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I made this post because I’ve been feeling bleh about using “Middle East”. Feels like a term made up by Usania, also feels like otherizing Anatolians-Arabians-Iranians, despite being from the Continent of Asia.
Idk why I feel this, but yeah. I also wanted to know how y’all refer to it (also want to know how I should refer to it, since I’m at a crossroads myself)
Middle East
This for me since it is widely recognized. However, I usually try to be more specific since countries within this region often have very different material conditions and warrant a bit more nuance. The differences between the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, and Isn’trael, for example, are vast and many.
West Asia
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Several people have told me I’m wrong and bad for this, but when I say “Middle East” I usually include most of Central Asia and North Africa. Kazakhstan to Pakistan to Mauretania to Somalia.
I think it’s useful to have a term to refer to the lands historically contested by the various Muslim Caliphates; these areas form a sort of historic-geographic unit very similar to Europe, which is itself an arbitrary subdivision of Eurasia.
I call them by their regional names, rather than grouping them into one. (Basically I call them Arabian Peninsula, Iran and Anatolia seperately than grouping them as “West Asia” or what have you)
Near, middle and far East are names that come from antiquity (ancient Greeks). Anatolia, Syria and Palestine are part of the Near East by the way.
to anglos, the near east is vienna or something, that’s why they call the near east middle east.
Depends on the topic. If the topic was about the Middle East region, I use “Middle East”; if it was about the Muslim countries there, I use “Arab world”; but most of the time, it was about specific countries, like “Iran”, or “Palestine”.
Sometimes I call it “Middle East”, other times I call it “West Asia”
Ditto, whatever’s on the tip of my tongue at the moment. I like having synonyms for words.
I have my own terminology for it. (Please reply to this and explain your terminology)
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