Part 258 (1/2)
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-Wors.h.i.+p.”
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.