The Gulf/2000 Project at Columbia has a great series of thematic maps.

[randomness]

This one in particular is getting some attention recently:


(Click for the very large map.)From the Remarks box, written by Dr. Michael Izady, professor and cartographer:

Ethnicity refers to group identity, and group identity is a product of history. In the Levant, ethnicity/group identity can be based on language (e.g., Turkomans), religion (e.g., Alawites/Alaouites, Levantines, Nusairis, Armenians), life style (e.g., Kurds), common history of suffering and persecution (e.g., Jews, Circassians), integrated economy--or a combination of two or more of these or other factors, (e.g., Arabs) or in fact, sometimes unique, criteria (e.g., Druze). To assume that language is the sole or primary source of ethnicity--a fashion popularized by the French Revolution--is to assume that a Jamaican, an Irishman, an American, a New Zealander or a Bahamian are all Englishmen in their ethnicity. Or, that a Croat, a Bosniac or a Montenegrin are all Serbs.

Other equally colorful and informative maps can be found at http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/maps.shtml.

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

language is the sole or primary source of ethnicity

Though that was a powerful driving force in the formation of modern nation-states in Europe from roughly 1800 to 1950.

a Croat, a Bosniac or a Montenegrin are all Serbs

Though in Yugoslavia they've reversed the principle: Since Croats and Serbs don't consider each other members of the same ethnic group, they deny that their languages are extremely similar.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*copies down this cogent explanation*