ABSTRACT
There has been much debate amongst academics about the correctness of identifying as a separate subcontinental region the zone where Europe, Asia, and Africa meet (Fisher 1961, p. 1). Further, even those who agree such a region exists are divided on what it should be called. For the purposes of this study it is sensible to distinguish this area, which consists of the Arabian peninsula, Turkey, and Iran. The boundaries that evolved in this area owed much to local factors and conditions which were either absent in Europe, Asia, and Africa or present in only a weak form. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire in western Arabia and the Levant, the growth of Arab nationalism, and the involvement of Britain and France to protect perceived strategic interests such as communications and supplies of oil provide the main reasons why this region is considered separately. There are three arguments for associating Iran with this region. It is an important country in affairs connected with the Persian Gulf; from time to time it has displayed territorial ambitions in the Arabian peninsula; and the boundary dispute over the Shatt el Arab was the cause of the war with Iraq which started in 1980. Although this region could have been called South-West Asia (Brice 1966), the term Middle East has been retained because of its well known political connotations. Although disagreeing on nomenclature, Fisher (1961) and Brice (1966),
who have written useful regional descriptions of the Middle East, concur with the view that there are two prime zones within this region, which is transitional between its flanking continents. To the north there is a zone of fold mountains; to the south there is the ancient crystalline block of Arabia. The division between the two corresponds roughly with the southern boundaries of Turkey and Iran. The fold mountains were created in the period stretching from the Cretaceous to the Pliocene from the thick sediments which underlay the ancient sea called Tethys. Arabia was the anvil against which the hammer of central Asia fashioned these fold mountains. Some of the insular fragments lying off the northern block were enclosed by the folds and survive as basins such as those associated with Tuz Golo. The Arabian peninsula has been tilted towards the north and north-east
so that the highest sections are found in Yemen. The northern parts o f this stable block have been overlain with considerable thicknesses of more recent sandstone and limestone. Thick sediments have filled in the depression which previously existed along the line of the present Tigris and Euphrates and they have recreated a fairly flat surface with low gradients. 262
In the vicinity of the Persian Gulf and its structural continuation along the lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, geological conditions favoured the formation of oil and gas fields. The thick porous strata which had been gently deformed and tilted created traps within which hydrocarbons could accumulate from the rich deposits of remains of creatures which once lived in the warm Tethys Sea. Since most of this region experiences a Mediterranean climate with
summer drought and winter rains, the climatic division does not accord exactly with the structural zoning. However, it is generally the case that winter rains in the mountainous region support the growth of winter crops whereas irrigation is almost invariably necessary in the lowlands. A map showing the distribution of languages (Fisher 1961, p. 103)
reinforces the division into northern and southern zones. The predominance of Arabic throughout the southern region contrasts with the distinct subregions in the north where Turkish, Kurdish, Baluchi, and Persian are spoken. Historically, the northern and southern regions can be distinguished on
political grounds. In the north there were only two states, and both at different times were the centre of major empires. In addition, although the imperial powers of Western Europe had an interest in these areas and infrequently played a direct role there, it was in the southern region of Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Arabia where Britain and France played a long and direct part in political affairs. There are now 12 states in the areas south of the fold of mountains, and in historic times there were often a multitude of small political organizations, which often had a feudal relationship to each other and coalesced into varying groups for short and long periods.
