|
PREFACE
The aim of this book, retained in a new edition, is to offer a statement of the basic geographical facts relating to the region, together with discussion of the issues, theories and problems involved. There is at the same time an attempt to demonstrate the link between environmental conditions and the uniquely long historical tradition of the area. A large section of this volume is thus straightforward regional exposition: an approach which of recent years has been exposed generally to some criticism of professional geographers. But however one may employ the pitch-forks by specialist and systematic analysis, nature will return: there is now re-assertion of the validity of small territorial units, as human communities begin to stress local variation and the need for deeper understanding of the small-scale. Regionalism is a growing preoccupation among environmentalists, economists, politicians and field scientists; and geographers would do well to maintain the art for which they were - and still probably are - best known. Moreover there is growing appreciation that a region, far from being a commonplace and elementary system, is in fact a highly complex pattern, as yet intractable and beyond, rather than below, the capabilities of present-day modelling and analytical procedures.
In the third of a century that has elapsed since the ideas for this book were first sketched, changes have occurred within the Middle East on a scale unimaginable at the time. These changes have now brought certain parts of the Middle East to unparalleled wealth and influence; they have produced recurrent threats and actual outbreaks of war; they have fundamentally altered material ways of life, thought and culture for some groups; but they have not diminished the intense interest in Middle Eastern affairs by outside powers, and the determination of these latter to maintain or develop influence there. One difference, however, is that the process is now two-way, with more Middle Easterners involved in the economic and cultural life of the rest of the world - as participants in commercial activities, as temporary migrant workers (e.g. in Europe and the Americas), and as students. Moreover, the enormous expansion of air traffic and the limitation to flying over Communist territory, has meant that more than ever the Middle East with its expanses of open terrain, generally excellent flying weather has made the region a major centre of air routes, with increasing use of Great Circle trajectories: ‘Concorde’ flew first of all commercially to Bahrain. All this re-inforces the concept of ‘Middle’ in an expanding world.
Continued interest in this book from many parts of the world has allowed the appearance of a revised and improved, though slightly shortened, text, in which I have had the great benefits of assistance from numerous well-wishers. In particular, the Durham Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies with its Documentation Centre, second to none in Europe, has provided much valuable material. I wish also to acknowledge most gratefully support from British Petroleum Ltd, London, and Petroleum Development Oman, that has allowed field investigation in the Middle East.
I am greatly indebted to academic colleagues, diplomats, and other friends who have made available their specialist knowledge and expertise, particularly those in the Middle East. I wish especially to thank: Dr B. Booth of Imperial College London, and Dr D. P. McKenzie of Cambridge University and M.I.T., who have kindly allowed me to quote from their own research on plate tectonics, and to reproduce diagrams and material from their published work; Dr A. A. Ali of Cairo University who has made available from his own research on khamsin winds the material shown as fig. 3.8; Dr W. A. Abd el Aal for the information shown in fig. 17.11; and the secretarial and technical staff of my own Department for their considerable contributions.
Most of all, however, I wish to record with very grateful thanks the participation of Dr R. I. Lawless, acting-Director of the Durham Centre of Middle Eastern Studies, who has undertaken revision of certain chapters, and who has throughout provided overall comment and advice, as an indispensable collaborator.
W. B. Fisher
Durham 1977
I Introductory
After many years of debate, acrid at times, and although the area itself has risen to a position of major world significance, the term 'Middle East ’ still cannot command universal acceptance in a single strict sense -even counting in ‘Mideast’ as a mere abridgement. Perhaps the most that a geographer can say. taking refuge in semantics, is that it can be regarded as a ‘conventional’ regional term of general convenience, like Central Europe or the American Middle West, with many definitions in more detail feasible and logically possible.1
Use of ‘Middle East’ first arose in the early years of the present century particularly with reference to the area around the Persian Gulf: it was then a logical intermediate definition between the Mediterranean ‘Near East', and a ‘Far Eastalthough the position of the Indian subcontinent remained anomalous - and after 1918 it was taken up by the British Forces as a convenient label. During the Second World War, bases and organizations previously located mainly around the Persian Gulf were expanded greatly; and rather than erect an indeterminate, and divisive, second unit, the term ‘Middle East' was gradually extended westwards with the tides of war. A military province stretching from Iran to Tripolitania was created and named ‘Middle East’. Establishment in this region of large military supply bases brought the necessity to reorganize both the political and economic life of the countries concerned, in order …
1 C. S. Coon’s definition that includes Morocco and Pakistan, P. Loraine’s restriction of the term to Iran, Iraq, Arabia, Afghanistan; or the titles The Nearer East (D. G. Hogarth), The Hither East (A. Kohn), and Swasia (G. B. Cressey).
|
