What was it called before it was the Middle East?

Answer 1

The Middle East as a unified land-region only came out of the Middle Ages and the redefinition of the world into Christendom and the Islamic World. Before that point, the Middle East was not a unified region and never referred to as such. The Arabian Peninsula was disregarded completely until the Rise of Islam and was called (and still called) by the natives Jazirat Al-Arabiya (جزيرة العربية ) which means the Arabian Isle. Most of the remainder of the Middle East was part of the Eastern Roman Empire or was part of Persia. The terms Mesopotamia and Levant were quite common in that period as well. When the Arabs controlled all of the Middle East and North Africa, they termed their control in two general regions of the Maghreb (مغرب) and Mashriq (مشرق) which mean the Western and Eastern Regions. The Mashriq refers to the general Arab area in Asia whereas the Maghreb refers to Africa. However, the idea of a geopolitical idea of a region that has vertices at Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Yemen is a medieval/modern conception that has only really been referred to as the Middle East.

Answer 2

NORTHEAST AFRICA --> NEAR EAST --> MIDDLE EAST.

Suez Canal ERASED AND SEVERED AFRICA'S ORIGINAL LAND - TO NOW CALL IT THE MIDDLE EAST.