Middle East Patterns, 6th Edition

Colbert C. Held taught at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, then served for fifteen years as a Foreign Service Officer with assignments in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, as well as successive temporary missions in every country in the Middle East. He later became Diplomat-in-Residence at Baylor University.John Thomas Cummings has spent nearly thirty years as a development economist in the Middle East with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAID, and the World Bank. He has taught economic development and international economics at Al-Hikma University (Baghdad), Suffolk University, Tufts University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

"A fine sourcebook and text on the Middle East." --The Professional Geographer "If there is one book to read this year on the Middle East, this is the one!" --Choice "...informative and instructive about a fascinating region." --Middle East Quarterly "Contemporary, accessible and informative." --The Midwest Book Review "This timely revision of this already highly regarded text is just what we need to keep us abreast of developments in the Middle East. The treatment of economic factors, including natural resources, ecology, and land use patterns, sheds much light on the potential for economic cooperation and competition in the region over the next decade. Combined with its concise summaries of the linguistic and cultural underpinnings of the area, this work provides us the background we need to place contemporary political developments in context." --Charles O. Cecil, US Ambassador, retired

• Preface and Acknowledgments to the Sixth Edition -- A Note on Transliteration -- Physical and Cultural Geography -- Tricontinental Junction: An Introduction -- The Face of the Earth -- Patterns of Time Historical-Geographical Foundations -- Patterns of Peoples, Cultures, and Settlements: A Demographic Overview -- The Desert and the Sown: Land Use -- Riches Beneath the Earth -- Manufacturing And Transportation -- The Earth And State: Geopolitics -- The Earth And The State: Conflicts on the ground -- Regional Geography -- Manufacturing and Transportation: Middle East Heartland -- Lebanon And Cyprus: A Mountain And An Island -- Lebanon And Cyprus: The Land Beyond And Between -- Israel And Palestine: One Land, Two Polities -- Iraq: Modern Mesopotamia -- Saudi Arabia -- Three City States Along the Gulf -- The Horn of Arabia -- Yemen Arabia Felix -- Egypt A River And A People -- Turkey Bridgeland in Anatolia -- Iran: Complex Republic on the Plateau -- Partial Bibliography