Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the people, places, terms, and groups used in this book. Use the search box to find any of them in context.

A to C

Abbasids. The caliphate (750 to 1258) ruling from Baghdad, presiding over a golden age of science and culture.

Alawites. A minority faith related to Shia Islam, concentrated in coastal Syria; the community of the former ruling Assad family.

Aliyah. Hebrew for Jewish immigration to the land of Israel.

Aramaic. An ancient regional language, once the common tongue of the Near East and the language Jesus is thought to have spoken; still used liturgically by some Christian churches.

Atatürk (Mustafa Kemal). Founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey (1923); architect of its secular, Western-facing transformation.

Baathism. A secular Arab nationalist and socialist ideology; the ruling movement in modern Syria (and formerly Iraq).

Balfour Declaration (1917). A British statement supporting "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine while pledging not to harm existing communities.

Bedouin. Traditionally nomadic Arab desert peoples; a strong cultural touchstone across Arabia and the Levant.

Bilad al-Sham. Arabic for Greater Syria, the historic region covering today's Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan.

Byzantine Empire. The eastern, Christian, Greek-speaking continuation of the Roman Empire, ruled from Constantinople until 1453.

Caliph / Caliphate. A caliph is a successor to the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the Muslim community; a caliphate is the state he leads. The institution was abolished in 1924.

Confessionalism. A political system, used in Lebanon, that distributes power among religious communities by formula.

Crusades. European Christian military campaigns (1095 to 1291) that seized parts of the Levantine coast before being driven out.

D to I

Diaspora. A people dispersed outside their homeland, used here especially of Jews and of Lebanese and Palestinians.

Druze. A distinct faith that grew out of Islam about a thousand years ago, with communities in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.

Fatah. The secular nationalist Palestinian party that dominates the PLO and the Palestinian Authority.

GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). The bloc of six Gulf Arab monarchies, including Saudi Arabia.

Hajj. The annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, a duty for those able to perform it.

Hamas. An Islamist Palestinian movement that has governed Gaza since 2007; designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US, the EU, and others.

Hashemites. The dynasty ruling Jordan, claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad; they led the Arab Revolt.

Hezbollah. A Shia armed movement and political party in Lebanon, backed by Iran.

Hijra. The Prophet Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina in 622, the start of the Islamic calendar.

Intifada. Arabic for "uprising"; refers to two major Palestinian uprisings (1987 to 1993 and 2000 to 2005).

ISIS. An extremist group that seized territory in Syria and Iraq and declared a "caliphate" (2014), destroyed militarily by 2019; not recognised by mainstream Muslims.

J to O

Janissaries. The elite Ottoman infantry, historically raised from Christian-born boys converted to Islam.

Kemalism. The secular, nationalist ideology of Atatürk's republic.

Kurds. A large stateless people (around 30 to 40 million) spread across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, with their own language and identity.

Levant. The eastern Mediterranean coast and hinterland; see Bilad al-Sham.

Mamluks. A soldier-ruler caste based in Egypt that dominated the region from the 1250s until the Ottoman conquest.

Mandate. Post-World War I European administration of former Ottoman lands under the League of Nations (British and French).

Maronites. An ancient Eastern Catholic Christian community centered in Lebanon, central to its history and politics.

Mezze. A spread of many small shared dishes, the signature Levantine way of eating.

Millet. The Ottoman system that organised society into self-governing religious communities.

Nakba. Arabic for "catastrophe"; the Palestinian term for the 1948 displacement of most Palestinian Arabs.

OPEC. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the oil producers' cartel led by Saudi Arabia.

Oslo Accords (1993 to 1995). Agreements between Israel and the PLO that created the Palestinian Authority and mutual recognition.

Ottoman Empire. The Turkish-led empire (~1300 to 1922) that ruled most of this region for about four centuries.

P to Z

Palestinian Authority (PA). The body created by Oslo to govern parts of the West Bank and (once) Gaza; led by Fatah.

Pan-Arabism. The idea that Arabic-speaking peoples form one nation that should unite; strongest in the mid-20th century.

PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). The umbrella body representing Palestinian nationalism, long led by Yasser Arafat.

Quran. The holy scripture of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the word of God revealed to Muhammad.

Ramadan. The Islamic month of daytime fasting, ending with the festival of Eid.

Rashidun. The first four caliphs after Muhammad ("the rightly guided").

Salafism / Wahhabism. A strict, puritanical Sunni reform movement, historically tied to the Saudi state.

Sasanians. The pre-Islamic Persian empire, Byzantium's great rival.

Sufism. The mystical, inward tradition within Islam.

Sunni / Shia. The two main branches of Islam, originally divided over who should lead after Muhammad; Sunnis are the large majority.

Sykes-Picot (1916). The secret British-French deal to divide the Ottoman Arab lands; shorthand for borders imposed from outside.

Tanzimat. The 19th-century Ottoman modernising reforms.

Two-state solution. The proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with two states side by side.

Zaydis. A branch of Shia Islam dominant in northern Yemen; the base of the Houthi movement.

Zionism. The modern movement, from the late 1800s, for a Jewish national home in the land of historic Israel.

Last, a short guide to talking about all of this with the people whose history it is. 👉