Middle East Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Translations=== There are terms similar to ''Near East'' and ''Middle East'' in other European languages, but since it is a relative description, the meanings depend on the country and are different from the English terms generally. In [[German language|German]] the term ''[[:de:Naher Osten|Naher Osten]]'' (Near East) is still in common use (nowadays the term ''Mittlerer Osten'' is more and more common in press texts translated from English sources, albeit having a distinct meaning) and in [[Russian language|Russian]] [[:ru:Ближний Восток|Ближний Восток]] or ''Blizhniy Vostok'', [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] [[:bg:Близък Изток|Близкия Изток]], [[Polish language|Polish]] ''[[:pl:Bliski Wschód|Bliski Wschód]]'' or [[Croatian language|Croatian]] ''[[:hr:Bliski istok|Bliski istok]]'' (meaning ''Near East'' in all the four Slavic languages) remains as the only appropriate term for the region. However, some languages do have "Middle East" equivalents, such as the [[French language|French]] [[:fr:Moyen-Orient|Moyen-Orient]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]] [[:sv:Mellanöstern|Mellanöstern]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]] [[:es:Oriente Medio|Oriente Medio or Medio Oriente]], and the [[Italian language|Italian]] [[:it:Medio Oriente|Medio Oriente]].<ref group="note">In Italian, the expression "Vicino Oriente" (Near East) was also widely used to refer to Turkey, and ''Estremo Oriente'' (Far East or Extreme East) to refer to all of Asia east of Middle East</ref> Perhaps because of the influence of the Western press, the Arabic equivalent of ''Middle East'' (Arabic: الشرق الأوسط ''ash-Sharq al-Awsaṭ'') has become standard usage in the mainstream Arabic press, comprising the same meaning as the term "Middle East" in North American and Western European usage. The designation, ''[[Mashriq]]'', also from the Arabic root for ''East'', also denotes a variously defined region around the [[Levant]], the eastern part of the Arabic-speaking world (as opposed to the ''[[Maghreb]]'', the western part).<ref>{{cite book |author1=Anderson, Ewan W. |author2=William Bayne Fisher |title=The Middle East: Geography and Geopolitics |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |pages=12–13}}</ref> Even though the term originated in the West, apart from Arabic, other languages of countries of the Middle East also use a translation of it. The [[Persian language|Persian]] equivalent for Middle East is خاورمیانه (''Khāvar-e miyāneh''), the Hebrew is המזרח התיכון (''hamizrach hatikhon''), the Turkish is Orta Doğu and the Greek is Μέση Ανατολή (''Mesi Anatoli''). Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page