Southwest Asia and North Africa

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Southwest Asia and North Africa
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Characteristics of Region

• YES
• Islam
• Dry
• Oil
• Arab

• BUT
• Judaism, Christianity
• Population concentrated near water
• High physiological population density (people per
  unit of arable land)
• Some countries oil-poor
• Turks, Iranians, Kurds, Berbers

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Culture Hearth

• Origin point of cultural innovation

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Fertile Crescent

• Domestication (selective breeding) of plants and
  animals wheat, barley, cattle, sheep

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Mesopotamia (4000 1000 BC) and Nile Valley
(3000 500 BC)

• Irrigation systems
• Agricultural surplus
• Division of labor
• Organized government states
• Organized religion
• urbanization

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Religious Culture Hearth

• Judaism (c. 1000 B.C.)
• Christianity (1st Century A.D.)
• Islam (c. 600 A.D.)

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• All are monotheistic religions belief in one
  god
• Christianity and Islam universalizing religions
• Judaism ethnic religion

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Early development of Islam

• Originated in Arabian Peninsula (today, Saudi
  Arabia)
• Founder is Muhammad lived 571 to 632 A.D.
• Means submission to will of God
• 5 pillars of Islam

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• One pillar is to make a religious pilgrimage or
  Hajj, to Mecca (Makkah) at least once in a
  lifetime
• Other sacred cities Medina, Jerusalem
• Early split in Islam into Shiite and Sunni
  branches based on succession to Muhammad
• Today, more than 80 are Sunni, around 15
  Shiite
• Shiites concentrated in Iran, parts of Iraq

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Cultural Diffusion

• Study of the spread of a culture, cultural trait,
  or cultural innovation across space and over time

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• Expansion of Islam associated with expansion of
  Empires
• Arab expansion 630 900 A.D.
• Arab expansion was religious, military, cultural,
  and scientific
• Ottoman Empire 1300s 1400s brought Islam to
  southeastern Europe

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• Islam expanded in several directions outward from
  Mecca this is called EXPANSION DIFFUSION
• In some cases, Islam was adopted first in the
  cities and then in the countryside, or first by
  an areas leaders and then by the general
  population this is called HIERARCHICAL
  DIFFUSION

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Impact of Oil

• Economic prosperity
• Economic cooperation (OPEC)
• Infrastructure cities, roads, ports, pipelines
• Vulnerability to shifts in oil prices
• Oil-related industries refineries,
  petrochemicals, etc.

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Impact of Oil, continued

• Migration between countries in region and from
  outside the region (South Asia)
• Income and regional disparities within countries
• Disparities between oil-rich and oil-poor
  countries
• Influence of Western culture
• Islamic fundamentalism?

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