NORTH AFRICA &
SOUTHWEST ASIA
(CHAPTER 7)
EARLY CULTURE HEARTHS
MAJOR GEOGRAPHICAL QUALITIES OF
THE REALM
 Physical


Aridity
Oil
 Cultural



Culture Hearths
World Religions
Conflict
MAJOR GEOGRAPHICAL QUALITIES OF
THE REALM (cont)
 Population
 Discontinuous
water sources
 Regional
clusters around infrequent
Imbalances
 Oil
and Non-oil states (“haves” versus
“have-nots”)
 Political
Geography
 Fragmented
due to colonial experience
THE IMPACT OF OIL

HIGH INCOMES

MODERNIZATION

INDUSTRIALIZATION

REGIONAL DISPARITIES

FOREIGN INVESTMENT
OIL AND NATURAL GAS
RESERVES
NAMING THE REALM
 Popular
 Dry
Labels
World
 Arab World
 Islamic World
 Middle East
THE DRY WORLD ?
 Dry/arid
climate prevails
throughout the realm
 Exceptions:
 Peripheral
regions of Turkey
 Northwestern section of Iran
 Oases
 Several great river valleys
ANNUAL PRECIPITATION
E.J. PALKA
NEGEV DESERT
WATER - A RENEWABLE OR
FINITE RESOURCE?
Water is critical for life, food production,
and industrial processes.
 9 out of 14 Southwest Asian states face
water-short conditions (the most
concentrated region of scarcity in the
world).

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION

The majority of the population in this realm
lives not in the dry arid regions, but around
water resources.
- The Nile
- Mediterranean Sea
- Euphrates and Tigris Basin
- Lower mountain slopes of Iran, south of
the Caspian Sea
POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
AN ARAB REALM ?
Relates to language as a cultural feature of
this realm
 Arabic is the dominant language in the
realm.
 In Non-Arab States, indigenous
languages dominate.

- Turkey - Turkish
- Iran - Farsi
- Israel - Hebrew
Turks
Azerbijianis
Kurds
Arabs
Persians
Bakhtiari
Lur
ISLAMIC REALM?
Muhammad (571- 632 AD)
 Five Pillars Of Faith

 Belief
in one God
 Five daily prayers
 Generous alms
 Fasting during Ramadan
 Pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj)

Sunnis vs Shi’ites
E.J. PALKA
DOME OF THE ROCK
E.J. PALKA
THE WESTERN WALL
E.J. PALKA
CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY
E.J. PALKA
INSIDE THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY
THE STAGE FOR ISLAM
SPATIAL DIFFUSION
 The
process by which a concept,
practice, or substance spreads from
its point of origin to new territories
 Types:
relocation, contagious and
hierarchical diffusion.
RELOCATION DIFFUSION

The most common form of relocation
diffusion involves the spreading of
innovations by a migrating population.
CONTAGIOUS EXPANSION
 The
spreading of an idea,
innovation, or some other item
through a local population by
contact from person to person
 Analogous
to the communication of
a contagious disease
HIERARCHICAL EXPANSION

A form of diffusion in which an idea or
innovation spreads by “trickling down”
from larger to smaller adopting units.

An urban hierarchy is usually involved,
encouraging the leapfrogging of
innovations over wider areas, with
geographic distance a less important factor.
E.g. Paris, London, New York get
information before the smaller towns in
those same countries.
REGIONS OF THE REALM
EGYPT AND THE
LOWER NILE BASIN
CONTINUOUS CIVILIZATION > 5,000 YEARS
95% OF EGYPT’S 76.4 MILLION PEOPLE LIVE
WITHIN 12 MILES (20 KMS) OF THE NILE
 BASIN IRRIGATION
 PERENNIAL IRRIGATION - MID 1800s
 ASWAN HIGH DAM - 1968




INCREASED AGRICULTURAL LAND BY 50%
PROVIDES 40% OF ELECTRICITY
EGYPT
STRATEGIC SITUATION
 CAIRO

THE MAGHREB AND ITS
NEIGHBORS
MIDDLE
EAST
THE MIDDLE EAST






“MIDDLE” OF THE ISLAMIC REALM
IRAQ, SYRIA, JORDAN, ISRAEL, LEBANON
PROCLAMATION OF ISRAEL AS A STATE (14th
May, 1948)
CENTER OF CONFLICT BETWEEN
CHRISTIANS, JEWS, AND MUSLIMS
SUNNI - SHI’ITE CONFLICT (WITHIN IRAQ
AND THROUGHOUT THE REGION)
A FUTURE KURDISTAN? – a Stateless Nation.
ARABIAN
PENINSULA
ARABIAN PENINSULA
SAUDI ARABIA, KUWAIT, BAHRAIN,
QATAR, UAE, OMAN, YEMEM
 OIL, DESERT, AND STRATEGIC
LOCATION
 SAUDI ARABIA- 26.6 MILLION PEOPLE
WITH THE WORLD’S GREATEST OIL
RESERVES

THE EMPIRE STATES
TURKEY

WESTERNIZATION
ISLAM LOST OFFICIAL STATUS
 ROMAN ALPHABET REPLACED ARABIC
 ISLAMIC LAW REPLACED BY WESTERN CODE
 MONOGAMY BECAME LAW
 WOMEN GAINED RIGHTS
 TURKEY SEPARATED FROM ARAB WORLD


KURDISH POPULATION

14 MILLION- 1/5 OF TURKEY’S 73.3 MILLION
IRAN
A COUNTRY OF MOUNTAINS AND
DESERTS
 POPULATION OF 67 MILLION
 66% URBANIZED
 OIL RESERVES

5 STATES OF THE FORMER
USSR

KAZAKHSTAN

UZBEKISTAN

TURKMENISTAN

KYRGYZSTAN

TAJIKISTAN