Mashriq
The Mashriq, also known as the Arab Mashriq, sometimes spelled Mashreq or Mashrek, is the eastern part of the Arab world, as opposed to the Maghreb, located in West Asia and eastern North Africa. It is the Arabic equivalent for the term Middle East. Poetically the "Place of Sunrise", the name is derived from the verb sharaqa, from the sh-r-q root, referring to the east, where the sun rises.
The region includes the Arab-majority states of Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Geography
As the word Mashriq refers to Arab countries located between the Mediterranean Sea and Iran, it is the companion term to Maghreb, the western half of the Arab world comprising Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya. Libya may also be regarded as straddling the two regions. Cyrenaica in eastern Libya is considered part of the Mashriq, whereas Tripolitania in western Libya is considered part of the Maghreb. Therefore Sirtica or the Gulf of Sidra is considered the dividing point between the Maghreb and Mashreq within the Arab world.These geographical terms date from the early Islamic expansion. The Mashriq corresponds to the Bilad al-Sham and Mesopotamian regions combined., the Mashriq is home to 1.7% of the global population.