As-salamu alaykum. ("Peace be upon you" in Arabic)

 I am Chris Kim who will take you on a journey to the Middle East through this column, "Beautiful Arabian Life." I have been posted to the Middle East in my role serving in a branch office in Dubai, U.A.E. This is Amorepacific Group's first office in the Middle East and as the first resident employee in the Middle East, it's my mission to spread Asian Beauty across the Arabian Peninsula.

 To Koreans, the Middle East can seem a strange and different place in terms of culture. Though it is on the same continent as Korea, the Middle East often seems far more strange than, for example, the United States, which lies beyond the Pacific. I'd like to share with you some insights into life in the Middle East that may surprise you.

 In this first column about the Middle East, I will tell you about the correct name of the region that we call the Middle East and their culture.

 The Arab League (formally the League of Arab States) was established in March 1945 between six countries for close relations between member states in the Middle East, independence and sovereignty of the Arab States and it comprises 21 countries as of 2008. In short, Arabs are a group of Arabic speaking member states of the Arab League.

 Its identity was established with the birth and growth of Islam in the 7th Century AD. After Islam was founded, its followers established a dynasty and saw rapid expansion through to Turkey and Iran through a period of Muslim conquest. This is how Islam was able to cross continents in the space of just two centuries. Countries conquered at that time converted to Islam and adopted the classical Arabic language, which is the language of the Qur'an.

 As shown in the map above, Turkey and Iran should not be thought of as Arab countries. We often hear Turkish people and Iranians saying, "We are not Arabs." This stems from their history and shows that they do not want to be treated as Arabs. Here, you need to remember three keywords : Arabia, Iran (Persian) and Turkey (Turkish) have been the three big powers throughout the history of the Middle East since ancient times.

 The first country to have united this region was Persia, in what is now known as Iran. Its empire lasted almost 1,000 years from the 6th century BC. Persians set the capital city in the southern part of Iran today and ruled much of the Middle East. Around that time, it came into conflict with the country with which it shared the border – Ancient Greece. There were three Persian invasions of Greece and the third invasion was depicted in the film 300. This film was, however, twisted. It drew Persians as ugly evil monsters whereas Spartans were all handsome and brave and, of course, equipped with six pack abs. The second Persian invasion of Greece ended with Greek victory and one solider running 26 miles to bring the news of the Battle of Marathon, whereupon he died of exhaustion. The modern-day marathon race remembers this event. Even today, the film 300 is banned within Iran and so is the marathon. Of course, Iran does not compete at the Olympics. The story of the marathon is fictional to Iranians, but a documentary to the Greeks.

 Though the most famous stories of Persia are full of distortions, Iranians still take pride in the long history of ancient Persian Empire. Sanctions by the United States have weakened the national power of Iran in recent decades, but it was Iran that first opened the door to the United States and brought about modernization. In 1979, the Iranian Revolution brought anti-American sentiment along the returning of true Islamic rule in fear of the increasing influence of the West and, as a result, Iran has become what it is today. In fact, older generations in Iran remember the freedom they had before the Revolution. With Donald Trump winning the US presidential election, Iran must be facing rough going in the international community, but I personally expect that it will someday come back to be an equal footing with Arab countries and revive the glory of Persia.

 After Persians and Arab, Gokturks(Turkey) took control of the Middle East. They were called Dolguel throughout the history of Korea. Turks built up the Ottoman Empire that united and ruled the Middle East until the 19th century, but the great empire decayed and lost almost all of its land after its defeat in the World War I as one of the Axis powers. The map of the Middle East was redrawn by the United Kingdom and France, the victors of World War I. They redrew lines over countries in the Middle East and Africa with no thought about race, religion or ethnic groups and, as a result, brought about serious tensions within the borders of the country. People that were supposed to belong to other countries were suddenly bound together and fighting broke out, which led to civil war and terror.

 As such, the empire was dissolved by the victors from the war, but revolutionary Mustafa Kemal Atatürk found the Republic of Turkey through revolution. Turkey is called the blood brother of South Korea because they sent a large number of troops next to the United States, United Kingdom and Canada during the Korean War, and fought hard, recording the second largest number of casualties after the United States. That's why Turkey is seen as the blood brother to South Korea.

 In conclusion, the term Middle East can be used depending on the context, but make sure to distinguish Turkey and Iran from Arab countries.

 In this column, we learned about the origin and exact definition of the term, Middle East and heard about the histories of the Arabs, Persians and Turks. In the next column, I will tell you more about ancient cultures of the Middle East.