geograpy of muslim world

GEOGRAPHY OF THE MUSLIM                          WORLD

Islam is the second largest religion , and the fastest growing one in the world . In the different articles of  this blog we will talk about those countries whose governments have declared them Islamic states and those where the majority of the population is Muslim.

Officially , there are 55 countries whose Muslim population is from more than 50 percent to 100 percent . Muslims are otherwise found in almost all the countries , where they form 1 percent to 36 per cent of the populations.

The Muslim world stretches about 15000 km east to west , and 6000 km north to south . Inside this vast region , there are many differences , but the whole area is bound together by faith in Islam , the Prophet (P.B.U.H) and the Quran . 

PHYSICAL FEATURES

Most of the Muslim countries are located on level land . The main Mountains are the Atlas range in North Africa , the highlands of Ethiopia , Yemen and the southern end of Saudi Arabia , eastern Turkey , and much of Iran . The highest regions of all are Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountains of Pakistan . 

Much of Muslim world , except for Malaysia , Indonesia , and some parts of Africa , has very little natural vegetation . More than half of the whole area is hot dessert , temperate desert , semi-desert , and scrub .

In these desert areas , apart from a few oases , little or nothing grows except very tough plants which can survive in such harsh conditions . These can provide food only for the hardiest sheep and goats , usually kept by nomadic or semi-nomadic people who wander with their flocks and herds in search of pasture .

There are , however , considerable areas of tropical rain forest in parts of Central Africa and South-east Asia which produce huge amounts of timber and tropical forest products such as rubber and tropical fruits . In other countries , good farm crops are produced in the valleys of the great rivers , the Nile , Tigris , Euphrates , and Indus , and in other places by irrigation