The Near East Today and Tomorrow

THE NEAR EAST TODAY AND TOMORROW w. R. TAYLOR AT the outset of a discussion of the Near East it is necessary to define the lands that are covered by this general geographical term, since there is some want of uniformity in its application. The Oxford Dictionary defines the Near East as the south-eastern part of Europe, i.e., the Balkan states together with Asia Minor; it defines the Middle East as the south-western countries of Asia. This definition reflects the point of view and the usage in the political language of Europe. But on this side of the Atlantic the practice is to follow the universal usage of students of Eastern cultures and languages in defining the Near East as those lands contiguous to the southeastern shores of ,the Mediterranean, along with Asia Minor and Arabia, while the term Middle East is applied to Iraq, Persia and Afghanistan. It has to be allowed, however, that the distinction between Near East and Middle East, as thus defined, is often very fluid, since the cultural factors that bind, for example, Iraq with Egypt transcend the geographical conditions of distance and desert that on the map seem to divide them. For the same reason it is difficult to determine where the western bounds of the Near East should be marked. The history of Egypt has been affected by invasions from Libya at intervals for several thousands of years; and since the days of Caliphs all the lands on the south shore of the Mediterranean have shared a common heritage of language, literature, religion, and custom. Practical recognition of the basal unity of the culture of these Levantine countries is seen in the recent transference of certain British civil officials from Transjordania to Benghazi for the administration ofLibya and the adjoinin·g districts, their acquaintance with the one country fitting them for service in the other. The area of the Near and Middle East exclusive of the countries west of Egypt is about 2,500,000 square miles-roughly, thearea of Canada with British Columbia and the Yukon left out. Of this area Arabia occupies 1,000,000 square miles; Egypt, 383,000; Turkey , 280,000; Persia, 600,000; and the Iraq, 116,000. The population of the area is now over 65,000,000, of which 35,000,000 belong to the Arab-speaking peoples, or 50,000,000 if we include the countries west of Egypt. Egypt, T~rkey and Persia have each about 207 208 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY the same population-figure, Egypt being slightly in the lead over the other two with its 17,000,000. This Near-East population, unlike that of most occidental regions, is gathered in foci or islands of habitation. In the Arab-speaking area there is a fairly continuous strip of green stretching in a greatarc or crescent from the Delta of the Nile to the head of the Persian Gulf. Within this crescent are three river valleys.. The two greatest are the Nile, at one end, and the Tigris-Euphrates, at the other; the third is that which lies between the Lebanon ranges and is watered by the Orontes and Litani rivers and the rains which these mountains cause to fall. In Arabia proper, there are the moist fringes of the coast-lands, and the rare fertile spots in the interior, which together form the Nejd. Between these cultivable areas provided by rivers and rainfall lie the great deserts and steppes, which like great seas offer formidable barriers against intercourse. It is because of these geographical conditions that the Arab-speaking population falls into blocks. The 17 millions of Egypt are concentrated in 3 per cent of its area; the 3~ millions of Syria-Lebanon are shut up to 50 per cent of its fifty-eight thousand square miles; 80 per cent of Transjordania is arid; in Arabia, less than 2 per cent of the land iscultivable . Since the wastes of the Near ·East are unchangeable because waterless, it is obvious that these natural features must be viewed as fixed and inescapable. Even if by more scientific methods of irrigation and cultivation and by the introduCtion of industry the...