ABSTRACT
In Asia the vast mountainous territory separating the Arab from the non-Arab Muslim world stretches from the Black Sea in the North to the Mesopotamian plains in the South and beyond the Zagros range to the East. It is the watershed of many rivers, including the Tigris, Euphrates and Araxes, and is the homeland of the Kurds from time immemorial – well before the arrival of Arabs and Turks in the region.
