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The Middle East
I
INTRODUCTION
Middle East, geographic and cultural region located in southwestern Asia and
northeastern Africa. The geopolitical term Middle East, first coined in 1902 by United
States naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan, originally referred to the Asian region
south of the Black Sea between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and India to the
east. In modern scholarship, and for the purposes of this article, the term refers
collectively to the Asian countries of Bahrain, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Israel (and the
Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, and the African
country of Egypt. A broader, more cultural definition might include the Muslim
countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
The area is mostly arid with hot, dry summers and cool winters. It contains about 65
percent of the world’s oil reserves, primarily in the states bordering the Persian Gulf.
Oil is the region's main export. Some Middle Eastern countries are extremely rich
because of their oil reserves. Others with high populations and no significant oil
resources (notably Egypt and Yemen) are considerably poorer.
The first civilizations of the Middle East, which grew in the valleys of the Nile, Tigris,
and Euphrates rivers, are among the oldest in the world. Alphabets, law codes, and
cities all began in the Middle East, as did the world’s three great monotheistic
religions, Judaism (13th century bc), Christianity (1st century to 4th century ad) and
Islam (7th century ad). Of the three, Islam continues to mark the region most
profoundly. More than 90 percent of the people of the Middle East are Muslims.
The Middle East is an area of frequent conflict, largely for reasons embedded in its
recent past. For example, the conflict between Arabs and Israelis over the land in
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Palestine (present-day Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories) is more a product of
20th-century developments rather than any age-old hostility between Muslims and
Jews (see Arab-Israeli Conflict). Likewise, although there have been tensions between
Persians and Arabs in the past, the Iran-Iraq War between 1980 and 1988 was more a
result of political tensions and border disputes in the second half of the 20th century.
Islamic militancy, which has produced deadly results in Egypt, Iran, Israel, and
Lebanon, is a consequence of late 20th-century problems such as widespread
unemployment, political and socioeconomic turmoil, and an overarching sense of
despair rather than a result of any violent or extremist characteristics inherent to
Islam.
II
LAND AND RESOURCES
The total land area of the Middle East is 7.3 million sq km (2.8 million sq mi). Much
of the region consists of flat plains or plateaus. Extensive desert areas stretch across
the southern reaches, including the Libyan Desert and Arabian Desert in Egypt, the
Rub‘ al Khali in southern Saudi Arabia, and the Syrian Desert at the junction of Saudi
Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Northern mountainous areas include the Taurus
Mountains in Turkey, the Elburz Mountains and Zagros Mountains in Iran, and the
mountains of northern Iraq. Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel contain the
northernmost extension of the Great Rift Valley, a depression that extends from the
Middle East to southeastern Africa. The Caspian Sea, the largest inland sea in the
region and the only one of any economic significance, indents Iran’s northern border.
The area is particularly susceptible to earthquakes, which have caused massive
devastation in the second half of the 20th century, especially in Iran and Turkey.
A Climate
Rainfall and temperature vary considerably across the Middle East and even within
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countries. For example, the Caspian Sea coast of northern Iran receives up to 2000
mm (80 in) of rain a year, while the desert regions of Iran may receive no rain at all
for several years. Temperatures also vary by region. Ankara in the central plateau
region of Turkey averages 0° C (32° F) in January and 23° C (73° F) in July. In
contrast, low-lying coastal regions of the Arabian Peninsula (the large peninsula south
of Jordan and Iraq) and those bordering the Mediterranean Sea experience much more
moderate winter temperatures: Jiddah in western Saudi Arabia averages 24° C (75° F)
in January and 31° C (89° F) in July. Lowland desert areas in the interior regions of
the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Iraq, and Egypt experience periods of extreme heat in the
summer, with temperatures often reaching 45° C (113° F) or higher.
B
Water Resources
Apart from the Nile River, which provides much of the water supply and irrigation
systems of Egypt, and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which supply Iraq, Syria, and
Turkey, there are no major rivers or navigable waterways. The Sea of Galilee (Lake
Tiberias) in northern Israel, fed from the north by the shallow, unnavigable Jordan
River, provides Israel’s main source of fresh water. With such a limited water supply,
access to water for drinking, irrigation, and hydroelectricity has become increasingly
crucial in many parts of the Middle East.
The control of water resources is a frequent source of political tension. When Israel
occupied the West Bank in 1967 and parts of southern Lebanon in 1982, it gained
control of the upper tributaries of the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee, and the Līţānī
and Bāniyās rivers. Also, the Israeli government gives Israeli settlers permission to
drill new water wells in the West Bank, but denies Palestinian residents the same right.
Any peace agreement between Arabs and Israelis resulting in full or partial surrender
of Israeli authority over this area will have to address the issue of control over water
supplies.
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A similar conflict persists over access to the waters of the Euphrates River, which
rises in Turkey and flows across northeastern Syria before entering Iraq. All three
countries depend on these waters for irrigation and hydroelectric power. As part of a
major water development project begun in 1984, Turkey built two large dams on the
Euphrates, substantially reducing the amount of water available to Syria for power
generation. A dam in Syria further reduces Iraq’s water supply, adversely affecting the
country’s agriculture. The situation nearly led to a war between Iraq and Syria in
1975.
Environmental factors can also affect water supply. From the late 1980s to the 1990s
droughts in Ethiopia reduced the flow of the Nile, Egypt's only source of water. Rapid
growth in Egypt's population over the same period compounded the water shortage.
The Aswān High Dam in southern Egypt, opened in 1971, has decreased annual
flooding of the delta region at the Nile’s outlet to the Mediterranean Sea, resulting in
coastal erosion and increased salt content of the soil.
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PEOPLE
The Middle East has a population (1997 estimate) of about 291.9 million. Population
density varies greatly throughout the region. In most countries, there has been a
steady migration of people from rural to urban areas since the 1940s, so today the
majority of people live in urban areas. In Iraq, for example, about 61 percent of the
population lived in rural areas in 1957, compared with 25 percent in 1996. Similarly,
half of all workers in Lebanon were employed in agriculture in 1959; by the
mid-1990s, only about 8 percent of the workforce had jobs in agriculture. The largest
cities in the region are Cairo, Egypt (6.8 million), Tehrān, Iran (6.5 million), Baghdād,
Iraq (3.8 million), and İstanbul, Turkey (7.6 million).
The population of the Middle East tripled between 1950 and 1994 primarily because
of the introduction of modern medicine and agricultural techniques from Western
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nations. Modern medicine decreased mortality rates, while new agricultural
techniques improved food productivity. The growth rate remained high by world
standards through the mid-1990s with an average annual rate of 2.4 percent between
1990 and 1995. Infant mortality rates vary greatly from country to country in the
1990s, though overall they have improved considerably since the 1970s. This
variation reflects the different levels of wealth and development in countries of the
Middle East. In the highly developed country of Israel the infant mortality rate was 8
deaths per 1000 live births in 1997. By comparison, the rate per 1000 live births was
71 in less-developed Egypt and 75 in Yemen.
A Ethnic Groups and Languages
Arabs make up the majority of the people of the Middle East, accounting for almost
the entire populations of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the states of the Arabian
Peninsula, and for three-fourths of the population of Iraq. The Arabs originated in the
Arabian Peninsula and began to migrate northwards and eastwards in the 5th and 6th
centuries ad. The rate of migration accelerated after the birth and spread of Islam in
the 7th century. Under Arab influence, peoples in the surrounding areas gradually
adopted the Arabic language, and even more gradually adopted Islam. Arabic, a
Semitic language, serves as a unifying bond among Arabs throughout the region.
The Turks, another broad, linguistically related group of peoples, reside primarily in
Turkey, and Iran. About 80 percent of the population of Turkey, and most of the
present inhabitants of Anatolia (the Asian portion of Turkey), are descended from
Central Asian tribes that migrated west between the 11th and 13th centuries. These
people speak Turkish, one of a group of Turkic languages spoken between
southeastern Europe and northwestern China (see Altaic Languages). In Iran, about
one quarter of the population speaks one of the Turkic languages, especially Azeri. A
few hundred thousand Turkmens in northern Iraq also speak a Turkic language.
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The pre-Islamic people of Iran, the Persians, make up about 60 percent of the
present-day population of Iran. The Persians descended from Indo-European peoples
who entered the country from Central Asia during the 2nd century bc. These people
speak Persian, an Indo-Iranian language.
Members of another ethnic group, the Kurds, reside in the Middle Eastern countries of
Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, as well as in several of the former republics of the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). They speak Kurdish, another Indo-Iranian
language. The largest concentration of Kurds is in Turkey, where they make up about
19 percent of the population.
The Jewish population of Israel constitutes an important cultural group in the Middle
East. Although about half of the current residents were born in Israel, their parents and
grandparents came from more than 100 countries throughout the world, primarily in
the 20th century. From diverse backgrounds, this group nevertheless shares in
common the Jewish tradition and the modern Hebrew language.
B
Religion
Pilgrimage to the Kaaba For Muslims, the Kaaba—a small sanctuary near the center
of the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia—is the most sacred spot on earth.
Muslims all over the world orient themselves toward the Kaaba while praying, and
every able Muslim is expected to make a pilgrimage to the Kaaba at least once in his
or her lifetime.
Islam is the predominant religion in the Middle East. More than 90 percent of the
area’s population are Muslims. Christians form the next largest group, with about 4
percent of the population, and Jews make up about 2 percent of the population.
Muslims explicitly recognize that Judaism and Christianity preceded their faith, and
therefore regard Christians and Jews as “peoples of the book”—that is, groups with
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written scriptures that should be free to practice their religion.
Islam is divided into two major groups, Sunni Islam and Shia Islam. The Sunni
Muslims are by far the most numerous, both in the Middle East and in the Muslim
world in general. The Sunnis and Shias separated over the issue of supreme authority
after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632. The majority of Muslims, the
Sunnis, believe the first four caliphs, all of whom belonged to Muhammad’s tribe,
were the prophet’s rightful successors. A minority, the Shias, believe that
Muhammad’s nearest male heir, his cousin and son-in-law Ali, was intended to
succeed Muhammad. Shias accept only Ali’s descendants (imams) as legitimate rulers.
The Shias themselves are divided into several sects, which differ over how many of
Ali’s male descendants should be recognized as leaders of the Islamic community. Of
Middle Eastern Shia Muslims, who form about 28 percent of the population of the
region, the majority are Jafaris. Because they accept 12 imams, Jafaris are also called
“Twelvers.” This group is especially prominent in Iran. They believe that the 12th
imam will return in the future to establish perfect justice, supplanting the rule of any
other leader. This belief has undermined government authority since the establishment
of Twelver Shiism as the state religion in 1501. Twelvers also reside in Iraq and
Lebanon. Another Shia sect, the Zaydis of Yemen, recognize five imams. A third
group, called Ismailis (“Seveners”), recognize seven imams; a few hundred thousand
Ismailis reside in Syria.
More than half of the Christians in the Middle East live in Egypt. Most Egyptian
Christians belong to the Coptic church. The remaining Middle Eastern Christians are
divided between Orthodox groups (Armenian, Greek, and Syrian) and Catholic groups
(Armenian, Greek, Maronite, and Syrian) in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. The formal
division between Orthodox and Catholic sects dates back to the Great Schism of 1054
between the Eastern and Roman churches. Apart from the Maronites, however, most
Middle Eastern Catholics are descendants of converts from various Orthodox
churches in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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Almost all Middle Eastern Jews live in Israel. Orthodox Jews, who strictly follow
traditional Judaic beliefs and practices, hold the most influence over religious affairs
in Israel. Reform Jews, who seek to modify Jewish tradition to meet contemporary
circumstances, and Conservative Jews, who maintain a middle position between the
two, constitute important minorities. Reform and Conservative groups continually
struggle for a limited role in Israeli religious affairs.
C Education
Most Middle Eastern countries provide free primary and secondary education.
University education is either free or subsidized by scholarships for those in need.
Although in theory primary education is compulsory in all countries, internal conflicts
and remoteness of many areas from urban centers often prevent full attendance.
Nearly all school-aged females participate in the primary and secondary education,
but far fewer continue to university level. In more conservative states such as Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, the sexes are educated separately at all
levels. Although literacy has improved significantly in recent years, it remains low in
much of the Middle East by Western standards. In the mid-1990s literacy rates for
people aged 15 or older were 38 percent in Yemen, 51 percent in Egypt, 58 percent in
Iraq, 63 percent in Saudi Arabia, 71 percent in Syria, and 72 percent in Iran.
D Way of Life
Due to the growth of the petroleum industry and accompanying modernization,
traditional ways of life largely disappeared from most parts of the Middle East in the
20th century. For instance, the pastoral nomads that symbolize the Middle East to
many people account for less than 1 percent of the region’s population. The few
remaining nomads reside in the vast deserts of Syria, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula,
and some Kurdish and Persian tribes still migrate back and forth from summer to
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winter pastures. The majority of the population now lives in either urban settlements
of more than 10,000 people or in smaller rural villages.
With the first wave of modernization came a general trend toward secularism. Islam
exerted less influence on social conduct, and religious practice was gradually
relegated from the public to the private sphere. One of the most visible effects was an
increase in gender equality. Women gained more opportunities for education and
employment, especially in the urban centers. Since the late 1960s the rise of Islamic
fundamentalism, which, among other things, reasserts values that emphasize the
subordination of women to men, has begun to have an adverse effect on these
developments.
IV ECONOMY
As in most less-developed countries, economic development in the Middle East since
the mid-19th century has been oriented toward production of cash crops or
commodities for overseas markets. In the 19th and early 20th centuries these products
were agricultural: cotton from Egypt, silk from Lebanon, and grains of various kinds
from Turkey, Iraq, and Syria and its neighbors. Since the mid-20th century the main
export commodities have been oil from the countries where it is located, and labor
from poorer countries where it is not. Apart from the oil industry, however, the region
remains largely undeveloped. It remains a net importer of most commodities,
including food.
After political revolutions of the 1950s, a form of state control based on the centrally
planned model of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was imposed on
the economies of Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and South Yemen (now part of the Republic of
Yemen). The governments of these countries set economic policy and controlled
major industries. Large landholdings were broken up and redistributed, while import
controls, government-directed foreign exchange rates, and subsidies on essential
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foodstuffs were also introduced. The Soviet Union became the main supplier of
weapons to these countries. Some of this structure remains in place, but with the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and worldwide tendencies toward privatization,
forms of Soviet-style government assistance such as food subsidies and easy access to
healthcare, education, and welfare has been greatly reduced. Meanwhile, beginning in
the 1950s other pro-Western countries such as Iran, Israel, Jordan, and Turkey
received financial or technical aid and military supplies from the West
A Mining
About 65 percent of the world's petroleum reserves and 26 percent of its natural gas
reserves are in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In
1996 these states produced about 26 percent of the world’s oil and 5 percent of its
natural gas. The economies of these countries depend almost entirely on these
reserves. Petroleum mining and related industries also dominate the economies of
Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman, all of which have smaller but still significant reserves.
Small populations and the absence of resources besides oil limit the capacity of some
states to diversify. Only Iran and Iraq have large populations and significant
agricultural resources, and the economies of both states have been ravaged by a
combination of foreign wars and internal economic mismanagement.
B
Manufacturing
The lack of raw materials and the small size of local and regional markets have
inhibited the growth of manufacturing in the Middle East. However, some Middle
Eastern countries have manufacturing sectors that contribute significantly to their
economies. Examples are Egypt and Turkey, whose manufactures include textiles,
processed foods, and chemicals. In the oil states petrochemicals make up a significant
part of the manufacturing sector, but most Middle Eastern oil is still exported as
crude.
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C Agriculture
Although agriculture dominated the regional economy until the 1950s, the Middle
East was importing more than half of its food requirements by the early 1990s.
Agriculture remains significant in the economies of Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Egypt,
and Turkey, supplying between 15 and 25 percent of their gross domestic product.
These figures do not fully reflect subsistence agricultural activities that engage large
portions of the population, especially in poorer countries. Reliance on agricultural
imports is a result of many factors, including high population growth, rural-to-urban
migration (which reduced the number of farmers), and development strategies of the
1960s and 1970s that focused on heavy industry rather than agriculture
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