Chapter 7:
Southwest Asia and
North Africa
(Fig. 7.1)
Learning Objectives
•	Learn about the historical roots of Southwest Asia and North Africa
•	Understand the role of Islam in shaping the history and current political situation in this region 
•	Understand the role of oil and water in shaping this region
•	Become familiar with the physical, demographic, cultural, political, and economic characteristics of Southwest Asia and North Africa (SW Asia and N Africa)
•	Understand these concepts and models:
Introduction
Setting the boundaries
•	Sometimes called the Middle East (a European perspective)
•	Region is generally arid, Muslim, and contains oil (but this is not true of all countries in the region)
•	This region is a culture hearth – a region that witnesses many cultural innovations that subsequently diffuse to other parts of world
•	Development of petroleum industry has had large impact on the region
–	OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) – member countries profoundly influence global prices and production targets for petroleum
•	Islamic fundamentalism – this aspect of Islam that advocates return to more traditional practices, calls for merger of civil and religious authority, and challenges encroachment of global popular culture
Environmental Geography: Life in a Fragile World
•	A long history of human settlement in SW Asia and N Africa has left its mark on the environment 

Fit. 7.6
Hydropolitics in 
Jordan River Basin
Environmental Geography: Life in a Fragile World, cont.
•	Regional Landforms
–	SW Asia is more mountainous than N Africa
Environmental Geography: Life in a Fragile World (cont.)
•	Patterns of Climate
•	Complex climate region because of altitude and latitude
Population and Settlement: Patterns in an Arid Land
•	The Geography of Population
Population and Settlement: Patterns in an Arid Land, cont.
•	The Geography of Population, cont.
Population and Settlement: Patterns in an Arid Land, cont.
•	The Geography of Population, 
       cont.
Population and Settlement: Patterns in an Arid Land (cont.)
•	Water and Life: Rural Settlement Patterns
•	Domestication –plants and animals selectively bred for desirable characteristics; domestication began in this region 10,000 years ago
•	Fertile Crescent – ecologically diverse zone, from Levant through fertile hill country of northern Syria into Iraq
–	Pastoral Nomadism
•	Traditional form of subsistence 
    agriculture that depends on seasonal 
     movement of livestock
–	Transhumance: seasonal movement 
    of livestock from winter to 
    summer pastures
Population and Settlement: Patterns in an Arid Land (cont.)
•	Water and Life: Rural Settlement Patterns
–	Oasis Life
•	Areas where high groundwater or deep-water wells provide reliable moisture (small agricultural settlements, trade centers)
–	Exotic River – a river that comes from a humid area and flows into a dry area that otherwise lacks streams; it can support irrigation
–	Kibbutz: collectively 
    worked settlement that 
    produces grain, vegetable, 
    & orchard crops, irrigated 
    by the Jordan River and 
    feeder canals
Population and Settlement: Patterns in an Arid Land (cont.)
•	Water and Life: Rural Settlement Patterns
–	The Challenge of Dryland Agriculture
Population and Settlement: Patterns in an Arid Land (cont.)
•	Many-Layered Landscapes: The Urban Imprint
•	Some of the world’s oldest urban areas are in this region
–	A Long Urban Legacy
•	Earliest cities in Mesopotamia (Eridu & Ur 3500 B.C.), and Egypt (Memphis & Thebes 3000 B.C.)
•	Rise of trade centers around 2000 B.C.
•	Centers of Islamic religious administration and education
–	Medina: The original urban core of a traditional Islamic city, has central mosque and bazaar (Fes, Morocco)
•	Colonialism left European influence
–	Signatures of Globalization
•	Urban centers have become focal points of economic growth (Ex: Cairo, Algiers, Istanbul)
•	Oil wealth has added modern element to traditional cities (Dubai, for example)
Population and Settlement: Patterns in an Arid Land (cont.)
•	A Region on the Move
–	Migration streams
•	Rural-to-urban migration
•	Job-related migration within the region
–	More than 75% of Saudi Arabia’s workers are foreign
•	Immigration of low-wage workers from other regions 
•	Emigration of workers from the regions to other places         (ex.: Turkish guestworkers to Germany
•	Shifting Demographic Patterns
•	Population growth rates vary within the region
–	Women in Tunisia, Iran, and Turkey are having fewer children
»	Causes: delayed marriage, family planning initiatives, greater urbanization
–	High rates of natural increase in West Bank, Gaza, and Libya
•	Increasing population strains cities, water supplies, public services, job availability
Cultural Coherence and Diversity: Signatures of Complexity
•	Patterns of Religion
–	Hearth of the Judeo-Christian Tradition
•	Jews and Christians trace their roots to 
   the eastern Mediterranean
•	Monotheism – belief in one God
–	The Emergence of Islam
•	Originated in Southwest Asia in A.D. 622
•	In the Judeo-Christian Tradition, sharing many of the same prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus
•	Quran – Koran; believed by Muslims to be a book of revelations received by Muhammad from Allah (God), representing God’s highest religious and moral revelations
•	Islam means “submission to the will of God”
Modern Religions (Fig. 7.24)
Cultural Coherence and Diversity: Signatures of Complexity (cont.)
•	Patterns of Religion (cont.)
–	The Emergence of Islam (cont.)
–	Five pillars
»	Repeat the basic creed to accept Islam (“There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet”)
»	Pray five times daily facing Makkah (Mecca)
»	Give charitable contributions
»	Fast during month of Ramadan
»	Make religious pilgrimage (Hajj) to Makkah (see image)
–	Modern Religious Diversity
•	Muslims majority in region, except for in Israel and Cyprus
–	Sunni (73%); Shiites (23%) dominant in Iran, southern Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, and Bahrain
•	Sufism (mystic form of Islam) in region’s margins, and Druze (spin-off of Shi’a Islam) of Lebanon and Syria
Diffusion of Islam (Fig. 7.22)
Old Jerusalem (Fig. 7.25)
Cultural Coherence and Diversity: Signatures of Complexity (cont.)
•	Geographies of Language
Cultural Coherence and Diversity: Signatures of Complexity (cont.)
•	Regional Cultures in Global Context
–	Islamic Internationalism
•	Islamic communities well-established in central China, European Russia, central Africa, southern Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, elsewhere
•	Muslim congregations expanding in urban areas of western Europe and North America
–	Globalization and Cultural Change
•	Global economy is having impact on traditional cultural values
–	Fundamentalism a reaction
•	Access to satellite TV, cellular phones, the internet bring global culture to the region
Geopolitical Framework: A Region of Persisting Tensions
•	The Colonial Legacy
•	European colonialism came late to the region
–	Dominance of Ottoman Empire (1550-1850)
–	Widespread European colonialism after WWI
–	Many political boundaries set by colonial powers
•	Imposing European Power
•	French in Algeria since 1800, later in Tunisia, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon
•	Britain in Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf by 1900
–	Suez Canal – British-engineered canal linking Mediterranean and Red seas in 1869
–	European banks influenced Egyptian economy
–	British instrumental in establishing Saudi Arabia
•	Italians in Libya, Spanish in Morocco
•	Turkey, Iran (Persia) never occupied
Geopolitical Framework: A Region of Persisting Tensions (cont.)
•	Imposing European Power (cont.)
–	Decolonization and Independence
•	Europeans began to withdraw before WWII
–	By 1950 most countries independent
–	Algeria independent in 1962
•	Modern Geopolitical Issues
–	Across North Africa
•	Libya formerly a problem, now moving toward cooperation
•	Islamist movements in Algeria and Egypt 
•	Sudan had north (Islamist) vs. south (Christian and animist) war in 1990s; now has conflict between Arabs and black Africans in the Darfur region

Geopolitical Framework: A Region of Persisting Tensions (cont.)
•	Modern Geopolitical Issues, cont.
–	The Arab-Israeli Conflict
Geopolitical Framework: A Region of Persisting Tensions (cont.)
•	Modern Geopolitical Issues (cont.)
–	Troubled Iraq
Geopolitical Framework: A Region of Persisting Tensions (cont.)
•	Modern Geopolitical Issues (cont.)
Economic and Social Development: Lands of Wealth and Poverty
•	The Geography of Fossil Fuels
•	Oil unevenly distributed in the area
–	Saudi Arabia, Iran, U.A.E., Libya, Algeria contribute significantly to oil production, while Morocco and Sudan have few developed petroleum reserves
–	This region has 7% of the world’s population; holds 69% of the world’s proven petroleum reserves
•	Regional Economic Patterns
–	Higher-Income Oil Exporters
–	Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, U.A.E.
–	Cultural landscape reshaped because of oil wealth
–	Not all benefit, e.g., rural Shiite Muslims and foreign workers
Fig. 7.36 
Crude Petroleum  
and Natural Gas 
Production and Reserves
Economic and Social Development: Lands of Wealth and Poverty (cont.)
•	Regional Economic Patterns (cont.)
–	Lower-Income Oil Exporters
•	Algeria: oil and natural gas are its top exports; but political instability remains a problem
•	Iran: has huge oil reserves, but long war with Iraq (1980-90), and withdrawal from world trade under fundamentalist government have lowered living standards
•	Iraq struggling to develop oil industry
–	Prospering Without Oil
•	Israel has highest living standard in the region
•	Turkey has a diversified economy; has seen growth
•	Economic reforms in Tunisia
•	Lebanon has potential for prosperity through tourism & telecommunications
Economic and Social Development: Lands of Wealth and Poverty (cont.)
•	Regional Economic Patterns (cont.)
–	Regional Patterns of Poverty
•	Sudan’s economy ruined by civil war
•	Morocco is poorer than Algeria or Tunisia and suffers from brain drain
–	Brain drain – phenomenon in which some of brightest young people leave for better jobs in Western Europe
•	Egypt’s prospects unclear, with growth in 1990s, but large gaps between rich and poor
•	Yemen is poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, with marginal subsistence farming and widespread unemployment
•	Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza: Political disruptions discourage investment; Israel has destroyed infrastructure; two-thirds of Palestinians live in poverty; unemployment above 40% 

Economic and Social Development: Lands of Wealth and Poverty (cont.)
–	A Woman’s Changing World
•	World’s lowest female workforce participation, large gaps between male and female literacy
•	More orthodox Islamic countries limit female participation
–	In Saudi Arabia, women are not permitted to drive
–	Women in Iran wear head scarves (but may also wear Western-style fashions)
•	Educational opportunities for 
   women are increasing (although some
   classrooms are segregated by gender)
•	Libya sees modernizing women’s 
    role as a high priority
Economic and Social Development: Lands of Wealth and Poverty (cont.)
•	Global Economic Relationships
–	OPEC’s Changing Fortunes
•	OPEC no longer controls oil and gas prices globally, but still influences their availability and cost
•	Saudi Arabia still dependent on oil and gas
–	70% of its exports are crude oil shipments
–	Another 20% are refined petrochemical products (90% total)
–	Regional and International Linkages
•	Relationships with the EU are critical
•	Turkey asks to join EU, but the going is slow
•	Arab League formed in 1945
•	Arab Free-Trade Area (1998), Islamic Development Bank
Economic and Social Development: Lands of Wealth and Poverty (cont.)
•	Global Economic Relationships
–	The Geography of Tourism
•	Ancient historical sites and globally significant religious localities are a large draw
•	Tourist hotels and condos on the Mediterranean
•	Ecotourism
•	Tourism is a large part of the regional economy in Turkey, Israel, and Egypt
•	Impacts to visual landscape, physical environment, and archeological sites
Conclusions
•	Southwest Asia and North Africa played critical role in world history and globalization
•	Important culture hearth and religious center
•	Oil plays world role
•	Political conflicts disrupt economic development
•	Tension between modern ways and fundamentalist traditions