Editing Arab world (section)

===Historical boundaries===
The political borders of the Arab world have wandered, leaving Arab minorities in non-Arab countries of the [[Sahel]] and the [[Horn of Africa]] as well as in the Middle Eastern countries of [[Cyprus]], [[Turkey]] and [[Iran]], and also leaving non-Arab minorities in Arab countries. However, the basic geography of sea, desert and mountain provides the enduring natural boundaries for this region.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}
[[File:Age-of-caliphs-xtra-space.png|thumb|Map of the [[caliphate]]'s expansion {{legend|#a1584e|Expansion under [[Muhammad]], 622–632}} {{legend|#ef9070|Expansion during the [[Rashidun Caliphate]], 632–661}} {{legend|#fad07d|Expansion during the [[Umayyad Caliphate]], 661–750}}]]
The Arab world straddles two continents, Africa and Asia. It is mainly oriented along an east–west axis.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The West Asian Arab region comprises the [[Arabian Peninsula]], most of the [[Levant]] (excluding Cyprus and Israel), most of Mesopotamia (excluding parts of Turkey and Iran) and the Persian Gulf region. The peninsula is roughly a tilted rectangle that leans back against the slope of northeast Africa, the long axis pointing toward [[Turkey]] and [[Europe]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Arab North Africa comprises the entire northern third of the continent. It is surrounded by water on three sides (west, north, and east) and desert or desert scrubland on the fourth (south).{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

In the west, it is bounded by the shores of the [[Atlantic Ocean]]. From northeast to southwest, [[Morocco]], [[Western Sahara]] ([[Southern Provinces|mostly]] unilaterally [[annexation|annexed]] by Morocco), and [[Mauritania]] make up the roughly 2,000 kilometers of Arab Atlantic coastline. The southwestern sweep of the coast is gentle but substantial, such that Mauritania's capital, [[Nouakchott]] (18°N, 16°W), is far enough west to share longitude with [[Iceland]] (13–22°W). Nouakchott is the westernmost capital of the Arab World and the third-westernmost in Africa, and sits on the Atlantic fringe of the southwestern Sahara. Next south along the coast from Mauritania is [[Senegal]], whose abrupt border belies the gradient in culture from Arab to indigenous African that historically characterizes this part of [[West Africa]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Arab Africa's boundary to the north is again a continental boundary, the [[Mediterranean Sea]]. This boundary begins in the west with the narrow [[Strait of Gibraltar]], the thirteen kilometer wide channel that connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic to the west, and separates Morocco from [[Spain]] to the north. East along the coast from Morocco are Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, followed by Egypt, which forms the region's, and the continent's, northeastern corner. The coast turns briefly but sharply south at Tunisia, slopes more gently southeastward through the Libyan capital of [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]], and bumps north through Libya's second city, [[Benghazi]], before turning straight east again through Egypt's second city, [[Alexandria]], at the mouth of the Nile. Along with the spine of [[Italy]] to its north, Tunisia marks the junction of western and eastern Mediterranean, and a cultural transition as well: west of Egypt begins the region of the Arab World known as the [[Maghreb]] include (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania).{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Historically the 4,000-kilometer Mediterranean boundary has fluttered. Population centers north of it in [[Europe]] have invited contact and Arab exploration—mostly friendly, though sometimes not. Islands and peninsulas near the Arab coast have changed hands. The islands of [[Sicily]] and [[Malta]] lie just a hundred kilometers east of the Tunisian city of [[Carthage]], which has been a point of contact with Europe since its founding in the first millennium BCE; both Sicily and Malta at times have been part of the Arab World. Just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco, regions of the Iberian peninsula were part of the Arab World throughout the [[Middle Ages]], extending the northern boundary at times to the foothills of the [[Pyrenees]] and leaving a substantial mark on local and wider European and Western culture.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The northern boundary of the African Arab world has also fluttered briefly in the other direction, first through the [[Crusades]] and later through the imperial involvement of [[France]], [[United Kingdom|Britain]], [[Spain]], and [[Italy]]. Another visitor from northern shores, [[Turkey]], controlled the east of the region for centuries, though not as a colonizer. Spain still maintains two small enclaves, [[Ceuta]] and [[Melilla]] (called "Morocco Espanol"), along the otherwise Moroccan coast. Overall this wave has ebbed, though like the Arab expansion north it has left its mark. The proximity of North Africa to Europe has always encouraged interaction, and this continues with Arab immigration to Europe and European interest in the Arab countries today. However, population centers and the physical fact of the sea keeps this boundary of the Arab World settled on the Mediterranean coastline.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

To the east, the [[Red Sea]] defines the boundary between [[Africa]] and [[Asia]], and thus also between Arab Africa and Arab West Asia. This sea is a long and narrow waterway with a northwest tilt, stretching 2,300 kilometers from [[Egypt]]'s [[Sinai peninsula]] southeast to the [[Bab-el-Mandeb]] strait between [[Djibouti]] in Africa and [[Yemen]] in Arabia but on average just 150 kilometers wide. Though the sea is navigable along its length, historically much contact between Arab Africa and Arab West Asia has been either overland across the Sinai or by sea across the Mediterranean or the narrow Bab al Mendeb strait. From northwest to southeast, Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea form the African coastline, with Djibouti marking Bab al Mendeb's African shore.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Southeast along the coast from Djibouti is Somalia, but the Somali coast soon makes a 90-degree turn and heads northeast, mirroring a bend in the coast of Yemen across the water to the north and defining the south coast of the Gulf of Aden. The Somali coast then takes a hairpin turn back southwest to complete the horn of Africa. For six months of the year the [[monsoon]] winds blow from up equatorial Somalia, past Arabia and over the small Yemeni archipelago of [[Socotra]], to rain on [[India]]. They then switch directions and blow back.

The east- and especially southeast-coast boundary of Arab Africa has historically been a gateway for maritime trade and cultural exchange with both [[East Africa]] and the subcontinent. The trade winds help explain the presence of the Comoros islands, an Arab-African country, off the coast of [[Mozambique]], near [[Madagascar]] in the [[Indian Ocean]], the southernmost part of the Arab World.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The southern boundary of Arab North Africa is the strip of scrubland known as the [[Sahel]] that crosses the continent south of the Sahara.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}