Characteristics of Middle East

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, Berbers, Jews, Iranians, Syriacs (also called: Arameans, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Maronites), Kurds, Druze and Turks. The main language groups include: Arabic, Aramaic 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’. Consequently, 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.

One widely used definition of “Middle East” is that of the airline industry, maintained by the IATA standards orgranization. This definition-as of early 2006-includes Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestinian Territory, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. [1] This definition is used in world-wide airfare and tax calculations for passengers and cargo.