Rst 2910 middle east
Attendance and class participation-10%
Presentation-5% Wednesday march 25
Terms and map quiz 15%-Friday February 13th
Outlines and responses to readings-bullet point or sentence form of readings. 1st one due Friday feb 20
Midaq alley quiz-Monday march 9th 5%
Test on midaq alley-15% Monday march 16 respond in full sentence
Responses to the arab uprisings- due april 3-Friday april 10th 20%
Final exam-20% Wednesday april 29 1015-1215- essay questions, map section, and second part of the semester

Geography
Deserts
Empty quarter dominants the southern part of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman
Main desert in the region and one of the largest in the world
Sahara desert-in northern African countries of Libya, Algeria. Can reach 138 degrees in the shade.
1.4% renewable sources of fresh water located in the middle east
Rivers,lakes,seas-help foster civilization and new political organizations
Nile-starts in Rwanda and bhurundy
Blue and white nile meet up in sudan to the main nile then the nile branches out to the nile delta
90% of the population lives along the nile
63% of egypts population lives along the nile delta
Tigris&Euphrates
both have origins in the highlands of south eastern Turkey the marshes are 30% smaller than their original size due to reverting
Jordan-salt water river
The dead sea-lowest point on earth 417
The red sea-it becomes the entry point for many merchants who bring goods from india and china
Persian Gulf-also known as the Arabian gulf
Body of water between the Arabian penisula and iran
Shallow
Many petroleum deposits.
Most oil goes through the strait of hormuse
Has an international lane that has 20% of the worlds oil and 35% of that oil is exported by sea
Urmia Lake
Salt lake
Largest lake in the region
6th largest salt lake in the world
Has small rocky islands
Has no species of fish
Lake van
Located in south eastern turkey
Largest in turkey
Blocked by a major volcano
Dead Sea
Very salty and boyant
Sea of Galilee
a.linked to ancient cities
Mountains
Atlas mountains berber muslims live there who don’t speak Arabic
Zagros Mountains
Highest peak is 4,000m
Located in Iraq and iran
Has oil deposits in the peaks
Elburz mountains
Located in iran by the Caspian sea
Has a flat environment located near it
Has snowy winters
Peaks reach up to 18,000ft
Taurus Mountains
Located in southern turkey
Peaks reach over 12,000 ft
Human Geography January 16, 2015-religion is not a good way to categorize people nor is country. Language is how we categorize the people of the middle east.
Categories of muslim
Sunni-some speak Arabic and some speak Turkish
Shia- some speak Arabic some speak Persian
Alawite- largely in Syria and some in turkey
Druze
Language groups of the middle east
Semites
Largest language group in the middle east
Arabic(spoken differently depending on where it is being spoken) and Hebrew are offshoots of the language. Official Arabic is the Arabic that is written in the Qu’ran. 60% of jews have a background in the middle east.
Aramaic-language spoken at the time of jesus and predominate in the Mediterranean region
Assyrians-people who dirvive from Mesopotamia which is present day Iraq
Arabic has its origins is arabia(Saudi arabia) until the 7th century and the immergence of islam.
There is no arab nation state
Arab-someone who speaks arabic
Turkish speaking people
Turkish-new language of the middle east that came after wwI that is based on the old language. It is only spoken in turkey
Turkic-nomadic people who came from central asia such as afgahnistan
Anatolia-present day turkey
Iranian
not close to Arabic or Hebrew not a semetic language but a IndoEuropean
Persian( Farsi)-spoken in iran but many other language groups in iran
Shiah muslims speak it
Aryans- Iranians who invaded india in the 2nd century
Kurdish-offshoot of Iranian language
Sunni muslims speak it
Berber
Indigenous language of northern Africa
African language not a semetic language
Hematic language
Copts-earliest Christians