Mashriq

The Mashriq (; Arabic: ْاَلْمَشْرِق, romanized: al-Mashriq, lit. 'the east'), also known as the Arab Mashriq (Arabic: اَلْمَشْرِقُ الْعَرَبِيُّ, romanized: al-Mashriq al-ʿArabi, lit. 'the Arab east'), sometimes spelled Mashreq or Mashrek, is the eastern part of the Arab world (as opposed to the western Maghreb region), located in West Asia and eastern North Africa (Nubia). It is the Arabic equivalent for the term Middle East. Poetically the "Place of Sunrise", the name is derived from the verb sharaqa (َشَرَق, "to shine, illuminate, radiate" and "to rise"), from the sh-r-q root (ش-ر-ق), referring to the east, where the sun rises — in this regard analogous to the Latinate term "Levant". The region includes the Arab-majority states of Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.