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The Farming of plants was a turning point in human history. Ths allowed larger civiliations and the first empires to emerge. Also, technical advances were possible because people could specialize in one subject, such as mathmatics, due to calorie surplus, a.k.a farmers making more foo than they need for themselves.
Basically North African and Middle Eastern cultures have very similar traditional clothing styles, food, architecture, beliefs and art.
This is caused by two main factors: common environment and common rulers.
Both North Africa and the Middle East are hot, dry and deserty. Dominated by the Arabian-Syrian/Sahara Deserts, both cultures were greatly influenced by their harsh environment that necessitated certain adaptions (most notably clothing and certain foods, pork for example generally rots easily in the desert and becomes dangerous to eat).
There is also the issue of their common religion/rulers. A large portion of their joint history has been spent serving under one ruler or another (Rome, Abbassids, Ottomans, etc.) They also share a common religion, greatly influencing eachother.
They basically had the same motive which was to contain communism
