Memahami, mengenal, mengetahui Geografi Timur Tengah Menolong Perspektif Kita memahami Israel dan negara-negara sekelilingya dari Perspektif geografi

1. Geography of the Middle East

2. The Field of Geography
Three Paradigms of Geography
• Man-Land
• Regional
• Spatial
Paradigm: The way in which
one views the world. Defines
acceptable questions and
answers for a discipline.

3. The Field of Geography
Three Paradigms of Geography
• Man-Land
• Human Environment
•Typical Questions:
• How does the climate of
•Turkey affect its economy?
• How has the Aswan Dam changed
the environment of Egypt?

4. The Field of Geography
Three Paradigms of Geography
• Regional
• Geography as an Integrative science
• Concept: by examining geomorphology,
climate, demography, economics, politics,
history, sociology, etc the “whole will be greater
than the sum of its parts”

5. The Field of Geography
Three Paradigms of Geography
• Regional
• Geography and Versailles Conference (1919)
• Advantage of Regional Knowledge

6. The Field of Geography
• GIS and Remote Sensing Produce New Ways of Looking at Regional
Geography
• www.gis.com www.esri.com

7. The Field of Geography
Three Paradigms of Geography
• Regional
• Recent interest due to:
• Globalization
• Reports of geographic illiteracy
• Fall of Soviet Union

8. The Field of Geography
Three Paradigms of Geography
• Regional
• Brian Berry’s
Matrix

9. The Field of Geography
Three Paradigms of Geography
• Spatial
• Typical Questions:
• Why are spatial distributions
structured the way they are? (Why are
things located where they are?)
• What is the best location for
something?
• The emphasis moves from where to why.
• Use of statistical, mathematical, and
computer methods

10. The Field of Geography
 Answer Paradigms
• Determinism (Ellsworth Huntington)
• Probablism
• Possiblism
• Limit Free Will
• Free Will

11. Defining the Middle East
The “region” as a “mental construct.”
Use of term Middle East, Near East, Far East (ethnocentric terms)
We will try to define the Middle East as a “homogenous” region

12. REGIONS OF THE REALM

13. Defining the Middle East
 The Dry World (Arid)
 The Arab World
 The World of Islam
 The World of Oil

14. THE DRY WORLD ?
 Dry/arid climate prevails
throughout the realm
 Exceptions:
 Peripheral regions of
Turkey
 Northwestern section
of Iran
 Oases
 Several great river
valleys
 Dryness extends
beyond the region
Arid Plains Near the Tigris

15. POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
 The majority of the population in this realm
lives not in the dry arid regions, but around
water resources.
- The Nile (Egypt – 70 million)
- Mediterranean Sea (Turkey 70 million)
- Euphrates and Tigris Basin (Iraq – 20
million)
- Lower mountain slopes of Iran, south of
the Caspian Sea (Iran 70 million)

16. AN ARAB REALM ?
 Relates to language as a cultural feature of this realm
 “Who is an Arab” problem
 Arabic is the dominant language in 16 States of the realm,
but it is not one language.
 In Non-Arab States, indigenous languages dominate.
- Turkey – Turkish (70 million) come from Central
Asia
- Kurds (20 million) half live in Turkey where they
are 20% of the population
- Iran – Farsi (70 million)
- Israel – Hebrew (5 million Jews, 1 million Arabs)
- Niger – French
- North Africa -Berber

17. ISLAMIC REALM?

19. ISLAMIC REALM?
Organization of the Islamic Conference – over one billion Muslims
Top 10 Islamic
Countries
•Indonesia
•Pakistan
•India
•Bangladesh
•Turkey
•Iran
•Egypt
•Nigeria
•Algeria
•Morocco

20. The Oil Industry
 Two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves
 Three areas with oil include North Africa,
Persian Gulf, Caspian Sea (see next maps)
 Oil and Non-oil states (“haves” versus
“have-nots”)
 Kuwait and Iraq with about same amount
of oil, but Iraq with 25 million and Kuwait
with 2.2 million
 Much oil in states not in the Middle East

21. THE WORLD OF
OIL?

23. Oil Production and Consumption

24. Defining the Middle East
 The Dry World (Arid)
 The Arab World
 The World of Islam
 The World of Oil

25. REGIONS OF THE REALM

26. Various Definitions of the Middle East
 Complicated by break up of USSR
 Some definitions have included
parts of former Yugoslavia,
Greece, Kenya, Somalia, and
Bangladesh
 No set definition
 Text uses the 16 states on the
accompanying map (minus
Azerbaijan, Armenia, and
Georgia)
 In covering the systematic
chapters, we will include
references to Morocco to Libya in
North Africa and Sudan

27. Transliteration
 A mapping from one system of writing to
another
 In a sense, we are changing alphabets
 Often no hard and fast rules!

28. Subregions of the Middle East
 SW Asia (Asian portion of ME)
 North Africa (North African portion of ME)
 Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) (“western island”)
 Mashriq (the east, the lands east of Libya
 Barbary Coast (named after the Berbers, name for
countries of North Africa, home of Barbary pirates)

29. Subregions of the Middle East
 Levant (French word for rising
sun – it is in the east where
the sun rises over the
Mediterranean) (Israel,
Jordan, Syria, Lebanon)
 Palestine (Israel, Jordan,
Gaza, West Bank)
 Fertile Crescent (refers to the
agricultural and pastoral land
in a semi-circle from the
Persian Gulf to the coast of
Israel)

30. Cold War-Related
Subregions of the Middle East
 Northern Tier (southern
periphery of USSR (Turkey and
Iran)
 CENTO (Central Treaty
Organization) (Baghdad Pact
1955) (Against USSR expansion,
like NATO) (Iran, Iraq, Turkey,
Pakistan, UK, US)
 1958 Iraq out with overthrow of
government
 1979 Shah falls and CENTO
becomes history
 An example of Supranationalism
– 3 or more nations cooperate for
political, economic, or cultural
reasons

31. Subregions of the Middle East
 Arabia (all the countries of
the Arabian Peninsula)
 Asia Minor (Anatolian
Peninsula) (Turkey)

32. Subregions of the Middle East
 Gulf Nations (all the
countries around the
Persian Gulf)
 Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar,
UAE, Oman)
 Gulf Cooperation Council
 1981
 Economic cooperation
 Political cooperation
 Not a big success

33. Subregions of the Middle East
 Arab League
 1945: Egypt, Iraq,
Lebanon, Saudi
Arabia, Syria, Jordan,
Yemen
 Later: Algeria,
Bahrain, Comoros,
Djibouti, Kuwait,
Libya, Mauritania,
Morocco, Oman,
Qatar, Somalia,
Yemen, Sudan,
Tunisia, UAE
 Egypt was out 1979-
1989

34. Opec Members
Former OPEC Members
Additional OAPEC Members
Subregions of the Middle East
OPEC
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries

35. The Stans
 Formerly Soviet
Central Asia
 Also called Turkistan
 Kazakhstan
 Uzbekistan
 Turkmenistan
 Tajikistan (Persian)
 Kyrgyzstan
 Afghanistan (non-USSR)

36. Transcaucasia
Republics in the Russian Federation
Orange is Russia proper
Dagestan (Muslim)
Chechnya (Muslim)
Ingushetia (Muslim)
Etc.
Independent Countries
Armenia (Christian, also in Turkey
and Armenian quarter in Jerusalem
and elsewhere)
Azerbaijan (Shiite Muslim, ties to
Azeris in Iran, Turkic people)
Georgia (Christian)

37. REGIONS OF THE REALM