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Max Fisher on March 26, 2015
Maps can be a powerful tool for understanding the world, particularly the Middle East, a place in many ways shaped by changing political borders and demographics. Here are 40 maps crucial for understanding the Middle East — its history, its present, and some of the most important stories in the region today.
If this area wasn't the birthplace of human civilization, it was at least a birthplace of human civilization. Called "the fertile crescent" because of its lush soil, the "crescent" of land mostly includes modern-day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Israel-Palestine. (Some definitions also include the Nile River valley in Egypt.) People started farming here in 9000 BC, and by around 2500 BC the Sumerians formed the first complex society that resembles what we'd now call a "country," complete with written laws and a political system. Put differently, there are more years between Sumerians and ancient Romans than there are between ancient Romans and us.
How ancient Phoenicians spread from Lebanon across the Mediterranean
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn2.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4224201%2Fphoenician_800_bc.png&hash=e9ddcbcc54da42b4d2883dfc33e8fe3f)
The Phoenicians, who lived in present-day Lebanon and coastal Syria, were pretty awesome. From about 1500 to 300 BC, they ran some of the Mediterranean's first big trading networks, shown in red, and dominated the sea along with the Greeks, who are shown in brown. Some sailed as far as the British Isles, and many of them set up colonies in North Africa, Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia. This was one of the first of many close cultural links between the Middle East and North Africa – and why Libya's capital, Tripoli, still bears the name of the ancient Phoenician colony that established it.
How ancient Phoenicians spread from Lebanon across the Mediterranean
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn1.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4400229%2Fspread_of_religions_new_2.jpg&hash=15db989693c169d4016ec50194a49901)
The Middle East actually gave Europe religion four times, including Islam, but this map shows the first three. First was Judaism, which spread through natural immigration and when Romans forcibly dispersed the rebelling Israelites in the first and second century AD. In the first through third centuries A.D., a religion called Mithraism — sometimes called a "mystery religion" for its emphasis on secret rites and clandestine worship — spread from present-day Turkey or Armenia throughout the Roman Empire (at the time, most adherents believed it was from Persians in modern-day Iran, but this is probably wrong). Mithraism was completely replaced with Christianity, which became the Roman Empire's official religion, after a few centuries. It's easy to forget that, for centuries, Christianity was predominantly a religion of Middle Easterners, who in turn converted Europeans.
When Mohammed's Caliphate conquered the Middle East
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4407303%2Farab_expansion_gif_map_crop_2.gif&hash=a65bb65e68e89fbc40daadb5bda90d2c)
In the early 7th century AD in present-day Saudi Arabia, the Prophet Mohammed founded Islam, which his followers considered a community as well as a religion. As they spread across the Arabian peninsula, they became an empire, which expanded just as the neighboring Persian and Byzantine Empires were ready to collapse. In an astonishingly short time — from Mohammed's death in 632 to 652 AD — they managed to conquer the entire Middle East, North Africa, Persia, and parts of southern Europe. They spread Islam, the Arabic language, and the idea of a shared Middle Eastern identity — all of which still define the region today. It would be as if everyone in Europe still spoke Roman Latin and considered themselves ethnically Roman.
A map of the world at the Caliphate's height
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn2.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4224903%2Fheight_of_omayyad_caliphate_cropped.png&hash=4a7f02b279052d261a1f9eb989d9af93)
This is a rough political map of the world in 750 AD, at the height of the Omayyad Caliphate ("caliph" means the ruler of the global Islamic community). This is to give you a sense of how vast and powerful the Muslim empire had become, barely one century after the founding of the religion that propelled its expansion. It was a center of wealth, arts, and learning at a time when only China was so rich and powerful. This was the height of Arab power.
The six-century rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn3.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4224911%2Fottoman_empire_gif.gif&hash=c4a24d6d43c8dbe45665cac9d59e115c)
The Ottoman Empire is named for Osman, its first ruler, who in the early 1300s expanded it from a tiny part of northwest Turkey to a slightly less tiny part. It continued expanding for about 500 years — longer than the entire history of the Roman Empire — ruling over most of the Middle East, North Africa, and southeastern Europe for centuries. The empire, officially an Islamic state, spread the religion in southeast Europe but was generally tolerant of other religious groups. It was probably the last great non-European empire until it began declining in the mid-1800s, collapsed after World War I, and had its former territory in the Middle East divided up by Western Europe.
What the Middle East looked like in 1914
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn2.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4395687%2Fmiddle_east_1914_english.jpg&hash=e1134c7390352be6b44721978cc5f870)
This is a pivotal year, during the Middle East's gradual transfer from 500 years of Ottoman rule to 50 to 100 years of European rule. Western Europe was getting richer and more powerful as it carved up Africa, including the Arab states of North Africa, into colonial possessions. Virtually the entire region was ruled outright by Europeans or Ottomans, save some parts of Iran and the Arabian peninsula divided into European "zones of influence." When World War I ended a few years later, the rest of the defeated Ottoman Empire would be carved up among the Europeans. The lines between French, Italian, Spanish, and British rule are crucial for understanding the region today – not just because they ruled differently and imposed different policies, but because the boundaries between European empires later became the official borders of independence, whether they made sense or not.
The Sykes-Picot treaty that carved up the Middle East
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4224943%2Fsykes_picot_by_FT.png&hash=b55f121394bfb81543be72d8160775b6)
You hear a lot today about this treaty, in which the UK and French (and Russian) Empires secretly agreed to divide up the Ottoman Empire's last MidEastern regions among themselves. Crucially, the borders between the French and British "zones" later became the borders between Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Because those later-independent states had largely arbitrary borders that forced disparate ethnic and religious groups together, and because those groups are still in terrible conflict with one another, Sykes-Picot is often cited as a cause of warfare and violence and extremism in the Middle East. But scholars are still debating this theory, which may be too simple to be true.
Maps can be a powerful tool for understanding the world, particularly the Middle East, a place in many ways shaped by changing political borders and demographics. Here are 40 maps crucial for understanding the Middle East — its history, its present, and some of the most important stories in the region today.
If this area wasn't the birthplace of human civilization, it was at least a birthplace of human civilization. Called "the fertile crescent" because of its lush soil, the "crescent" of land mostly includes modern-day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Israel-Palestine. (Some definitions also include the Nile River valley in Egypt.) People started farming here in 9000 BC, and by around 2500 BC the Sumerians formed the first complex society that resembles what we'd now call a "country," complete with written laws and a political system. Put differently, there are more years between Sumerians and ancient Romans than there are between ancient Romans and us.
How ancient Phoenicians spread from Lebanon across the Mediterranean
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn2.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4224201%2Fphoenician_800_bc.png&hash=e9ddcbcc54da42b4d2883dfc33e8fe3f)
The Phoenicians, who lived in present-day Lebanon and coastal Syria, were pretty awesome. From about 1500 to 300 BC, they ran some of the Mediterranean's first big trading networks, shown in red, and dominated the sea along with the Greeks, who are shown in brown. Some sailed as far as the British Isles, and many of them set up colonies in North Africa, Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia. This was one of the first of many close cultural links between the Middle East and North Africa – and why Libya's capital, Tripoli, still bears the name of the ancient Phoenician colony that established it.
How ancient Phoenicians spread from Lebanon across the Mediterranean
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn1.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4400229%2Fspread_of_religions_new_2.jpg&hash=15db989693c169d4016ec50194a49901)
The Middle East actually gave Europe religion four times, including Islam, but this map shows the first three. First was Judaism, which spread through natural immigration and when Romans forcibly dispersed the rebelling Israelites in the first and second century AD. In the first through third centuries A.D., a religion called Mithraism — sometimes called a "mystery religion" for its emphasis on secret rites and clandestine worship — spread from present-day Turkey or Armenia throughout the Roman Empire (at the time, most adherents believed it was from Persians in modern-day Iran, but this is probably wrong). Mithraism was completely replaced with Christianity, which became the Roman Empire's official religion, after a few centuries. It's easy to forget that, for centuries, Christianity was predominantly a religion of Middle Easterners, who in turn converted Europeans.
When Mohammed's Caliphate conquered the Middle East
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4407303%2Farab_expansion_gif_map_crop_2.gif&hash=a65bb65e68e89fbc40daadb5bda90d2c)
In the early 7th century AD in present-day Saudi Arabia, the Prophet Mohammed founded Islam, which his followers considered a community as well as a religion. As they spread across the Arabian peninsula, they became an empire, which expanded just as the neighboring Persian and Byzantine Empires were ready to collapse. In an astonishingly short time — from Mohammed's death in 632 to 652 AD — they managed to conquer the entire Middle East, North Africa, Persia, and parts of southern Europe. They spread Islam, the Arabic language, and the idea of a shared Middle Eastern identity — all of which still define the region today. It would be as if everyone in Europe still spoke Roman Latin and considered themselves ethnically Roman.
A map of the world at the Caliphate's height
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn2.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4224903%2Fheight_of_omayyad_caliphate_cropped.png&hash=4a7f02b279052d261a1f9eb989d9af93)
This is a rough political map of the world in 750 AD, at the height of the Omayyad Caliphate ("caliph" means the ruler of the global Islamic community). This is to give you a sense of how vast and powerful the Muslim empire had become, barely one century after the founding of the religion that propelled its expansion. It was a center of wealth, arts, and learning at a time when only China was so rich and powerful. This was the height of Arab power.
The six-century rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn3.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4224911%2Fottoman_empire_gif.gif&hash=c4a24d6d43c8dbe45665cac9d59e115c)
The Ottoman Empire is named for Osman, its first ruler, who in the early 1300s expanded it from a tiny part of northwest Turkey to a slightly less tiny part. It continued expanding for about 500 years — longer than the entire history of the Roman Empire — ruling over most of the Middle East, North Africa, and southeastern Europe for centuries. The empire, officially an Islamic state, spread the religion in southeast Europe but was generally tolerant of other religious groups. It was probably the last great non-European empire until it began declining in the mid-1800s, collapsed after World War I, and had its former territory in the Middle East divided up by Western Europe.
What the Middle East looked like in 1914
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn2.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4395687%2Fmiddle_east_1914_english.jpg&hash=e1134c7390352be6b44721978cc5f870)
This is a pivotal year, during the Middle East's gradual transfer from 500 years of Ottoman rule to 50 to 100 years of European rule. Western Europe was getting richer and more powerful as it carved up Africa, including the Arab states of North Africa, into colonial possessions. Virtually the entire region was ruled outright by Europeans or Ottomans, save some parts of Iran and the Arabian peninsula divided into European "zones of influence." When World War I ended a few years later, the rest of the defeated Ottoman Empire would be carved up among the Europeans. The lines between French, Italian, Spanish, and British rule are crucial for understanding the region today – not just because they ruled differently and imposed different policies, but because the boundaries between European empires later became the official borders of independence, whether they made sense or not.
The Sykes-Picot treaty that carved up the Middle East
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.vox-cdn.com%2Fassets%2F4224943%2Fsykes_picot_by_FT.png&hash=b55f121394bfb81543be72d8160775b6)
You hear a lot today about this treaty, in which the UK and French (and Russian) Empires secretly agreed to divide up the Ottoman Empire's last MidEastern regions among themselves. Crucially, the borders between the French and British "zones" later became the borders between Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Because those later-independent states had largely arbitrary borders that forced disparate ethnic and religious groups together, and because those groups are still in terrible conflict with one another, Sykes-Picot is often cited as a cause of warfare and violence and extremism in the Middle East. But scholars are still debating this theory, which may be too simple to be true.