman Aharon.,Shidlo Gil (1993). The Gulf Crisis and its Global Aftermath. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08002. 
• Barzilai, Gad. (1996). Wars, Internal Conflicts and Political Order. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-2943-1. 
• Beaumont, Peter, Gerald H. Blake, J. Malcolm Wagstaff (1988). The Middle East: A Geographical Study. David Fulton. 
• Goldschmidt Jr., Arthur (1999). A Concise History of the Middle East. Westview Press. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Middle East

Look up middle east in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikinews has related news: Middle East

• "Middle East - Articles by Region" - Council on Foreign Relations: "A Resource for Nonpartisan Research and Analysis"
• "Middle East - Interactive Crisis Guide" - Council on Foreign Relations: "A Resource for Nonpartisan Research and Analysis"
• Middle East Department University of Chicago Library
• Middle East Business Intelligence since 1957: "The leading information source on business in the Middle East" - MEED.com
• Middle East News from Yahoo! News
• Middle East at the Open Directory Project
• Middle East Business, Financial & Industry News — ArabianBusiness.com

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