Geography of the Middle East

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Geography of the Middle East
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The Field of Geography

• Three Paradigms of Geography
• Man-Land
• Regional
• Spatial

Paradigm The way in which one views the world.
Defines acceptable questions and answers for a
discipline.
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The Field of Geography

• Three Paradigms of Geography
• Man-Land
• Human Environment
• Typical Questions
• How does the climate of
• Turkey affect its economy?
• How has the Aswan Dam changed
• the environment of Egypt?

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The Field of Geography

• Three Paradigms of Geography
• Regional
• Geography as an Integrative science
• Concept by examining geomorphology, climate,
  demography, economics, politics, history,
  sociology, etc the whole will be greater than
  the sum of its parts

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The Field of Geography

• Three Paradigms of Geography
• Regional
• Geography and Versailles Conference (1919)
• Advantage of Regional Knowledge

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The Field of Geography

• GIS and Remote Sensing Produce New Ways of
  Looking at Regional Geography
• www.gis.com www.esri.com

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The Field of Geography

• Three Paradigms of Geography
• Regional
• Recent interest due to
• Globalization
• Reports of geographic illiteracy
• Fall of Soviet Union

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The Field of Geography

• Three Paradigms of Geography
• Regional
• Brian Berrys
• Matrix

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The Field of Geography

• Three Paradigms of Geography
• Spatial
• Typical Questions
• Why are spatial distributions structured the way
  they are? (Why are things located where they
  are?)
• What is the best location for something?
• The emphasis moves from where to why.
• Use of statistical, mathematical, and computer
  methods

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The Field of Geography

• Answer Paradigms
• Determinism (Ellsworth Huntington)
• Probablism
• Possiblism
• Limit Free Will
• Free Will

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Defining the Middle East
The region as a mental construct. Use of term
Middle East, Near East, Far East (ethnocentric
terms) We will try to define the Middle East as a
homogenous region
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REGIONS OF THE REALM
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Defining the Middle East

• The Dry World (Arid)
• The Arab World
• The World of Islam
• The World of Oil

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THE DRY WORLD ?

• Dry/arid climate prevails throughout the realm
• Exceptions
• Peripheral regions of Turkey
• Northwestern section of Iran
• Oases
• Several great river valleys
• Dryness extends beyond the region

Arid Plains Near the Tigris
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POPULATION DISTRIBUTION

• The majority of the population in this realm
  lives not in the dry arid regions, but around
  water resources.
• - The Nile (Egypt 70 million)
• - Mediterranean Sea (Turkey 70 million)
• - Euphrates and Tigris Basin (Iraq 20
  million)
• - Lower mountain slopes of Iran, south of the
  Caspian Sea (Iran 70 million)

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AN ARAB REALM ?

• Relates to language as a cultural feature of this
  realm
• Who is an Arab problem
• Arabic is the dominant language in 16 States of
  the realm, but it is not one language.
• In Non-Arab States, indigenous languages
  dominate.
• - Turkey Turkish (70 million) come from
  Central Asia
• - Kurds (20 million) half live in Turkey where
  they are 20 of the population
• - Iran Farsi (70 million)
• - Israel Hebrew (5 million Jews, 1 million
  Arabs)
• - Niger French
• - North Africa -Berber

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ISLAMIC REALM?
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ISLAMIC REALM?

• Top 10 Islamic Countries
• Indonesia
• Pakistan
• India
• Bangladesh
• Turkey
• Iran
• Egypt
• Nigeria
• Algeria
• Morocco

Organization of the Islamic Conference over one
billion Muslims
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The Oil Industry

• Two-thirds of the worlds oil reserves
• Three areas with oil include North Africa,
  Persian Gulf, Caspian Sea (see next maps)
• Oil and Non-oil states (haves versus
  have-nots)
• Kuwait and Iraq with about same amount of oil,
  but Iraq with 25 million and Kuwait with 2.2
  million
• Much oil in states not in the Middle East

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THE WORLD OF OIL?
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Oil Production and Consumption
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Defining the Middle East

• The Dry World (Arid)
• The Arab World
• The World of Islam
• The World of Oil

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REGIONS OF THE REALM
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Various Definitions of the Middle East

• Complicated by break up of USSR
• Some definitions have included parts of former
  Yugoslavia, Greece, Kenya, Somalia, and
  Bangladesh
• No set definition
• Text uses the 16 states on the accompanying map
  (minus Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia)
• In covering the systematic chapters, we will
  include references to Morocco to Libya in North
  Africa and Sudan

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Transliteration

• A mapping from one system of writing to another
• In a sense, we are changing alphabets
• Often no hard and fast rules!

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Subregions of the Middle East

• SW Asia (Asian portion of ME)
• North Africa (North African portion of ME)
• Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) (western
  island)
• Mashriq (the east, the lands east of Libya
• Barbary Coast (named after the Berbers, name for
  countries of North Africa, home of Barbary
  pirates)

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Subregions of the Middle East

• Levant (French word for rising sun it is in the
  east where the sun rises over the Mediterranean)
  (Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon)
• Palestine (Israel, Jordan, Gaza, West Bank)
• Fertile Crescent (refers to the agricultural and
  pastoral land in a semi-circle from the Persian
  Gulf to the coast of Israel)

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Cold War-Related Subregions of the Middle East

• Northern Tier (southern periphery of USSR (Turkey
  and Iran)
• CENTO (Central Treaty Organization) (Baghdad Pact
  1955) (Against USSR expansion, like NATO) (Iran,
  Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, UK, US)
• 1958 Iraq out with overthrow of government
• 1979 Shah falls and CENTO becomes history
• An example of Supranationalism 3 or more
  nations cooperate for political, economic, or
  cultural reasons

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Subregions of the Middle East

• Arabia (all the countries of the Arabian
  Peninsula)
• Asia Minor (Anatolian Peninsula) (Turkey)

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Subregions of the Middle East

• Gulf Nations (all the countries around the
  Persian Gulf)
• Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar,
  UAE, Oman)
• Gulf Cooperation Council
• 1981
• Economic cooperation
• Political cooperation
• Not a big success

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Subregions of the Middle East

• Arab League
• 1945 Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria,
  Jordan, Yemen
• Later Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti,
  Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar,
  Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia, UAE
• Egypt was out 1979-1989

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Subregions of the Middle EastOPEC
Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries Organization of Arab Petroleum
Exporting Countries
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The Stans

• Formerly Soviet Central Asia
• Also called Turkistan
• Kazakhstan
• Uzbekistan
• Turkmenistan
• Tajikistan (Persian)
• Kyrgyzstan
• Afghanistan (non-USSR)

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Transcaucasia
Republics in the Russian Federation Orange is
Russia proper Dagestan (Muslim) Chechnya
(Muslim) Ingushetia (Muslim) Etc. Independent
Countries Armenia (Christian, also in Turkey and
Armenian quarter in Jerusalem and
elsewhere) Azerbaijan (Shiite Muslim, ties to
Azeris in Iran, Turkic people) Georgia (Christian)
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REGIONS OF THE REALM