1. NORTH AFRICA & SOUTHWEST ASIA
(CHAPTER 7)

2. EARLY CULTURE HEARTHS

3. MAJOR GEOGRAPHICAL QUALITIES OF THE REALM
Physical
Aridity
Oil
Cultural
Culture Hearths
World Religions
Conflict

4. MAJOR GEOGRAPHICAL QUALITIES OF THE REALM (cont)
Population
Discontinuous clusters around infrequent water sources
Regional Imbalances
Oil and Non-oil states (“haves” versus “have-nots”)
Political Geography
Fragmented due to colonial experience

5. THE IMPACT OF OIL HIGH INCOMES MODERNIZATION INDUSTRIALIZATION
REGIONAL DISPARITIES
FOREIGN INVESTMENT

6. OIL AND NATURAL GAS RESERVES

7. NAMING THE REALM Popular Labels Dry World Arab World Islamic World
Middle East

8. THE DRY WORLD ? Dry/arid climate prevails throughout the realm
Exceptions:
Peripheral regions of Turkey
Northwestern section of Iran
Oases
Several great river valleys

9. ANNUAL PRECIPITATION

10. E.J. PALKA
NEGEV DESERT

11. 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).

12. 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

13. POPULATION DISTRIBUTION

14. 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

15. Turks
Azerbijianis
Kurds
Arabs
Persians
Bakhtiari
Lur

16. 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

18. E.J. PALKA
DOME OF THE ROCK

19. E.J. PALKA
THE WESTERN WALL

20. E.J. PALKA
CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY

21. INSIDE THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY
E.J. PALKA
INSIDE THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY

22. THE STAGE FOR ISLAM

23. 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.

24. RELOCATION DIFFUSION
The most common form of relocation diffusion involves the spreading of innovations by a migrating population.

25. 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

26. 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.

27. REGIONS OF THE REALM

28. 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
INCREASED AGRICULTURAL LAND BY 50%
PROVIDES 40% OF ELECTRICITY

29. EGYPT
STRATEGIC SITUATION
CAIRO

30. THE MAGHREB AND ITS
NEIGHBORS

31. MIDDLE
EAST

32. 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.

33. ARABIAN
PENINSULA

34. ARABIAN PENINSULA
SAUDI ARABIA, KUWAIT, BAHRAIN, QATAR, UAE, OMAN, YEMEM
OIL, DESERT, AND STRATEGIC LOCATION
SAUDI ARABIA MILLION PEOPLE WITH THE WORLD’S GREATEST OIL RESERVES

35. THE EMPIRE STATES

36. TURKEY WESTERNIZATION KURDISH POPULATION 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

37. IRAN A COUNTRY OF MOUNTAINS AND DESERTS POPULATION OF 67 MILLION
66% URBANIZED
OIL RESERVES

38. 5 STATES OF THE FORMER USSR
KAZAKHSTAN
UZBEKISTAN
TURKMENISTAN
KYRGYZSTAN
TAJIKISTAN