Cultural Groups of the Middle East

Who Are the Arabs?
“An Arab is whoever speaks
Arabic,
wishes to be an Arab
and calls himself an Arab.” –
- unknown author
•5000 miles of homeland
•Origin of civilization in the
“Fertile Crescent”
Mesopotamia: Land between two rivers.
“The fertile crescent”
•Unifying Characteristics:
Language and religion
Bedouin History
Original Arab lands are
in Syria, Lebanon,
Palestine, Jordan, Iraq,
Persia, Egypt, North
Africa
•Nomadic Herders in
the harsh desert
•Polygamous society
Arab Language
http://www.arabic2000.com/arabic/alphabet.html
• 6th most
spoken
language in
the world
• The Arabic
alphabet is
read from right
to left, top to
bottom.
• Numbers are
the same as
English
Islamic Religion
• Started by Muhammad in 571 AD
• Had various revelations while meditating on hill
outside of Mecca
• Paralleled many messages of the Old Testament
• Koran united the Arab people
Turks
•Turkey has been called the “Cradle of Civilization”
•The Turks were liberated from the Ottoman Empire after
WWI
Who are the Turks?
Ancient, proud
people who are
mixed Ottoman and
Persian descent
Turkish Language & Religion
• 56 million people
speak Turkish
• Arabic and Persian
influences in the
language
• Religion is 99%
Muslim
Iranians (Persians)
• Iranians were once part of
the Persian Empire
•Iranians speak
mostly Farsi and
Persian the
language of the
Persian empire.
•Iranians are
mostly Shiite
Muslims, but also
Christians, and
Jews
The People of Iran call
themselves the Aryans, blackhaired people
Iranians invented wheeled vehicles!
History
• Cyrus the Great established
the Persian Empire in 550
BC, the first world empire.
• After many wars the
Persians fell to the Islamic
Arab army
• Genghis Khan attacked
Persia in 1220 and
destroyed virtually
everything
• Persia became Muslim
Jews
Jewish Religion: Abraham
was the patriarch from
Mesopotamia
Took his “family” and
moved to Egypt where they
were enslaved by the
Egyptians
After 400 years of bondage,
Moses led his Jewish
people to the promised
land: Israel.
Wandered for 40 years in
the Sinai desert
Language
•Official Language
is Hebrew
(Language of the
Jews)
•Most commonly
spoken language
is English
•Literate nation:
95% literacy rate
Palestinians
•People believe their country is
currently under occupation
•Speak mostly Arabic
•Identify with the Arab culture
•Who are the Palestinians?
•In the 2nd century AD, the
Romans killed ½ a million Jews.
The ones left in Isreal were called
Palestinians.
•They are the Arab descendants
who do not have an actual
homeland, but claim the land that
is now Israel
Armenians
• Was once part of the
Persian empire, Roman
empire and Ottoman
empire
• 6 million Armenians world
wide!
Armenian History
• Armenians are most
closely linked with Iran
• Conversion to
Christianity eventually
alienated them
• Exterminated by the
Turks and Kurds of
the Ottoman empire
• Victims of genocide of
the 1.5 million
Armenians by the
Turks in 1915-1923.
Language
• Armenian
Language
was created
in 406 BC.
• Spoken
according to
Geographical
location
Kurds
• A people without a
country (Kurdistan)
• Non-Arab people
• 4th largest ethnic
group in Europe
History of Repression
• People have been ruled by the Ottoman
Empire, Persian Empire, and now Iran and
Iraq
• Iran tried to exterminate the Kurds upon its
creation