2. Beginnings
Farming communities sprang up around rivers (first civilizations in the world)
Early civilizations:
Sumerians
Egyptians
Phoenicians
Persians

3. Sumerians
Time: 4000 B.C.
Place: between the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers in modern day Iraq (called Mesopotamia)
Contribution:
irrigation
cuneiform - writing on clay tablets

6. Egyptians Time: 3000 B.C. Place: Nile River Valley Contribution:
pyramids
365-day calendar
hieroglyphics – picture writing

9. Phoenicians
Time: 1,200 B.C.
Place: Mediterranean East Coast (present day Israel)
Contribution: alphabet in which letters stood for sounds (phonics)

11. Persians Time: 500 B.C. Place: from present day Iran to the Nile River
Contribution: qanats -underground irrigation canals

12. Persians

13. History (cont.) After the fall of the Roman Empire:
By the 1800s the Muslim empires began to decline:
European powers divided the Middle East as they wished and installed kings who had been their allies in WW I, like King Abdullah of Jordan.

15. King Abdullah II & Family

16. History (cont.)
After WW I, Kemal Ataturk became the 1st president of Turkey & made the country modern & secular

17. History (cont.) Turning Point: Discovery of OIL!!!
1st found in Persia in 1908 (present day Iran)
later in Saudi Arabia in 1938

18. western companies pumped oil to fuel industrialization
kings of oil states became rich

19. Brunei- $22 Billion
His palace...

20. U.A.E. $21 Billion
His cars....

21. United Arab Emirates
Palace
Saudi Arabia
Royal Palace
Qatar

22. History (cont.) After the world wars: 1948 –
The region remains full of conflict:
Israeli – Palestinian
Israel – Lebanon
War on Terror
(Afghanistan)
War in Iraq
Arab Spring