| Middle
East, term traditionally applied by western Europeans
to the countries of SW Asia and NE Africa lying
W of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Thus defined
it includes Cyprus, the Asian part of Turkey,
Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza,
Jordan, Iraq, Iran, the countries of the Arabian
peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab
Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait), and Egypt and
Libya. The area was viewed as midway between Europe
and East Asia (traditionally called the Far East).
The term is sometimes used in a cultural sense
to mean the group of lands in that part of the
world predominantly Islamic in culture, thus including
the remaining states of N Africa as well as Afghanistan
and Pakistan. In the 20th cent. the Middle East
has been the scene of political turmoil and major
warfare, including World War I, World War II,
the Arab-Israeli Wars, the Iran-Iraq War and the
Persian Gulf Wars. |
