{"id":75732,"date":"2019-06-27T14:51:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T19:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/persian-heritage.com\/wordpress\/?p=75732"},"modified":"2020-04-13T16:12:09","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T21:12:09","slug":"%e2%80%8bthe-middle-east-a-20th-century-neologism-that-has-run-its-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2019\/06\/27\/%e2%80%8bthe-middle-east-a-20th-century-neologism-that-has-run-its-time\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200bThe \u201cMiddle East\u201d: A 20th Century Neologism That Has Run Its Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mohammad Ala, OpEd News outlet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neologisms, according to Merriam-Webster, are new words or terms that are coined to express concepts that appear to lack a word or name. \u2018Scuba\u2019, \u201cprogramming,\u201d \u201csubprime\u201d and even \u201cNazi\u201d are all examples of neologisms that were coined to refer to new activities, jobs and concepts that arose in the last century. In contrast, malapropisms are also new coining\u2019s of words but they are misuses of terms because they are not true representation of the concepts to which they refer. They are not really innovative or even correct, although they may sound right. Trumps use of \u2018unpresidented\u201d when he meant \u201cunprecedented\u201d (see Brenden Berry, 2016) is an example, as is George W. Bush\u2019s use of \u201cmisunderestimated\u201d when he really meant either misestimated\u201d or \u201cunderestimated\u201d.
\nThe term \u201cMiddle East\u201d might seem to be just another creative neologism from the last century, but in my view, it is also a malapropism. Rather than reflecting a true geographic region of the West Asia this term falsely groups countries and oversteps history, misleading people as to the true history, culture and languages of many countries with diverse population. The world does better without the use of \u201cMiddle East\u201d, in my opinion.
\nIn practice, the expression \u201cMiddle East\u201d has created many misconceptions about regional people, arts, and customs that disadvantage the many different peoples living in what is not necessarily a uniform part of the world.
\nThe history of the expression was recently documented in the\u00a0Persian Heritage journal\u00a0(2017, pp. 12-14) by Kaveh Farrokh and Sheda Vasseghi, who cited when and by whom the term Middle East was\u00a0invented in the 20thcentury. They attribute its creation to Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) who invented the expression in the September 1902 issue of London\u2019s monthly National Review, in an article entitled \u201cThe Persian Gulf and International Relations.\u201d In that article, Mahan wrote \u201cthe term Middle East, if I may adopt which I have not seen\u201d. He may not have seen it in his day, but we have seen it far too often, in my opinion, and it is a disservice to continue using it.
\nCloser examination of this invented \u2018term\u2019 reveals that it has no linguistic, cultural, anthropological or historical substance. For example, Iran and most part of Turkey are not Arab countries but since they are included in the \u2018Middle East\u2019 they are often inferred to be \u201cArab\u2019\u201d. These regions share a long heritage of Turco-Iranian or Persianate civilization. A Persian influence in the region is evident in words which many languages use and in the region. Iranians and Turks have strong connection to the Caucasus. But what connections do these countries share with other \u2018Arab\u2019 states? Not culture, art, tradition and perspective so much as a geopolitical purpose for the \u201cWest\u201d.
\nThe power of the invented term \u201cMiddle East\u201d and the argument that it is a malapropism both lie in the fact that it provided a new geopolitical terminology to a rather ad hoc portion of the world, just like the governor of Massachusetts, Gerry, reconfigured the districts in Massachusetts to benefit the Democratic Party in 1812.
\nGovernor Gerry was caught and hence the name \u201cgerrymandering\u201d to describe the practice intended to establish a political advantage for a particular group by manipulating boundaries. The \u201cMiddle East\u201d is a form of gerrymandering: By calling attention to itself as an entity it dictates that there exists a defined region of the world which just happens to coincide with portions of West Asia where Western political, military, and economic interests are at stake. The term reconfigures \u201cWest Asia\u201d, especially in the Persian Gulf region. It is gerrymandering, but like a malapropism, sounds convincing at least at first glance.
\nPropagation of \u201cMiddle East\u201d was rapid in the first half of the 20th\u00a0century. The term invented by Mahan was almost immediately popularized by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol (1852 \u2014 1929), a journalist designed as a special correspondent from Tehran, Iran by the Times newspaper. Chirol\u2019s article entitled, \u201cthe Middle Eastern Question,\u201d expanded Mahan\u2019s version of the \u201cMiddle East,\u201d to new territories including Afghanistan and even Tibet. The situation gets funnier when the same or similar authors discuss the Islamic arts and architecture.
\nAnd of course a newly recognized region needs a new political status, thus it should come as no surprise that after WWI, Winston Churchill was chosen to be the head of a newly established \u201cMiddle East Department.\u201d
\nThis department redefined Mahan\u2019s original idea of the Middle East to include even more territories: Palestine and the Suez Canal as well as the newly created states of Iraq, and Trans-Jordan. Interestingly, Tibet and Afghanistan were eliminated from London\u2019s Middle East Department. Boundaries were re-drawn based on oil and gas interests in the Persian Gulf region. Mal-appropriation indeed, to coin!
\nAs the 20th\u00a0century concluded and the 21st\u00a0century began, Western media outlets, political platforms and entertainment venues all used the \u201cMiddle East\u201d when referring to the geopolitically useful countries in what is geographically West Asia. The invention of the new term has led many people, including scholars and the media to refer to Iran as an \u201cArab\u201d people or country. Hence it is a malapropism.
\nMuch of the confusion may be attributed to the religion of Islam. The notion that many countries are Islamic (even different denominations) may have led people to group the \u201cMiddle East\u201d countries. Then why omit Indonesia, Pakistan or even Bosnia and Chechnia for example, from the \u201cMiddle East\u201d? The tendency to see Islam as a single homogeneous religion and culture is also responsible for the tendency to see all followers as Arabs and speakers of the same language, practitioners of the same culture. This misconception is wrong and misleading and does a particular disservice to Iran. The neologism \u201cMiddle East\u201d confuses people who are not from the region and has the potential to make mockery of international norms. For example, Jack Shaheen, discovered that in the 1980s, almost 80% of North Americans believed Iranians to be Arabs or Arabic speaking people. However, the majority of Iranians speak Persian, a language in its own right and not a dialect of Arabic.
\nIn the landmark textbook \u201cOrientalism\u201d (1979) by the late Edward Said (1935-2003) makes a similar point through his concept of \u201cOrientalism.\u201d In Said\u2019s words:<\/p>\n

\u201cOrientalism is a style of thought based upon ontological and epistemological distinction made between \u201cthe Orient\u201d and (most of the time): \u201cthe Occident.\u201d Thus a very large mass of writers, among who are poet, novelists, philosophers, political theorists, economists, and imperial administrators, have accepted the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, \u201cmind,\u201d destiny, and so on. . . . The phenomenon of Orientalism as I study it here deals principally, not with a correspondence between Orientalism and Orient, but with the internal consistency of Orientalism and its ideas about the Orient\u201ddespite or beyond any correspondence, or lack thereof, with a \u201creal\u201d Orient. (1-3,5) \u201c<\/p>\n

The use of \u201cMiddle East,\u201d I would argue, is also case of \u2018Orientalism,\u2019 and a dangerous one. As noted in the Amazon.com summary of the impact of Said\u2019s book:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow West Asia to represent itself, prevents true understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

To paraphrase, the \u201cMiddle East\u201d does not allow the countries in that region to express themselves as they are. It instead projects a regional stereotype.
\nThe main point of this article is that there is a danger in replacing historical facts and names with gerrymandered politically based terminologies. Because of Western control over media and Internet, a neologism can enter the scholarship domains. However, when it becomes a malapropism, people are misled and authors lose credibility and factual accuracy to regional stereotypes that are not based in reality.
\nThe wrong term can inappropriately group people who have very separate views of the world and their place in it. It is my view that the historical names like \u201cWest Asia\u201d must not change, especially terms like \u201cPersian Gulf\u201d which have been used for thousands of years. We should not be consumed by our quest for war and thirst for oil, like Governor Gerry was consumed by his zeal for the Democratic Party.
\nNeologisms can have their purpose, they show our creativity, our progress. But some neologisms, like \u201cMiddle East\u201d should be discontinued.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mohammad Ala, OpEd News outlet Neologisms, according to Merriam-Webster, are new words or terms that are coined to express concepts that appear to lack a word or name. \u2018Scuba\u2019, \u201cprogramming,\u201d \u201csubprime\u201d and even \u201cNazi\u201d are all examples of neologisms that were coined to refer to new activities, jobs and concepts that arose in the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recposts"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}