The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 258

ISERLOHN (22), a town in Prussian Westphalia, 14 m. SE. of Dortmund; is picturesquely situated, and is engaged in iron-ware manufacture.

ISHMAEL, the son of Abraham and the handmaid Hagar, cast out of Abraham's household at 15; he became skilful with the bow, and founded a great nation, the Arabs; for the offering of Isaac on Moriah the Arabs subst.i.tute the offering of Ishmael on Arafat, near Mecca; Mahomet claimed descent from him; he gives name in modern life to a social outcast driven into antagonism to social arrangements.

ISIDORE, ST., BISHOP OF SEVILLE, born at Carthagena, a distinguished man and ecclesiastic, who exercised great influence on Latin Christianity, and on both civil and ecclesiastical matters in Spain, and left a large number of writings of varied interest; he was animated at once by a severe sense of duty and by an admirable Christian spirit (570-638). Festival, April 4.

ISINGLa.s.s, a gelatine substance prepared from the sounds or air-bladders of certain fresh-water fishes, the sturgeon in particular; it is imported from Russia, Brazil, and the Hudson Bay Territory.

ISIS, an Egyptian divinity, the wife and sister of Osiris and mother of Horus, the three together forming a trinity, which is characteristically Egyptian, and such as often repeats itself in Egyptian mythology, and typifying the life of the sun, Osiris representing that luminary slain at night and sorrowed over by his sister Isis, reviving in the morning in his son Horus, and wedded anew to his sister Isis as his wife; pa.s.sed into the mythology of the Greeks, Isis became identified first with Demeter and then with the Moon, while in that of Rome she figures as the Universe-mother.

ISLA, JOSe FRANCISCO DE, a Spanish Jesuit, celebrated as a preacher and a humorist and satirist of the stamp of Cervantes; his princ.i.p.al work "Friar Gerund," a satire on the charlatanism and bombast of the popular preaching friars of the day, as Don Quixote was on the false chivalry; the friars he satirised were too strong for him, and he was expelled from Spain, retired to Italy, and died at Bologna in extreme poverty (1703-1781).

ISLAM or ISLAMISM, the religion of Mahomet, "that we must _submit_ to G.o.d; that our whole strength lies in resigned submission to Him, whatsoever He do to us, for this world and the other; this is the soul of Islam; it is properly the soul of Christianity; Christianity also commands us, before all, to be resigned to G.o.d. This is yet the highest wisdom that Heaven has revealed to our earth." See "Heroes and Hero-Worship."

ISLAND OF SAINTS, a name given to Ireland in the Middle Ages.

ISLANDS OF THE BLESSED, fabled islands of the far west of the ocean, where the favoured of the G.o.ds after death are conceived to dwell in everlasting blessedness.

ISLAY (7), a large mountainous Island 13 m. W. of Kintyre, Scotland; much of it is cultivated; dairy produce, cattle, and sheep are exported; there are lead, copper, and manganese mines, marble quarries, and salmon fisheries; the distilleries produce 400,000 gallons of whisky annually.

ISLINGTON (319), a district of London, 2 m. N. of St. Paul's; contains the division of Holloway, Highbury, Barnsbury, and part of Kingsland.

ISMAIL PASHA, khedive of Egypt from 1863, who was obliged by the Powers to abdicate in 1879.

ISMAILIA, a small town on Suez Ca.n.a.l; was the head-quarters of the work during the construction of the Ca.n.a.l.

ISMAiLIS, one of the Mohammedan sects which support the claim of the house of Ali, Mahomet's cousin, to supremacy among the faithful; originating about A.D. 770, they rose to importance in the 10th century under Abdallah, a Persian, who introduced Zoroastrian ideas into their creed and prophesied the appearance of a Madhi or Messiah who should be greater than the Prophet himself; becoming latterly extremely rationalistic the sect lost its influence in the 13th century, and its representatives in Syria and Persia are now comparatively obscure; in Turkey and Egypt, however, several Madhis have arisen, of whom the last, Mohammed Ahmed, _b_. 1843, gained possession of the Soudan, defeated the Egyptian army in 1883, two years later captured Khartoum, but died at Omdurman shortly afterwards.

ISMENe, the sister of Antigone, who requested, as her accomplice, to be promoted to be sharer in her fate.

ISOCRATES, an Athenian rhetorician, of a school that was an offshoot of the SOPHISTS (q. v.), and the whole merit of whose oratory depended upon style or literary finish and display; he is said to have starved himself to death after the battle of Cheronea at the age of 98 because he could not brook to outlive the humiliation of Greece by Philip of Macedon and the destruction of its freedom (436-338 B.C.).

ISODORIAN DECRETALS, a body of ecclesiastical decretals imposed upon the Church under the name of ISODORE OF SEVILLE (q. v.).

ISOLDE, the wife of King Mark of Cornwall, who, under the potency of some philter which she had inadvertently taken, conceived an illicit pa.s.sion for Sir Tristram, her husband's nephew, the story of which is celebrated in mediaeval romance.

ISPAHaN (60), the ancient capital of Persia, 226 m. S. of Teheran, on the river Zenderud, which, as its greatest glory, is spanned by a n.o.ble bridge of 34 arches; it stands in a fertile plain abounding in groves and orchards, amid ruins of its former grandeur, and is a centre of Mohammedan learning; the inhabitants are said to have at one time numbered a million; it produces rich brocades and velvets, firearms, sword-blades, and much ornamental ware; there are many fine buildings, and signs of returning prosperity.

ISRAEL, KINGDOM OF, the name given to the northern kingdom of the 10 tribes of the Israelites which revolted from the kingdom of Judah after the death of Solomon.

ISRaELS, JOSEF, a Dutch oil and water-colour artist and etcher, born in Groningen; studied in Amsterdam and Paris; devoting himself to _genre_ subjects, he has depicted the pathetic side of the life of the Dutch fisher-folks with great sympathy and power; he won a _grand prix_ at the Paris Exhibition of 1889; _b_. 1824.

ISRAFEEL, in the Mohammedan mythology an angel whose office it will be to sound the trumpet on the resurrection morning.

ISSUS, a river in Cilicia, Asia Minor, where Alexander the Great defeated Darius, 333 B.C.

ISSY (12), a village m. SW. of Paris, where Davout was defeated by Blucher on 3rd July 1815, and which suffered severely during the siege of Paris by the Germans in 1870-71.

ISTAMBOUL, the Turkish name for Constantinople.

ISTHMIAN GAMES, one of the four Pan-h.e.l.lenic festivals; they were periodically celebrated in honour of Poseidon or Neptune at the isthmus of Corinth, in Greece, whence the name.

ISTRIA (299), a mountainous territory of Austria, in the NE. corner of the Adriatic; yields olive-oil, figs, and vines, though often swept by sirocco and bora winds.

ISUMBRAS, ST., a hero of mediaeval romance, a proud man subdued by G.o.d's justice into a penitent and a humble.

ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. The style of architecture called Italian was first developed by Filippo Brunesch.e.l.li, and flourished during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries; it was an adaptation of cla.s.sical circular-arch form to modern requirements. In Rome it conformed most to ancient types; in Venice it a.s.sumed its most graceful form. It was more suitable to domestic than to ecclesiastical work; but the dome is an impressive feature, and St. Peter's a n.o.ble church.

ITALIC SCHOOL, the name given to the school of PYTHAGORAS (q. v.) who taught philosophy in Italy.

ITALIC VERSION, THE, a version of the Scriptures into Latin on the basis of the Septuagint, executed in N. Italy under episcopal authority from other versions in circulation; being of mixed quality and far from satisfactory, JEROME (q. v.) undertook its revision with the view of a new translation into Latin known as the Vulgate direct from the Hebrew and Greek originals.

ITALY (30,536), the central one of three peninsulas stretching into the Mediterranean Sea, in the S. of Europe, has the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas respectively on the E. and W., and is separated from France, Switzerland, and Austria in the N. by the various ranges of the Alps. Between the Alps and the Apennines lies the extensive, fertile plain of Lombardy, watered by the river Po, and containing several large lakes, such as Garda, Como, and Maggiore. The Apennines form a very picturesque chain of mountains 5000 ft. high down the centre of the country. The climate varies in different districts, but is mostly warm.

Malaria curses many parts in autumn. Agriculture is extensive, but primitive in manner, and the peasantry are very poor. The most important crops are cereals, including rice and maize, grapes, olives, and chestnuts, and in the S. oranges and lemons. Italian wines are of indifferent quality. Coal and iron are scarce; sulphur is produced in large quant.i.ties in Sicily. There are large quarries of marble and alabaster. The most important industries are silk, gla.s.s, and porcelain.

There is an extensive foreign trade, chiefly with France and Great Britain; the exports consist of silk, sulphur, marble, fruit, and wine; the imports of coal, iron, and textile goods. The religion is Roman Catholic; education is now compulsory. The Gothic kingdom of Italy was founded on the ruins of the Roman Empire, A.D. 489. In succession the country was conquered by the forces of the Byzantine Empire, by the Lombards, and by the Franks. From the 11th century onwards its history has been one of constant internal strife and confusion. The presence of the papal power in Rome, the rise of such rich trading republics as the cities of Milan, Florence, Naples, Genoa, and Venice, the pretensions of French kings and German emperors, and factions like those of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, produced endless complications and ruinous wars. In the 16th century the influence of the Austro-Spanish house of Charles V.

became dominant; his son, Philip II., was king of Milan and Naples. In more recent times the small states of Italy were continually involved in the wars which devastated Europe, and pa.s.sed in alliance or in subordination into the hands of Austria, France, and Spain alternately.

The last 50 years have seen the unification of the kingdom. After the abortive movement of Mazzini came Cavour and Garibaldi, who, after severe struggles against the Austrians in the North and the despots of Southern Italy, proclaimed Victor Emmanuel king of Italy in 1861. By various steps the whole of the peninsula, with the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, have been brought into the kingdom. The temporal power of the Pope ceased in 1870. The Government is a const.i.tutional monarchy. Franchise is exercised by every citizen who can read and write. Conscription is in force for army and navy. These are both strong, the navy one of the best in Europe. Finances are bad; the debt amounts to 520,000,000, and taxation is ruinous.