About The Middle East
- The Middle East refers to an area that is comprised of pieces of three different continents. It consists of the Arabian Peninsula, which houses countries like Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Qatar. It stretches up to include Turkey, a piece of which lies in Europe. The Western edge is usually drawn to include Egypt. Though Egypt is also considered to be a part of the African continent, the culture and history are so tied to the Middle Eastern world that Egypt is usually thought of as part of the Middle East as well as Africa. The western-most country is Iran, with countries like Iraq, Jordan and Israel in between it and Egypt. Many people think that Afghanistan and Pakistan are in the Middle East, but this is a misconception. These two countries are a part of Central Asia.
- Civilization began in the Middle East in ancient times. Roughly around 3500 B.C.E., cultures like the Babylonians and the Assyrians lived in Mesopotamia, the area that is now Iraq. Two early empires who controlled much of the Middle East and whose cultures still affect the region today are the Persians, who were Zoroastrian, and the Byzantines, who were Christian. Both of these empires were conquered by the Arabic empire, which expanded out of the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century. Traces of these cultures are still seen in the area today, especially in Iran, which is still culturally and ethnically Persian. By the 15th century, the Ottoman Turks had established an immense empire based in the Anatolian Peninsula, or modern-day Turkey. While European civilizations suffered through a dark age, the Ottoman Empire was thriving. They were the dominant power in the Middle East until the end of World War I, in which they participated. They fell apart after losing the war and the Europeans, specifically the British and French, established colonies and protectorates throughout the Middle East. By the late 1940s, the Middle East had been divided into essentially the countries that are present in 2009. A UN decision to divide Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state caused immense controversy, and since the state of Israel was declared in 1948 there have been multiple wars and conflicts between Israel and the other countries in the region.
- Petra, in Jordan.
The Middle East features many areas of historical and cultural significance. The Great Pyramids and the Sphinx are both located in the Nile River Valley in Egypt. These are some of the oldest buildings in the world, and the Pyramids are the only surviving structures from the original list of the Wonders of the World. Petra, located in Jordan, was designated as a World Heritage site and has been added to the Wonders of the World. It is a temple carved into a rock wall inside a valley that can only be reached after riding for several hours on either a horse or a camel. The entire Middle Eastern region is dotted with remnants from the Roman, Greek, Byzantine, Persian and Ottoman Empires that have had establishments there and it is not unusual to find ruins of Roman-era coloseums around some Middle Eastern cities. The country of Israel and specifically the city of Jerusalem holds many sites of historical and religious significance. In Jerusalem stands the Western Wall, an ancient and holy site for the Jewish people, as well as the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which are sites of worship for Muslims and Christians respectively. The country of Saudi Arabia has several ancient and religious sites as well. The Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, the holiest place in the Islamic faith, is home to some of Islam's most sacred history and artifacts, but unfortunately for tourists, no non-Muslim person can enter the city. - The Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock together in Jerusalem.
The Middle East is the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and their presence is still influential there today. Islam is the predominant religion in the region, and most of the states in the Middle East are Islamic. An Islamic state is run by a form of Sharia law, which is a code of law based on the religious texts of Islam, the Quran and the Hadith. No two countries have the same version of Sharia, and some countries are more secular than others. There are two different sects of Islam, Sunni and Shi'a. This split occurred early in Islamic history and had to do with who was going to run the Islamic community. Typically, the Sunni and Shi'a communities have tense relations with each other. Judaism's strongest base in the Middle East is in Israel. The Jewish faith is the foundation for both Christianity and Islam. The Jewish people in Israel today are of three ethnic backgrounds. Ashkenazi Jews are Jewish people who come to Israel from European countries, Sephardi Jews come from the Spanish and Portuguese area and Mizrahi Jews are ethnically Arabic and from the Middle East. Each of these groups, though united by religion, has a unique culture, and this makes the culture of Israel very interesting and intricate. There is no specifically Christian state in the Middle East, but there are Christian communities throughout the region. Jerusalem and Bethlehem, both essential to Christian history, are home to churches that are shared by multiple sects of Christianity. There are versions of Catholicism and of Eastern Orthodoxy native to the Middle East that are not found elsewhere in the world. Along with the three main religions found in the Middle East, there are other religions such as the Druze, Zoroastrian, Baha'i and Allawite. - The Middle East, though home to some of the most ancient and rich culture in the world, is also a place of many conflicts. There is a popular theory in American foreign policy called the "Clash of Civilizations," which predicts that the Western world and the non-Western world, specifically the Islamic world, are too different to coexist peacefully. This theory says that as globalization pushes the two realms closer and closer together, clashes will be unavoidable because our cultures, values, religion and politics are in conflict with each other. This theory does not have to prove to be true, and one way to help avoid quarrels would be to get rid of many common misconceptions. For example, to Westerners, the word "Islamic" tends to be synonymous with "Middle Eastern." Though it is true that the majority of the Middle East is Islamic, other countries around the world have larger populations of Islamic citizens. Indonesia has more Islamic people than Saudi Arabia or any other Middle Eastern Country. Also, not all Middle Eastern countries have the same culture and the same religious practices. They do all have similar cultural backgrounds and history, but every country has its own politics and laws, and there are many subgenres of culture. Another common misconception about the Middle East is that it is composed of only Arabic people. While Arabic is the ethnic majority, there are significant minority populations of other ethnic groups. For example, in Iran, the majority of the people are ethnically Persian, with their own independent language, culture and history.
