(OMME) Origins of the Modern Middle East Module Overview

Origins of the Modern Middle East Module Overview

Introduction 

If you are a sports fan, you may know of nicknames athletes or coaches have earned. These nicknames often indicate special attributes of the athletes and their importance to the team. For centuries, the Middle East has held nicknames which helped describe and convey the significance of the region. Let’s take a moment to explore these names and the ways in which they help us understand the origins or beginnings of the Middle East.

Since it is the region where the world's earliest civilizations formed, it earned the name "Cradle of Civilization." Much later, in the common era, the region was part of the Ottoman Empire (1290-1922) which earned it the less creative name, “The Ottoman Empire.” Although the name was not particularly creative, it was an empire that at the height of its power encouraged the development of art, architecture and literature that defined or made the area recognizably Ottoman.

From its geographic location as a region where three continents - Africa, Asia and Europe- come together, the Middle East became known as “The Crossroads” for centuries of travelers.

As the birthplace of Monotheism- the belief in only one God, the Middle East is the origin of three of the world’s major religions. As such, the area has an abundance of locations important to each of the religions; giving it the nickname, “The Holy Land.”

In this module, we will explore how the attributes for which the region has been nicknamed have shaped and brought about the modern Middle East.

Module Lessons Preview

 In this module, we will study the following topics:

  • Conflict and Change

The Middle East has a deep history as the birthplace of three major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It has historically been referred to as the crossroads of three continents to help connect the three major continents it is located on Europe, Asia, and Africa. Being the crossroads of travel has opened up the region to many wars such as the Crusades. The Middle East has seen the rise and fall of great empires throughout its rich history.

  • Culture

The Middle East has four distinct cultures: Arab, Turkish, Iranian, and Israeli. The region is known as the birthplace of civilization with the development of one of the first major civilizations: Mesopotamia. The rich history has led rise to a variety of distinct cultures that identify the region as home.

Key Terms

  1. Monotheism - belief that there is only one God
  2. Polytheism- belief in many gods
  3. Judaism - religion based on the teachings of Moses as found in the Torah and in the laws of the Talmud
  4. Jew - a person whose religion is Judaism
  5. Talmud and Torah - Jewish text that contains the teachings, traditions, and laws of Judaism
  6. Hebrew - the ancient Semitic language of the Jews
  7. Christianity - the religion based on the teachings of Christ as they appear in the Bible
  8. Christian - person whose religion is Christianity
  9. Jesus - a Jew who, through his teachings, began what eventually became the Christian religion
  10. Bible - Christian text with the teachings and traditions from the Old and New Testament
  11. Islam - religion based on the teachings of Muhammad as they appear in the Qur'an (Koran); the religion of Muslims
  12. Muslim - person whose religion is Islam
  13. Muhammad - Arab prophet and founder of Islam
  14. Qur'an (Koran)- Islamic text which contains the teachings of Muhammad
  15. Oasis – a fertile spot in the desert where there are water and some vegetation
  16. Nomad – a member of a tribe that moves from place to place
  17. Five Pillars of Islam - the five important duties of Muslims 1. Profession of Faith, 2. Prayer, 3. Almsgiving, 4. Fasting, 5. Pilgrimage
  18. Ottoman Empire - a former Turkish empire that ruled parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe between the late 1200s and 1922
  19. Partition - a division of a region into parts to be ruled by foreign governments
  20. Mandate - a region or territory under the management of another nation
  21. Persia - ancient empire located in the area now known as Iran; Iranians are Persian, not Arab
  22. Semite – a member of the group of people who speak Hebrew or Arabic
  23. Arabic - language of the Arabs
  24. Arab – a member of the Semitic people now widely scattered over southwestern and southern Asia and Northern Africa who speaks Arabic
  25. Mesopotamia - an ancient region located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now known as Iraq. The word literally means "between the rivers.”
  26. Fertile Crescent – a crescent-shaped area with fertile soil where the earliest known civilizations are believed to have developed
  27. Diaspora - dispersion of Jews around the world and away from the Middle East
  28. Palestine - region in the Middle East between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River
  29. Mecca – the birthplace of Muhammad, which has made it the religious capital of the Islamic world. It is located in Saudi Arabia
  30. City-States- an ancient organization of a civilization based on a city and the surrounding area it controls
  31. Sumerians- people who lived in and were members of the ancient civilization of Sumer
  32. Irrigation- a method of supplying land with water through the creation of ditches
  33. Cuneiform- the wedge-shaped characters used in the writing of ancient Sumer
  34. Civilization- nations or people that have reached advanced stages in social development
  35. Empire- a group of countries or states under the rule of one ruler or government
  36. Sultan- a king of the Ottoman Empire
  37. Pashto - the language of Afghanistan
  38. Pashtuns - an ethnic group living in Afghanistan that speaks Pashto
  39. Kurds - the ethnic group of people who speak Kurdish and are divided or split from others by the borders of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran; the largest non-Arab minority living in Iraq
  40. Kurdish -the language is spoken by Kurds
  41. Farsi - language of Iranians
  42. Turkish - language of Turks
  43. Turks -an ethnic group originating in the area now known as Turkey
  44. Maronites - a religious group of Christians primarily living in the nation of Lebanon
  45. Ethnic Group - a group of people who are united by various racial or cultural ties
  46. Religious Group - a group of people united by their religious beliefs
  47. Minority - a group within a country, state, etc., that differs in race, religion, national origin, from the larger part of the population
  48. Zionism – an ideological movement that started in the 1800s with the goal of setting up a Jewish national state in Palestine and now seeks to maintain and develop the state of Israel
  49. Balfour Declaration - the 1917 statement made by the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour in a letter to the leader of the British Jewish community announcing Great Britain's favor in establishing a national home for Jews

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