Middle East Patterns

Colbert C. Held is Retired Diplomat-in-Residence at Baylor University. He 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.

Part 1 Physical and cultural geography: tricontinental junction - an introduction; patterns of time - historical-geographical foundations; the lands and the waters; the skies and the winds - climate; soils, vegetation and animal life; patterns of people and cultures; the desert and the sown - land use; riches beneath the earth; manufacturing and transportation; where people congregate; the earth and the State; geopolitics. Part 2 Regional geography: Syria - Middle-East heartland; Lebanon and Cyprus - a mountain and an island; Jordan - the land beyond; Israel and occupied territories - "Palestine" or "Eretz Yisrael"?; Iraq - modern Mesopotamia; Saudi Arabia - development in the desert; the Gulf and its oil states; Oman and Yemen - the southern fringe; Egypt - a river and a people; Turkey - bridgeland in Anatolia; Iran - new republic on the plateau.