Machrek
The Machrek (or Machreq , Mashreq , Arab: rear RTL مشرق) indicates the Arab East , of the Egypt to the Iraq and the Arabic Péninsule. It includes/understands in particular the Iraq, the Syria, the Lebanon, the Palestine, the Jordan, the Egypt and the Cyrénaïque (in Libya). One finds sometimes a meaning modern limited of the term, which includes only Libya and Egypt.
Machreq means Raising, in opposition to the Maghreb (Setting). The Maghreb indicates today the septentrional part of Africa and thus the Western part of the Arab world. It goes from the Morocco (whose Arab name was a long time Al Maghrib Al Aqsa , or the setting extreme, from now on shortened in Al Maghrib ) in Tripolitaine (in Libya), while passing by the Mauritania, the Algérie and the Tunisia. When the Iberian peninsula was Moslem, it belonged to the Maghreb, just as Malta and Sicily.
See too
Bilad el-Cham