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. The Near East was first largely unified under the Neo Assyrian Empire, then the Achaemenid Empire followed later by the Macedonian Empire and after this to some degree by the Iranian empires (namely the Parthian and Sassanid Empires), the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. Middle East, the lands around the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing at least the Arabian Peninsula and, by some definitions, Iran, North Africa, and sometimes beyond. 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. Over 80% of the Middles East is a desert and only a few areas including the coastal zones of the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey, and Egypt receive rain. This page was last edited on 24 January 2021, at 22:19. The countries that are believed to be part of the Middle East on most maps are Yemen, Bahrain, the United Arab … Ottaway, Marina & Carothers, Thomas (2004-03-29), sfn error: no target: CITEREFRussell1985 (. The Middle Eastern countries include Bahrain, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen in western Asia, Egypt in northern Africa, and Turkey straddling both continents. Maltese, a Semitic language mainly spoken in Europe, is also used by the Franco-Maltese diaspora in Egypt. [42] Turkey ($1,028,897), Iran ($839,438) and Saudi Arabia ($589,531) had the largest economies in terms of GDP-PPP. It's not even an agreed-upon term by the countries that constitute it. There are also important minority religions like the Baháʼí Faith, Yarsanism, Yazidism, Zoroastrianism, Mandaeism, Druze, and Shabakism, and in ancient times the region was home to Mesopotamian religions, Canaanite religions, Manichaeism, Mithraism and various monotheist gnostic sects. Arabs constitute the majority ethnic group in the region,[5] followed by Turks, Persians, Kurds, Azeris, Copts, Jews, Assyrians, Iraqi Turkmen, and Greek Cypriots. Persian and Kurdish belong to the Indo-European language family. [25], The Greater Middle East was a political term coined by the second Bush administration in the first decade of the 21st century,[26] to denote various countries, pertaining to the Muslim world, specifically Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The Middle East, in whose world? Expatriates from Arab countries contribute to the circulation of financial and human capital in the region and thus significantly promote regional development. Bengali, Hindi and Urdu are widely spoken by migrant communities 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), and Qatar, which have large numbers of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian immigrants. First used in 1856, the term “Near East” was defined specifically against the Far East and referred to the region in Asia that’s west of India. Traditionally included within the Middle East are Iran (Persia), Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt. What Is The Difference Between Near East and Middle East? 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). Some times, political and … Another Turkic language, Azerbaijani, is spoken by Azerbaijanis in Iran. While non-Eurocentric terms such "Soutweast Asia" or "Swasia" has been sparsedly used, the inclusion of an African country, Egypt, in the definition questions the usefulness of using such terms. The equator runs through Africa in the middle of the continent. China, Japan, Korea, etc.). In 2009 Arab countries received a total of US$35.1 billion in remittance in-flows and remittances sent to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon from other Arab countries are 40 to 190 per cent higher than trade revenues between these and other Arab countries. The prospect of the Middle East region finally realizing appropriate levels of economic growth, global leadership in all areas, and a balanced contribution to the global economy is exhilarating. The term has come into wider usage as a replacement of the term Near East (as opposed to the Far East) beginning in the early 20th century. The Middle East is an intercontinental area centered on Egypt, Turkey, and Western Asia. "Migration has always provided an important vent for labor market pressures in the Middle East. [22] Even though the term originated in the West, apart from Arabic, other languages of countries of the Middle East also use a translation of it. The world's earliest civilizations, Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia), ancient Egypt and Kish in the Levant, all originated in the Fertile Crescent and Nile Valley regions of the ancient Near East. In recent years, however, countries such as the UAE, Bahrain, and Jordan have begun attracting greater numbers of tourists because of improving tourist facilities and the relaxing of tourism-related restrictive policies. Mass production of oil began around 1945, with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates having large quantities of oil. The estimated oil reserves in Saudi Arabia and Iran is the highest on earth. Non-Arab Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey, Israel and Iran are also subject to important migration dynamics. The five major bodies of water that surround the region are the Caspian Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. [52][53][54] Sharp global temperature and sea level changes, shifting precipitation patterns and increased frequency of extreme weather events are some of the main impacts of climate change as identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Parts of Africa (primarily Egypt and Sudan) are sometimes considered part of the Middle East as well. The Middle East has seventeen nations, and it occupies an area of about 2,782,869 sq miles. [57][58][59], region that encompasses Western Asia and Egypt, This video over Central Africa and the Middle East was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the, Territories and regions usually considered within the Middle East. [12] 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. Auinger: While non-alcoholic soft drinks in cans and PET bottles are chiefly consumed in the Middle East, on the African continent returnable glass bottles for carbonated beverages have a long tradition. Pakistan is an extremely diverse country. [41] Regarding nominal GDP per capita, the highest ranking countries are Qatar ($93,204), the UAE ($55,028), Kuwait ($45,920) and Cyprus ($32,745). It typically refers to southwest Asia, particularly Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, … Around one third of Africa is located in the Southern Hemisphere. In Iran, many religious minorities such as Christians, Baháʼís and Zoroastrians have left since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Mideast is also acceptable, but Middle East is preferred. Majority of the nations bordering the Persian Gulf have vast crude oil reserves. One is a continent and one is a smaller region. It is divided into three main geographical regions; th… The western border of the Middle East is defined by the Mediterranean Sea, where Israel, Lebanon, and Syria rest opposite from Greece and Italy in Europe. 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. Geographically, the Middle East can be thought of as Western Asia with the addition of Egypt (which is the non- Maghreb region of Northern Africa) and with the exclusion of the Caucasus. The Middle East is widely and most famously known as the Cradle of civilization. The Middle East is, very generally speaking, an arid region in Southwest Asia and part of North Africa stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, bounded by the Black and Caspian Seas in the north and the Sahara Desert and Indian Ocean in the south. The countries of the South Caucasus—Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia—are occasionally included in definitions of the Middle East. Josiah Russell estimates the population of what he calls "Islamic territory" as roughly 12.5 million in 1000 – Anatolia 8 million, Syria 2 million, and Egypt 1.5 million. Russian is spoken by a large portion of the Israeli population, because of emigration in the late 1990s. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the region has experienced both periods of relative peace and tolerance and periods of conflict particularly between Sunnis and Shiites. However, it would be the later Islamic Caliphates of the Middle Ages, or Islamic Golden Age which began with the Islamic conquest of the region in the 7th century AD, that would first unify the entire Middle East as a distinct region and create the dominant Islamic Arab ethnic identity that largely (but not exclusively) persists today. [21], 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. The land in between these power centers – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan – was the arena for proxy war and [10][11] He labeled the area surrounding the Persian Gulf as the Middle East, and said that after Egypt's Suez Canal, it was the most important passage for Britain to control in order to keep the Russians from advancing towards British India. These were followed by the Hittite, Greek, Hurrian and Urartian civilisations of Asia Minor; Elam, Persia and Median civilizations in Iran, as well as the civilizations of the Levant (such as Ebla, Mari, Nagar, Ugarit, Canaan, Aramea, Mitanni, Phoenicia and Israel) and the Arabian Peninsula (Magan, Sheba, Ubar). 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