Middle East

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A 2003 map of the Middle East region published by the U.S. government.

The Middle East, also called Southwest Asia, is a geographical region in Asia that also contains small parts of Europe and Africa. Usually, all of the Arab countries not in Africa are included in the Middle East, along with Egypt, Turkey, Israel, and Iran. Sometimes, the Maghreb (the Arabic North African countries other than Egypt and Sudan), and more rarely Afghanistan, and Pakistan, are considered to be part of the region as well.

The Middle East has several defining characteristics. The entire region was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh and eighth centuries, who introduced Islam. Most of the region is still overwhelmingly Islamic, and Arab culture and Islam played huge roles in shaping modern Middle Eastern culture. Large sections of the Middle East are desert, although other climates are also present. Portions of the Middle East also have large supplies of oil, which make this region influential in geopolitics.

For the past century, the Middle East has been marked by political instability, with ethnic tensions, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the rising sway of fundamentalist Islamic movements all contributing to the political upheaval.