By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik
The Middle East includes Mesopotamia (Iraq), the area watered by the Euphrates and Tigris. To its East is Persia (Iran); to its South is Arabia; to the West is Levant (Near East); and to the North is Anatolia (Turkey). Egypt is also included in the Middle East due to close cultural ties. These regions have given us very important mythologies. The common theme across all these mythologies is the belief that you live only once, distinguishing it from Indian mythologies based on rebirth.
