© T. M. Whitmore

Today•North Africa and Southwest Asia

Culture ReligionLanguageEthnicity

Ancient lands, new countriesPolitical problems

© T. M. Whitmore

Last Time•North Africa and Southwest Asia

Role of the geography (location & situation) of Resources and settlementPopulations & demography

© T. M. Whitmore

Religion — A source of commonality and division

•Islam (Muslim) SunniShíiteFundamentalists

•Judaism

•Christianity

Arab traders and other empires spread Islam to Turkey and central Europe, North and East Africa, and Central, South and Southeast Asia.

© T. M. Whitmore

Note the the presence of religious minorities such as Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians and other Islamic sects such as Ibadism and Wahhabism.Purple areas include the Druze and Bahai.

Religion is an important part of everyday life throughout the region, more so than in most other parts of the world.

© Bret Wallach

© T. M. Whitmore

Language — also a source of commonality and

division•4 language groups (several languages)Semitic languages

ArabicHebrew

Turkic languagesPersian languages

FarsiKurdish

Hamitic languages in the Sahara

© T. M. Whitmore

Ethnicity•Arab — what is an Arab?

•Turks

•Kurds

•Saharan groups

•Persians in Iran

Kurdish language

© T. M. Whitmore

Culture – is complex

•Religion

•Language

•Ethnicity

•Lifestyles

© T. M. Whitmore

Ancient Lands — New countries•“Fertile Crescent”

•Roman empire•Rise of Islam — 600s-700s AD •Mongol conquest — Genghis Khan et

al. in the 1250s•Ottoman empire 1400s - 1920s•European colonial interest •Role of WW I•Between the World Wars•Post WW II

Ancient Cities in the Fertile Crescent

Islamic Caliphates 622-750

1154 world map by Moroccan Cartographer/

Geographer al-Idrisi

Earliest printed example of a classical T & O map by Guntherus Ziner, Augsburg, 1472

Limits to Mongol control ~ 1300

1914 (pre WWI) Colonial Boundaries

1939 (pre WWII) Colonial Boundaries