European cities are "western" cities and Asian cities are "eastern", what about Middle Eastern cities? (agricultural, food)

[Ethereal]

Now they are deemed as "eastern cities" in our textbooks and such, but it seems inappropriate for me. Because when I think of the east, I have eastern Asia in mind, not the Middle East. I mean, Lebanese people have now more in common, both genetically and culturally, with Thais than with Greeks and Maltese?

Istanbul is marked as the point where "East meets West". At first glance, this slogan made think it's a city that has European and eastern Asian culture.

Would you say Middle Eastern cities are "eastern", "western" or you have your own fancy title for them?

[bale002]

For each word, there are as many meanings as there are human mouths.

Whatever makes most sense to you and pleases you.

Having said that, many "cities" from the eastern Mediterranean seaboard to the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf trace their roots to the earliest agricultural times.

To be sure, there are new cities that have been built in this the industrial era, some using the very latest technology.

That makes sense to me and pleases me.

What's with this "east/west" thing? The world is round.

Even as a matter of physical geography, there is no place where so-called Asia and so-called Europe begins and ends, nor Africa for that matter (except maybe for the Suez canal). It is all one landmass surrounded by ocean and interspersed with seas, gulfs, lakes, and rivers.

Moreover, global travel has been established for around five hundred years, becoming quicker and quicker, and by now global communications are instantaneous.

Round and round and round and round.

[Fabio SBA]

Islamic world is outside this east-west divide.
They are equally distinct of Europe as they are of the rest of Asia, it's a cultural hub apart.
What cultural traits has, let's say, a Saudi in common with a Japanese and with a German, for example? Is Saudi Arabia culturally closer to Japan than it is to Germany, or closer to Germany than it is to Japan?
Moreover, their geographic range extends from as west as Senegal to as east as Indonesia, in more extreme longitudes than many "western" and "eastern" countries.

[Forever96]

This whole East-West is nonsensical. The middle East is from the sense of Europeans and North Americans. From the point of East Asians and the pacific region the ''middle east'' is the ''Middle-West'' and North America is the ''far east''

The whole concept should be abandoned.

[grega94]

It depends on the word East, east can either refer to Russia or east Asia, traditionally the Middle East was called the Near East, and east Asia was the Far East

[ABQConvict]

The whole scheme upon which the 'West' is defined by historians rests upon its opposition to the 'Orient' which connotes the Middle East, Ottoman (Turkic) and Arabic. The Bosporous is the historic dividing line between West and East.

The Far East and South Asia are more recent additions to the East / West equation.

Furthermore, though couched in geographic terms, the definitions are mainly cultural.

[Bettafish]

Arabs, Persians and Afghans are "Caucasians" (whatever it means), and cluster with Europeans more than with East Asians.
Traditionally, they are all "People of the Book", the same as Europeans. East Asian societies were very secular and organized religions were weak.
Traditionally, their arts, clothes, and even food were more similar to Europeans' than to East Asians'.

[forgotten username]

it's not without reason it's called middle east...

I think middle east is closer to Europe than it is to East Asia, but not everyone will agree on that...

[Fabio SBA]

Originally Posted by forgotten username

it's not without reason it's called middle east...

I think middle east is closer to Europe than it is to East Asia, but not everyone will agree on that...

Going very back in the history, it's true. Parts of the Middle East were part of the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, and cultural interchange between arabs and turks with europeans happened several times. On the other hand, and interestingly, I notice that today Eastern Asians assimilate into Western culture much more easily than Middle-Easterners do.

[Forever96]

Originally Posted by Fabio SBA

Going very back in the history, it's true. Parts of the Middle East were part of the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, and cultural interchange between arabs and turks with europeans happened several times. On the other hand, and interestingly, I notice that today Eastern Asians assimilate into Western culture much more easily than Middle-Easterners do.

I suspect East Asians think Western Culture is so great so they suck up to it. Not bashing East Asians but it seems they are obsessed by anything Western - its just my little observation though.