Asia, Middle East

The Middle East is a historical and cultural subregion of Africa-Eurasia traditionally held to be countries or regions in Southwest Asia together with Egypt. In other contexts, the region can include other parts of North Africa and/or Central Asia. more...

Pakistan and the Caucasus are generally not included in the region.

Characteristics

In the Western world, the Middle East is generally thought of as a predominantly Islamic Arabic community. However the area encompasses many distinct cultural and ethnic groups, including the Arabs, Assyrians, Azeris, Berbers, Chaldeans, Druze, Greeks, Jews, Kurds, Maronites, Persians and Turks, most of whom are not as close to each other as it is believed. The main language groups include: Arabic, Assyrian (also known as Aramaic and Syriac), Hebrew, Persian, Kurdish and Turkish. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the derived noun is Middle-Easterner.

Most Western definitions of the "Middle East" — in both established reference books and common usage — define the region as 'nations in Southwest Asia, from Iran (Persia) to Egypt'. Egypt, with its Sinai Peninsula in Asia, is usually considered part of the 'Middle East', although most of the country lies geographically in North Africa. North African nations without Asian links, such as Libya, Tunisia and Morocco, are increasingly being called North African — as opposed to Middle Eastern (Iran to Egypt-Asia) — by international media outlets.

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