Geography & Origins of the Middle East

1. Geography & Origins of the Middle East

2. Climate • Climate - the type of weather a region has over a very long period. • The countries of the Middle East generally have a very hot and dry climate. • Four large oceans or bodies of water, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean border the Middle East. • Even so, mountain ranges close to many of the coastal areas block rains coming from these bodies of water and the result is that much of the interior of this region is desert. • Because there are coastal areas as well as a number of large rivers, other parts of this region have enough water to support agriculture and towns and cities of significant size.

3. Geography • Peninsula– a piece of land surrounded by water on three sides. • The Sinai Peninsula is separated from Africa by the Suez Canal, which was dug in 1868. • A large body of water called the Dead Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth • Salt and other minerals have collected in it because it has no rivers running through it to make the water fresh • The Dead Sea is more than a thousand feet below sea level. • Nothingbut bacteria lives there.

4. Most of the Arabian Peninsula is made up of the Arabian Desert • Water is very hard to find and is • very valuable. • The most fertile land in the Middle • East is found along the Tigris and Euphrates River in modern Iraq. • The Middle East is home to some • of the worlds earliest civilizations. • Europe and Asia meet at Istanbul, Turkey, which is located on both sides of the Bosporus strait. • Strait – a narrow channel connecting two bodies of water

5. The rivers of Southwest Asia (Middle East) are important because much of this region of the world is dry and desert or semi-desert. • One of the longest rivers in the region is the Euphrates River, which begins in Turkey, and flows through Syria and Iraq. • In southern Iraq, the Euphrates River joins with the Tigers River to form one waterway called the Shaat al-Arab, which then flows along the border between Kuwait and Iran before e emptying into the Persian Gulf.

6. Tigris River • The Tigris River begins in the mountains of Turkey and flows south through Iraq. • It joins the Euphrates in southern Iraq. • These two rivers provide water for both drinking and farming. • The countries that share these rivers have had problems over how the water will be shared among them.

7. Persian Gulf • The Persian Gulf is one of the main ways oil is shipped from the rich fields of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other countries that line its shores. • All of the countries that produce oil in that region depend on the Persian Gulf as a shipping route. • Any ships coming out of or into the Persian Gulf must navigate through the very narrow Strait of Hormuz, located at one end of the Persian Gulf. • The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea.

8. Suez Canal • Once in the Arabian Sea, ships can sail east into the Red Sea, which is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the east and Egypt to the west. • At the northern end of the Red Sea, ships can enter the man-made Suez Canal, which will allow then to get to the Mediterranean Sea without having to sail all around the continent of Africa.

9. Jordan River • The Jordan River is a much smaller river than either the Tigris or the Euphrates, but it is still very important. • The waters that form the Jordan River began in the mountains of Lebanon and Syria and flow down into the Hula Valley in northern Israel before reaching the Sea of Galilee. • The Jordan River begins at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee and flows south until it reaches the Dead Sea. • This river is one of the main sources of water for Israel, Jordan, parts of Syria, and many of those living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

10. The Dead Sea • Because so much water is taken out of the Jordan River by the different groups that depend on it, less and less water reaches the Dead Sea. • The Dead Sea has no outlets. • Water that flows in stays there and because so much evaporates in the desert air, the water remaining is high in salts and other chemicals. • There are no fish living in the Dead Sea, and that is the reason for its name. • The Jordan River is important because it is the boundary between Israel and the West Bank, and Jordan.

11. Deserts • The Middle East has a number of very large deserts areas: the Syrian Desertshared between Syria and Iraq, and the Rub al-Khali, or “ empty Quarter,” in southern Saudi Arabia. • Deserts in the Middle East have historically provided it with natural barriers against invasion. • They have also led to a way of life that developed around the need to survive in such harsh surroundings. • Some people have always managed to live in and around the desert, living in tent camps and surviving as sheep and camel herders and making a living by trading animals and handmade goods with those who lived in the towns on the desert’s edge. • These people are known as “Bedouins,” or desert nomads, and their way of life is gradually disappearing.

12. Afghanistan • The country of Afghanistan is located at the far eastern edge of the Middle East. • This country is landlocked, which means it has no seacoast. • Afghanistan is very mountainous, and the people who live there are divided into a number of different ethnic groups or tribes.

13. Iran • Iran, to the west of Afghanistan, is one of the largest countries in the Middle East. • Iran is mountainous as well, but this country has long sea coasts and is able to use both the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. • Iran uses the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to transport its exports to the Arabian Sea and then on to many different world markets.

14. Iraq • Just to the west of Iran is the country of Iraq. • Iraq has the added advantage of having two of the largest rivers in the region, the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, flowing through its territory.

15. Saudi Arabia • The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. • The Persian Gulf lies to the northwest of the country and the Red Sea is to its west.

16. Turkey • Turkey is located to the north and west of Iraq. • Turkey shares a border with Iraq, Syria, and Iran. • Turkey is also the country in which the Euphrates and the Tigris begins. • Turkey has built a number of dams in recent years to try saving water from these two rivers for use by Turkish farms, villagers, and towns.

17. Israel • Israel was created by the United Nations in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish people of the world. • The country of Israel is bound by the Gaza Strip along the southern coast and the West Bank to the east. • The Jordan River forms the boundary between the West Bank and the country of Jordan.

18. Section 2 – Resources of the Middle East - Water • Water is a natural resource that is distributed unevenly in the Middle East. • Some countries, like Turkey and Iraq, have major rivers that provide enough drinking water for farming communities. • These two countries share the Tigris and Euphrates river systems. • Israel, Syria, and Jordan share the Jordan River.

19. Others, like Saudi Arabia, have almost no water. • They are mostly made up of desert. • Others, like Iran, have areas with access to rivers and areas that are made up of deserts. • Because water is in short supply in so many parts of Southwest Asia, irrigation has been necessary for those who want to farm and raise animals for market.

20. Irrigation • Many types of irrigation can be found in Southwest Asia as farmers struggle to bring water to their fields from local rivers and from underground aquifers (layers of underground rock where water runoff from rains and streams is trapped.) • Some farmers use water from wells that tap into fossil water (water that has been underground for centuries). • Rains and steams do not replace this water, and once it is used, is gone forever.

21. Farmers in very rural areas still use methods used by their ancestors to irrigate their fields, including water wheels, irrigation ditches and canals, and animal power to lift water from underground wells. • Farmers in countries with more technology use modern irrigation techniques. • Israel and Saudi Arabia have developed systems of drip irrigation using computers that measure out how much water each plant receives. • There has also been a lot of work done to learn how to take water from the ocean and desalinate it to use for drinking and irrigation. • Desalination (the process of removing salt and other chemicals from seawater) is very expensive and requires complex technology.

22. Water Problems • As countries in the Middle East have worked to modernize their systems of agriculture, water pollution has been a growing problem. • Increased demand for irrigation to expand farming has led to overuse of rivers and streams. • Many farmers have begun to use chemical fertilizers, which have contaminated water supplies through runoff into these same rivers and streams. • Constant planting and fertilizer use have led to the build-up of salt levels in soils, eventually making it impossible to farm in those areas.

23. In the rush to develop industry, many cities and towns have grown rapidly, but the people living there have been slow to create effective ways to manage garbage and treat sewage. • Access to water is also a source of conflict, especially among countries that share a river system. • Dams built along a river to create lakes for irrigation and the production of hydroelectric power (electricity produced from the energy of running water) in one country reduce the amount of water available to other countries located further downstream.

24. Oil in the Middle East • Two of the most important natural resources found in Southwest Asia are natural gas and oil. • These two resources bring wealth into the region because they are needed for much of the world’s economy. • Over half of the world’s known oil reserves are found in this part of the world. • This has made some of these countries extremely rich and has led them to have a lot of control over the global economy.

25. OPEC • In the 1960s, several of these Southwest Asian countries joined with other oil-rich countries around the world to create the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in order to have more control over the price of oil on the world market. • OPEC has called for an embargo, or a slow-down or temporary halt, to oil supplies at different times in the past to get political and economic agreements from the other countries in the world. • While some countries in the Middle East have grown very rich due to their oil production, others have struggled to help their populations make a decent living.

26. Who has the oil? • The Middle Eastern nations with the greatest reserves of natural gas and oil are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait. • Some other countries have smaller reserves, especially those found around the Persian Gulf. • These countries have enjoyed tremendous growth in national wealth and an improved standard of living in the past fifty years. • Those countries without oil reserves have a much harder time improving living conditions for their populations. • This difference in wealth in some of the Middle East has led to conflicts among the nations.

27. Farming • Many people in the Middle East practice subsistence agriculture, growing small amounts of crops, to take care of their local needs. • Because the climate is so dry, agriculture nearly always depends on irrigation, directing water from small rivers and streams to the farmers’ fields. • There is some commercial agriculture (growing crops for industrial markets), but even that is limited by lack of water.

28. Section 3 – Cultures of the Middle East - Ethnic Groups • An ethnic group is a group of people who share cultural ideas and beliefs that have been a part of their community for generations. • The characteristics they may have in common could included a language, a religion, a shared history, types of foods, and a set of traditional stories, beliefs, or celebrations. • These things make up a common culture shared by those in a particular ethnic group.

29. Religion • A religious group shares a belief system in a god or gods, with a specific set of rituals and literature. • People from different ethnic groups may share the same religion; through they may be from very different cultures. • Religion has been important to the history of the Middle East. • Christianity, Islam, and Judaism were started in this region. • People who follow Judaism are called Jews. • Followers of Christianity are called Christians. • Followers of Islam are called Muslims.

30. Arabs • Southwest Asia is home to many different ethnic groups who share similar religions. • The Arabs of Southwest Asia believe themselves to be descendants of Abraham in the Bible, through his son Ishmael. • They make up the majority of those who live throughout the region known as the Middle East, though there are many differences among them. • Most Arabs practice the religion of Islam and call themselves Muslims.

31. Those who call themselves Muslims are further divided, as some call themselves Sunni Muslims, while others are Shia Muslims. • Some Arabs are Christians. • Most Arabs, whether they are Muslim or Christian, speak the Arabic language.

32. Persians • Persians are those who live in the modern country of Iran. • The Persian people are descended from a different group than those who are Arabs and Jews. • Their ancestors were Indo-Europeans from Central Europe and Southern Russia. • The country of Persia became known as Iran after World War I. • Persians, or Iranians, speak Farsi, a language that uses the Arabic alphabet but is actually a different language. • They practice Islam, but most belong to the Shia group of Muslims. • About 15 percent of Muslims in the world are Shia. The other 85 percent are Sunni Muslims.

33. Kurds • The Kurds are an ethnic group the lives in several different countries in the Middle East. • Most Kurds are found in the mountainous areas where Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq come together. • The Kurds see themselves as a distinct ethnic group from others in the area. • They speak their own language, known as Kurdish, and have a separate history, literature, music, and set of traditions. • Many Kurds hope to have a nation o their own some day, a hope that has caused conflict with the countries in which Kurdish people live. • Most Kurds are Sunni Muslim, though there is a small minority who are Shia Muslims.

34. The Middle East has a common culture which includes the Arabic language and the Islamic religion. • For centuries, kingdoms and empires have battled for control of the region. • Three continents (Europe, Asia, & Africa) meet in the Middle East. • Important trade routes have long passed through the region. • For many years, whoever controlled the Middle East held great influence over much of the world’s economy.

35. Hammurabi's Code • Hammurabi was a king of Babylon who set up the first written law called Hammurabi’s code • It was a collection of 282 laws with the most famous being and “eye or an eye” • Law was equal depending on your social class

36. Fertile Crescent • The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped, or curved, area of fertile land along the Tigris and Euphrates River • As the population of the Fertile Crescent increased, wars began to break out among the growing number of city-states, mostly over land and water • Phoenician’s spread their culture and their newly developed alphabet all over the area through trade and conquest since they were excellent sea voyagers

37. Section 4 – Religions of the Middle East Origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam • The three major religions that originated in Southwest Asia are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. • All are based on monotheism, a belief in one god. • Each religion has a sacred text, or book, which is at the core of its faith. • Each book is a collection of writings compiled over time. • None was written by the central figure of the faith. • All three faiths trace their ancestry back thousands of years to the prophet Abraham

38. Origins of Judaism • Judaism is the oldest of the three religions. • It began as a set of beliefs and laws practiced by ancient Hebrew people in Southwest Asia. • Its book is the Hebrew Bible – aka The Torah. • Jews believe that one day a human leader will come as a messenger of God and bring about a golden age. • They call this leader the messiah. In Greek versions of the Bible, messiah is written as christos, the anointed one.

39. The Bible names Abraham as the father of the Jews. • There is no other evidence of his life. • Scholars place Abraham living sometime between 2000 and 1500 BCE (BC) • The Bible states that Abraham was born in Ur, in present-day Iraq. • He later moved to Canaan, in present-day Israel. • Jews believe Canaan is the Promised Land, which God promised to Abraham and his descendants.

40. It was said that Abraham’s grandson Jacob had 12 sons. • The twelve tribes of Israel began with Jacob's sons. • Jacob was later called Israel, and his descendants are called Israelites. • Sabbath – The seventh day of the week, Saturday, observed by Jews as a day of worship and rest • Kosher – fit to be eaten, according to Jewish dietary laws • Passover – Jewish festival marking the flight or Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt • Rabbi – teacher of Jewish law; spiritual head of a congregation

41. they were the first religion to be monotheistic and it is one of the worlds oldest religion • their holy book is the first five books of the Bible, which they call the Torah - this is what Moses delivered to the Israelites from God • The rest of the Jewish bible – the Christian Old Testament – are the writings of prophets • Prophet – a person thought to be inspired by God • More writings on Jewish law, history, and folklore are collected in the Talmud

42. According to the Bible, the First Temple for Jewish worship was built around 900-1000 BCE and destroyed by Babylonians in 586 BCE. • The Jews were then sent out of Canaan, but returned after 50 years in exile. • A Diaspora occurs when a group of people leave their homeland and move to many different locations separately. • All of the world’s Jewish communities today that do not live in present-day Israel are part of the Jewish Diaspora.

43. A new temple was finished 70 years later on the site of the First Temple, but was badly plundered by invading Romans about 54 BCE. • King Herod, a Jew, ruled Judea for the Romans. • The second temple was rebuilt in 20 BCE. • When the Romans attacked Jerusalem again in 70 CE(AD), they destroyed Herod’s temple. • Today, the single remaining temple wall, the Western Wall, is a place of prayer for Jewish pilgrims. • Jews moved away from the land again, until the modern state of Israel was formed in the late 1940s.

44. Origins of Christianity • In 30 CE, a Jew named Jesus began preaching new ideas about Judaism in Roman-controlled Judea. • The later title of Jesus Christ given to Jesus is a reference to the belief by his followers that he is the Jewish messiah.

45. According to the Christian New Testament, Jesus preached only to his fellow Jews. • His idea was that the old laws of Judaism should be replaced by a simpler system based on love of one's fellow human beings. • He began to grow popular. • Jewish leaders did not want Jesus to threaten their power and asked the Romans to arrest him. • The Romans found him guilty of speaking against Jewish laws and sentenced him to death by crucifixion, or being hung on a cross. • He died in 33 CE, after preaching for only three years.

46. Jesus had 12 close followers, or disciples. • Interestingly, a man who had never met Jesus became the person to spread his message around the world. • Paul of Tarsus had a vision of Jesus after the crucifixion that told him to teach Jesus' ideas to non-Jews. Paul traveled to build churches throughout the ancient world in Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, and other cities. • The New Testament records Paul’s journeys through a series of letters, or epistles, that he wrote.

48. The chapters of Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, and Thessalonians, are all letters written by Paul to the people of the new, non-Jewish churches established in these locations. • Paul taught them how to live their lives in these letters.

49. By 100 CE, the growth of Christianity was left to a new generation of people who had never known Jesus and who did not know Jewish laws. • Roman authorities fought the growth of Christianity. • Christians were often arrested and killed. • A number of Roman emperors launched bloody campaigns against the new faith. • Christians were thrown into public arenas to be torn apart by wild animals. • Nero had some lit on fire to serve as human torches. • Most Christians practiced their religion in hiding, but their numbers continued to grow and the religion spread.

50. By the early 4th century, Christianity may have reached members of the Roman emperor’s family. • The Roman Emperor Constantine was not a Christian, but he had his soldiers fight an important battle in 313 with a Christian symbol on their shields. • His army won the battle.