Southwest Asia

The Arabian Peninsula

• Bedouins – desert nomads

• Herded camels, goats• Lived in mobile tent

encampments• Clans fought each other

over water, pasture, and honor

• Warrior people

The Arabian Peninsula

• Around 600 CE, Muhammad founded Islam• Religion spread throughout Arabian Peninsula and then into

Middle East and North Africa

The Arabian Peninsula

• Islam has five basic duties Submission Prayer 5x a Day facing

Mecca Charity (Zakat) Fasting (Ramadan) sun-

up to sundown Pilgrimage (Hajj) to

Mecca

The Middle East

• Customs Relationships between

men and women Marriage Washing The Left Hand Eating

The Middle East

The Middle East

• Muslim governments were theocratic – ruled by religious leaders

• Caliph - religious and political successor to Muhammad

• Laws were based on Islamic teachings (Sharia)

The Middle East

• The Schism• Sunni

Wahabism Salafism

• Shi’ite• Sufism

The Middle East

• There were two great Arab empires – the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates

• The Abbasids were destroyed by the Mongols

• The third great Islamic empire was the Ottoman Empire (Turk) which lasted from 1453 until 1922

The Middle East

• After WWI and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, much of the Middle East came under the control of Britain and France as “Mandates”

The Middle East

• The Middle East became important due to its oil

• OPEC – Organization of Oil Exporting Countries

• Modernizing• Much of its work

force consists of foreign workers

The Middle East

• Judaism, Christianity, and Islam• Patriarch – Abraham• Jerusalem• Judaism

The Kingdom The Temple Israel and Judah The Second Temple Diaspora ~70 CE Western Wall (aka Wailing

Wall)

The Middle East

• Christianity Church of the Holy

Sepulchre Mount of Olives Christianity - state

religion of Rome in 300’s CE under Constantine

Crusades – series of European invasions to reestablish Christianity in Holy Land

The Middle East

• Islam Mecca (Ka’aba),

Medina, Jerusalem Dome of the Rock

and Al Aqsa Mosque

Temple Mount

The Middle East

• Zionism Belief Jews should have

their own homeland Jews began migrating to

Palestine in 1800’s Holocaust prompted

demands for Jewish homeland

UN divided Palestine in 1947

The Middle East

• Israel established 1948• 1948 War with Arab

states• 1967 Six-Day War• 1973 Yom Kippur War• PLO – Palestine

Liberation Organization• Refugee problems

The Middle East

• Lebanon Religious diversity Muslims (Shia and

Sunni) Christians

(Maronite and Eastern Orthodox)

Druze Civil War Hezbollah

The Middle East

• Kurdistan Kurds have occupied

territory for thousands of years

Divided by borders of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran

Kurds persecuted by governments

Kurds want their own country

The Middle East• Iran

Iranian Revolution 1979

American Embassy Hostage Crisis

Iran-Iraq War over oil fields

The Middle East

• Iraq Iraq invasion of Kuwait First Persian Gulf War Weapons of mass

destruction? Gassing of Kurds – No

Fly Zone Second Persian Gulf

War Return of Al Queda

The Middle East

• Syria Bashar al-Assad Civil War Killing of civilians Iranian support Al-Quada

The Middle East

• Afghanistan History of invasions Russian occupation

1979-1988 9-11 Taliban US invasion of

Afghanistan

The Middle East

• Turkey Mustafa Kamal Attaturk Secular Western state Member of NATO Conflicts with Kurds,

Greeks over Cyprus Increasing Islamism

The Middle East

• Cyprus Part of the Ottoman

Empire Came under British control

after WWI Won independence Greek population voted to

join Cyprus with Greece Turks invaded island Cyprus divided between

Greece and Turkey