Transcript Middle Eastern Cultures

Middle Eastern Cultures
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They’re not all Arabs!
The Arab World
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The Term Arab
• The Western media often uses the term “Arab” to talk
about any population in the Middle East, but this is
not accurate.
• “Arab” refers to anyone whose ancestry can be
traced back to the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula.
Arab identity and culture precedes Islam by more
than 1,000 years, but Arabic language and culture
spread along with Islam in the 8th century to many
parts of the Middle East and North Africa.
• Almost a third of the Arab population resides in North
Africa.
• In the Middle East, only those from the Arabian
Peninsula, and from parts of the countries North of
the peninsula can truly be called an “Arab.”
The Persian Empire -- 525-321 BC
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Persia
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Persian Culture
• The Persian culture is prevalent in the
Northern and Eastern parts of the Middle
East. Nearly a third of the people who live in
the Middle East are Persian, not Arabic.
• The Persian Empire was the greatest
influence on the Middle East prior to the
spread of Islam.
• Iran was known as Persia (the core area of
the Persian Empire) until the 1950’s.
• The fall of the Shah in 1979 ended a Persian
monarchy that had been in place for almost
2,500 years.
Kurdistan
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Kurds
• Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the
world who do not have a country of their own.
• Kurds live in many countries as an oppressed
minority.
• Kurdish radicals are branded as terrorists in
Turkey for their advocacy for Kurdish
autonomy.
• Kurds in Northern Iraq have autonomy, and
hope to create an independent state that
could eventually incorporate parts of Syria,
Turkey, and Iran.
Pashtuns
Pashtun’s
• The Pashtuns are typically characterized by their
Pashto language and adherence to both Pashtunwali
(a pre-Islamic indigenous religious code of honor and
culture) and Islam.
• Important metropolitan centers of Pashtun culture
include Peshawar and Kandahar. In addition, Quetta
and Kabul are ethnically mixed cities with large
Pashtun populations. With 1.5 million Pashtuns, the
city of Karachi is the largest Pashtun city in the world.
• Afghanistan has traditionally been dominated by the
Pashtuns, who before 1978 constituted a 51%
majority in the country. However, as a result of the
1979 Soviet invasion the population distribution in
Afghanistan has changed. About 85% of the 6.2
million Afghan refugees who fled to Iran and Pakistan
and around the World due to the Russian invasion
and the war that followed it are Pashtuns.
Bedouin Tribes
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• Bedouins are desert nomads
who inhabit vast areas of the
Arabian Peninsula and the
lands to the North and West.
• The Bedouin culture
transcends ethnicity and
national identity.
• The Bedouin way of life is
seen as the traditional desert
way of life, that existed long
before any of the modern
nations were developed,
borders were drawn, or
Islam spread through the
Middle East.
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Bedouin Population
• Total number of Bedouins (nomadic, semi-nomadic and settled)
in the Arab world today: 15 - 20 million
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Breakdown:
Saudi Arabia - 4 million
Sudan - 5 million
Egypt - 1.1 million
Syria - 1 million
Maghreb - 1 million
Gulf States - 500,000
Kuwait - 500,000
Yemen - 500,000
Jordan - 300,000
Iraq - 200,000
Libya - 200,000
Turkey - 150,000
Israel - 100,000
Islam
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Sunni vs. Shiite
• Nearly 80% of all
Muslims are Sunni’s
• Shiite Muslims
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The Sunni branch believes that
the first four caliphs-Mohammed's successors-rightfully took his place as the
leaders of Islam. They
recognize the heirs of the four
caliphs as legitimate religious
leaders. These heirs ruled
continuously in the Arab world
until the break-up of the
Ottoman Empire following the
end of the First World War.
Shiites, in contrast, believe that
only the heirs of the fourth
caliph, Ali, are the legitimate
successors of Mohammed. In
931 the Twelfth Imam
disappeared. This was a
seminal event in the history of
Shiite Muslims. "Shiite Muslims,
who are concentrated in Iran,
Iraq, and Lebanon, [believe
they] had suffered the loss of
divinely guided political
leadership" at the time of the
Imam's disappearance. Not
"until the ascendancy of
Ayatollah Khomeini in 1978" did
they believe that they had once
again begun to live under the
authority of a legitimate
religious figure.
The Ottoman Empire
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After WWI, with the
breakup of the Ottoman
Empire, a 1,000 year old
Sunni Muslim dynasty
was stripped of it’s
leadership. Restoration of
this dynasty is one of the
goals of al-Qaeda today.
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The base of Ottoman rule
was modern day Turkey,
and the country of Turkey
is what remains of the
Ottoman Empire today.
Islamic Fundamentalism
• In the void created after the end of
Ottoman rule, extremist groups and
sects have implemented their own
versions of Islam.
• Taliban
• Wahhabism
• Iranian Theocracy