American Geographical Society

Unity and Diversity in the Middle East

Author(s): W. B. Fisher
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Jul., 1947), pp. 414-435
Published by: American Geographical Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/211129 .
Accessed: 28/02/2013 04:40
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Geographical Review.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST*
W. B. FISHER
IT
WAS said of a French writer who had
attempted
to evaluate and re-
define the confused
literary
trends of his
day
that he had entered the
Augean
stable of French literature
"pour y ajouter."
A similar criticism
might
well be leveled at the
geographer
who tries to define the terms
"Near" and "Middle"
East,
especially
when the
issue,
after
having engaged
the attention of several
geographical
societies for some
time,I
has
recently
been carried to the
highest governmental
level.2
Nevertheless,
it is
important
that the
question
should be resolved. The
region linking Europe,
Asia,
and Africa is
increasingly
a factor in world
affairs,
whether
regarded
from the
political
or the economic
point
of
view;
and to the interest of
specialists
must now be added the awakened attention
of the
general public
in
Britain,
and to a smaller extent in
America,
many
of
whom now have a firsthand
acquaintance
with the
region
as the result of
military
service.
"NEAR" OR "MIDDLE"
The older division of Asia into
Near, Middle,
and Far East had a certain
merit of
logicality,
but its usefulness was
impaired by
the looseness with
which the terms were
applied3
and
by
the association of "Near East" with
the
pre-IgI8
Ottoman
Empire.
It can be
argued
that there have in effect
been two distinct Near Easts: the one
historical,
developed
as the result of
historical
accident,
a
politically
unified
region
with well-defined
limits;
the other
geographical,
smaller in
extent,
showing only
a limited natural
unity.
The lack of environmental
unity
has made it difficult for the
geogra-
pher
to
justify
an alternative definition of a Near East when he
has,
rightly,
shown himself
unwilling
to
accept
the Ottoman
Empire
as an effective
geographical concept.
We need
only
to
glance
at current literature to be
*
A review of some of the recent literature on the Middle East of interest to
geographers.
The
author wishes to
acknowledge
his indebtedness to H. A. R.
Gibb,
Laudian
professor
of Arabic at the Uni-
versity
of
Oxford,
for
many
of the ideas that
appear
in this
essay.
See,
for
example,
Sir
George
Clerk's
presidential
address to the
Royal Geographical Society,
Geogr.
Journ.,
Vol.
104, 1944,
pp.
I-7,
reference on
pp. 4-5;
also Lawrence Martin: The Miscalled
Middle
East,
Geogr. Rev.,
Vol.
34, 1944,
pp.
335-336.
2
Reply by
the Prime Minister of Great Britain to a
deputation
from the
Royal Geographical Society,
quoted by
Lord Rennell of Rodd in his
presidential
address to the
society, Geogr. Journ.,
Vol.
107, 1946,
pp. 81-89;
reference on
pp.
85-86.
3
The Middle East
comprised
Iran,
Iraq, Afghanistan,
and Arabia. To the west of this
lay
the Near
East,
to the east the Far East.
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
assured of the
impossibility
of
satisfactory
definitions in this
respect.4
Accord-
ingly,
main
emphasis
and
general
sanction have been
given
to the historical
Near
East; and,
because of this
predominantly
historical
connotation, the
term "Near East" lost in
significance
with the end of the Ottomans. It
may
be
pertinent
to recall similar
geographical expressions
that,
also
having
strong
historical
associations, have,
as it
were,
been overlain
by
later
political
events and have taken on a restricted
meaning implying
fixed relation to a
definite historical
epoch.
If we no
longer speak
of Eastern
Rumelia, of
Bosnia-Herzegovina,
or of the
Sanjak
of
Novi-Bazar,
it is not because
these territories no
longer
exist in the
geographical
sense but because the
political
conditions that
helped
to
give
them effective
reality
no
longer
obtain. It would therefore seem that there are
grounds
for
grouping
"Near
East" with these historical
terms,
and in this
way
the
vagueness
and inac-
curacy
now attached to use of the
expression
would
disappear.
The war of
I939
at one stroke removed the
question
of territorial defini-
tion in Western Asia from the academic
groves
to which it had hitherto
been
mainly
confined. There came the
fait accompli by
which a
military
province stretching
from Iran to
Tripolitania
was created and named
"Middle East."
It would seem
appropriate
to trace the
stages by
which the name "Middle
East"
gained acceptance
in its
present meaning.
The establishment in the
region
of
large military supply
bases
brought
the
necessity
to
reorganize
certain elements of both the
political
and the economic life of the countries
concerned,
in order to meet the
changed
conditions of war. A resident
Minister of State was
appointed
to deal with
political
matters;
an economic
organization,
the Middle East
Supply
Centre,
originally
British,
but later
Anglo-American,
was set
up
to handle economic
questions.
It was inevitable
that the territorial
designation already adopted by
the
military
authorities
should continue in the new
sphere;
hence "Middle" East took on full official
sanction and became the standard term of
reference,
exclusively
used in the
numerous
government publications summarizing political
events,
territorial
4
It is sufficient to consider
only
the
geographical
literature of the
past
few
years.
Sir
Percy
Loraine,
speaking
before the
Royal Geographical Society,
would define the Near East as the Balkan
States,
Egypt,
and the coastal areas on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and of the Black Sea. Colonel Lawrence
Martin
(op. cit.)
would
qualify
this to read "and sometimes
Egypt."
On the other
hand,
the Middle East
could be described
"roughly
as
being
Iran,
'Iraq, Afghanistan,
and the Arabian
peninsula" (Sir Percy
Loraine:
Perspectives
of the Near
East,
Geogr. Journ.,
Vol.
I02, 1943, pp. 6-13,
references on
p. 6;
italics
in both cases are the
present writer's).
At the other end of the
scale,
ErnestJurkat (see
footnote
39, below)
shows the Near East as
extending
from western
Afghanistan
to
Crete,
both
inclusive,
but exclusive of
Egypt.
The
inadequacy
of "Near East" is also
apparent
from the titles "The Nearer East" of
Hogarth
and
"Nationalism and
Imperialism
in the Hither East" of Kohn.
415
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
surveys,
and schemes of economic
development.5
The British
government
was
fully
committed from the start to the new
designation;
American
participation
in the M.E.S.C. and other
organizations
has
begun
to
bring
about more
slowly
the same result in the other
part
of the
English-speaking
world.
Following
the
practice
of their
respective governments,
a number of
learned societies in both countries have
adopted
the new term. In Britain
the
Royal
Institute of International Affairs and the
Royal
Central Asian
Society employ
"Middle" East without
comment;
in the United States a
Middle East Institute has
recently
come into existence.6
Equally significantly,
the name has been
adopted
in the countries to which it is held to
apply:
the
Jewish Agency
in
Jerusalem
now
publishes
a "Statistical Handbook of
Middle Eastern
Countries,"
and the Arab Offices in London and Wash-
ington
show no reluctance to follow the same
usage.
With such a
popular
basis,
it is difficult to
challenge
the
validity
of
"Middle
East";
and the
geographer,
however
strongly
he
may
feel,
runs the
risk of
appearing pedantic
when he tries to
reimpose
a nomenclature that
has
largely
ceased to be current in
everyday speech
and association. Too
much confusion now attaches to the term "Near East" for it ever to be re-
adopted.
DEFINITION OF "MIDDLE EAST"
How is the Middle East of the
present day
to be defined? The
publica-
tions of the British
government
include 2I countries in the
region-Malta,
Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Egypt, Cyprus,
the
Lebanon,
Syria,
Palestine,
Transjordan, Iraq,
Iran,
the sheikdoms of the Persian
Gulf,
Saudi
Arabia,
the
Yemen,
Aden and the
protectorate,
Eritrea,
Ethiopia,
British, French,
and Italian
Somaliland,
and the
Anglo-Egyptian
Sudan-but,
as the author
of "Middle East Science"
recognizes,
the inclusion of some of these is the
result of fortuitous administrative
grouping by military
authorities. It would
seem
greatly preferable
to omit from this list the
Sudan, Eritrea,
Ethiopia,
and the three
Somalilands,
which are all more
properly
considered as
parts
of
intertropical
Africa,
and to
replace
them with
Turkey,
which,
intimately
linked to its southern and eastern
neighbors by
ties of
geography,
was not
s
Four
important examples, published (1946)
or to be
published by
His
Majesty's Stationery
Office, London,
are the
reports prepared by
the members of the Scientific
Advisory
Mission to the
Middle East
Supply
Centre: No.
I,
"The
Agricultural Development
of the Middle East,"
by
B. A.
Keen
(xii
and 126
pp. 5s. od.);
No.
2,
"Middle East Science: A
Survey
of
Subjects
Other Than
Agri-
culture,"
by
E. B.
Worthington (xiii
and
239 pp. 7s. 6d.);
No.
3,
"Rural Education and Welfare in the
Middle
East,"
by
H. B. Allen
(vi
and
24 pp.
is.
6d.);
No.
4,
"Animal
Industry
in the Middle East,"
by
N. C.
Wright
(in
preparation).
6
See the
Geographical
Review,
Vol.
37, I947,
pp.
329-330.
4i6
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
included in the
governmental publications
because of a
purely temporary
and
political separation
from the rest of the Middle East.
The
position
of Malta and
Tripolitania
is
open
to
doubt;
as in the case
of the
Sudan,
there are
grounds
for
attaching
them to other areas: and
although
there is little to
separate Cyrenaica
from
Egyptian Libya,
Mr.
E. E. Evans-Pritchard has shown7 that some division can be made between
Cyrenaica
and
Tripolitania.
To the west lie the
Barbary
States,
a
purely
African
unit;
to the
east,
Libya
and the Nile
Valley,
a
region
with affinities
to Asia
and,
somewhat more
remotely,
to Southeastern
Europe.
With these
changes,
it would seem
possible
to
postulate
on
geographical
grounds
the existence of a natural
region
to which the name Middle East
could be
applied.
It is true that the division
proposed
is
open
to
criticism;
but wartime
experience
in administration has shown that within this
region
there are common elements of natural environment and social
organization.
Our task is to discover these
elements,
and to evaluate them
alongside
the
elements of
disunity,
which
up
to the
present
have
prevented
the
large-scale
grouping
from
assuming
a
permanent
form.
FACTORS OF UNITY: PHYSICAL
As a
beginning,
we
may
note the corridor function of the Middle
Eastern
region,
which,
intimately
related to the
adjacent
lands of
Africa,
Asia,
and
Europe,
has served as a
routeway by
which racial and cultural
movements,
both autochthonous and
foreign,
have
spread throughout
the
world. It is
significant
that the
physical pattern
of the Middle East combines
in close
juxtaposition regions
of
isolation,
in which such movements could
originate,
and well-defined
routeways-the
Nile
Valley,
the Fertile
Crescent,
and,
less
apparent
but none the less
important,
the
steppe
zone
flanking
the
inner
plateau
basins of Asia Minor and Iran. The
implications
of this function
of the Middle East have not been lost on the modern world. Of a number of
informatory publications,
best described as
ouvrages
de
vulgarisation,
two
may
be cited8 as
drawing special
attention to the
position
of the Middle
East as a factor in world affairs.
7
E. E. Evans-Pritchard: The
Cyrenaica-Tripolitania Boundary, Geogr. Journ.,
Vol.
107, 1946, pp.
I69-I70.
8
The Middle East:
Turkey-Syria-Palestine-Transjordan-Egypt. 38 pp. Royal
Inst.
of
Internatl.
Affairs
Information
Notes No.
1, I943.
6d.
The Middle East: Australia's Front Line.
36 pp.
World
Affairs Paper
No.
3.
Research
Section, Aus-
tralian Institute of International
Affairs, Melbourne, I94I. 5d.
To these
may
be added Samuel Van
Valkenburg:
Whose Promised Lands?
[A
Political Atlas of the
Middle East and
India],
Headline Ser. No.
57, Foreign Policy
Association,
New
York, 1946,
pp. 5-88.-
EDIT. NOTE.
4I7
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
Perhaps
the
greatest single physical
factor of
unity
in the Middle East
is climate. A marked seasonal
rhythm
of
rainy
winters and
dry
summers
-with summer
aridity
absolute south of a line from the Elburz Mountains
to Crete-and a
temperature range
best described as
moderately
continental
produce highly
characteristic conditions. To this
simple regime
there are
only
two
significant exceptions.
On the eastern Black Sea coast of Asia
Minor and near the southern shore of the
Caspian
a summer maximum of
rainfall indicates an
approach
to conditions of continental interiors in tem-
perate
latitudes;
in the
uplands
of southwestern Arabia a monsoonal
current,
still
something
of a
mystery
in its
origin
and
behavior,
brings
summer
rainfall to the Yemen but not to the coastlands of Aden.
Climatological
studies of the Middle East are
few,
and so far no
general
synthesis
of climate has
appeared.
One obstacle is the lack of
data,
but the
recent war has
partly improved
the
position,
and further
development
in
this field is now
probable.
Within the last few
years
three
publications
of
the Section
Geologique
de la
Delegation
Generale
FranSaise
au Levant9
have made a small
beginning
on the
general problems
of climate and mete-
orology
in the Middle East. On the "Carte
pluviometrique"
the limitations
of the data are
clearly apparent,
and the short
period
of the rainfall
averages,
in a
region
where
variability
of rainfall is
pronounced,
detracts somewhat
from the value of the results.
Another
aspect
of climate in the Middle
East,
the
possibility
of climatic
change
within historical
time,
has been dealt with in two
very
dissimilar
works:I0 Keen's "The
Agricultural Development
of the Middle East" and
Glueck's "The
RiverJordan."
From both books
emerges
an
emphatic
verdict
that such
changes
as have
appeared
are due to man's
activities,
and not to
climatic variation. Mention will be made of the first work at a later
stage;
Dr. Glueck's
study, primarily archeological
and
historical,
embodies much
sound observation and valuable research,
but it is vitiated
by
overstatement
and an unfortunate choice of
language.
The
illustrations,
among
the finest
ever to
appear
in a
study
of the Middle
East,
also lose from
inadequate
re-
production.
9
C. Combier: Apercu
sur les climats de la
Syrie
et du
Liban,
une carte au millionieme
des.pluies
et vents.
3I pp.
Beirut, I945.
W. B. Fish
[i.e. Fisher]
and L. Dubertret: Carte
pluviometrique
du
Moyen-Orient
au deux million-
ieme,
Notes et M'moires de la Section
Geol.,
Vol.
4, 1946, pp.
II5-12I.
W. B. Fish
[i.e. Fisher]:
Premieres notes sur la
meteorologie
de la
Syrie
et du
Liban, ibid., 1945,
pp. 9I-113.
See also L. Dubertret: Presentation de cartes
geologiques
et
topographiques
de la
Syrie
et du
Liban,
Bull. L'Assn. de
Geographes
Franiais,
Nos.
181-182, 1946, pp. II4-II5.
10
Keen,
op.
cit.
(Footnote
10
is continued on the
following page.)
4i8
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
OCCUPATIONS AND SOCIAL GROUPINGS
Vegetation,
both natural and
cultivated,
shows close
adaptation
to the
climatic
regime.
A
rapid cycle
of
growth
and structural
adaptation
to resist
water loss or
special
tolerance of
aridity
and
salinity give
rise to a flora
that,
although varying locally, imposes
a
markedly
uniform
pattern throughout
the
region
as a whole. More
important
still,
man's
organization
of this
environment is conditioned
by
a
scarcity
of water
(irrigation
is
necessary
for certain
crops
even on the west coast of
Syria,
where rainfall is more than
35
inches a
year).
This
conditioning
has
produced
a
closely
linked
trilogy
of
occupations
and social
groups.
The most
important
element in the
trilogy
is the
agricultural population
of the Middle East. In a brilliant
study"
the
late Dr.
Jacques
Weulersse insists on the essential
unity
of this
peasant group,
which,
sharing
a common tradition of
specialized occupation
of the
soil,
extends far
beyond
the limits of
political
frontiers. One of the factors of
peasant unity
is the
long period
of
occupation,
from which arises a dis-
tinguishing quality:
"Le fellah est tout le contraire d'un
primitif;
ce serait
plut6t
un
hypercivilise."
Peasant life must therefore be related to a dual
background
of
history
and
geography,
and with this
approach, fully
ex-
panded by
detailed
regional
observation of the
highest
order,
Dr. Weulersse
propounds
the thesis that material and social conditions are interrelated and
that
changes
in the one will
inevitably
affect the other-a thesis of the
greatest
importance
to the
relationship
between the Middle East and the Western
powers.
Alongside
the
cultivating population
are the
nomads-pastoral, yet
dependent
on the settled
people they despise
for a
part
of their food
supply,
especially
when rains have failed in the desert. Also in close relation are the
town
dwellers,
the merchants and small
craftsmen,
often hated
by
the
peasants
as middlemen and
extortioners,
who nevertheless
provide
an outlet
for
agricultural produce
and who
supply
in return a small
quantity
of manu-
Nelson Glueck: The River
Jordan:
Being
an Illustrated Account of Earth's Most Storied River.
xvi and 268
pp.
The Westminster
Press,
Philadelphia, 1946. $3.50.
A
background
to Biblical studies is
provided by George
Ernest
Wright
and
Floyd
Vivian Filson
(editors)
in "The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible"
(114 pp. [Westminster Aids to the
Study
of the
Scriptures.]
The Westminster
Press,
Philadelphia, I945. $3.50 [English edition,
S.C.M.
Press,
London, I946. 2Is.]).
In addition to numerous
maps showing physical
features and
political grouping
at various
periods,
there is an outline of the wider historical and cultural movements in the Middle East
and the Mediterranean. "The Westminster
Dictionary
of the
Bible,"
edited
byJohn
D.
Davis,
is another
useful reference book
(5th edit.,
revised and rewritten
by Henry Snyder
Gehman.
xii, 658,
and
4 pp.
Ibid. The Westminster
Press,
Philadelphia, 1944. $3.50).
I
Jacques
Weulersse:
Paysans
de
Syrie
et du Proche-Orient.
329 pp. (Le Paysan
et la
Terre,
No.
3.)
N.R.F.-Gallimard,
[Tours], I946. 360
fr.
419
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
factured
goods.
From these three
elements,
closely integrated by
material
and cultural
ties,
has arisen the
present complex pattern
of
society
in the
Middle
East;
and it is on this basis that one can
postulate
a
unity
for the
region
as a whole. As a
tapestry
or
painting
owes its
special
character to an inter-
mingling
of diverse color
masses,
so the Middle East can be conceived as a
unity
based on a number of distinctive
yet
related
ways
of life. It is also
possible
to discern
why
a more restricted territorial definition such as "Near
East" is difficult of
application.
Trade,
agriculture,
and nomadic
pastoralism
in close connection are as characteristic of Iran as of
Egypt
or
Arabia;
and
the
attempt
to divide the Levant from
Iraq ignores
the
presence
of the
Syrian
desert,
a
region
that
gives
a measure of
unity
to the lands on its
borders,
in much the same
way
as the countries of Southern
Europe
are linked
by
the
Mediterranean.
Complementing
the material factors of
unity
is the more
easily apparent
cultural influence of
Islam, which,
like
Judaism,
is a
strong
social bond.
Although
non-Moslem minorities exist and schism has created a Shi'a block
within the Sunni
world,
the influence of a
single religious system,
based on
easily
understood
principles,
has
given
rise to a culture that now transcends
purely religious
limits. No one would
dispute
the
validity
of the
expression
"Moslem
world,"
though
this cannot be defied in terms of
race,
of
language,
or of
political grouping.I2
At the
present
time cultural
patterns, developed
on a basis of Moslem
civilization,
are
evolving along
new
paths.
It is
probable
that Islam as a
religion
is in decline-the
complaint
of slackness in observance and non-
attendance at
prayers
would, however, find echo in
contemporary
Christian
clerical circles-and that materialism and nationalism borrowed from the
West are
tending
to
replace
older values. Two
important
books illustrate
this
tendency.'3
In A. H. Hourani's
"Syria
and Lebanon" we have as it
were the mechanism of the
change:
Moslem
society
driven
by
the
pressure
of events to
adopt
new ideas and new
techniques
from outside in order to
survive in a world dominated
by
alien influences. "Reaction to the
impact
of the West has been neither uncritical
rejection
nor uncritical
acceptance,
but a
process
of
questioning
which still continues."
Freya
Stark's "East
12 Cf. Edward
J. Byng:
The World of the Arabs
(xx
and
325 pp.
Little,
Brown &
Co., Boston,
I944. $2.50)
for a discussion of these
points.
13 A. H. Hourani:
Syria
and Lebanon: A Political
Essay.
x and
402 pp.
Issued under the
auspices
of
the
Royal
Institute of International Affairs. Oxford
University
Press, London,
New
York, Toronto,
I946. $5.oo.
Reference on
p. 74.
Freya
Stark: East Is West. xxii and
2I8 pp. John Murray,
London, I945. I2s.
6d.
(American
edition:
The Arab Island: The Middle
East, I939-I943.
xxiv and
235 pp.
Alfred A.
Knopf,
New
York, 1945.
$3.50.)
420
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
Is West"
gives
us results of the
penetration
of Western ideas. The older
society
of Ottoman
days
is
giving way
to a new
grouping,
in which the
aristocratic
"pasha"
is
replaced by
a middle-class "effendi" more
closely
attached to the
people
for whom he is
working,
either as administrator or
as technician.
Nationalism is in some
respects
a
tendency running
counter to
unity.
Nevertheless,
there are
signs
that the wider
implications
of Middle Eastern
unity
are not
forgotten,
and that a more
comprehensive political grouping,
for which there is abundant historical
sanction,
may
one
day develop.
In
1944
the Arab
League, comprising
the states of
Egypt, Iraq,
the
Lebanon,
Saudi
Arabia,
Syria, Transjordan,
and the
Yemen,
came into
existence.'4
As
at
present
constituted,
the Arab
League represents merely
a
negative
attitude,
a defensive reaction in the face of outside
aggression.
Concerned
only
with
the limited
objective ofjoint political
action in order to
preserve
or
develop
the
autonomy
of Moslem
regions,
the
league
must be
thought
of
merely
as a
tactical union of
convenience,
since
any attempt
at
joint
economic
develop-
ment of the member states has so far been
avoided.I5
This is not to
say,
however,
that the future
policy
of the Arab
League
must
always
remain
negative:'6 sharing
a common
experience
of recent
penetration
or domination
by
Western
powers,
all the states of the Middle East have a
single political
objective
that
may
well be the basis of a more substantial
cooperation
at a
later
period. Signs
are not
lacking
that the Arab
League may
one
day
be
expanded
to include the non-Arab states of
Turkey
and
Iran,'7
both of which
form
part
of the Moslem world and have in different
ages
made effective
contributions to the
organization
of the Middle East as a
single
unit.
FACTORS OF DIVERSITY: LANDFORMS AND STRUCTURE
Among
the
outstanding
factors of
diversity
must be reckoned landforms
and structure. In the
north,
there extends a broad belt of folded
ranges,
'4
On the evolution of the Arab
League
see Cecil A. Hourani: The Arab
League
in
Perspective,
Middle East
Journ.,
Vol.
i, 1947,
pp.
125-136.
Is
The establishment in London and
Washington
of Arab
Offices,
from which
propagandist
material
is issued,
is
interesting
as a
sample
of the activities of the Arab
League
and as an illustration of the manner
in which the Arab has taken
up
the
weapons
of the West in order to resist Western
pressure.
I6
"The
duty
laid
upon
the Arab leaders
is,
in its
essence,
closely parallel
to that laid
upon
the leaders
of the United Nations. In their
respective spheres
both must stimulate and mobilize the moral forces
which will transform a
negative
and defensive union into a creative
enterprise" (H.
A. R. Gibb: Toward
Arab
Unity, Foreign Affairs,
Vol.
24, I945-I946, pp.
119-129; reference on
p. I29).
'7
In this
connection,
one
may
note the conclusion of a
Treaty
of
Friendship
between
Turkey
and
Iraq
in
April, 1946,
and of a Pact of
Friendship
between
Turkey
and
Transjordan, signed
in
January,
1947.
In the
early part
of
1946
the President of the Lebanese
Republic paid
an official "visit of
friendship"
to
Turkey.
42I
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
enclosing fragments
of older
structures,
some of
which,
such as the
plateau
block of central Iran,
are
large
and
some,
such as those of
Turkey,
are small
though
numerous. The intense disturbance of the
region,
which cannot
yet
be said to have come
entirely
to an
end,
has
given
rise to
widely
different
structural formations. In
Armenia,
immense lava flows of
Tertiary
and
Quaternary age
border forms of Archean
origin;
and the
simplicity
of
folding
in the western
Zagros
contrasts
strongly
with extensive
overthrusting
and deformation in the inner
parts
of the
ranges.
A full
range
of rock
types,
from Archean
gneiss
and Cambrian rock salt to
Quaternary
sandstone,
adds
further
variety
to the
region.
Outside the
geosynclinal
area of the
north,
the Middle East consists of
a vast stable block,
on which sediments have been laid down in discontinuous
horizontal
layers.
This
block,
part
of the ancient continent of Gondwana-
land,
has
undergone
fracture in the Red
Sea-Jordan-Orontes
area,
with
the result that Arabia is now detached from the main African
mass;
but
otherwise the block has resisted fold
movements,
so that later sediments
resting
on it are either undisturbed or
merely
wrinkled.
Broad,
open
land-
scapes,
extensive river
basins,
and
rolling plateau country
are therefore
characteristic
of the center and south.
Complexity
of structure and
inaccessibility
have retarded
geological
exploration,
and
many
fundamental
problems
remain to be solved. In the
last few
years,
however,
important
advances have been made. A full
geologi-
cal
map
of
Turkey, excellently produced
in
eight
sheets,
has
recently
been
completed
and contributes
greatly
to an
understanding
of one of the most
involved of
geological regions.'8
Mention must also be made of the work of
Dr. L. Dubertret in
Syria
and the Lebanon. The
pre-IgI8 surveys
of Blanck-
enhom have been extended and
developed
to cover most of the two coun-
tries,
and the results of
twenty years
of devoted
work,
at times
singlehanded,
appear
in a series of
maps
now in course of
publication.'9
From these
maps
one can
appreciate
not
only
the
physical
structure of the northern Levant
but also the interrelation between
physical
conditions and social
develop-
ment
through
which a mixed
population
of Moslems and
Christians,
living
side
by
side for centuries,
have come to be in close
occupation
of a
topo-
graphically
difficult
region.
Reference
may
also be made to the work of
Leo Picard of the Hebrew
University
ofJerusalem,
notably
"Structure and
18
Geological Map
of
Turkey. I: 800,000.
In 8 sheets.
Ministry
of the
Interior, Ankara, 1946.
19 Section
Geologique, Delegation
Generale de France au
Levant,
Beirut: Carte
lithologique
de la
bordure orientale de la Mediterranee
(with
notes in French and
English), 1943;
Carte
geologique
de
la
Syrie
et du Liban au
20o.ooome (in preparation);
Carte
geologique
de la
Syrie
et du Liban au
5o.ooome (in preparation).
See reference in footnote
9.
422
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
Evolution of Palestine."20 Professor Picard has
greatly
advanced our knowl-
edge
of the tectonics of the Levant,
particularly
in relation to the difficult
question
of the formation of the Red
Sea-Jordan
rift.
In
I940
the American
geologist
F. G.
Clapp published
a most
important
study
of eastern
Iran,2
an area thitherto
practically
untouched
by geological
surveys.
New
light
has been thrown on a
part
of the Middle East that
by
reason of structural
complexity
and
difficulty
of access-both
topographically
and
politically-had
remained
largely unsurveyed.
A later work
by
Dr. R.
Furon of the
University
of Teheran22 summarizes much of the
existing
geological
literature on Iran and
provides
a
copious bibliography.
Dr.
Furon also discusses the
possibility
of a continuation of the Ural fold
system
into central
Iran,
and a
prolongation
even as far as Oman and
Madagascar.
In
this,
as also in a
geological map accompanying
the
article,
he has been
subjected
to some criticism from other authorities on the
geology
of Iran.
A further
study
of the
region,
more
particularly
the structural and tectonic
aspects,
has been made
by J.
W. Schroeder.23
RACIAL, LINGUISTIC,
AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITIES
The
racial,
linguistic,
and
religious
divisions of the Middle
East,
out-
standing among
factors of
disunity,
cannot
easily
be
summarized,
because
of their
extraordinary diversity.
The Middle
East,
a land
bridge,
has received
racial contributions from
many parts
of the Old World. Some have been
assimilated and
intermingled
with
previously existing
strains;
others have
drifted into isolated areas-mountain or desert-and have thus
maintained
a relative
purity.
The Armenians and the
Syrian
Bedouins,
the one a
highly
distinctive branch of the
Alpine
race,
the other of
comparatively
unaltered
Mediterranean
stock,
might
be taken as
typical
of the latter
group;
in the
more
open
lands a basic Armenoid and Mediterranean intermixture has
been enriched
by
Hamitic,
Negrito, Mongoloid,
and
proto-Nordic
ele-
ments in
varying proportion.
Language
distribution is easier to define. Within the last twelve centuries
Arabic,
a Semitic
tongue
from central
Arabia,
has almost
entirely
ousted
all other
languages
in the southern
part
of the Middle
East,
and
Aramaic,
20
Leo Picard: Structure and Evolution of
Palestine,
With
Comparative
Notes on
Neighbouring
Countries. iv and
I34 pp.
Bull. Geol.
Dept.,
Hebrew
Univ., Jerusalem,
Vol.
4,
No.
2-3-4, I943.
21
Frederick G.
Clapp: Geology
of Eastern
Iran,
Bull. Geol. Soc.
of America,
Vol.
5I,
Part
I, 1940,
pp.
I-IoI.
22
Raymond
Furon: La
geologie
du
plateau
iranien
(Perse-Afghanistan-Beloutchistan),
Memoires
Musee Natl. d'Hist.
Naturelle,
Vol.
7 (N.S.),
No.
2, Paris, I94I,
pp. I77-414.
23Jean
William Schroeder: Essai sur la structure de
l'Iran, Eclogae Geol.
Helvetiae,
Vol.
37,
No.
I, I944,
pp.
37-81.
423
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
an older Semitic
language
that was
widely spoken
in the time of
Christ,
now survives
only
in a few
villages
near Damascus and Mosul. The flood of
Arabic was arrested at the mountain zone of the
north;
and
Persian,
although
much influenced
by
Arabic,
is still current in the extreme east. Eastern
Anatolia is a veritable museum of
languages.
Kurdish and Armenian are
the most
widespread,
but numerous Caucasian and Central Asiatic
languages
are
spoken by
tribesmen. Farther to the
west, Turkish,
also from Central
Asia,
has established a dominance over
Greek,
which now survives
only
in
Cyprus
and the smaller islands. Later
intermingling
of
peoples
on a small
scale has made it
necessary
for most modern
governments
to
employ
at
least
two,
and sometimes three or
four,
official
languages.
Although predominantly
Moslem,
the Middle East contains minorities
of Christians and
Hebrews,
whose
frequently higher
economic and cultural
level
gives
them an influence out of
proportion
to their numbers. Some of
these minorities have connections with
larger
communities in
Europe
and
America;
others are isolated remnants of
early
Christian sects that have died
out elsewhere.
Islam itself is
by
no means united. The Shi'a faith is dominant in Iran and
in much of
Iraq
and
may
be considered a reflection of the
separate
cultural
development
of that
area,
which owes somewhat more than the rest of the
Middle East to classical Greek influence. Farther
west,
smaller sects have
found relative
security
in
highland
areas from orthodox Moslem
persecu-
tion. The Yazidi of the
Jabal Sinjar
of
Iraq
and the
Alawi, Druses,
and
Metwali of western
Syria
all
represent
heretical Moslem belief combined
with a more
primitive
animism and totemism. The Alawi have been studied
by
Weulersse,24
and once
again
a valuable
piece
of local documentation
shows one line
along
which future research must
move;
especially interesting
are his numerous local distribution
maps, usually
rare in studies of the Middle
East.
GROWTH OF NATIONALISM
Upon
such a
variegated
social
basis,
the
present
national states have been
built;
and it is inevitable that
many
communities should
find
in the
existing
frontiers an
incomplete
realization of their
political aspirations.
Chief
among
these
nationally
conscious
groups
are the
Kurds,
the
Armenians,
and the
Assyrians;
and of these the
Kurds,
living
in the mountain zone of the borders
of
Turkey, Syria, Iraq,
and
Iran,
are the
largest
in number. A realistic
survey
24Jacques
Weulersse: Le
pays
des Alaouites. Vol. I, 418 pp.;
Vol. 2, 104
plates. (Institut Franpais
de
Damas.)
Arrault &
cie, Tours, I940. 250
fr.
424
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
by
Westermann25 traces the
political
and social
development
of all three
groups
and relates local
feeling
to wider
questions
of international
rivalry
involving
Britain, France, Russia,
and the United States. The
survey
is
authoritative and
carefully
documented,
but at times an
obscurity
of
language
makes it difficult to
separate
fact and deduction from a
background
of
sug-
gestion
and
imputation
deriving
from
political intrigue-a
situation that in
one
sense, however,
may
be considered an
epitome
of Middle Eastern
politics
as a whole. The author's conclusion that no
wholly acceptable
solution of
present
difficulties is
likely
to be found will
immediately
invite a
comparison
with the
position
in Palestine.
The social
organization
of the Kurds has been described at
greater
length by
Professor Westermann and
by
W. G.
Elphinston.26
Tribalism
still
persists;
and a marked
individualism,
which has hitherto
prevented
the
development
of
political cooperation,
together
with the scattered distribu-
tion of the Kurds makes it difficult to see how a successful national
unity
could
emerge.
The recent
development
of nationalist states in the Middle East has in
some
respects
been a further factor of
disunity.
Member states of the Arab
League,
at various levels of economic and
political
evolution,
have so far
shown somewhat of a disinclination to extend
political cooperation
into the
economic field. Economic
nationalism,
a feature
during
the last 20
years
of
Turkey
and
Iran,
and to a smaller extent of
Egypt,
has tended to
emphasize
the differences between states.
Egypt, deriving advantage
from a
position
on the main trade routes of the
world,
is
drawing
farther and farther
away
from countries such as
Transjordan,
where natural resources are
few;
and
the establishment of cotton mills
by strongly
nationalist rulers in
Turkey
and Iran has acted
unfavorably
on the older textile centers of
Syria,
which
formerly
could count on the entire Ottoman
Empire
as a market. How far
these difficulties will
disappear
under the solvent of
political cooperation
remains to be seen.
A
thoughtful interpretation by
Haas27 deals with the
growth
of national-
ism in
Iran,
where
special
features
deriving
from the relative isolation of the
country
have
given
rise to a
highly
individual culture. A
philosophic
con-
ception
dominates the work:
emphasis
is
placed
on
things
of the mind as
25
William Linn Westermann:
Peoples
of the Near East without a National Future. 20
pp. (American
Interests in the War and the
Peace.)
Council on
Foreign Relations,
New
York, I944.
26
William Linn Westermann: Kurdish
Independence
and Russian
Expansion,
Foreign Affairs,
Vol.
24, 1945-1946, pp. 675-686.
W. G.
Elphinston:
The Kurdish
Question,
Internatl.
Affairs,
Vol.
22, 1946, pp. 9I-103.
27
William S. Haas: Iran. xi and
273 pp.
Columbia
University
Press,
New
York, 1946. $3.50.
425
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
a
key
to an
understanding
of the modem
country;
and this unusual
approach,
which devotes a
chapter
to Persian
psychology
but
relegates irrigation
to a
short
appendix, permits
the close
synthesis
of
geographical
and historical
fact that would seem to be the best method of
understanding
the Middle
East and its inhabitants.
Two useful little works concerned with factual
presentation give
the
salient features of the
development
of
Transjordan.28 Transjordan,
in certain
respects
an artificial
unit,
would benefit from a wider
political grouping
that would
place
it more
closely
in touch with the Mediterranean and with
neighboring
areas of the Levant. The historical role of
Syria,
a debatable
ground
between East and
West,
is
given prominence
in Mr. Fedden's
"Syria,"29
which,
based on intimate
acquaintance
with
virtually
all
parts
of the
country,
claims to be the first
comprehensive
survey
in
English
of
Syria
and its
peoples.
Colonel de
Gaury vividly depicts
Arabian life under
the
patriarchal government
of
King
ibn-Saud.30 Recent
exploitation
of oil
by
American
interests,
in a
country
hitherto isolated from the rest of the
world,
has
produced
a sudden
impact
of
Westernization;
and one of the
most
interesting parts
of "Arabia Phoenix" deals with the social and
physical
changes among
former nomads who are now
working
in the oil fields. The
influence of the Western world on Saudi Arabia is also treated
by
K. S.
Twitchell.3
PROBLEMS OF THE MIDDLE EAST
In a
masterly summary by
Professor Gibb32 the main
problems
of the
Middle East at the
present day
are said to lie "in
unregulated
or
badly
regulated
economic
institutions,
in insufficient
power
of control on the one
hand and
maladjustment
of
production
and distribution on the
other,
in the
general
failure of the local Governments to understand the
problems
in-
28
A. Konikoff:
Transjordan:
An Economic
Survey.
2nd edit. 120
pp.
(and
Supplement,
"Selected
Bibliography
of Eastern Palestine,"
i6
pp.). Jewish Agency
for
Palestine,
Economic Research
Institute,
Jerusalem,
1946.
600 mils.
Baha Uddin Toukan: A Short
History
of
Trans-Jordan. 49 pp.
Luzac &
Co., London, I945. 5s.
(paper cover).
29
Robin Fedden:
Syria:
An Historical
Appreciation.
288
pp.
Robert Hale & Co., London, I946. 2Is.
30
Gerald de
Gaury:
Arabia
Phoenix:
An Account of a Visit to Ibn
Saud, Chieftain of the Austere
Wahhabis and Powerful Arabian
King. I69 pp. George
G.
Harrap
& Co., London,
Sydney,
etc.,
I946.
Ios. 6d.
3" K. S.
Twitchell,
with the collaboration of Edward
J. Jurji:
Saudi
Arabia;
With an Account of the
Development
of Its Natural Resources. xiii and
192
pp.
Princeton
University
Press, Princeton,
N.
J.,
I947. $2.50 (See
the review in the
Geogr. Rev.,
Vol.
37, I947, pp.
337-338.)
See also Richard H.
Sanger:
Ibn Saud's
Program
for
Arabia,
Middle
EastJourn.,
Vol.
I, I947, pp.
18o-I9o.
32
H. A. R. Gibb: Middle Eastern
Perplexities,
Internatl.
Affairs,
Vol.
20, 1944, pp. 458-472;
reference
on
p. 458.
426
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
volved,
. . . their selfishness and their
general fumbling."
Bitter wartime
experience
of
inflation,
high prices,
and
shortage
of necessities not
only
has
emphasized
the
importance
of economic factors but has
brought
into
question
the whole
system
of
government,
which in
many
instances has
shown itself
unequal
to
coping
with the situations
produced.
At a time when such
questions
have come to the
forefront,
it is useful
to have a number of
objective analyses
of economic
development
in the
Middle East. The "Statistical Handbook" of the
Jewish Agency
for Palestine
has rendered valuable service in
summarizing
in a
single
volume the more
important
material available for Middle Eastern countries.33 The statistics
range
from climatic and
population
data to
cost-of-living
indices,
but
they
must be viewed
against
the
background
of local conditions-a
high degree
of
illiteracy among
the
general population, widespread
distrust of the inten-
tions of official
enumerators,
and "a
mentality
which does not
always
view
with favour the exact and numerical
approach
to
reality."
The title of Alfred Bonne's "The Economic
Development
of the Middle
East"34 is to some extent
misleading;
for the book tends to devote its at-
tention to the
problems
of Palestine in relation to those of other Middle
Eastern
countries,
and the section
dealing
with "the
peculiar position
of
Palestine as the
country
of the
Jewish
National Home" and Palestine's
"potential
importance
for other Oriental
countries,"
gives only
one of a
number of
possible
solutions to economic difficulties in the Middle East.
One of the more valuable
parts ofWorthington's
"Middle East Science"35
is a statement of the
position
in the Middle East of various branches of
applied
science. The
complexity
of the
problems
in
general
and the inter-
dependence
of
physical
and social factors are
again
made
plain,
but at the
same time the author draws attention to
specific ways
in which future de-
velopment might
take
place.
As an
example
of a reasoned scientific
approach
to
problems
that under Middle Eastern conditions are too often seen
only
33
Statistical Handbook of Middle Eastern Countries:
Palestine,
Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq,
the
Lebanon,
Syria, Transjordan, Turkey.
2nd edit. x and
I83 pp. Jewish Agency
for
Palestine,
Economic Research
Institute,
Jerusalem, I945.
800 mils. Reference on
p.
II.
For further statistical details on Palestine see the Statistical Abstract of Palestine, 1944-1945.
8th edit.
x and
295
pp. Compiled
and
published by
the
Department
of
Statistics,
Jerusalem, 1946.
800 mils or
I6s. od.
(Crown Agents
for the
Colonies,
London).
This edition for the first time includes "a
chapter
on
Physiography,
which describes the
development
of
meteorological observations,
and the climatic con-
ditions in
Palestine,
and a
chapter
on the Census of
Industry
of
1940
and of
I943."
34
Alfred Bonne: The Economic
Development
of the Middle East: An Outline of Planned Re-
construction after the War. Revised edit. xii and
164 pp.
(International Library
of
Sociology
and Social
Reconstruction.) Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner &
Co., London, 1945 (first published
inJerusalem, I943).
I2S. 6d.
35 See footnote
5, above.
427
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
in their
political aspect,
"Middle East Science" is an
important
contribution.
Similar observations can be made of Keen's book on Middle East
agri-
culture.36
Agriculture supports by
far the
greater part
of the
population,
and
most schemes for
development
come back to the fandamental
problem
of
increasing
the
productivity
of the land. In Dr. Keen's
opinion
the Middle
East stands on the
verge
of a
rapid agricultural
evolution similar to that
which took
place
one or two centuries
ago
in Western
Europe.
It is neces-
sary,
however,
once
again
to
guard against
a too
hasty adaptation
of Western
methods: the centuries-old
swing plow, ideally
suited to a shallow soil
underlain
by hardpan,
cannot even
yet
be
satisfactorily replaced by
a steel
implement;
and the
practice
of
burning
animal
dung
for
fuel,
long
con-
demned
by
Western
agriculturists,
is shown
by
Dr. Keen to be at least as
useful as
letting
manure become oxidized in the
top layer
of soil that
may
reach a
temperature
of I6o?-I8o0 F. in the summer. The need for a
general
approach
to
agricultural problems
is also
stressed,
the whole
emphasis
of
the
study being
laid on the
similarity
of
physical
and social conditions over a
wide area.
Of the
great
need for education there is little to
say
here,37
but it is
important
that instruction should be
carefully adapted
to the real needs
of the
population.
The
growth
of a
"young
effendi" class
comparable
with
the babu of India should be avoided at all
costs,
and there is
danger
in a
too
rapid spread
of Westernization in this
respect.
In the words of Professor
Gibb,
"what is
wrong
with the
present
Western institutions in the Middle
East is ... that
they
are too
superficial, having
no
depth
of foundation in
the minds of either
politicians
or
people."
Summing
the main economic
problems
of the Middle
East,
Dr. K. A.
H. Murray38 draws attention to the fact that too
optimistic
a view is some-
times taken of the
potentialities
of the
region.
Only 5
per
cent of the total
area is
regarded
as
cultivable,
and the mineral resources are
small;
hence
there is
inevitably
a low standard of
productivity,
which is further
depressed
by
the
prevalence
of disease.
By
its short but incisive and well-informed
examination of current
problems,
Dr.
Murray's
article acts as a valuable
corrective to a number of somewhat inflated estimates of economic
produc-
tivity
that have
recently appeared.
36
See footnote
5.
Attention
may
also be called to the
many
valuable
papers published
in the Pro-
ceedings of
the
Conference
on Middle East
Agricultural
Development, Cairo, February
7-10, 1944 (x
and 220
pp.
Middle East
Supply
Centre
Agric. Rept.
No.
6,
Cairo.
25 pt.).
37
See
Allen, op.
cit.
(see
footnote
5).
38 A short outline is
given
in: Keith A. H.
Murray:
Some
Regional
Economic Problems ofthe Middle
East,
Internatl.
Affairs,
Vol.
23, I947,
pp.
11-19.
428
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
POPULATION PRESSURE
One of the
outstanding
economic
problems
of the
present-day
Middle
East is
pressure
of
population.
A
timely
series of
monographs39
draws
attention to the
rapid growth
in
numbers,
which in
Turkey
is
expected
to
produce
a
70
per
cent increase between
1935
and
I970.
Lack of data makes it
difficult to
carry demographic analysis very
far,
but it is
apparent
that for
the Middle East as a whole birth rates of
50
to 60
per
thousand must be
considered
average. High
death rates have hitherto acted as a
check,
but
experience
in India has shown that advances in social conditions tend to
reduce the death
rate,
without
effecting
a
corresponding
decrease in
births,
so that unless the
general productivity
of land is
increased,
the
general
standard of
living
is threatened. The
problem
is accentuated in
Egypt,
where
99
per
cent of the
population
of
I6.5
million are
living
on the
4
per
cent of
the total area contained in the Nile
valley
and delta. With limited
prospects
of extension of the cultivated
land,
and with
only
a slender basis for in-
dustrialization,
Egypt
does not face an
encouraging
outlook. Better health
measures to reduce the
alarmingly high
incidence of disease seem doomed
to react
unfavorably
at first on the
general
standard of
living.
In
Turkey,
Iran,
Iraq,
and the Levant
prospects appear
somewhat better.
An
improved technique
of
agriculture
and wider
development
of
irrigation
could extend the
margin
of cultivation
considerably.
Moreover,
the varied
mineral
wealth,
particularly
in
Turkey
and
Iran,
offers
potentialities
for a
relatively
substantial measure of
industrialization;
and in the Levant com-
merce based on transit
traffic,
light industry,
and a
tourist-pilgrim
traffic
could
help
to
support
a
larger population.
In the
past, emigration, chiefly
to the
Americas,
and best
developed
in
the
Levant,
has absorbed a
surplus
of
population.
This movement is now
falling
off;
and Cleland
suggests
that a solution to the
general population
difficulties of the Middle East
might
lie in controlled
migration
within the
region
itself. Previous
experience
with the Armenians in
Syria
and the
Assyrians
in
Iraq
has not been
happy,
but increased
irrigation
in
Iraq might
make it
possible
to settle a
part
of the excess
population
of
Egypt
there.
39 Ernest
Jurkat:
Prospects
for
Population
Growth in the Near
East,
in
Demographic
Studies of
Selected Areas of
Rapid
Growth,
22nd Ann.
Conference
Milbank Memorial
Fund, 1944,
New
York, 1944,
pp. 79-96.
Clyde
V. Kiser: The
Demographic
Position of
Egypt,
ibid., pp. 97-I22.
W. Wendell Cleland: A
Population
Plan for
Egypt, ibid., pp. I23-I37.
Frank W. Notestein and Ernest
Jurkat: Population
Problems of
Palestine,
Milbank Memorial Fund
Quart.,
Vol.
23, 1945, pp. 307-352.
Eliahu
Epstein: Demographic
Problems of the
Lebanon,
Journ.
Royal
Central Asian
Soc.,
Vol.
33,
1946, pp. 150-154.
429
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
In
discussing
the
demographic position
of
Palestine,
it is
difficult,
or
perhaps impossible,
to
separate
economic from
political
factors. A careful
survey
based on statistics that are more
comprehensive
than for most Middle
Eastern countries states conclusions that would well
repay study by anyone
interested in the future of Palestine:
The needed economic
development may
be
possible;
it can
scarcely
be
profitable
. . .
Clearly,
therefore,
all
parties
in the
region
have a stake in the maintenance of
Jewish
interest ...
On the other
hand,
... it
appears
that a
catastrophe
... is not outside the bounds of
possibility
if enthusiasm for
aJewish
state should result in ...
really heavy immigration
...
There are almost no limits to the
population
that could be
supported, given
someone to
bear the cost. There are
very
real limits to the
population
that has
any prospect
of
being
self-
supporting
at reasonable levels of
living
... The
higher
the
density,
the
greater
the difficulties
and the
greater
the cost. ... If
heavy immigration
should come about
soon,
there is even a
considerable chance that the whole
process
will break down and that within a decade or two
there will be an
emigration
of
Jewish population.4o
THE OIL RESOURCES
A further factor in the economic
development
of the Middle East is the
utilization of the oil
resources,
which would now seem to be
among
the
most extensive in the world. A short but useful
summary by
G. M. Lees41
adds
considerably
to our
knowledge
of a
question
that,
because of the inter-
national rivalries
centering
about
it,
has so far been little discussed
factually.
Pipe
lines,
in
operation
and
construction,
from
Iraq
and the Persian Gulf
to the Mediterranean are
enabling
states of the Levant to share in benefits
accruing
to the actual oil zones in
Iran,
Iraq,
and Saudi
Arabia;
and there
is
slowly taking shape
an
increasingly
close economic
integration affecting
the Iranian and Saudi Arabian nomads now
employed
in the oil
fields,
the
cultivators of
Iraq,
where
royalties
are
being spent
on
irrigation develop-
ment,
and the commercial
populations
of Haifa and
Tripoli.
The
joint
participation
of Western
powers
in the
exploitation
of oil resources-the
Iraq
Petroleum
Company type
of
arrangement
between
Britain, France,
and
the United States and the recent
Anglo-Iranian
Oil
Company agreement
with American interests
may
be
cited-gives hope
that friction over oil
concessions
may
be
avoided,
though
the
position
of Russia remains doubtful.
Oil resources in more
specific
relation to their
geographical setting
are
40 Notestein and
Jurkat, op.
cit.
(see
footnote
39),
pp.
349-3 5I.
41
G. M. Lees: Oil in the Middle
East,
Journ. Royal
Central Asian
Soc.,
Vol.
33, 1946, pp. 47-57.
Reference must also be made to G. M. Lees and F. D. S. Richardson: The
Geology
of the Oil-Field Belt
of S.W. Iran and
Iraq,
Geol.
Mag.,Vol. 77, 1940, pp. 227-252,
which
gives
an authoritative and
highly
informative
description
of one of the
largest
oil structures in the world.
430
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
dealt with in a
longer
article
by
Dr.
Lees,
which will form a
chapter
in
the book on the world
geography
of
petroleum
now in
preparation
at the
American
Geographical Society.
POLITICAL PROBLEMS
Attention must be
given
first to internal
affairs;
for at the
present
time
a crisis of unusual
severity
and extent is
bringing
into
question
the entire
spiritual
and
political
bases of
society.
The weakness of the Islamic world
vis-a-vis the West has led to much self-criticism
among
Moslems themselves.
Has Islam failed? Should there be a return to
Islam,
with a
corresponding
rejection
of Western ideals? How far is it
possible
to combine the best of
both
systems,
so as to
produce
a new social
philosophy?
Such
questions
are
consciously
or
unconsciously
in the minds of
many
of the more
progressive
elements in the Middle
East;
and the
apparent
success of the materialist
nationalism of
Europe
and
America,
which is
constantly
before
them,
induces a
temptation
to follow a similar
path.
The
widespread
lack of
enlightened political leadership
has led to a
general
mood of
impatience
and frustration that could
easily
foster dicta-
torship. "Strong"
methods have a certain
appeal
to Middle Eastern
peoples
as
frequently
the
only way by
which direct action can occur in a
stagnant
political system-we
need
only
note the
regimes
of Kemal Atatiirk and
Riza Shah in this
respect42-
but such action is at the
price
of the severance
of a
country
from its
neighbors
and the ultimate
narrowing
of social and
political opportunity. "Dictatorship
in
petty
States is a factor of
disintegra-
tion and conflict."43
One
approach
to the
problem
would seem to lie in a closer and more
positive
mutual
understanding
of the cultures of East and West. This
point
is
emphasized by
the authors cited as
dealing
with
general philosophical
questions,44
and it is
significant
that Mr.
Hourani,
as a
representative
of the
East,
should feel that "Islam will be
helped
in
defining
its attitude to
philo-
sophical
issues
by considering
the attitude taken
by
another
religion."
There
is, however,
much need for
greater
discrimination and selection in
the
acceptance
of the cultural contributions made
by
the West to the life
of the
East,
in order to avoid a
perfunctory
imitation of the West without
an
understanding
of the
deeper principles
involved.
42
It
might
also be
suggested
that the enthusiastic
applause
accorded
by
Middle Eastern cinema
audiences to newsreel shots of Generalissimo Stalin-far
greater
than for
any
other war leader-derives
in
part
from the same
psychology.
43
Gibb,
Middle Eastern
Perplexities (see
footnote
32, above), p. 462.
44
Ibid.,
A. H.
Hourani,
op.
cit.
(see
footnote
13,
above),
and
Stark, op. cit.
(see
footnote
I3).
431
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
In the
sphere
of external
politics,
attention has centered on two main
problems:
the maintenance or attainment of full
independence;
and a final
settlement of the Palestine
question.
The withdrawal of the British from
Egypt
and the French from
Syria
has
brought
the first
aspiration considerably
nearer to full
realization;
the second
remains,
a focus of
cultural, economic,
and
political rivalry, involving
a
growing
circle of states and communities.
THE PALESTINE PROBLEM
There can be no
general
discussion of Palestine within the limits of the
present essay,
It
is, however,
urged
that there be more of
geography
and less
of
politics
in our
approach
to the
problem.
Greater attention could well be
given
not
merely
to the
physical
factors
affecting absorptive capacity
for
immigrants
and
possible
economic
development
but also the wider
aspects
of
geography, involving adjacent
countries. Palestine cannot be considered
in isolation from its
neighbors;
the
underlying
theme of several books
reviewed here is that the interests and
problems
of
any
one
country
in the
Middle East transcend its boundaries and that
changes
in one area will
ultimately
cause
repercussions
in another.
This fact is
implicit
in a number of studies devoted to
possible
economic
development
in Palestine and the Middle East as a
whole,
including
the
report
of the
Anglo-American
Committee of
Inquiry.
This
report,
which
provides
a most
important summary
not
merely
of
political
events but also
of economic
development
and future
possibilities,
states that the full de-
velopment
of
irrigation "requires
the
willing cooperation
of
adjacent
Arab
states. '45 Under
present political
conditions in the Middle East this
cooperation
is,
to
say
the
least,
unlikely;
nevertheless,
a number of schemes for the
development
of
irrigation
have been
proposed,
most of which
require
collaboration from
Syria,
the
Lebanon,
and
Transjordan.
The best known
of these schemes is that of Professor
Lowdermilk,46
who advocates
large-
scale
development
of the water resources of the
Jordan Valley
in a manner
somewhat similar to that followed
by
the Tennessee
Valley Authority.
Other
plans involving
the utilization of water resources
lying
in
part
outside
45
Anglo-American
Committee of
Inquiry: Report
to the United States Government and His
Majesty's
Government in the United
Kingdom, Lausanne, Switzerland,
April
20, 1946.
viii and
92 pp.
U. S.
Dept. of
State Publ.
2536 (Near
Eastern Ser.
2), 1946.
Reference on
p.
so. See also: "A
Survey
of
Palestine,
Prepared
in December
1945
and
January 1946
for the Information of the
Anglo-American
Committee of
Inquiry."
Vol.
I,
vi and
534 pp.; Vol. 2, v and
535-II39 pp.
Government
Printer,
Pales-
tine, I946.
?P.2
per
set.
46 Walter
Clay
Lowdermilk: Palestine: Land of Promise. xi and
236 pp. Harper
&
Brothers,
New
York and London, 1944. $2.50. (See
the review in the
Geogr.
Rev.,
Vol.
35, I945, pp. I68-170.)
432
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
Palestine have been
put
forward
by
Messrs.
Savage
and
Hays (Commission
on Palestine
Surveys).47
In a criticism of these schemes Mr. Ionides48
suggests
that no attention has been
paid
to the limitations
imposed by
the actual
amount of rain
falling
within Palestine and
propounds
the view that some
of the envisioned advances in Palestinian
agriculture
can take
place only
at the
expense
of
agriculture
in other areas,
notably Transjordan.
"M. G.
I.,"
in an article entitled
"Irrigation
in Palestine: A
Key
to Economic
Absorp-
tive
Capacity" expresses
the
opinion
that Palestine itself "must be
regarded
as
being agriculturally
saturated."49
An
appraisal
of Palestine's
capacity
for survival and
growth
is made
by
Professor A. E. Kahn.50
Limiting
his examination to
purely
economic and
even financial
factors,
Kahn
points
out that economic conditions in Palestine
since the
founding
of the
Jewish
National Home cannot be said ever to have
been "normal."
During
the
twenty years
I919-I939,
Palestine had the
heaviest
import
of
capital per
head of
population
in the
world;
and when this
inflow declined after
1939,
a "boom" due to war conditions
swiftly
de-
veloped
and has so far continued. The conclusion
reached,
namely
that
although
the
present population
of
Palestine,
both
Jewish
and
Arab,
can
probably
be
supported
from current
resources,
"continued
absorption
of
immigrants
. . . is
contingent upon
a continued inflow of
capital," gives
added
point
to the observations of Notestein and
Jurkat.5s
A detailed discussion of the
general
economic
problems affecting
Pales-
tine is
given
in "Palestine: Problem and Promise: An Economic
Study,"52
of which one can
fairly say
that it affords an
independent
and
objective survey
of current trends and difficulties.
Disparity
in standards of
living
as between
Arab and
Jew
is one of the root
causes,
if not the
greatest single
element,
47
A brief statement is
given by
Abel
Wolman,
in collaboration with
James
B.
Hays
and A. E.
Barrekette:
Proposed
Plan of
Irrigation
and
Hydro-Electric
Power
Development
for
Palestine,
Technion
Journ.,
Vol.
5, I946,
pp. 37-40.
48 M. G. Ionides: The
Perspective
of Water
Development
in Palestine and
Transjordan,
Journ.
Royal
Central Asian
Soc.,
Vol.
33, 1946, pp. 271-280.
49
The World
Today,
Vol.
3, 1947,
pp.
I88-I98;
reference on
p.
198.
50 Alfred E. Kahn: Palestine: A Problem in Economic Evaluation,
Amer. Econ.
Rev.,
Vol.
34, 1944,
pp. 538-560; reference on
p. 560.
5'
Notestein and
Jurkat, op. cit.
(see
footnote
39, above).
52
Robert R.
Nathan,
Oscar
Gass,
and Daniel Creamer: Palestine: Problem and Promise: An Eco-
nomic
Study. Prepared
under the
auspices
of the American Palestine Institute. x and
675 pp.
Public
Affairs
Press, American Council on Public
Affairs,
Washington,
D.
C., 1946. $5.00.
A
lavishly
illustrated
picture
of
progress
made in Palestine and further
possibilities
is
presented
in
"Palestine's Economic Future: A Review of
Progress
and
Prospects,"
edited
by
J.
B. Hobman
(310
pp.
Percy
Lund
Humphries
&
Co., London, I946. ISs.).
This is a book of
essays
"written
by experts actually
engaged
in Palestine in the schemes and industries under review. Other
contributors,
like Professor
Lowdermilk,
Sir
John Russell,
Professor Laski and Mr. Robert
Nathan,
have
special qualifications
and
sympathies
for
discussing
the
larger pattern
of future
expansion" (p. 9).-EDIT.
NOTE.
433
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
of the
present
tension;
and even
though
at some
stage
most economic
problems
are cut across
by
a
political
factor,
the most fruitful
approach
to
a solution of Palestinian affairs is
likely
to lie in
improvement
of
living
con-
ditions for all concerned.
It
is, however,
necessary
to take into account differences of
psychology
and
temperament
that occur in the Arab world. One unfortunate feature
of the Western
approach
to the Middle East is an insistence on material
achievement as a criterion of cultural and
political development,
with the
practical corollary
that acts of
penetration
or interference
by
outside nations
are
justified
if material benefits are conferred. Timeo Danaos et
donaferentes
is
likely
to be the Arab reaction to
proposals
from the West that are
sincerely
believed
by
their
sponsors
to be to the
advantage
of the Arab
himself;
and
one of the difficulties in Palestine is the
hesitancy
on the
part
of the Arab to
set
any
value on economic
progress,
which is
regarded by
Zionists as a
main
justification
for the continued
immigration ofJews
into the
country.
A factual
background
to
policies
in Palestine is
given by
a
publication
of the R.I.I.A.53 and
by
a short
paper
of which the title is the best
summary.54
"The Palestine
Impasse"
is
interesting
as the unbiased view of an observer
relatively
remote from the heat of
controversy.
A more extensive
survey
by
a writer versed in
English,
Arabic,
and Hebrew and
closely
in touch with
recent
developments
in Palestine
provides
an
impartial
and well-documented
exposition
of both Arab and
Jewish viewpoints.55
Allowance must be made
for the troubles of the
mandatory power,
which,
committed to a con-
tradictory
and
perhaps impossible policy,
was
exposed
to
world-wide,
and at times
uninformed, criticism;
yet
it is difficult to resist the conclusion
that the British
government
was
unwilling
or unable to examine the full
implications
of its
policy
for the
country
and the
people.
Mr. Barbour
goes
so far as to
suggest
that
nearly
all Palestine's troubles
"might
be said to come
from lack of national
direction";
but he also
singles
out Zionist
intransigency
and distortion as a
contributing
factor to difficulties in
working
the Balfour
Declaration. How far this latter
opinion
invalidates the
impartiality
of
his book will be a matter of
personal interpretation.
The wider
aspects
of
Jewish
settlement in various countries of the world
53
"Great Britain and
Palestine, I915-I945." 3rd
edit. xii and
178 pp. Royal
Inst.
of
Internatl.
Affairs
Information
Papers
No.
20,
London and New
York, 1946. 7s.
6d.
($2.00).
54 A. E. Prince: The Palestine
Impasse,
Internatl.
Journ.:
Canadian Inst.
of
Internatl.
Affairs Quart.,
Vol. I, 1946, pp.
122-133.
55
Nevill Barbour: Nisi Dominus: A
Survey
of the Palestine
Controversy. 248 pp. George
G.
,-arrap
& Co., London, Toronto, etc., 1946.
8s. 6d.
(American
edition: Palestine: Star or Crescent?
x and
310 pp. Odyssey
Press,
New
York, 1947. $3.00.)
434
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE MIDDLE EAST
are dealt with
by
the Reverend
J.
W. Parkes.56
Although
his book is con-
cerned with
problems
of the
Jewish people
as a
whole,
some attention is
inevitably
focused on
Palestine;
and in the second
part
an evaluation of the
function of the
country
in
relieving
the distress of
Jewry gives
the author's
view
that,
although
achievements have been
limited,
nevertheless the
National Home for the
Jews
has,
on the
whole,
been of benefit to the
people
whom it was intended to serve.
In
ending
this discussion the author desires to reinforce what was said
earlier
regarding geography
and
politics
in relation to Palestine.
Purely
political argument
derives too
closely
from naked
power
for either side to
adopt
it as the main basis of
approach.
The Arab
League,
a
possible
fruitful
beginning
to
genuine cooperation
on a
regional
level
throughout
the
Middle
East, will,
if
political
considerations continue to be its
only driving
force,
ultimately pass
into a sterile and disastrous fanaticism.
Equally
serious-
ly,
Zionism cannot risk a full
appeal
to
power politics,
since
ultimately
the
balance will
inevitably
lie to the
disadvantage
of a small
Jewish minority
in a Moslem world.
The Middle East is now in
many respects
a tabula
rasa,
ready
to receive
the
impress
of new
policies
and new human
relationships.
Forms of
society
that have endured since the Middle
Ages
are now in
rapid decay
and must
be
replaced by
other
groupings.
As
alternatives,
we have on the one hand
narrow
regionalism, leading finally
to
disruptive
nationalism,
on the other
the
opportunity
for more fruitful
development
on a wider
scale,
following
the
organization
of the Middle East as a
single
unit.
s6John Hadham,
pseud. [J.
W.
Parkes]:
The
Emergence
of the
Jewish Problem, I879-I939.
xxiv
and
259 pp.
Issued under the
auspices
of the
Royal
Institute of International Affairs. Oxford
University
Press, London, 1946. I5s.
EDIT. NOTE. "Of
making many
books there is no end"
applies
with
singular
force to
the
present
status of
writings
on the Middle East. "The
gathering
of the relevant titles
alone would
impose
a
staggering
effort .... No two lists of
suggested introductory reading
about this
region
are
likely
to
correspond," says
E. A.
Speiser
in "The United States and
the Near East." New titles have continued to
appear
since the final
manuscript
was received
from Dr. Fisher. Two that
may
be added to his references are Professor
Speiser's
book and
"Palestine: A
Study
of
Jewish,
Arab,
and British Policies"
(published
for the Esco Founda-
tion for
Palestine).
Comments on these books
may
be found in the review section of this
number of the
Geographical
Review.
435
This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:41 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions