Different meanings of “Middle East”: Dark green = the Wikipedia definition. Medium + dark green = G8 definition. Light green = other countries with cultural and historical ties to the Middle East.
The Middle East (1940s- ) was a British military zone during the Second World War set up to defend the Suez Canal and the flow of oil through the Persian Gulf. It was the region “east” of Europe and in the “middle” between Europe and India. By 1943 it was more common than “Near East”, the older term for the region.
Despite its Eurocentrism, even people in the Middle East now use the term “Middle East”.
“Middle East” has no fixed meaning. According to these seven sources:
- AJE – Al Jazeera English, 2013
- BBC – BBC, 2013
- BRI – Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1989
- G8 – G8 nations, 2009
- NYT – New York Times style guide, 1999
- WIK – English-language Wikipedia, 2013
- WNW – Webster’s New World Dictionary, 2002
– here is how often different countries are seen as being part of the Middle East:
- 2 Afghanistan (G8, WNW)
- 2 Algeria (BBC, G8)
- 7 Bahrain (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 5 Cyprus (WIK, G8, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 1 Djibouti (G8)
- 7 Egypt (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 7 Iran (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 7 Iraq (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 7 Israel (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 7 Jordan (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 7 Kuwait (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 7 Lebanon (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 6 Libya (BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 2 Mauritania (BBC, G8)
- 2 Morocco (BBC, G8)
- 7 Oman (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 1 Pakistan (G8)
- 7 Qatar (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 7 Saudi Arabia (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 1 Somalia (G8)
- 4 Sudan (BBC, G8, NYT, BRI)
- 7 Syria (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 2 Tunisia (BBC, G8)
- 4 Turkey (WIK, G8, WNW, BRI)
- 7 United Arab Emirates (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
- 7 Yemen (WIK, BBC, G8, AJE, NYT, WNW, BRI)
Summary:
- 7 Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen
- 6 Libya
- 5 Cyprus
- 4 Sudan, Turkey
- 3
- 2 Afghanistan, Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia
- 1 Djibouti, Pakistan, Somalia
Everyone agrees on Arabic-speaking Asia, Egypt, Israel and Iran – generally the countries next to or between the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf. There is less agreement on more distant countries.
The Oxford dictionary:
an extensive area of SW Asia and northern Africa, stretching from the Mediterranean to Pakistan and including the Arabian peninsula.
Which fits the G8 meaning.
Like “Nigeria” and “Iraq”, the Middle East was defined by British interests. There is nothing profoundly historical or cultural about it.
The two cultural regions that most closely match it are the Arab world:
dark green = most speak Arabic; light green = Arabic-speaking minority
and the Muslim world:
The older meaning: Early in the 1900s “Middle East” meant between the Near East and the Far East – the countries from Iran to Burma, particularly the Persian Gulf ones. Back then Iran was not seen as part of the Near East while the Balkans were – the “Near East” pretty much matched the old Ottoman Empire. In the 1920s and 1930s, with that empire gone, the Near East and Middle East started seeming like the same thing. Today there is no difference in meaning.
The three Easts circa 1910
See also:
- “sub-Saharan Africa” – is it a racist term?
- “Europe is a continent”
- Indian
- Caucasian
- The word “race”
- Orientalism
- Tips on writing about Asian America
- This part of the world in terms of language and language families
Abagond 
Countries conquered by the Russians tend to be excluded from characterizations of the “Middle East” regardless of geographical or cultural considerations. That’s why places like Armenia and Turkmenistan can be excluded (light green on the first map here) while Pakistan can be included.
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Reblogged this on oogenhand and commented:
Again, an Eurocentric social construct.
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It is odd that the nations of Europe that could have been classified as “Middle Eastern” instead were designated as “Mediterranean,” taking their name from the same body of water that touches many of the “Middle Eastern” countries.
Interesting also is the fact that to Western eyes. Turks, Persians, Armenians, Pakistani’s etc. all get amalgamated under the Arab label.
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@Bulanik you’re incorrect.
I’m from Pakistan and i do not consider myself middle eastern, and you’re claim that pakistani history starts with “Mohammad Bin Qasim” is a myth Indians like to say.
I went to school in Pakistan and and we learned about the Indus and Gandhara civilizations and most Pakistanis are quite proud of those.
However your claim that “Pakistani cuisine/culture”(Whatever that is) is the same as Indian cuisine is wrong, there’s no such thing as Pakistani cuisine, people in Khyber Pakthunkwa and baluchistan eat food very different from most Indian food(it isn’t spicy), Pasthuns and Baluchis make up one-third of Pakistan’s population.
Pakistani food contains meat whereas Indian cuisine is mostly vegetarian.
Most Pakistanis speak either Indo-Aryan or Indo-Iranian languages whereas most Indians speak proto-Australoid languages.
That is incorrect, the Gaddafi cricket stadium was named in the 1970s NOT recently, in fact Pakistan is now planning to rename it.
The second most widely spoken language in Pakistan is Pastho which is not spoken elsewhere in India.
Only 2% of Indians speak Punjabi compared to 43% of Pakistanis.
Truth is “islamization” is failing in Pakistan, infact to this day no Islamist party has been able to form a democratic government in Pakistan or any of it’s provinces, Pakistanis tend to look to the Turks as a model NOT the Arabs.
It is true that most Pakistanis aren’t of Arabic origin but that doesn’t there are no Pakistanis that descend from Arabs, infact after the 8th century many Arabs/Turks/Persians did settle in Northern India they mixed extensivley with the local population.
Just because many Pakistanis don’t look arabic that doesn’t mean they don’t have some arab blood, the same way many Black Americans have some white in them or how White Americans have some native american ancestry.
Pakistanis are NOT ashamed of it’s history, on the backside of the 20 rupee bill there’s an image of Moenjo-daro, and the new airport in Islamabad is called Gandhara airport.
Truth is Pakistanis do have many things in common with Indians(North Indians, the southern ones are similar to Sri Lankans), but they also happen to have many differences.
Pakistanis don’t like being called Indian the same way Canadians don’t like being called American.
If you wanna the differences you can read this blog:
http://reformistani.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/the-differences-between-pakistanis-and-indians-httpwp-mepoemy-l3/
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@ Bulanik
I do not know what the G8 reasoning was, but most likely it is because Djibouti is an Arab League country since all the other ones are there too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League
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@All
Where did this stupid term called the Middle East come from? Egypt is supposedly apart of the Middle East and it is in North Africa! The term makes no sense to me.
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@ King
Exactly! They can’t, even though they should, throw Greece into the Middle East b/c it allegedly birthed Western civilisation.
@ Adeen
It’s especially crazy how Morocco and Mauritania, which lie west of most of Western Europe are somehow in the “Middle East”
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@ resw77
Ha! I agree, THATs the reason.
The “Europeans” (back when they were know as “Barbarian tribes” such as the Ostrogoths, Franks, Vandals, Lombards, Burgundians, Visigoths and the like) spent centuries being humiliated by the legions of Rome. Though they won some victories, the definition of a “victory” was always one of pushing the Roman invaders off of their front steps for a time—but not effecting the seat of Roman power itself.
Even European historians agree that the fall of Rome was essentially internal. The Europeans just happened to be on hand to inherit the broken pieces at the end. So for about 300 years or so, the barbarians wondered around like children in the abandon mansion of a wealthy neighbor—not having the resources to pay the light bill, nor the knowledge to fix the plumbing or repair the leaking roof.
When there was a Renaissance, it was largely sparked by going back and rediscovering the ancient knowledge of those dark-haired, olive-skinned, people who they now call “White.”
No wonder the couldn’t be Middle Eastern!!!
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Here is an interesting part of “middle eastern” history! A two hour presentation of the middle eastern slavery of Black Africans and all the jihads into africa and europe. (as well as the whole exploitation of Africa by outside forces,,, Europe and the Arab word)
really educationall but kinda long.. Man he is exactly like his father x)
at 1:04 45 it is interesting cause he explaines why it is so little knowledge about the arab slave trade.
the part that really got to me was the way many black muslims still dissapear(likely enslaved) during their Hajjs to Mecka…. at around 54 minutes into the clip.
he also speaks about the african diaspora. btw will post this in the arab slavery discussion here as well! 🙂
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@Bulanik “(I am not an Indian myself, and neither am I American.)”
Really? What about this comment you wrote about 6 months ago.
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/indian/#comment-144544
You mentioned you were Indian.
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I wonder if we can get an “Iranian guilt” racket going. Ju$t and idea;)
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@adeen
From the British, who, among other things, told us that their homes were their castles, that they have stiff upper lips, that names of various people and countries around the world should be spelled and pronounced the way they told the world they should. Concerning the latter, the Chinese set the trend of de-anglicanization which others followed.
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Sorry xp box is getting reinstalled mobile but i think the takeaway is the sun set on the british empire and the quasi arbitrary administrative system was basically not able to be adressed bt the un or whatever so now its everyones problem
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@Bulanik I’m well aware of the Indian diaspora, I know that many Indians and even Pakistanis live in the west, and they have children/grandchildren who were born there, and many of them married with other ethnic groups.
I found your comment(the first one I responded to) ignorant, and it’s the same thing I’ve heard other Indians say.
“Personally I don’t believe Pakistanis are Middle Easterners, and it’s the first I have heard that it is Indians who are the ones who believe that Pakistan’s history begins with Mohammad Bin Qasim.”
I’ve never heard of any Pakistani claim that Pakistani history began with Bin Qasim, I wasn’t implying that Indians believed that, what I meant was Indians believe that we(Pakistanis) believe that our history began with Bin Qasim.
“Are you sure about this? About 40% of Indians are vegetarian. Although meat-eating is not always frequent among non-vegetarians, that doesn’t make them vegetarian, or even mostly. So again, no, Mosh, no.”
85% of Indians are Hindu, so how can only 40% of the population be vegetarian?You probably are of North Indian heritage, and that’s why you found eastern Pakistani food similar to the food you eat, however it is very different from South Indian or even East Indan food.
A lot of the Indians living outside India are Sikh, and that’s why they eat meat, otherwise the Hindus are usually strictly vegetarian.
I never claimed Pakistanis were superior to Indians, and I don’t believe in Aryan supremacy,( though I am of Aryan ancestry).Indians have always said that “we’re not the same” and that “we want don’t anything to do with you terrorists”, but as soon as we say we’re different they accuse of being “self-haters”.
It’s the Indians that have an inferiority complex not us.
“Yet, when when you say Pakistanis tend to look to the Turkish model rather than the Arabs, I would ask you, which one? Are referring to Kemalism, or to Erdoğan’s government? The latter is an Islamist one, although it seems you are not aware of that.”
A lot of Pakistanis I know, at least the Urban ones look up to Kemalism, I want Pakistan to be a secular state just like Turkey, however our frontrunner for Prime Minister(Imran Khan), looks up to Erdogan, and Erdogan isn’t as conservative as his critics make him out to be.
“And this is to say what? Arabic is a language not a look, but same is true of the Afro-Pakistanis among all you “Aryan” folk, right?”
Not all Pakistanis are Aryan, many are mixed, and I’m well aware of Afro-Pakistanis, they descend from the slaves that were brought to the Makhran coast by the Portuguese, however they are a very small minority and live in run down ethnic enclaves such as Lyari in Karachi, many of them speak Baluchi, and they mixed with the Baluchis a little, the Afro-Pakistanis are called “Sheedis”.
They don’t face much discrmination, there’s no segregation in Pakistan, they go to the same schools and mosques as most Pakistanis, but a lot of the kids join gangs, cause many of them are unemployed.
Most of them make really good soccer players.
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Interesting article Abagond as always. I always thought the Middle East referred to only Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, Palestine-Israel and Syria. Just going by the Eurocentric definition of North Africa as part of the Middle East is wrong when you look at the geography. North Africa is to the West of the Middle East like Iraq and Jordan. In Arabic North African countries are called al maghrib which means the West. How can Algeria that’s west of Egypt be part of the Middle East? How is Egypt tied to the Middle East although half its history, politics and culture has more in common with the continent of Africa? By the way, there are more Arabic speakers living in North African than in the Middle East just a thought. 🙂
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@Bulanik “I read somewhere that it has been estimated that at least a quarter of the total population living on the Makran coast are of African ancestry — that is, at least 250,000 men and women can claim East African descent on the southern coast of Pakistan and in the easternmost part of southern Iran.”
Woah! There are only 20,000-50,000 Sheedis in all of South Asia, so how can there be 250,000 of them in Pakistan?
Every ethnic group has made contributions to Pakistani culture, some more than others.
“What I learned about the Afro-Pakistanis is how their local culture has influenced and shaped the dominant culture of Pakistan. I once heard that the musical anthem of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, “Bija Teer”, is a Balochi song in the musical style of the Sheedis with African style rhythm and drums”
Now that’s a stretch, no doubt that they have contributed to Pakistani culture, but it isn’t as dominant as you think.
How does the anthem of a political party become “national culture”, so does that mean “Yes we can” is America’s new slogan?
“Perhaps that’s that “very small” minority you were talking about living in their ethnic enclaves you mentioned. So marginal are they…yet you are “well aware” of them, of course.”
I’ve never met a Sheedi, but I am aware they exist cause I’ve read articles about them, just because somebody lives in the same country it doesn’t mean you have neccesarily met every ethnic group especialy if they’re a super-minority.
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Bulanik, Excellent analysis as always!
I browsed through the website that Mosh posted. A propaganda website that reeks of inferiority complex not to mention that it’s riddled with errors. That guy needs a lesson in Genetics 101.
And for Mosh. Firstly, you want to take extremes from each country and present it as representative. You post pictures of tribal people, some of whom are Australoids, as representative of people from India and European looking Pashtuns as representative of Pakistan. Since when did Australoid and dark skin = Ugly? I know this wasn’t your intention but some of the dark skinned people on his website are actually more attractive. And what exactly is an Australoid-Negroid? There’s no such thing as Australoids are the furthest genetically from Negroid. And you claim that Pakistanis cluster more closely with Bedouins than Marathis. Then you will not be happy to learn that Bedouins have a significant amount of sub-Saharan DNA aka Negroid. And what’s with this Aryan crap? The true Aryans moved towards the Yamuna in UP after the Saraswathi River dried up and this makes sense as the Bengal Brahmins have the highest frequency of R1a. Besides, many scientists such as Stephen Oppenheimer and Toomas Kivisild today believe that R1a had its origin in S. Asia. Here are a link for you from the world’s foremost geneticist, Cavalli-Sforza on the genetics of the world pop. It is sure to disappoint you.
Notice how the Chinese, Korean and Japanese are closer to Australoid pop. than even Dravidians.
Secondly, you claim that 80% of Indians are vegetarians. Wrong again. That’s what happens when you get most of your information from propaganda websites. The only people in India that eat no meat are Brahmins and we are no more than 5% of the pop. Moreover, most of the populations of both countries are poor so that for all intents and purposes, they are vegetarians for most of the week. And what’s so great about killing animals? That’s a badge of honor? Athletes such as Carl Lewis, Mike Tyson and Ricky Williams are vegetarians. Do they look like wimps to you? Einstein, Da Vinci, Pythagoras, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison are among the many scientists that were vegetarian.
Finally, sadly for you, most of the preeminent geneticists such as Cavalli-Sforza and anthropologists like William Howells consider the majority of the Indian population to be Caucasoids. And if you are such superior Aryans, how come you are such a failed state that is dependent on US tax dollars and handouts?
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@Minnesota Mom
“And if you are such superior Aryans, how come you are such a failed state that is dependent on US tax dollars and handouts?”
I never said that all Pakistanis descended from Aryans nor did I say Pakistan was better than India.
India recieves more financial aid from America than Pakistan, most of the “aid” Pakistan recieves is to fight the Taliban, “military aid” is different from humanitarian aid.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357056/Britains-1bn-aid-India-nation-3-times-billionaires-have.html
You say Pakistan is a failed state, yet more people live below the poverty line in India than Pakistan, infact India’s poor is more than twice the size of Pakistan’s total population, you could walk around an Indian city and see homeless people everywhere, yet compare it to a similar sized Pakistani city, and you will see relatively less poverty.
Just like Pakistan, India has the super-rich and the extremely poor, the middle class is very small.
All this talk about India being the next super-power or claims that “the 22nd century” belongs to India is just hyperbole, all of the astronomical growth rates mean nothing to the ordinary Indian
A failed state doesn’t have a functioning democracy like Pakistan.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8867353/Indian-poverty-levels-higher-than-Pakistans-says-UN-report.html
I didn’t want to derail the main topic of this blog, but as soon as you decided to to talk smack about Pakistan, I felt the need to respond.
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@Mosh
First Pakistan get much more aid from our taxes than India gets. And India has more than 7 times the population of Pakistan. Pakistan has been receiving American taxpayer money for a very long time pre-9/11 and that money hasn’t been used to fight the Taliban. You’ve instead used it towards terroristic acts towards India. Pakistan received about 20 billion from the US between 2002-2010 and almost 700 million pounds from Britain between 2009-2013. Contrast this 280 million from Britain to a pop more than 7 times as Pakistan.
Second, nowhere is there any mention of India the superpower so you can end that strawman argument here and now. And yes, you are a failed state (#13). The fact that India has a 20% Muslim population while Pakistan targets its minority Christian and Hindu populations speaks volumes.
And both India and Pakistan are poor countries but the GDP of India is still higher than Pakistan ($1,527 vs. $1,164).
As for talking “smack” about Pakistan, go back and reread your comments. You were the one that started these derisive comments about Indians, Australoids, Negroid, etc.
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This stuff on Pakistan is getting off topic. Talking about whether Pakistan is “Middle Eastern” belongs on this thread, but the other stuff, if you want to continue discussing it, belongs under the Pakistan post:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/06/01/pakistan/
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@Minnesota Mom:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/06/01/pakistan/#comment-167134
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@Minnesota Mom can you please cite your reference to the picture
I see a lot of tangential references to that diagram but I’m unable to find the blog it’s associated to? Thanks.
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@v8driver
It’s from Cavalli-Sforza’s book “The History and Geography of Human Genes.” Here’s a link to portions of the book:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FrwNcwKaUKoC&oi=fnd&pg=PP17&dq=%22The+History+and+Geography+of+Human+Genes%22+Cavalli-Sforza&ots=Hl9XRfBBc6&sig=Jh-9Wz93eOPWuEdvaK-fWBYBxu8
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@ Bulanik. Oh no problem at all 🙂 really worth watching
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@Abagond
When did North Africa become part of the so-called Middle-East? The term has become racialized. Africa is a continent unto itself. I resent any individual or group that distorts or lies about historical facts. I don’t see those from Iberia trying to make Spain and Portugal part of Africa? But, when it comes to black folk, other races can kidnap aspects of our heritage for themselves. I know that some black people will conveniently throw up Yemen in the convo. Yes, Yemen is connected to Egypt via land bridge, but, it’s still not an african country…the same goes for Spain.
Ty
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I think the best thing would be to define the Middle East as the region including all the regions speaking Arabic, Iranic and Turkic languages. It is the core of the Muslim world, Arabic, Iranic and Turkic peoples having contributed the most to the emergence and development of the Islamic civilization. There was even the concept of “three languages”(elsine-i selase) – Arabic, Persian, Turkish as defining the Muslim world.
Turkic and Iranic cultures have been very intertwined in history, it is not so easy separating them as for example is the case of Iranian Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Arabic part of the Middle East has more neat dividing line from Irano-Turkic part of the Middle East. On the extrem West of the Middle East, the Maghric – Arabic culture on Berberian substrate also has its strong specific.
So that The Middle East could be roughly subdivided into 3 large parts – Arabic-Berberian Maghrib(Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lybia), mostly Arabic Mashriq(Egyt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Gulf States, Yemen) and Iranio-Turkic world(Iran, Republic of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Qazaqstan, Qyrghyzstan + Baloochistan and Pakhtunkhwa + Armenia, Georgia + Chechnya, Daghestan)
Israel, Armenia and Georgia, although not Muslim, should be included since their history and politics are very much intertwined with Arabs, Iranians or Turks. The North Caucasus(Chechnya, Daghestan) should also be included in the Middle East due to their staunch attachment to Islam.
It would be grossly mistaken to exlude territories once possessed by Russians, it makes no sense, since culturally these territories do not differ so much let’s say from Iranic and Turkic regions in Turkey, Iran or Afghanistan. They make unified cultural whole.
Pakistan’s Baloochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are Middle East in any case, since Balooch and Passhtuns are Iranic peoples, but futher East, Punjab and Sindh are rather parts of Indian Subcontinent but not of Middle East.
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http://www.historytoday.com/reviews/beyond-balfour-and-sykes-picot
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