West Asia
West Asia largely corresponds with the term the Middle East. However, the usage of the term Middle East is slowly fading out due to its obvious Eurocentrism as the region is east of Europe but it is south of Russia and west of India. West Asia consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The region is the historical birthplace of Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, Baha'i Faith and Islam. Today, the region is almost 93% Muslim and is dominated by Islamic politics. Israel is the sole exception, and is populated largely by indigenous Jews returning from the diaspora.
Culturally, the region is mainly Arab, Hebrew/Jewish, and Persian, alongside smaller numbers of Turkish, Greek, Kurdish people, Assyrian, Armenian and Cypriot peoples. Iraq is a unique example of both Persian and Arab culture. Many of the Arab countries are desert and thus many nomadic groups exist today. On the other hand, modern metropolises also exist on the shifting sands: Abu Dhabi, Amman, Riyadh, Doha and Muscat. The climate is mostly of a desert climate however some of the coastal regions have a more temperate climate, including the mountainous Anatolian plateau (Turkey, Georgia, Armenia). Coastal areas of the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly Cyprus and Lebanon, have a distinct mediterranean climate. The Persian Plateau (Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan) has a diverse terrain, it is mainly mountainous with portions of desert, steppe and tropical forest on the coast of the Caspian Sea.
West Asian cuisine is a fusion of Turkish, Arabian, Greek, North African and Persian cuisine. It is immensely rich and diverse. The literature is also immensely rich with Arabic and Persian literature dominating. One of the most famous literary works of West Asia is 1001 Arabian Nights.
Read more about this topic: Ethnic Groups In Asia
Famous quotes containing the words west and/or asia:
“The convent, which belongs to the West as it does to the East, to antiquity as it does to the present time, to Buddhism and Muhammadanism as it does to Christianity, is one of the optical devices whereby man gains a glimpse of infinity.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“I have no doubt that they lived pretty much the same sort of life in the Homeric age, for men have always thought more of eating than of fighting; then, as now, their minds ran chiefly on the “hot bread and sweet cakes;” and the fur and lumber trade is an old story to Asia and Europe.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)