Where is the Middle East?

[erasure]

Originally Posted by danielj72

When I said they share "some traits" yes the Islamic religion that was brought to them by the sword is the big one. Being conquered by a different people will bring parts of its culture with it. Obviously the Iranians and Turkic people are not Arabs and do have a different culture. However the reason people do call that region part of the Middle east is because of the similarities that do exist.

That would be correct in case of Persia ( the earlier period,) where Arabs brought Islam "by the sword," BUT later those territories of "Middle Asia" were overrun by

"During pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Central Asia was a predominantly Iranian[4][5] region that included the sedentary Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians and Chorasmians, and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Parthians. The ancient sedentary population played an important role in the history of Central Asia. After expansion by Turkic peoples, Central Asia also became the homeland for many Turkic peoples, including the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Uyghurs and other extinct Turkic nations. Central Asia is sometimes referred to as Turkestan.[6][7][8]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asia

Many of them were descendants of medieval Mongolian tribes, and Islam hasn't been brought to them "by sword," - they accepted it volunterely from what I remember. So this makes region of "Middle Asia" ( as Russians identify it) quite different from, say, Iran.

[erasure]

Originally Posted by Davy-040

Why do so many people here think Middle East equals Land of Arabs?

Anatolia, The Caucasus, The Fertile Crescent, The Arabian Peninsula and Western Iran are Near East

Eastern Iran and the Stans except for Eastern Pakistan are the Middle East.

Davy direct all your inquiries to Brits please.
And Americans.

"The term "Middle East" may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office.[5] However, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902[6] to "designate the area between Arabia and India".[7][8] During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, a rivalry which would become known as The Great Game. Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf.[9][10] He labeled the area surrounding the Persian Gulf as the Middle East, and said that after the Suez Canal, it was the most important passage for Britain to control in order to keep the Russians from advancing towards British India.[11] Mahan first used the term in his article "The Persian Gulf and International Relations", published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East

[erasure]

...and while I am looking in that general direction - uh-oh, this is in the news -

Saudi Arabia assembles 34 Mulsim country coalition to fight


http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/14/middle...-saudi-arabia/