Most people in the Middle East regard themselves as Arabs and speak Arabic. That said, in many countries there is a palpable division between the more settled Arab population and the Bedouin. One of the many Arab ethnic groups is the Marsh Arab of southern Iraq that has been considered to have a distinct culture for centuries. Moreover, throughout Arab speaking lands people often see their first loyalties to clans or tribes, loyalties that may crosscut religious, national, or other affiliations.

Arabs dominate in North Africa. The principal minority is the Berber, which is, in turn divided into several subgroups. The dominant people in the area before the coming of Islam, many Berbers have become highly arabicized. Nevertheless, surviving Berber groups pose problems for the governments of several states, particularly in the Kabyle region of Algeria.

The ethnic divisions of Israel and the West Bank are generally considered in religious terms. However, many Jewish Israelis see themselves as members of distinct nationality groups, based on country of origin (Russia, Morocco, Yemen etc.) as well as members of broader groupings based on historical separations: Sephardim, Ashkenazi. It should also be pointed out that there remain important Christian populations in both the West Bank and Israel that are Arabs in several cultural dimensions, including language.

The divisions of the people of Lebanon and Syria are largely religious. In many cases this has been strengthened by a pattern of living in unmixed religious communities living in particular home areas or urban enclaves.

The dominant people in Turkey are Turks, although there are small populations of Greeks, Armenians, Arabs, Circassians and, particularly, Kurds in eastern Anatolia. (For further discussion of ethnic groups in these countries compare the accompanying discussion of religious groups).

The most important ethnic group in the Middle East that does not have a country of its own is the Kurd. Kurds live in adjacent parts of Northern Iraq, western Iran, eastern Turkey, and northeastern Syria, with the largest number (perhaps ten million) in Turkey. There are also Kurdish communities in Armenia and northeastern Iran. They speak a variety of dialects, although with the development of literacy in Kurdish there has been considerable standardization.

Iraq exhibits a complex pattern of overlapping religious sects, ethnic groups and tribes. The media present the country as divided between Shi’a and Sunni. But this division requires many qualifications. The first is that what is generally meant by “Sunni” is Sunni Arab. The Kurds are overwhelmingly Sunni, but do not identify politically with the Arab Sunni. There is also a substantial Turkoman population, most of whom are Shi’a. They do not necessarily identify with Shi’a Arab interests. A substantial Christian community (Chaldean and Assyrian) stands aside from any of these identifications, although in Kurdistan many identify with Kurdish interests. In addition, most of the population, both urban and rural, consider themselves members of tribes. Tribal leaders are less likely than other leaders to understand political relationships in sectarian terms. Indeed, several tribes have both Shi’a and Sunni branches.

Iran and Afghanistan are highly complex ethnically. Persian speaking Iranians dominate Iran historically. This dominance goes back to pre-islamic times. However, only 50-60% of Iranians are native speakers of the standard Persian language. Perhaps another 10% speak Persian dialects or languages closely related to Persian. The related Kurdish language is spoken by nearly 10% of the population. Nearly a third of Iranians speak Turkish dialects, primarily Azeri (or Azerbaijani), the language of northwest Iran. However, most Iranians learn Persian (Farsi) in school and are generally fluent in the language.

According to the CIA World Factbook, the main ethnic groups in Afghanistan are Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, and other 4%. (The Pashtun are often referred to as Pushtun, Pashto, and Pathan.) The Pashtun have for generations been the dominant group politically, a tradition carried on by the current President, the Pashtun Hamid Karzai. However, The Tajik language Dari (essentially modern Persian) is widely spoken among all ethnic groups, and is considered the language of culture by many outside the Tajik community. Pushtun communities are found throughout the country, but their homeland is in the south and east. The Tajik are most numerous in the West, the Uzbek in the north.