Middle Eastern studies (sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies or Arab studies) is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is generally interpreted to cover a range of nations extending from North Africa in the west to the Chinese frontier, including Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and multiple other nations. It is considered a form of area studies, taking an interdisciplinary approach to the study of a region.
The subject was historically regarded as part of Oriental studies, which also included East Asian studies and Egyptology and other specialisms in the ancient civilizations of the region; the growth of the field of study in the West is treated at that article. Many academic faculties still cover both areas. Although some academic programs combine Middle Eastern Studies with Islamic Studies, based on the preponderance of Muslims in the region (with Israel being the sole exception), others maintain these areas of study as separate disciplines.
Read more about Middle Eastern Studies: Contentious Issues, Academic Centers
Famous quotes containing the words middle, eastern and/or studies:
“Of all the barbarous middle ages, that
Which is most barbarous is the middle age
Of man! it is—I really scarce know what;
But when we hover between fool and sage,
And don’t know justly what we would be at—
A period something like a printed page,
Black letter upon foolscap, while our hair
Grows grizzled, and we are not what we were.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The conduct of a man, who studies philosophy in this careless manner, is more truly sceptical than that of any one, who feeling in himself an inclination to it, is yet so over-whelm’d with doubts and scruples, as totally to reject it. A true sceptic will be diffident of his philosophical doubts, as well as of his philosophical conviction; and will never refuse any innocent satisfaction, which offers itself, upon account of either of them.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)