.svg/440px-Middle_East_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia, Turkey
Turkey (both Asian and European), and Egypt
Egypt (which is mostly in North Africa). Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is geographically the largest Middle Eastern nation while Bahrain
Bahrain is the smallest. The corresponding adjective is Middle Eastern and the derived noun is Middle Easterner. The term has come into wider usage as a replacement of the term Near East
Near East (as opposed to the Far East) beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris (excluding Azerbaijan) constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Arabs
Arabs constitute the largest ethnic group in the region by a clear margin.[2] Indigenous minorities of the Middle East
Middle East include Jews, Baloch, Assyrians, Berbers
Berbers (who primarily live in North Africa), Copts, Druze, Lurs, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, and Zazas. European ethnic groups that form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians
Circassians (including Kabardians), Crimean Tatars, Greeks, Franco-Levantines, and Italo-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Chinese, Filipinos, Indians, Indonesians, Pakistanis, Pashtuns, Romani, and sub-Saharan Africans. The history of the Middle East
Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the (geopolitical) importance of the region being recognized for millennia.[3][4][5] Several major religions have their origins in the Middle East, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; the Baha'i
Baha'i faith, Mandaeism, Unitarian Druze, and numerous other belief systems were also established within the region. The Middle East
Middle East generally has a hot, arid climate, with several major rivers providing irrigation to support agriculture in limited areas such as the Nile Delta
Nile Delta in Egypt, the Tigris
Tigris and Euphrates
Euphrates watersheds of Mesopotamia, and most of what is known as the Fertile Crescent. Most of the countries that border the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil, with monarchs of the Arabian Peninsula
.png/500px-Arabian_Peninsula_(orthographic_projection).png)
Arabian Peninsula in particular benefiting economically from petroleum exports.
Contents
1 Terminology
1.1 Criticism and usage 1.2 Translations
2 Territories and regions
2.1 Territories and regions usually considered within the Middle East 2.2 Other definitions of the Middle East
3 History 4 Demographics
4.1 Ethnic groups 4.2 Migration 4.3 Religions 4.4 Languages
5 Economy 6 Gallery 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links
Terminology
The term "Middle East" may have originated in the 1850s in the British
India
India Office.[6] However, it became more widely known when
American naval strategist
Alfred Thayer Mahan
Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in
1902[7] to "designate the area between Arabia and
India".[8][9] 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.[10][11] He labeled the area surrounding
the
Persian Gulf
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.[12] Mahan first used the term in his article "The
Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf and International Relations", published in September 1902
in the National Review, a British journal.
.mw-parser-output .templatequote overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px .mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0 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.[13]
Mahan's article was reprinted in
The Times
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
Middle East to include "those regions of
Asia
Asia which extend to the borders of
India
India or command the approaches to
India."[14] After the series ended in 1903,
The Times
The Times removed
quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term.[15]
Until World War II, it was customary to refer to areas centered around
Turkey
Turkey and the eastern shore of the Mediterranean as the "Near East",
while the "Far East" centered on China,[16] and the Middle
East then meant the area from
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia to Burma, namely the area
between the
Near East
Near East and the Far East.[citation needed] In
the late 1930s, the British established the
Middle East
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
.svg/400px-Eurasia_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
Europe and the
United States, with the
Middle East Institute
Middle East Institute founded in Washington,
D.C. in 1946, among other usage.[17]
Criticism and usage
Play media 1957 American film about the Middle East
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
Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while "Middle
East" referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and
Turkestan. In contrast, "Far East" referred to the countries of East
Asia
Asia (e.g. China, Japan, Korea, etc.)
With the disappearance of the
Ottoman Empire
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
Islamic world. However,
the usage "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
.jpg)
John Foster Dulles defined the Middle
East as "the area lying between and including
Libya
Libya on the west and
Pakistan
Pakistan on the east,
Syria
Syria and
Iraq
Iraq on the North and the Arabian
peninsula to the south, plus the
Sudan
Sudan and Ethiopia."[16] 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.[18]
The
Associated Press
Associated Press Stylebook says that
Near East
Near East formerly referred
to the farther west countries while
Middle East
Middle East referred to the
eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous. It instructs:
Use
Middle East
Middle East unless
Near East
Near East is used by a source in a story.
Mideast is also acceptable, but
Middle East
Middle East is preferred.[19]
The term
Middle East
Middle East has also been criticised as
Eurocentric
Eurocentric ("based
on a British Western perception") by Hanafi (1998).[20]
Translations
There are terms similar to
Near East
Near East and
Middle East
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
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.[note 1]
Perhaps because of the influence of the Western press, the Arabic
equivalent of
Middle East
Middle East (Arabic: الشرق الأوسط ash-Sharq
al-Awsaṭ) has become standard usage in the mainstream Arabic press,
comprising 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).[21] Even though the
term originated in the West, apart from Arabic, other languages of
countries of the
Middle East
Middle East also use a translation of it. The Persian
equivalent for
Middle East
Middle East is خاورمیانه (Khāvar-e miyāneh),
the Hebrew is המזרח התיכון (hamizrach hatikhon) and the
Turkish is Orta Doğu.
Territories and regions
For a more comprehensive list, see List of Middle Eastern countries by
population.
Territories and regions usually considered within the Middle East
Traditionally included within the
Middle East
Middle East are
Iran
Iran (Persia), Asia
Minor, Mesopotamia, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt. In
modern-day-country terms they are these:
Arms
Flag
State
Area(km²)
Population(2012)
Density(per km²)
Capital
NominalGDP, bn (2018)[22]
Per capita (2018)[23]
Currency
Government
Officiallanguages
Bahrain
665
1,234,596
1,646.1
Manama
$30.355
$25,851
Bahraini dinar
Absolute monarchy
Arabic
Cyprus
9,250
1,088,503
117
Nicosia
$24.492
$28,340
Euro
Presidential republic
Greek,Turkish
Egypt
1,010,407
82,798,000
90
Cairo
$249.559
$2,573
Egyptian pound
Presidential republic
Arabic
Iran
1,648,195
78,868,711
45
Tehran
$452.275
$5,491
Iranian rial
Islamic
Islamic republic
Persian
Iraq
438,317
33,635,000
73.5
Baghdad
$226.07
$5,930
Iraqi dinar
Parliamentary republic
Arabic,Kurdish
Israel
20,770
7,653,600
365.3
Jerusalema
$369.843
$41,644
Israeli shekel
Parliamentary republic
Hebrew
Jordan
92,300
6,318,677
68.4
Amman
$42.371
$4,278
Jordanian dinar
Constitutional monarchy
Arabic
Kuwait
17,820
3,566,437
167.5
Kuwait
Kuwait City
$141.05
$30,839
Kuwaiti dinar
Constitutional monarchy
Arabic
Lebanon
10,452
4,228,000
404
Beirut
$56.409
$9,257
Lebanese pound
Parliamentary republic
Arabic
Oman
212,460
2,694,094
9.2
Muscat
$82.243
$19,302
Omani rial
Absolute monarchy
Arabic
Palestine
6,220
4,260,636
667
Ramallaha
n/a
n/a
Israeli shekel,Jordanian dinar
Semi-presidential republic
Arabic
Qatar
11,437
1,696,563
123.2
Doha
$192.45
$70,780
Qatari riyal
Absolute monarchy
Arabic
Saudi Arabia
2,149,690
27,136,977
12
Riyadh
$782.483
$23,566
Saudi riyal
Absolute monarchy
Arabic
Syria
185,180
23,695,000
118.3
Damascus
n/a
n/a
Syrian pound
Presidential republic
Arabic
Turkey
783,562
73,722,988
94.1
Ankara
$766.428
$9,346
Turkish lira
Presidential republic
Turkish
United
Arab
Arab Emirates
82,880
8,264,070
97
Abu Dhabi
$424.635
$40,711
UAE dirham
Federal Absolute monarchy
Arabic
Yemen
527,970
23,580,000
44.7
Sana'ab
Aden
Aden (provisional)
$26.914
$872
Yemeni rial
Provisional presidential republic
Arabic
a. ^ ^
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital of Israel, which is
disputed and the actual location of the Knesset, Israeli Supreme
Court, and other governmental institutions of Israel.
Ramallah
Ramallah is the
actual location of the government of Palestine, whereas the proclaimed
capital of
Palestine
Palestine is East Jerusalem, which is disputed.
b. ^ Controlled by the
Houthis
Houthis due to the ongoing war. Seat of
government moved to Aden.
Other definitions of the Middle East
Main articles:
Near East
Near East and Greater Middle East
Various concepts are often being paralleled to Middle East, most
notably Near East,
Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent and the Levant. Near East, Levant
and
Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent are geographic concepts, which refer to large
sections of the modern defined Middle East, with
Near East
Near East being the
closest to
Middle East
Middle East in its geographic meaning. Due to it primarily
being Arabic speaking, the
Maghreb
.svg/500px-Maghreb_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
Maghreb region of
North Africa
North Africa is sometimes
included.
The countries of the South Caucasus—Armenia, Azerbaijan, and
Georgia—are occasionally included in definitions of the Middle
East.[24]
The
Greater Middle East
.svg/500px-Greater_Middle_East_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
Greater Middle East was a political term coined by the second Bush
administration in the first decade of the 21st century,[25] to
denote various countries, pertaining to the Muslim world, specifically
Iran, Turkey,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan and Pakistan.[26] Various Central
Asian countries are sometimes also included.[27]
History
Main article: History of the Middle East
See also: List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help
improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find
sources: "Middle East" – news ·
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Western Wall
Western Wall and
Dome of the Rock
-Jerusalem-Temple_Mount-Dome_of_the_Rock_(SE_exposure).jpg/440px-Israel-2013(2)-Jerusalem-Temple_Mount-Dome_of_the_Rock_(SE_exposure).jpg)
Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem
The Kaaba, located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
The
Middle East
Middle East lies at the juncture of
Eurasia
.svg/440px-Eurasia_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
Eurasia and
Africa
Africa and of the
Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is the birthplace and
spiritual center of religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism,
Manichaeism, Yezidi, Druze,
Yarsan
Yarsan and Mandeanism, and in Iran,
Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, Manicheanism, and the Bahá'í Faith.
Throughout its history the
Middle East
Middle East has been a major center of
world affairs; a strategically, economically, politically, culturally,
and religiously sensitive area.
The world's earliest civilizations,
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria
and Babylonia) and ancient Egypt, originated in the Fertile Crescent
and
Nile
Nile Valley regions of the ancient Near East. These were followed
by the Hittite, Greek and
Urartian
Urartian civilisations of
Asia
Asia Minor, Elam
in pre-Iranian Persia, as well as the civilizations of the Levant
(such as Ebla, Ugarit, Canaan, Aramea,
Phoenicia
Phoenicia and Israel), Persian
and Median civilizations in Iran,
North Africa
North Africa (Carthage/Phoenicia)
and the
Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula (Magan, Sheba, Ubar). The
Near East
Near East was
first largely unified under the Neo Assyrian Empire, then the
Achaemenid Empire
Achaemenid Empire followed later by the
Macedonian Empire
Macedonian Empire and after
this to some degree by the Iranian empires (namely the Parthian and
Sassanid Empires), the
Roman Empire
Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. However, it
would be the later
Arab
Arab Caliphates of the Middle Ages, or Islamic
Golden Age which began with the
Arab
Arab conquest of the region in the 7th
century AD, that would first unify the entire
Middle East
Middle East as a
distinct region and create the dominant
Islamic
Islamic ethnic identity that
largely (but not exclusively) persists today. The Mongols, the Kingdom
of Armenia, the Seljuks, the Safavids, the Ottoman Empire, and the
British Empire
British Empire also dominated the region.
The modern
Middle East
Middle East began after World War I, when the Ottoman
Empire, which was allied with the Central Powers, was defeated by the
British Empire
British Empire and their allies and partitioned into a number of
separate nations, initially under British and French Mandates. Other
defining events in this transformation included the establishment of
Israel
Israel in 1948 and the eventual departure of European powers, notably
Britain and
France
France by the end of the 1960s. They were supplanted in
some part by the rising influence of the
United States
United States from the 1970s
onwards.
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
Arab Emirates having large quantities of oil.[28] Estimated
oil reserves, especially in
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia and Iran, are some of the
highest in the world, and the international oil cartel
OPEC
OPEC is
dominated by Middle Eastern countries.
During the Cold War, the
Middle East
Middle East was a theater of ideological
struggle between the two superpowers and their allies:
NATO
.svg/440px-North_Atlantic_Treaty_Organization_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
NATO and the
United States
United States on one side, and the
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union and
Warsaw Pact
.svg/360px-Warsaw_Pact_in_1990_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
Warsaw Pact on the
other, as they competed to influence regional allies. Besides the
political reasons there was also the "ideological conflict" between
the two systems. Moreover, as
Louise Fawcett
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
[...][29] Within this contextual framework, the United States
sought to divert the
Arab
Arab world from Soviet influence. 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.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of the Middle East
See also: Largest metropolitan areas of the Middle East
Ethnic groups
Main article: Ethnic groups in the Middle East
Arabs
Arabs constitute the largest ethnic group in the Middle East, followed
by various
Iranian peoples
Iranian peoples and then by Turkic speaking groups. Native
ethnic groups of the region include, in addition to Arabs, Arameans,
Assyrians, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Jews, Kurds, Lurs,
Mandaeans, Persians, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, and Zazas.
Migration
"Migration has always provided an important vent for labor market
pressures in the Middle East. For the period between the 1970s and
1990s, the
Arab
Arab states of the PersianGulf in particular provided a
rich source of employment for workers from Egypt,
Yemen
Yemen and the
countries of the Levant, while
Europe
Europe had attracted young workers from
North African countries due both to proximity and the legacy of
colonial ties between
France
France and the majority of North African
states."[30] According to the International Organization for
Migration, there are 13 million first-generation migrants from Arab
nations in the world, of which 5.8 reside in other
Arab
Arab countries.
Expatriates from
Arab
Arab countries contribute to the circulation of
financial and human capital in the region and thus significantly
promote regional development. In 2009
Arab
Arab countries received a total
of 35.1 billion USD in remittance in-flows and remittances sent
to Jordan,
Egypt
Egypt and
Lebanon
Lebanon from other
Arab
Arab countries are 40 to 190
per cent higher than trade revenues between these and other Arab
countries.[31] In Somalia, the
Somali Civil War
.svg/440px-Somali_Civil_War_(2009-present).svg.png)
Somali Civil War has greatly
increased the size of the Somali diaspora, as many of the best
educated Somalis left for Middle Eastern countries as well as Europe
and North America.
Non-
Arab
Arab Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey,
Israel
Israel and
Iran
Iran are
also subject to important migration dynamics.
A fair proportion of those migrating from
Arab
Arab nations are from ethnic
and religious minorities facing racial and or religious persecution
and are not necessarily ethnic Arabs, Iranians or Turks.[citation
needed] Large numbers of Kurds, Jews, Assyrians,
Greeks
Greeks and
Armenians as well as many Mandeans have left nations such as Iraq,
Iran,
Syria
Syria and
Turkey
Turkey for these reasons during the last century. In
Iran, many religious minorities such as Christians, Baha'is and
Zoroastrians
Zoroastrians have left since the
Islamic
Islamic Revolution of
1979.[citation needed]
Religions
Main article: Religion in the Middle East
Islam
Islam is the largest religion in the Middle East. Here, Muslim men
are prostrating during prayer in a mosque.
The
Middle East
Middle East is very diverse when it comes to religions, many of
which originated there.
Islam
Islam is the largest religion in the Middle
East, but other faiths that originated there, such as
Judaism
Judaism and
Christianity, are also well represented.
Christians
Christians represent 40.5% of
Lebanon, where the Lebanese president, half of the cabinet, and half
of the parliament follow one of the various Lebanese Christian rites.
There are also important minority religions like the Bahá'í Faith,
Yarsanism, Yazidism, Zoroastrianism, Mandaeism, Druze, and Shabakism,
and in ancient times the region was home to Mesopotamian religions,
Canaanite religions, Manichaeism,
Mithraism
Mithraism and various monotheist
gnostic sects.
Languages
The five top languages, in terms of numbers of speakers, are Arabic,
Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, and Hebrew. Arabic and Hebrew represent the
Afro-Asiatic language family. Persian and Kurdish belong to the
Indo-European language family. Turkish belongs to Turkic language
family. About 20 minority languages are also spoken in the Middle
East.
Arabic, with all its dialects, are the most widely spoken languages in
the Middle East, with Literary Arabic being official in all North
African and in most West Asian countries.
Arabic dialects
Arabic dialects are 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. Several
Modern South Arabian languages
Modern South Arabian languages such as Mehri and
Soqotri are also spoken
Yemen
Yemen and Oman. Another Semitic language such
as Aramaic and its dialects are spoken mainly by Assyrians and
Mandaeans. There is also a Oasis Berber-speaking community in Egypt
where the language is also known as Siwa. It is a non-Semitic
Afro-Asiatic language.
Persian is the second most spoken language. While it is primarily
spoken in
Iran
Iran and some border areas in neighbouring 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.
Other Western Iranic languages spoken in the region include Achomi,
Daylami, Kurdish dialects, Semmani, Lurish, amongst many others.
The third-most widely spoken language, Turkish, is largely confined to
Turkey, which is also one of the region's largest and most populous
countries, but it is present in areas in neighboring countries. It is
a member of the Turkic languages, which have their origins in Central
Asia. Another Turkic language, Azerbaijani, is spoken by Azerbaijanis
in Iran.
Hebrew is one of the two official languages of Israel, the other being
Arabic. Hebrew is spoken and used by over 80% of Israel's population,
the other 20% using Arabic.
English is commonly taught and used as a second language, especially
among the middle and upper classes, in countries such as Egypt,
Jordan, Iran, Kurdistan, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, United
Arab
Arab Emirates
and Kuwait.[32][33] It is also a main language in some
Emirates of the United
Arab
Arab Emirates.
French is taught and used in many government facilities and media in
Lebanon, and is taught in some primary and secondary schools of Egypt
and Syria. Maltese, a Semitic language mainly spoken in Europe, is
also used by the Franco-Maltese diaspora in Egypt.
Armenian and Greek speakers are also to be found in the region.
Georgian is spoken by the Georgian diaspora. Russian is spoken by a
large portion of the Israeli population, because of emigration in the
late 1990s. Russian today is a popular unofficial language in use in
Israel; news, radio and sign boards can be found in Russian around the
country after Hebrew and Arabic. Circassian is also spoken by the
diaspora in the region and by almost all
Circassians
Circassians in
Israel
Israel who
speak Hebrew and English as well. The largest Romanian-speaking
community in the
Middle East
Middle East is found in Israel, where as of
1995[update] Romanian is spoken by 5% of the
population.[note 2][34][35]
Bengali,
Hindi
Hindi and
Urdu
Urdu is widely spoken by migrant communities in
many Middle Eastern countries, such as
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia (where 20–25% of
the population is South Asian), the
United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates (where
50–55% of the population is South Asian), and Qatar, which have
large numbers of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian immigrants.
Economy
Main articles:
Economy of the Middle East
Economy of the Middle East and
Middle East
Middle East economic
integration
This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to
reflect recent events or newly available information. (December 2016)
Oil and gas pipelines in the Middle-East
Middle Eastern economies range from being very poor (such as Gaza and
Yemen) to extremely wealthy nations (such as
Qatar
Qatar and UAE). Overall,
as of 2007[update], according to the CIA World Factbook, all
nations in the
Middle East
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
Turkey ($794,228),
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia ($467,601) and Iran
($385,143) in terms of Nominal GDP.[36] Regarding nominal GDP
per capita, the highest ranking countries are
Qatar
Qatar ($93,204), the UAE
($55,028),
Kuwait
Kuwait ($45,920) and
Cyprus
Cyprus ($32,745).[37] Turkey
($1,028,897),
Iran
Iran ($839,438) and
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia ($589,531) had the
largest economies in terms of GDP-PPP.[38] When it comes to
per capita (PPP)-based income, the highest-ranking countries are Qatar
($86,008),
Kuwait
Kuwait ($39,915), the UAE ($38,894),
Bahrain
Bahrain ($34,662) and
Cyprus
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
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
Lebanon and Israel,
tourism has been a relatively undeveloped area of the economy, in part
because of 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
Jordan have
begun attracting greater number of tourists because of improving
tourist facilities and the relaxing of tourism-related restrictive
policies.
Unemployment is notably high in the
Middle East
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 Labour
Organization, was 13.2%,[39] and among youth is as high as
25%,[40] up to 37% in
Morocco
Morocco and 73% in Syria.[41]
Gallery
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi – UAE
Amman
Amman – Jordan
Ankara
Ankara – Turkey
Baghdad
Baghdad – Iraq
Beirut
Beirut – Lebanon
Cairo
Cairo – Egypt
Damascus
Damascus – Syria
Doha
.jpg/550px-Doha_skyline_in_the_morning_(12544910974).jpg)
Doha – Qatar
Dubai
Dubai – UAE
Istanbul
Istanbul – Turkey
Jerusalem
Jerusalem – Israel
Kuwait
Kuwait City – Kuwait
Manama
Manama – Bahrain
Mecca
Mecca – Saudi Arabia
Abha
Abha – Saudi Arabia
Muscat, Oman
Nicosia
Nicosia , Cyprus
Ramallah
Ramallah – Palestine
Sana'a
.jpg/550px-Sanaa_HDR_(16482367935).jpg)
Sana'a – Yemen
Tabriz
Tabriz – Iran
Tehran
Tehran – Iran
Tel Aviv
.jpg/560px-Skyline_of_Tel_Aviv_(34324506705).jpg)
Tel Aviv – Israel
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mediaThis video over Central
Africa
Africa and the
Middle East
Middle East was taken by
the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space
Station.Play mediaThis video over the
Sahara Desert
Sahara Desert and the Middle
East was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International
Space Station.Play mediaA pass beginning over Turkmenistan, east of
the
Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea to south-eastern China, just north-west of Hong Kong.
See also
Asia
Asia portal
Africa
Africa portal
Geography portal
Biomedical research in the Middle East
Hilly Flanks
Maayan (magazine)
MENA
Mental health in the Middle East
Middle East
Middle East Studies Association of North America
Middle East
Middle East Youth Initiative
Middle Eastern cuisine
Middle Eastern music
Orientalism
State feminism § Middle East
Timeline of Middle Eastern history
Notes
^ In Italian, the expression "Vicino Oriente" (Near East) was also
widely used to refer to Turkey, and Estremo Oriente (
Far East
Far East or
Extreme East) to refer to all of
Asia
Asia east of Middle East
^ According to the 1993 Statistical Abstract of
Israel
Israel there were
250,000 Romanian speakers in Israel, at a population of 5,548,523
(census 1995).
References
^ Population 1971–2010 (pdf Archived 2012-01-06 at the Wayback
Machine p. 89) IEA (OECD/ World Bank) (original population ref OECD/
World Bank
World Bank e.g. in IEA Key World Energy Statistics 2010 p. 57)
^ Shoup, John A. (2011-10-31). Ethnic Groups of
Africa
Africa and the Middle
East: An Encyclopedia. ISBN 978-1-59884-362-0. Archived from the
original on 24 April 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2014..mw-parser-output
cite.citation font-style:inherit .mw-parser-output .citation q
quotes:"""""""'""'" .mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a
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background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right
.1em center .mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a
background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right
.1em center .mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output
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span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span border-bottom:1px
dotted;cursor:help .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a
background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right
.1em center .mw-parser-output code.cs1-code
color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit
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.cs1-kern-wl-right padding-right:0.2em
^ Cairo, Michael F. The Gulf: The Bush Presidencies and the Middle
East Archived 2015-12-22 at the
Wayback Machine
Wayback Machine University Press of
Kentucky, 2012 ISBN 978-0-8131-3672-1 p xi.
^ Government Printing Office. History of the Office of the Secretary
of Defense: The formative years, 1947–1950 Archived 2015-12-22 at
the
Wayback Machine
Wayback Machine ISBN 978-0-16-087640-0 p 177
^ Kahana, Ephraim. Suwaed, Muhammad. Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Intelligence Archived 2015-12-23 at the Wayback Machine Scarecrow Press, 13 apr. 2009 ISBN 978-0-8108-6302-6 p. xxxi.
^ Beaumont, Blake & Wagstaff 1988, p. 16.
^ Koppes, CR (1976). "Captain Mahan, General Gordon and the origin of
the term "Middle East"".
Middle East
Middle East Studies. 12: 95–98.
doi:10.1080/00263207608700307.
^ Lewis, Bernard (1965). The
Middle East
Middle East and the West. p. 9.
^ Fromkin, David (1989). A Peace to end all Peace. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-8050-0857-9.
^ Melman, Billie (November 2002), Companion to Travel Writing, Collections Online, 6 The Middle East/Arabia, Cambridge, archived from the original on December 8, 2007, retrieved January 8, 2006.
^ 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 pp. 12–13.
^ Laciner, Dr. Sedat. "Is There a Place Called 'the Middle East'? Archived 2007-02-20 at the Wayback Machine", The Journal of Turkish Weekly, June 2, 2006. Retrieved January 10, 2007.
^ Adelson 1995, pp. 22–23.
^ Adelson 1995, p. 24.
^ Adelson 1995, p. 26.
^ a b Davison, Roderic H. (1960). "Where is the Middle East?". Foreign Affairs. 38 (4): 665–75. doi:10.2307/20029452. JSTOR 20029452.
^ Held, Colbert C. (2000).
Middle East
Middle East Patterns: Places, Peoples, and
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^ "'Near East' is Mideast, Washington Explains". The New York Times. August 14, 1958. Archived from the original on October 15, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-25.(subscription required)
^ Goldstein, Norm. The
Associated Press
Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on
Media Law. New York: Basic Books, 2004. ISBN 0-465-00488-1 p. 156
^
Hanafi, Hassan. "The Middle East, in whose world? (Primary
Reflections)". Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies (The fourth
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Middle East
Middle East in
globalizing world Oslo, 13–16 August 1998). Archived from the
original on 8 October 2006. ("unedited paper as given at the Oslo
conference. An updated and edited version has been published in Utvik
and Vikør, The
Middle East
Middle East in a Globalized World, Bergen/London 2000,
1–9. Please quote or refer only to the published article")
"The expression
Middle East
Middle East is an old British label based on a British
Western perception of the East divided into middle or near and far".
see also Shohat, Ella. "Redrawing American Cartographies of Asia".
City University of New York. Archived from the original on 2007-03-12.
Retrieved 2007-01-12.
^ Anderson, Ewan W., William Bayne Fisher (2000). The Middle East: Geography and Geopolitics. Routledge. pp. 12–13.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "World Economic Outlook Database". International Monetary Fund. 10 April 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
^ "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects". International Monetary Fund. April 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
^ Novikova, Gayane (December 2000). "
Armenia
Armenia and the Middle East"
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Middle East Review of International Affairs. Archived (PDF)
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^ Haeri, Safa (2004-03-03). "Concocting a 'Greater Middle East' brew".
Asia
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^ Ottaway, Marina & Carothers, Thomas (2004-03-29), The Greater
Middle East
Middle East Initiative: Off to a False Start Archived 2009-03-12 at
the Wayback Machine, Policy Brief, Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, 29, pp. 1–7
^
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Wayback Machine What Is The
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Middle East And What Countries Are Part of It? worldatlas.com.
Retrieved 16 April 2016.
^ Goldschmidt (1999), p. 8
^ Louise, Fawcett. International Relations of the Middle East. (Oxford University Press, New York, 2005)
^ Hassan, Islam; Dyer, Paul (2017). "The State of Middle Eastern Youth". The Muslim World. 107 (1): 3–12. hdl:10822/1042998. Archived from the original on 2017-04-03.
^ "IOM Intra regional labour mobility in
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Retrieved 2012-10-31.
^ "World Factbook – Jordan". Archived from the original on 2011-06-29.
^ "World Factbook – Kuwait". Archived from the original on 2014-07-02.
^ "Reports of about 300,000
Jews
.jpg/440px-A_map_of_Canaan_(8343807206).jpg)
Jews that left the country after WW2".
Eurojewcong.org. Archived from the original on 2010-08-13. Retrieved
2010-07-07.
^ "Evenimentul Zilei". Evz.ro. Archived from the original on 2007-12-24. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
^ The World Bank: World Economic Indicators Database. GDP (Nominal)
2008. Archived 2009-09-12 at the
Wayback Machine
Wayback Machine Data for 2008. Last
revised on July 1, 2009.
^ Data refer to 2008. World Economic Outlook Database-October 2009, International Monetary Fund. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
^ The World Bank: World Economic Indicators Database. GDP (PPP) 2008.
Archived 2014-02-09 at the
Wayback Machine
Wayback Machine Data for 2008. Last revised
on July 1, 2009.
^ "Unemployment Rates Are Highest in the Middle East". Progressive Policy Institute. August 30, 2006. Archived from the original on July 14, 2010.
^ Navtej Dhillon; Tarek Yousef (2007). "Inclusion: Meeting the 100 Million Youth Challenge". Shabab Inclusion. Archived from the original on 2008-11-09.
^ Hilary Silver (December 12, 2007). "Social Exclusion: Comparative
Analysis of
Europe
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Middle East
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on August 20, 2008.
Further reading
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Adelson, Roger (1995). London and the Invention of the Middle East:
Money, Power, and War, 1902–1922. Yale University Press.
ISBN 978-0-300-06094-2.
Anderson, R; Seibert, R; Wagner, J. (2006). Politics and Change in the
Middle East
Middle East (8th ed.). Prentice-Hall.
Barzilai, Gad; Aharon, Klieman; Gil, Shidlo (1993). The Gulf Crisis
and its Global Aftermath. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-08002-6.
Barzilai, Gad (1996). Wars, Internal Conflicts and Political Order.
State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-2943-3.
Beaumont, Peter; Blake, Gerald H; Wagstaff, J. Malcolm (1988). The
Middle East: A Geographical Study. David Fulton.
ISBN 978-0-470-21040-6.
Cleveland, William L., and Martin Bunton. A history of the modern
Middle East
Middle East (Westview Press, 2016).
Cressey, George B. (1960). Crossroads: Land and Life in Southwest
Asia. Chicago, IL: J.B. Lippincott Co. xiv, 593 pp. ill. with maps and
b&w photos.
Freedman, Robert O. (1991). The
Middle East
Middle East from the Iran-Contra
Affair to the Intifada, in series, Contemporary Issues in the Middle
East. 1st ed. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. x, 441 pp.
ISBN 0-8156-2502-2 pbk.
Goldschmidt, Arthur Jr (1999). A Concise History of the Middle East.
Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-0471-7.
Halpern, Manfred. Politics of Social Change: In the
Middle East
Middle East and
North Africa
North Africa (Princeton University Press, 2015).
Ismael, Jacqueline S., Tareq Y. Ismael, and Glenn Perry. Government
and politics of the contemporary Middle East: Continuity and change
(Routledge, 2015).
Lynch, Marc, ed. The
Arab
Arab Uprisings Explained: New Contentious
Politics in the
Middle East
Middle East (Columbia University Press, 2014). p. 352.
Palmer, Michael A. (1992). Guardians of the Persian Gulf: A History of
America's Expanding Role in the Persian Gulf, 1833–1992. New York:
The Free Press. ISBN 978-0-02-923843-1.
Reich, Bernard. Political leaders of the contemporary
Middle East
Middle East and
North Africa: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood Publishing Group,
1990).
External links
Middle Eastat's sister projects
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vteRegions of AfricaCentral Africa
Guinea region
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Mayombe
Igboland
Mbaise
Maputaland
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Congo Basin
Chad Basin
Congolese rainforests
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East Africa
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Swahili coast
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Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean islands
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Lamu Archipelago
Red Sea
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North Africa
Maghreb
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Barbary Coast
Bashmur
Ancient Libya
Atlas Mountains
Nile
Nile Valley
Nile
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Cataracts of the Nile
Darfur
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Lower Egypt
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Middle Egypt
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Nile Delta
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Nubia
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West Africa
Pepper Coast
Gold Coast
Slave Coast
Ivory Coast
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Cape Mesurado
Guinea region
Gulf of Guinea
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Niger Delta
Inner Niger Delta
Yorubaland
Fouta Djallon
Southern Africa
Madagascar
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Northern Highlands
Rhodesia
North
South
Thembuland
Succulent Karoo
Nama Karoo
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Highveld
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Macro-regions
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List of countries where Arabic is an official language
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China proper
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China
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China
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Gilgit-Baltistan
Baltistan
Shigar Valley
High-mountain Asia
Karakoram
Saltoro Mountains
Siachen Glacier
Bengal
Bay of Bengal
Gulf of Khambhat
Gulf of Kutch
Halar
Gulf of Mannar
Trans-
Karakoram
Karakoram Tract
Wakhan Corridor
Wakhjir Pass
Lakshadweep
Laccadive Islands
Amindivi Islands
Paropamisadae
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Andaman Islands
Nicobar Islands
Maldive Islands
Alpide belt
Asia-Pacific
Tropical Asia
Southeast
Orient
Sundaland
Mainland
Indochina
Malay Peninsula
Northern Triangle temperate forests
Maritime
Peninsular Malaysia
Sunda Islands
Greater Sunda Islands
Lesser Sunda Islands
Indonesian Archipelago
Wallacea
Timor
New Guinea
Bonis Peninsula
Papuan Peninsula
Huon Peninsula
Huon Gulf
Bird's Head Peninsula
Gazelle Peninsula
Bismarck Archipelago
Philippine Archipelago
Luzon
Visayas
Mindanao
Leyte Gulf
Gulf of Thailand
East Indies
Nanyang
Alpide belt
Far East
Ring of Fire
Asia-Pacific
Tropical Asia
Authority control
BNF: cb11941591f (data)
LCCN: sh85090501
NARA: 10044399
VIAF: 316747516
WorldCat Identities
WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 316747516
Coordinates: 29°N 41°E / 29°N 41°E&