GEOG 200 U7

Alliance of Indigenous Nations of the Middle East

Arab Spring

A series of anti-government, pro-democracy, protests and uprisings, both peaceful and violent, that spread across the realm of North Africa and Southwest Asia (NASWA) in the early 2010s.

Aswan Dam

a massive rock-fill embankment dam on the Nile River in southern Egypt, built to control flooding, store water for irrigation, and generate hydroelectric power

Basin irrigation

Farming technique devised by ancient Egyptians to trap the Nile’s annual floodwaters and their fertile silt by building fields with earthen ridges.

Bedouin

A nomadic Arab of the desert.

Cairo. Capital of Egypt. Population 16.5 million. Egypt’s core area. A cultural centre of the Islamic world

Cultural diffusion

The process of spreading and adopting a cultural element from its place of origin across a wider area.

Darfur. A province in Sudan. Inhabited by the Fur, a mix a Arabized pastorialists and settled farmers who in the past years sympathized with anti-Muslim rebels in the far south of former Sudan.

Domino effect

The belief that political destabilization in one state can result in the collapse of order in a neighboring state, triggering a chain of events that, in turn, can affect a series of contiguous states. The Arab Spring is believed to be one of the biggest if the biggest examples of this in the world.

Doha. Capital of Qatar. Temperatures here are some of the hottest on earth. They built a stadium for the world cup here, but it was controversial.

Euphrates river.

Expansion diffusion

The spreading of an innovation or an idea through a fixed population in such a way that the number of those adopting it grows continuously larger, resulting in an expanding area of dissemination. One way Islam has spread in the North Africa/Southwest Asia realm.

Failed state

A country whose institutions have collapsed and in which anarchy prevails. Examples: Somalia, Yemen, Syria

Golan heights. In 1967 a six day war took place here where Israel was victorious. Israel took the Golan heights from Syria, amongst other things.

Hydraulic civilization theory

The theory that cities that managed to control irrigated farming over large hinterlands held political power over other cities. Particularly applies to early Asian civilizations based in such river valleys as the Chang (Yangzi), the Indus, and those of Mesopotamia. One of these cities Babylon on the Euphrates river, endured for nearly 4000 years.

Jerusalem. Capital of Israel. Population 0.9 million. Palestinians form the majority here, and have always laid partial claim on the east of Jerusalem. Palestinians want this to be the future head quarters of a future Palestinian state, so they are angry that the capital was changed by the U.N. from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Jihad

A doctrine within Islam. Commonly translated as holy war, it entails a personal or collective struggle on the part of Muslims to live up to the religious standards prescribed by the Quran (Koran). It is a deeply reactionary movement that looks to the past rather than the future. The Gulf-States are generally anti-jihadist.

Jordan. Population 10 million. Has a lack of oil reserves. Palestinians form the majority. Did not experience much of the Arab spring in 2011, because its monarchy was supported. Most of its challenges are economic. Let in many Syrian refugees, but their tourism suffered for it.

Kurds

Make up the world’s biggest stateless nation in Iraq. About 6 million (16 percent of Iraqi populaiton) live in Iraq’s nothern highlands. Another 6 million inhabit Northwestern Iran. 2 million congregate in the scattered Kurdish clusters of norther Syria. A large majority of them are Sunni Muslims. This group had no sympathy for ISIS.

Lake Nasser. Home to the Aswan High Dam.

Ottoman Empire

Survived for more than four centuries until its dissolution in 1923. At its peak under Suleyman the Magnificent (ruled 1522–1560), it was the most powerful state in western Eurasia.

Palestine. Wants Independence, but that would pose many issues.

Qatar’s Ras Abu Aboud Football Stadium

One of the nine new stadiums being built for the 2022 World Cup. The decision to build the stadium here received criticism because of the hot weather. The Qataris have promised to build covered air-conditioned stadiums.

Relocation diffusion

Sequential diffusion process in which the items being diffused are transmitted by their carrier agents as they relocate to new areas. The most common form of relocation diffusion involves the spreading of innovations by a migrating population. One way that Islam spread.

Shi’ites

Muslims that believes only a blood relative should follow the prophet as the leader of Islam. Make up a scattered minority.

Sunnis

Muslims who believe that others who felt that any devout follower of Muhammad was qualified to take over, not just blood relatives. Roughly 90 percent of Muslims are Sunnis.

State of Israel

Made a state in 1948 by the U.N. as a designated country for the Jewish people.

Stateless nation

A national group that aspires to become a an independent state but lacks the territorial means to do so. Examples: Palestine and Kurds

Syria. Capital: Damascus. Possesses a Mediterranean coastline so crops can be raised without irrigation. Population of 17 million (which has dwindled due to the war). Sunni Muslims make up the majority, but it is ruled by a Shi’ite elite the Alawites. The Arab Spring movement was ruthlessly cracked down on by the Assad regime. Isis extremist groups took control of territories here, but was crushed in 2019 by regime of Bashar al-Assad.