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Mashriq

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This article is about the cultural and geographical region. For other uses, see Mashriq (disambiguation).
Mashriq
ْاَلْمَشْرِق‎
Region
Map of the Arab countries that comprise the Mashriq, highlighted green
Map of the Arab countries that comprise the Mashriq, highlighted green
Map
Countries
Named forThe East (i.e., Sunrise)
Map of the Mashriq's territorial span in the most conservative definition, which largely overlaps with the Fertile Crescent.[1][2][3][4]

The Mashriq (/məˈʃriːk/; Arabic: ْاَلْمَشْرِق, lit. 'the east'), alternatively spelled Mashreq or Mashrek and also called the Arab Mashriq (اَلْمَشْرِقُ الْعَرَبِيُّ), is a term used by Arabs to denote the eastern half of the Arab world—that is, every Arab country in West Asia and Egypt and Sudan in North Africa.[5] It is juxtaposed with the Maghreb, which is the western half of the Arab world, consisting of every Arab country between the North Atlantic and Egypt and Sudan. It is poetically referred to as the "Place of Sunrise" per the name's derivation from the verb sharaqa (َشَرَق, "to shine, illuminate, radiate" and "to rise"), which originates from the Semitic root sh-r-q (ش-ر-ق).[6][7]

Today, while it generally overlaps with what is known as the Middle East, the term "Mashriq" excludes the region's four non-Arab countries: Cyprus, Iran, Israel, and Turkey.[8] As such, the Mashriqi countries—or the eastern Arab world—are the following: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the State of Palestine, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.[9][8]

Geography

As the word "Mashriq" refers to all Arab countries between Egypt and Sudan in the west and Iran (which is not an Arab country) in the east, it is the opposite of the term "Maghreb" (Arabic: المغرب), which denotes the western half of the Arab world, consisting of Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Western Sahara, and Mauritania. Alternatively, in definitions where Libya is regarded as straddling the two regions, Cyrenaica in eastern Libya is considered to be Mashriqi, while Tripolitania in western Libya is considered to be Maghrebi. Therefore, in this context, the Gulf of Sidra serves as the dividing point between the Maghreb and the Mashriq.[10][11]

These geographical terms date from the early Islamic expansion; the Mashriq roughly corresponds to Bilad al-Sham and Mesopotamia combined.[12] As of 2014, the Mashriq is home to 1.7% of the world's total population.[13][14][15][16][17][18]

Politics

Map of the Arab Mashreq International Road Network, as of 2011.

All Mashriqi countries are part of the Arab League, the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, and the United Nations. The region has cooperated in several large-scale projects, such as the Arab Mashreq International Road Network and the Arab Mashreq International Railway. Every country in the Arabian Peninsula, excluding Yemen, is also part of the Gulf Cooperation Council, while others in the region have tried to achieve political unity in the past, such as the United Arab Republic, which consisted of Egypt and Syria together.

See also

References

  1. ^ "About ANPGR". www.aoad.org. Arab Network of Plant Genetic Resources.[dead link]
  2. ^ "Mashreq". www.aarinena.org. Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East & North Africa. Archived from the original on 2017-02-24. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
  3. ^ ""السلفية في المشرق العربي" من كتاب "الحركات الإسلامية في الوطن العربي" | مدونة جدران". www.judran.net. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  4. ^ "لماذا يستثنى الأردن من التقسيم؟ الوضع الداخلي هو العنصر الحاسم*فهد الخيطان" [Why is Jordan exempted from the division? The internal situation is a critical component * Fahd strings]. rasseen.com (in Arabic). Rasseen. 2014-07-13.
  5. ^ "Economic interrogation in the mashriq" (PDF). world bank, siteresources.
  6. ^ Alvarez, Lourdes María (2009). Abu Al-Ḥasan Al-Shushtarī. Paulist Press. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-8091-0582-3.
  7. ^ Peek, Philip M.; Yankah, Kwesi (2003-12-12). African Folklore: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 442. ISBN 978-1-135-94873-3.
  8. ^ a b Everett-Heath, John (2018). The Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-186632-6. OCLC 1053905476.
  9. ^ "Mashriq | geographical region, Middle East". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-08-16.
  10. ^ "Libya - GEOGRAPHY". www.country-data.com. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  11. ^ Gall, Michel Le; Perkins, Kenneth (2010). The Maghrib in Question: Essays in History and Historiography. University of Texas Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-292-78838-1.
  12. ^ Clancy-Smith, Julia (2013-11-05). North Africa, Islam and the Mediterranean World. Routledge. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-135-31213-8.
  13. ^ Official estimate of the Population of Egypt Archived May 25, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ UN estimate for Lebanon
  15. ^ "Official Jordanian population clock". Archived from the original on January 17, 2012.
  16. ^ "National Main Statistical Indicators". State of Palestine – Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original on 2016-12-03. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
  17. ^ UN estimate for Syria
  18. ^ "Iraq". The World Bank. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
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