Chapter III: Part 3

Naturally, as a member of a triad, Ishtar is dissociated from any
local limitations, and similarly as the planet Venus--a conception
which is essentially a product of theological speculation--no thought
of any particular locality for her cult is present. It is because her
cult, like that of Sin (q.v.) and Shamash (q.v.), is spread over all
Babylonia and Assyria, that she becomes available for purposes of
theological speculation.

Cf. ASTARTE, ATARGATIS, GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS, and specially
BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN RELIGION. (M. Ja.)

ISHTIB, or Istib (anc. _Astibon_, Slav. _Shtipliye_ or _Shtip_), a town of Macedonia, European Turkey, in the vilayet of Kossovo; 45 m. E.S.E. of Uskub. Pop. (1905) about 10,000. Ishtib is built on a hill at the confluence of the small river Ishtib with the Bregalnitza, a tributary of the Vardar. It has a thriving agricultural trade, and possesses several fine mosques, a number of fountains and a large bazaar. A hill on the north-west is crowned by the ruins of an old castle.

ISIDORE OF ALEXANDRIA,[1] Greek philosopher and one of the last of the Neoplatonists, lived in Athens and Alexandria towards the end of the 5th century A.D. He became head of the school in Athens in succession to Marinus who followed Proclus. His views alienated the chief members of the school and he was compelled to resign his position to Hegias. He is known principally as the preceptor of Damascius whose testimony to him in the _Life of Isidorus_ presents him in a very favourable light as a man and a thinker. It is generally admitted, however, that he was rather an enthusiast than a thinker; reasoning with him was subsidiary to inspiration, and he preferred the theories of Pythagoras and Plato to the unimaginative logic and the practical ethics of the Stoics and the Aristotelians. He seems to have given loose rein to a sort of theosophical speculation and attached great importance to dreams and waking visions on which he used to expatiate in his public discourses.

Damascius' _Life_ is preserved by Photius in the _Bibliotheca_, and
the fragments are printed in the Didot edition of Diogenes Laertius.
See Agathias, _Hist._ ii. 30; Photius, _Bibliotheca_, 181; and
histories of Neoplatonism.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] With Isidore of Alexandria has been confused an Isidore of Gaza,
mentioned by Photius. Little is known of him except that he was one
of those who accompanied Damascius to the Persian court when
Justinian closed the schools in Athens in 529. Suidas, in speaking of
Isidore of Alexandria, says that Hypatia was his wife, but there is
no means of approximating the dates (see HYPATIA). Suetonius, in his
_Life of Nero_, refers to a Cynic philosopher named Isidore, who is
said to have jested publicly at the expense of Nero.

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, or ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS (c. 560-636), Spanish encyclopaedist and historian, was the son of Severianus, a distinguished native of Cartagena, who came to Seville about the time of the birth of Isidore. Leander, bishop of Seville, was his elder brother. Left an orphan while still young, Isidore was educated in a monastery, and soon distinguished himself in controversies with the Arians. In 599, on the death of his brother, he was chosen archbishop of Seville, and acquired high renown by his successful administration of the episcopal office, as well as by his numerous theological, historical and scientific works. He founded a school at Seville, and taught in it himself. In the provincial and national councils he played an important part, notably at Toledo in 610, at Seville in 619 and in 633 at Toledo, which profoundly modified the organization of the church in Spain. His great work, however, was in another line. Profoundly versed in the Latin as well as in the Christian literature, his indefatigable intellectual curiosity led him to condense and reproduce in encyclopaedic form the fruit of his wide reading. His works, which include all topics--science, canon law, history or theology--are unsystematic and largely uncritical, merely reproducing at second hand the substance of such sources as were available. Yet in their inadequate way they served to keep alive throughout the dark ages some little knowledge of the antique culture and learning. The most elaborate of his writings is the _Originum sive etymologiarum libri XX_. It was the last of his works, written between 622 and 633, and was corrected by his friend and disciple Braulion. It is an encyclopaedia of all the sciences, under the form of an explanation of the terms proper to each of them. It was one of the capital books of the middle ages.

On the _Libri differentiarum sive de proprietate sermonum_--of which
the first book is a collection of synonyms, and the second of
explanations of metaphysical and religious ideas--see A. Mace's
doctoral dissertation, Rennes, 1900. Mommsen has edited the _Chronica
majora_ or _Chronicon de sex aetatibus_ (from the creation to A.D.
615) and the "Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum, Sueborum," in the
_Monumenta Germaniae historica, auctores antiqitissimi: Chronica
minora II_. The history of the Goths is a historical source of the
first order. The _De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_ or better _De viris
illustribus_, was a continuation of the work of St Jerome and of
Gennadius (cf. G. von Dzialowski in _Kirchengeschichtliche Studien_,
iv. (1899). Especially interesting is the _De natura rerum ad
Sisebutum regem_, a treatise on astronomy and meteorology, which
contained the sum of physical philosophy during the early middle ages.
The _Regula monachorum_ of Isidore was adopted by many of the
monasteries in Spain during the 7th and 8th centuries. The collection
of canons known as the _Isidoriana_ or _Hispalensis_ is not by him,
and the following, attributed to him, are of doubtful authenticity:
_De ortu ac obitu patrum qui in Scriptura laudibus efferuntur_;
_Allegoriae scripturae sacrae et liber numerorum_; _De ordine
creaturarum_.

The edition of all of Isidore's works by F. Orevalo (Rome, 1797-1803,
7 vols.), reproduced in Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, 81-84, is
carefully edited. See also C. Canal, _San Isidoro, exposicion de sus
obras e indicaciones a cerca de la influencia que han ejercido en la
civilizacion espanola_ (Seville, 1897). A list of monographs is in the
_Bibliographie_ of Ulysse Chevalier.

ISINGLASS (probably a corruption of the Dutch _huisenblas_, Ger. _Hausenblase_, literally "sturgeon's bladder"), a pure form of commercial gelatin obtained from the swimming bladder or sound of several species of fish. The sturgeon is the most valuable, various species of which, especially _Acipenser stellatus_ (the seuruga), _A. ruthenus_ (the sterlet) and _A. guldenstadtii_ (the ossetr), flourish in the Volga and other Russian rivers, in the Caspian and Black Seas, and in the Arctic Ocean, and yield the "Russian isinglass"; a large fish, _Silurus parkerii_, and probably some other fish, yield the "Brazilian isinglass"; other less definitely characterized fish yield the "Penang" product; while the common cod, the hake and other _Gadidae_ also yield a variety of isinglass. The sounds, having been removed from the fish and cleansed, undergo no other preparation than desiccation or drying, an operation needing much care; but in this process the sounds are subjected to several different treatments. If the sound be unopened the product appears in commerce as "pipe," "purse" or "lump isinglass"; if opened and unfolded, as "leaf" or "honeycomb"; if folded and dried, as "book," and if rolled out, as "ribbon isinglass." Russian isinglass generally appears in commerce as leaf, book, and long and short staple; Brazilian isinglass, from Para and Maranham, as pipe, lump and honeycomb; the latter product, and also the isinglass of Hudson's Bay, Penang, Manila, &c., is darker in colour and less soluble than the Russian product.

The finest isinglass, which comes from the Russian ports of Astrakhan and Taganrog, is prepared by steeping the sounds in hot water in order to remove mucus, &c.; they are then cut open and the inner membrane exposed to the air; after drying, the outer membrane is removed by rubbing and beating. As imported, isinglass is usually too tough and hard to be directly used. To increase its availability, the raw material is sorted, soaked in water till it becomes flexible and then trimmed; the trimmings are sold as a lower grade. The trimmed sheets are sometimes passed between steel rollers, which reduce them to the thickness of paper; it then appears as a transparent ribbon, "shot" like watered silk. The ribbon is dried, and, if necessary, cut into strips.

The principal use of isinglass is for clarifying wines, beers and other liquids. This property is the more remarkable since it is not possessed by ordinary gelatin; it has been ascribed to its fibrous structure, which forms, as it were, a fine network in the liquid in which it is disseminated, and thereby mechanically carries down all the minute particles which occasion the turbidity. The cheaper varieties are more commonly used; many brewers prefer the Penang product; Russian leaf, however, is used by some Scottish brewers; and Russian long staple is used in the Worcestershire cider industry. Of secondary importance is its use for culinary and confectionery purposes, for example, in making jellies, stiffening jams, &c. Here it is often replaced by the so-called "patent isinglass," which is a very pure gelatin, and differs from natural isinglass by being useless for clarifying liquids. It has few other applications in the arts. Mixed with gum, it is employed to give a lustre to ribbons and silk; incorporated with water, Spanish liquorice and lamp black it forms an Indian ink; a solution, mixed with a little tincture of benzoin, brushed over sarsenet and allowed to dry, forms the well-known "court plaster." Another plaster is obtained by adding acetic acid and a little otto of roses to a solution of fine glue. It also has valuable agglutinating properties; by dissolving in two parts of pure alcohol it forms a diamond cement, the solution cooling to a white, opaque, hard solid; it also dissolves in strong acetic acid to form a powerful cement, which is especially useful for repairing glass, pottery and like substances.

ISIS (Egyptian _Ese_), the most famous of the Egyptian goddesses. She was of human form, in early times distinguished only by the hieroglyph of her name [symbol] upon her head. Later she commonly wore the horns of a cow, and the cow was sacred to her; it is doubtful, however, whether she had any animal representation in early times, nor had she possession of any considerable locality until a late period, when Philae, Behbet and other large temples were dedicated to her worship. Yet she was of great importance in mythology, religion and magic, appearing constantly in the very ancient Pyramid texts as the devoted sister-wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. In the divine genealogies she is daughter of Keb and Nut (earth and sky). She was supreme in magical power, cunning and knowledge. A legend of the New Kingdom tells how she contrived to learn the all-powerful hidden name of Re' which he had confided to no one. A snake which she had fashioned for the purpose stung the god, who sent for her as a last resort in his unendurable agony; whereupon she represented to him that nothing but his own mysterious name could overcome the venom of the snake. Much Egyptian magic turns on the healing or protection of Horus by Isis, and it is chiefly from magical texts that the myth of Isis and Osiris as given by Plutarch can be illustrated. The Metternich stela (XXXth Dynasty), the finest example of a class of prophylactic stelae generally known by the name of "Horus on the crocodiles," is inscribed with a long text relating the adventures of Isis and Horus in the marshes of the Delta. With her sister Nephthys, Isis is frequently represented as watching the body of Osiris or mourning his death.

Isis was identified with Demeter by Herodotus, and described as the goddess who was held to be the greatest by the Egyptians; he states that she and Osiris, unlike other deities, were worshipped throughout the land. The importance of Isis had increased greatly since the end of the New Kingdom. The great temple of Philae was begun under the XXXth Dynasty; that of Behbet seems to have been built by Ptolemy II. The cult of Isis spread into Greece with that of Serapis early in the 3rd century B.C. In Egypt itself Isea, or shrines of Isis, swarmed. At Coptos Isis became a leading divinity on a par with the early god Min. About 80 B.C. Sulla founded an Isiac college in Rome, but their altars within the city were overthrown by the consuls no less than four times in the decade from 58 to 48 B.C., and the worship of Isis at Rome continued to be limited or suppressed by a succession of enactments which were enforced until the reign of Caligula. The Isiac mysteries were a representation of the chief events in the myth of Isis and Osiris--the murder of Osiris, the lamentations of Isis and her wanderings, followed by the triumph of Horus over Seth and the resurrection of the slain god--accompanied by music and an exposition of the inner meaning of the spectacle. These were traditional in ancient Egypt, and in their later development were no doubt affected by the Eleusinian mysteries of Demeter. They appealed powerfully to the imagination and the religious sense. The initiated went through rites of purification, and practised a degree of asceticism; but for many the festival was believed to be an occasion for dark orgies. Isis nursing the child Horus (Harpokhrates) was a very common figure in the Deltaic period, and in these later days was still a favourite representation. The Isis temples discovered at Pompeii and in Rome show that ancient monuments as well as objects of small size were brought from Egypt to Italy for dedication to her worship, but the goddess absorbed the attributes of all female divinities; she was goddess of the earth and its fruits, of the Nile, of the sea, of the underworld, of love, healing and magic. From the time of Vespasian onwards the worship of Isis, always popular with some sections, had a great vogue throughout the western world, and is not without traces in Britain. It proved the most successful of the pagan cults in maintaining itself against Christianity, with which it had not a little in common, both in doctrine and in emblems. But the destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria in A.D. 397 was a fatal blow to the prestige of the Graeco-Egyptian divinities. The worship of Isis, however, survived in Italy into the 5th century. At Philae her temple was frequented by the barbarous Nobatae and Blemmyes until the middle of the 6th century, when the last remaining shrine of Isis was finally closed.

See G. Lafaye, art. "Isis" in Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des
antiquites_ (1900); _id. Hist. du culte des divinites d'Alexandrie
hors de l'Egypte_ (1883); Meyer and Drexler, art. "Isis" in Roscher's
_Lexicon der griech. und rom. Mythologie_ (1891-1892) (very
elaborate); E. A. W. Budge, _Gods of the Egyptians_, vol. ii. ch.
xiii.; Ad. Rusch, _De Serapide et Iside in Graecia cultis_
(dissertation) (Berlin, 1906). (The author especially collects the
evidence from Greek inscriptions earlier than the Roman conquest; he
contends that the mysteries of Isis were not equated with the
Eleusinian mysteries.) (F. Ll. G.)

ISKELIB, the chief town of a _Caza_ (governed by a _kaimakam_) in the vilayet of Angora in Asia Minor, altitude 2460 ft., near the left bank of the Kizil Irmak (anc. _Halys_), 100 m. in an air-line N.E. of Angora and 60 S.E. of Kastamuni (to which vilayet it belonged till 1894). Pop. 10,600 (Cuinet, _La Turquie d'Asie_, 1894). It lies several miles off the road, now abandoned by wheeled traffic, between Changra and Amasia in a picturesque _cul de sac_ amongst wooded hills, at the foot of a limestone rock crowned by the ruins of an ancient fortress now filled with houses (photograph in Anderson, _Studia Pontica_, p. 4). Its ancient name is uncertain. Near the town (on S.) are saline springs, whence salt is extracted.

ISLA, JOSE FRANCISCO DE (1703-1781), Spanish satirist, was born at Villavidanes (Leon) on the 24th of March 1703. He joined the Jesuits in 1719, was banished from Spain with his brethren in 1767, and settled at Bologna, where he died on the 2nd of November 1781. His earliest publication, a _Carta de un residente en Roma_ (1725), is a panegyric of trifling interest, and _La Juventud triunfante_ (1727) was written in collaboration with Luis de Lovada. Isla's gifts were first shown in his _Triunfo del amor y de la lealtad: Dia Grande de Navarra_, a satirical description of the ceremonies at Pamplona in honour of Ferdinand VI.'s accession; its sly humour so far escaped the victims that they thanked the writer for his appreciation of their local efforts, but the true significance of the work was discovered shortly afterwards, and the protests were so violent that Isla was transferred by his superiors to another district. He gained a great reputation as an effective preacher, and his posthumous _Sermones morales_ (1792-1793) justify his fame in this respect. But his position in the history of Spanish literature is due to his _Historia del famoso predicador fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes_ (1758), a novel which wittily caricatures the bombastic eloquence of pulpit orators in Spain. Owing to the protests of the Dominicans and other regulars, the book was prohibited in 1760, but the second part was issued surreptitiously in 1768. He translated _Gil Blas_, adopting more or less seriously Voltaire's unfounded suggestion that Le Sage plagiarized from Espinel's _Marcos de Obregon_, and other Spanish books; the text appeared in 1783, and in 1828 was greatly modified by Evaristo Pena y Martin, whose arrangement is still widely read.

See Policarpo Mingote y Tarrazona, _Varones ilustres de la provincia
de Leon_ (Leon, 1880), pp. 185-215; Bernard Gaudeau, _Les Precheurs
burlesques en Espagne au XVIII^e siecle_ (Paris, 1891); V. Cian, _L'
Immigrazione dei Gesuiti spagnuoli letterati in Italia_ (Torino,
1895). (J. F.-K.)

ISLAM, an Arabic word meaning "pious submission to the will of God," the name of the religion of the orthodox Mahommedans, and hence used, generically, for the whole body of Mahommedan peoples. _Salama_, from which the word is derived appears in _salaam_, "peace be with you," the greeting of the East, and in Moslem, and means to be "free" or "secure." (See MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION, &c.)

ISLAMABAD, a town of India in the state of Kashmir, on the north bank of the Jhelum. Pop. (1901) 9390. The town crowns the summit of a long low ridge, extending from the mountains eastward. It is the second town in Kashmir, and was originally the capital of the valley, but is now decaying. It contains an old summer palace, overshadowed by plane trees, with numerous springs, and a fine mosque and shrine. Below the town is a reservoir containing a spring of clear water called the _Anant Nag_, slightly sulphurous, from which volumes of gas continually arise; the water swarms with sacred fish. There are manufactures of Kashmir shawls, also of chintzes, cotton and woollen goods.

ISLAND (O.E. _ieg_ = isle, + land[1]), in physical geography, a term generally definable as a piece of land surrounded by water. Islands may be divided into two main classes, continental and oceanic. The former are such as would result from the submergence of a coastal range, or a coastal highland, until the mountain bases were cut off from the mainland while their summits remained above water. The island may have been formed by the sea cutting through the landward end of a peninsula, or by the eating back of a bay or estuary until a portion of the mainland is detached and becomes surrounded by water. In all cases where the continental islands occur, they are connected with the mainland by a continental shelf, and their structure is essentially that of the mainland. The islands off the west coast of Scotland and the Isles of Man and Wight have this relation to Britain, while Britain and Ireland have a similar relation to the continent of Europe. The north-east coast of Australia furnishes similar examples, but in addition to these in that locality there are true oceanic islands near the mainland, formed by the growth of the Great Barrier coral reef. Oceanic islands are due to various causes. It is a question whether the numberless islands of the Malay Archipelago should be regarded as continental or oceanic, but there is no doubt that the South Sea islands scattered over a portion of the Pacific belong to the oceanic group. The ocean floor is by no means a level plain, but rises and falls in mounds, eminences and basins towards the surface. When this configuration is emphasized in any particular oceanic area, so that a peak rises above the surface, an oceanic island is produced. Submarine volcanic activity may also raise material above sea-level, or the buckling of the ocean-bed by earth movements may have a similar result. Coral islands (see ATOLL) are oceanic islands, and are frequently clustered upon plateaux where the sea is of no great depth, or appear singly as the crown of some isolated peak that rises from deep water.

Island life contains many features of peculiar interest. The sea forms a barrier to some forms of life but acts as a carrier to other colonizing forms that frequently develop new features in their isolated surroundings where the struggle for existence is greater or less than before. When a sea barrier has existed for a very long time there is a marked difference between the fauna and flora even of adjacent islands. In Bali and Borneo, for example, the flora and fauna are Asiatic, while in Lombok and Celebes they are Australian, though the Bali Straits are very narrow. In Java and Sumatra, though belonging to the same group, there are marked developments of bird life, the peacock being found in Java and the Argus pheasant in Sumatra, having become too specialized to migrate. The Cocos, Keeling Islands and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean have been colonized by few animal forms, chiefly sea-birds and insects, while they are clothed with abundant vegetation, the seeds of which have been carried by currents and by other means, but the variety of plants is by no means so great as on the mainland. Island life, therefore, is a sure indication of the origin of the island, which may be one of the remnants of a shattered or dissected continent, or may have arisen independently from the sea and become afterwards colonized by drift.

The word "island" is sometimes used for a piece of land cut off by the
tide or surrounded by marsh (e.g. Hayling Island).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The O.E. _ieg_, _ig_, still appearing in local names, e.g.
Anglesey, Battersea, is cognate with Norw. _oy_, Icel. _ey_, and the
first part of Ger. _Eiland_, &c.; it is referred to the original
Teut. _ahwia_, a place in water, _ahwa_, water, cf. Lat. _aqua_; the
same word is seen in English "eyot," "ait," an islet in a river. The
spelling "island," accepted before 1700, is due to a false connexion
with "isle," Fr. _ile_, Lat. _insula_.

ISLAY, the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides, Argyllshire, Scotland, 16 m. W. of Kintyre and 3/4 m. S.W. of Jura, from which it is separated by the Sound of Islay. Pop. (1901) 6857; area, 150,400 acres; maximum breadth 19 m. and maximum length 25 m. The sea-lochs Gruinart and Indaal cut into it so deeply as almost to convert the western portion into a separate island. It is rich and productive, and has been called the "Queen of the Hebrides." The surface generally is regular, the highest summits being Ben Bheigeir (1609 ft.) and Sgorr nam Faoileann (1407 ft.). There are several freshwater lakes and streams, which provide good fishing. Islay was the ancient seat of the "lord of the Isles," the first to adopt that title being John Macdonald of Isle of Islay, who died about 1386; but the Macdonalds were ultimately ousted by their rivals, the Campbells, about 1616. Islay House, the ancient seat of the Campbells of Islay, stands at the head of Loch Indaal. The island was formerly occupied by small crofters and tacksmen, but since 1831 it has been gradually developed into large sheep and arable farms and considerable business is done in stock-raising. Dairy-farming is largely followed, and oats, barley and various green crops are raised. The chief difficulty in the way of reclamation is the great area of peat (60 sq. m.), which, at its present rate of consumption, is calculated to last 1500 years. The island contains several whisky distilleries, producing about 400,000 gallons annually. Slate and marble are quarried, and there is a little mining of iron, lead and silver. At Bowmore, the chief town, there is a considerable shipping trade. Port Ellen, the principal village, has a quay with lighthouse, a fishery and a golf-course. Port Askaig is the ferry station for Faolin on Jura. Regular communication with the Clyde is maintained by steamers, and a cable was laid between Lagavulin and Kintyre in 1871.

ISLES OF THE BLEST, or FORTUNATE ISLANDS (Gr. [Greek: ai ton makaron nesoi]: Lat., Fortunatae Insulae), in Greek mythology a group of islands near the edge of the Western Ocean, peopled not by the dead, but by mortals upon whom the gods had conferred immortality. Like the islands of the Phaeacians in Homer (_Od._ viii.) or the Celtic Avalon and St Brendan's island, the Isles of the Blest are represented as a land of perpetual summer and abundance of all good things. No reference is made to them by Homer, who speaks instead of the Elysian Plain (_Od._ iv. and ix.), but they are mentioned by Hesiod (_Works and Days_, 168) and Pindar (_Ol._ ii.). A very old tradition suggests that the idea of such an earthly paradise was a reminiscence of some unrecorded voyage to Madeira and the Canaries, which are sometimes named Fortunatae Insulae by medieval map-makers. (See ATLANTIS.)

ISLINGTON (in Domesday and later documents _Iseldon_, _Isendon_ and in the 16th century _Hisselton_), a northern metropolitan borough of London, England, bounded E. by Stoke Newington and Hackney, S. by Shoreditch and Finsbury, and W. by St Pancras, and extending N. to the boundary of the county of London. Pop. (1901) 334,991. The name is commonly applied to the southern part of the borough, which, however, includes the districts of Holloway in the north, Highbury in the east, part of Kingsland in the south-east, and Barnsbury and Canonbury in the south-central portion. The districts included preserve the names of ancient manors, and in Canonbury, which belonged as early as the 13th century to the priory of St Bartholomew, Smithfield, traces of the old manor house remain. The fields and places of entertainment in Islington were favourite places of resort for the citizens of London in the 17th century and later; the modern Ball's Pond Road recalls the sport of duck-hunting practised here and on other ponds in the parish, and the popularity of the place was increased by the discovery of chalybeate wells. At Copenhagen Fields, now covered by the great cattle market (1855) adjoining Caledonian Road, a great meeting of labourers was held in 1834. They were suspected of intending to impose their views on parliament by violence, but a display of military force held them in check. The most noteworthy modern institutions in Islington are the Agricultural Hall, Liverpool Road, erected in 1862, and used for cattle and horse shows and other exhibitions; Pentonville Prison, Caledonian Road (1842), a vast pile of buildings radiating from a centre, and Holloway Prison. The borough has only some 40 acres of public grounds, the principal of which is Highbury Fields. Among its institutions are the Great Northern Central Hospital, Holloway, the London Fever Hospital, the Northern Polytechnic, and the London School of Divinity, St John's Hall Highbury. Islington is a suffragan bishopric in the diocese of London. The parliamentary borough of Islington has north, south, east and west divisions, each returning one member. The borough council consists of a mayor, 10 aldermen and 60 councillors. Area, 3091.5 acres.

ISLIP, a township of Suffolk county, New York, U.S.A., in the central part of the S. side of Long Island. Pop. (1905, state census) 13,721; (1910) 18,346. The township is 16 m. long from E. to W., and 8 m. wide in its widest part. It is bounded on the S. by the Atlantic Ocean; between the ocean and the Great South Bay, here 5-7 m. wide, is a long narrow strip of beach, called Fire Island, at the W. end of which is Fire Island Inlet. The "Island" beach and the Inlet, both very dangerous for shipping, are protected by the Fire Island Lighthouse, the Fire Island Lightship, and a Life Saving Station near the Lighthouse and another at Point o' Woods. Near the Lighthouse there are a United States Wireless Telegraph Station and a station of the Western Union Telegraph Company, which announces to New York incoming steamships; and a little farther E., on the site formerly occupied by the Surf House, a well-known resort for hay-fever patients, is a state park. Along the "Island" beach there is excellent surf-bathing. The township is served by two parallel branches of the Long Island railroad about 4 m. apart. On the main (northern) division are the villages of Brentwood (first settled as Modern Times, a quasi free-love community), which now has the Convent and School of St Joseph and a large private sanitarium; Central Islip, the seat of the Central Islip State Hospital for the Insane; and Ronkonkoma, on the edge of a lake of the same name (with no visible outlet or inlet and suffering remarkable changes in area). On the S. division of the Long Island railroad are the villages of Bay Shore (to the W. of which is West Islip); Oakdale; West Sayville, originally a Dutch settlement; Sayville and Bayport. The "South Country Road" of crushed clam or oyster shells runs through these villages, which are famous for oyster and clam fisheries. About one-half of the present township was patented in 1684, 1686, 1688 and 1697 by William Nicolls (1657-1723), the son of Matthias Nicolls, who came from Islip in Oxfordshire, England; this large estate (on either side of the Connetquot or Great river) was kept intact until 1786; the W. part of Islip was mostly included in the Moubray patent of 1708; and the township was incorporated in 1710.

ISLY, the name of a small river on the Moroccan-Algerian frontier, a sub-tributary of the Tafna, famous as the scene of the greatest victory of the French army in the Algerian wars. The intervention of Morocco on the side of Abd-el-Kader led at once to the bombardment of Tangier by the French fleet under the prince de Joinville, and the advance of the French army of General Bugeaud (1844). The enemy, 45,000 strong, was found to be encamped on the Isly river near Kudiat-el-Khodra. Bugeaud disposed of some 6500 infantry and 1500 cavalry, with a few pieces of artillery. In his own words, the formation adopted was "a boar's head." With the army were Lamoriciere, Pelissier and other officers destined to achieve distinction. On the 14th of August the "boar's head" crossed the river about 9 m. to the N.W. of Kudiat and advanced upon the Moorish camp; it was immediately attacked on all sides by great masses of cavalry; but the volleys of the steady French infantry broke the force of every charge, and at the right moment the French cavalry in two bodies, each of the strength of a brigade, broke out and charged. One brigade stormed the Moorish camp (near Kudiat) in the face of artillery fire, the other sustained a desperate conflict on the right wing with a large body of Moorish horse which had not charged; and only the arrival of infantry put an end to the resistance in this quarter. A general rally of the Moorish forces was followed by another action in which they endeavoured to retake the camp. Bugeaud's forces, which had originally faced S. when crossing the river, had now changed direction until they faced almost W. Near Kudiat-el-Khodra the Moors had rallied in considerable force, and prepared to retake their camp. The French, however, continued to attack in perfect combination, and after a stubborn resistance the Moors once more gave way. For this great victory, which was quickly followed by proposals of peace, Bugeaud was made duc d'Isly.

ISMAIL (1830-1895), khedive of Egypt, was born at Cairo on the 31st of December 1830, being the second of the three sons of Ibrahim and grandson of Mehemet Ali. After receiving a European education at Paris, where he attended the Ecole d'Etat-Major, he returned home, and on the death of his elder brother became heir to his uncle, Said Mohammed, the Vali of Egypt. Said, who apparently conceived his own safety to lie in ridding himself as much as possible of the presence of his nephew, employed him in the next few years on missions abroad, notably to the pope, the emperor Napoleon III. and the sultan of Turkey. In 1861 he was despatched at the head of an army of 14,000 to quell an insurrection in the Sudan, and this he successfully accomplished. On the death of Said, on 18th January 1863, Ismail was proclaimed viceroy without opposition. Being of an Orientally extravagant disposition, he found with considerable gratification that the Egyptian revenue was vastly increased by the rise in the value of cotton which resulted from the American Civil War, the Egyptian crop being worth about L25,000,000 instead of L5,000,000. Besides acquiring luxurious tastes in his sojourns abroad, Ismail had discovered that the civilized nations of Europe made a free use of their credit for raising loans. He proceeded at once to apply this idea to his own country by transferring his private debts to the state and launching out on a grand scale of expenditure. Egypt was in his eyes the ruler's estate which was to be exploited for his benefit and his renown. His own position had to be strengthened, and the country provided with institutions after European models. To these objects Ismail applied himself with energy and cleverness, but without any stint of expense. During the 'sixties and 'seventies Egypt became the happy hunting-ground of self-seeking financiers, to whose schemes Ismail fell an easy and a willing prey. In 1866-1867 he obtained from the sultan of Turkey, in exchange for an increase in the tribute, firmans giving him the title of khedive, and changing the law of succession to direct descent from father to son; and in 1873 he obtained a new firman making him to a large extent independent. He projected vast schemes of internal reform, remodelling the customs system and the post office, stimulating commercial progress, creating a sugar industry, introducing European improvements into Cairo and Alexandria, building palaces, entertaining lavishly and maintaining an opera and a theatre. It has been calculated that, of the total amount of debt incurred by Ismail for his projects, about 10% may have been sunk in works of permanent utility--always excluding the Suez Canal. Meanwhile the opening of the Canal had given him opportunities for asserting himself in foreign courts. On his accession he refused to ratify the concessions to the Canal company made by Said, and the question was referred in 1864 to the arbitration of Napoleon III., who awarded L3,800,000 to the company as compensation for the losses they would incur by the changes which Ismail insisted upon in the original grant. Ismail then used every available means, by his own undoubted powers of fascination and by judicious expenditure, to bring his personality before the foreign sovereigns and public, and he had no little success. He was made G.C.B. in 1867, and in the same year visited Paris and London, where he was received by Queen Victoria and welcomed by the lord mayor; and in 1869 he again paid a visit to England. The result was that the opening of the Canal in November 1869 enabled him to claim to rank among European sovereigns, and to give and receive royal honours: this excited the jealousy of the sultan, but Ismail was clever enough to pacify his overlord. In 1876 the old system of consular jurisdiction for foreigners was modified, and the system of mixed courts introduced, by which European and native judges sat together to try all civil cases without respect of nationality. In all these years Ismail had governed with _eclat_ and profusion, spending, borrowing, raising the taxes on the fellahin and combining his policy of independence with dazzling visions of Egyptian aggrandizement. In 1874 he annexed Darfur, and was only prevented from extending his dominion into Abyssinia by the superior fighting power of the Abyssinians. But at length the inevitable financial crisis came. A national debt of over one hundred millions sterling (as opposed to three millions when he became viceroy) had been incurred by the khedive, whose fundamental idea of liquidating his borrowings was to borrow at increased interest. The bond-holders became restive. Judgments were given against the khedive in the international tribunals. When he could raise no more loans he sold his Suez Canal shares (in 1875) to Great Britain for L3,976,582; and this was immediately followed by the beginning of foreign intervention. In December 1875 Mr Stephen Cave was sent out by the British government to inquire into the finances of Egypt, and in April 1876 his report was published, advising that in view of the waste and extravagance it was necessary for foreign Powers to interfere in order to restore credit. The result was the establishment of the Caisse de la Dette. In October Mr (afterwards Lord) Goschen and M. Joubert made a further investigation, which resulted in the establishment of Anglo-French control. A further commission of inquiry by Major Baring (afterwards Lord Cromer) and others in 1878 culminated in Ismail making over his estates to the nation and accepting the position of a constitutional sovereign, with Nubar as premier, Mr (afterwards Sir Charles) Rivers Wilson as finance minister, and M. de Blignieres as minister of public works. Ismail professed to be quite pleased. "Egypt," he said, "is no longer in Africa; it is part of Europe." The new regime, however, only lasted six months, and then Ismail dismissed his ministers, an occasion being deliberately prepared by his getting Arabi (q.v.) to foment a military _pronunciamiento_. England and France took the matter seriously, and insisted (May 1879) on the reinstatement of the British and French ministers; but the situation was no longer a possible one; the tribunals were still giving judgments for debt against the government, and when Germany and Austria showed signs of intending to enforce execution, the governments of Great Britain and France perceived that the only chance of setting matters straight was to get rid of Ismail altogether. He was first advised to abdicate, and a few days afterwards (26th June), as he did not take the hint, he received a telegram from the sultan (who had not forgotten the earlier history of Mehemet Ali's dynasty), addressed to him as ex-khedive, and informing him that his son Tewfik was his successor. He at once left Egypt for Naples, but eventually was permitted by the sultan to retire to his palace of Emirghian on the Bosporus. There he remained, more or less a state prisoner, till his death on the 2nd of March 1895. Ismail was a man of undoubted ability and remarkable powers. But beneath a veneer of French manners and education he remained throughout a thorough Oriental, though without any of the moral earnestness which characterizes the better side of Mahommedanism. Some of his ambitions were not unworthy, and though his attitude towards western civilization was essentially cynical, he undoubtedly helped to make the Egyptian upper classes realize the value of European education. Moreover, spendthrift as he was, it needed--as is pointed out in Milner's _England in Egypt_--a series of unfortunate conditions to render his personality as pernicious to his country as it actually became. "It needed a nation of submissive slaves, not only bereft of any vestige of liberal institutions, but devoid of the slightest spark of the spirit of liberty. It needed a bureaucracy which it would have been hard to equal for its combination of cowardice and corruption. It needed the whole gang of swindlers--mostly European--by whom Ismail was surrounded." It was his early encouragement of Arabi, and his introduction of swarms of foreign concession-hunters, which precipitated the "national movement" that led to British occupation. His greatest title to remembrance in history must be that he made European intervention in Egypt compulsory. (H. Ch.)

ISMAIL HADJI MAULVI-MOHAMMED (1781-1831), Mussulman reformer, was born at Pholah near Delhi. In co-operation with Syed Ahmed he attempted to free Indian Mahommedanism from the influence of the native early Indian faiths. The two men travelled extensively for many years and visited Mecca. In the Wahhabite movement they found much that was akin to their own views, and on returning to India preached the new doctrine of a pure Islam, and gathered many adherents. The official Mahommedan leaders, however, regarded their propaganda with disfavour, and the dispute led to the reformers being interdicted by the British government in 1827. The little company then moved to Punjab where, aided by an Afghan chief, they declared war on the Sikhs and made Peshawar the capital of the theocratic community which they wished to establish (1829). Deserted by the Afghans they had to leave Peshawar, and Ismail Hadji fell in battle against the Sikhs amid the Pakhli mountains (1831). The movement survived him, and some adherents are still found in the mountains of the north-west frontier.

Ismail's book _Taqouaiyat el Iman_ was published in Hindustani and
translated in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, xiii. 1852.

ISMAILIA, a town of Lower Egypt, the central station on the Suez Canal, on the N.W. shore of Lake Timsa, about 50 m. from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and 93 m. N.E. of Cairo by rail. Pop. (1907) 10,373. It was laid out in 1863, in connexion with the construction of the canal, and is named after the khedive Ismail. It is divided into two quarters by the road leading from the landing-place to the railway station, and has numerous public offices, warehouses and other buildings, including a palace of the khedive, used as a hospital during the British military operations in 1882, but subsequently allowed to fall into a dilapidated condition. The broad macadamized streets and regular squares bordered with trees give the town an attractive appearance; and it has the advantage, a rare one in Egypt, of being surrounded on three sides by flourishing gardens. The Quai Mehemet Ali, which lies along the canal for upwards of a mile, contains the chalet occupied by Ferdinand de Lesseps during the building of the canal. At the end of the quay are the works for supplying Port Said with water. On the other side of the lake are the so-called Quarries of the Hyenas, from which the building material for the town was obtained.

ISMAY, THOMAS HENRY (1837-1899), British shipowner, was born at Maryport, Cumberland, on the 7th of January 1837. He received his education at Croft House School, Carlisle, and at the age of sixteen was apprenticed to Messrs Imrie & Tomlinson, shipowners and brokers, of Liverpool. He then travelled for a time, visiting the ports of South America, and on returning to Liverpool started in business for himself. In 1867 he took over the White Star line of Australian clippers, and in 1868, perceiving the great future which was open to steam navigation, established, in conjunction with William Imrie, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, which has since become famous as the White Star Line. While continuing the Australian service, the firm determined to engage in the American trade, and to that end ordered from Messrs Harland & Wolff, of Belfast, the first _Oceanic_ (3807 tons), which was launched in 1870. This vessel may fairly be said to have marked an era in North Atlantic travel. The same is true of the successive types of steamer which Ismay, with the co-operation of the Belfast shipbuilding firm, subsequently provided for the American trade. To Ismay is mainly due the credit of the arrangement by which some of the fastest ships of the British mercantile marine are held at the disposal of the government in case of war. The origin of this plan dates from the Russo-Turkish war, when there seemed a likelihood of England being involved in hostilities with Russia, and when, therefore, Ismay offered the admiralty the use of the White Star fleet. In 1892 he retired from partnership in the firm of Ismay, Imrie and Co., though he retained the chairmanship of the White Star Company. He served on several important committees and was a member of the royal commission in 1888 on army and navy administration. He was always most generous in his contributions to charities for the relief of sailors, and in 1887 he contributed L20,000 towards a pension fund for Liverpool sailors. He died at Birkenhead on the 23rd of November 1899.

ISMID, or ISNIKMID (anc. _Nicomedia_), the chief town of the Khoja Ili sanjak of Constantinople, in Asia Minor, situated on rising ground near the head of the gulf of Ismid. The sanjak has an area of 4650 sq. m. and a population of 225,000 (Moslems 131,000). It is an agricultural district, producing cocoons and tobacco, and there are large forests of oak, beech and fir. Near Yalova there are hot mineral springs, much frequented in summer. The town is connected by the lines of the Anatolian railway company with Haidar Pasha, the western terminus, and with Angora, Konia and Smyrna. It contains a fine 16th-century mosque, built by the celebrated architect Sinan. Pop. 20,000 (Moslems 9500, Christians 8000, Jews, 2500). As the seat of a mutessarif, a Greek metropolitan and an Armenian archbishop, Ismid retains somewhat of its ancient dignity, but the material condition of the town is little in keeping with its rank. The head of the gulf of Ismid is gradually silting up. The dockyard was closed in 1879, and the port of Ismid is now at Darinje, 3(3/4) m. distant, where the Anatolian Railway Company have established their workshops and have built docks and a quay.

ISNARD, MAXIMIN (1758-1825), French revolutionist, was a dealer in perfumery at Draguignan when he was elected deputy for the department of the Var to the Legislative Assembly, where he joined the Girondists. Attacking the court, and the "Austrian committee" in the Tuileries, he demanded the disbandment of the king's bodyguard, and reproached Louis XVI. for infidelity to the constitution. But on the 20th of June 1792, when the crowd invaded the palace, he was one of the deputies who went to place themselves beside the king to protect him. After the 10th of August 1792 he was sent to the army of the North to justify the insurrection. Re-elected to the Convention, he voted the death of Louis XVI. and was a member of the Committee of General Defence when it was organized on the 4th of January 1793. The committee, consisting of 25 members, proved unwieldy, and on the 4th of April Isnard presented, on behalf of the Girondist majority, the report recommending a smaller committee of nine, which two days later was established as the Committee of Public Safety. On the 25th of May, Isnard was presiding at the Convention when a deputation of the commune of Paris came to demand that J. R. Hebert should be set at liberty, and he made the famous reply: "If by these insurrections, continually renewed, it should happen that the principle of national representation should suffer, I declare to you in the name of France that soon people will search the banks of the Seine to see if Paris has ever existed." On the 2nd of June 1793 he offered his resignation as representative of the people, but was not comprised in the decree by which the Convention determined upon the arrest of twenty-nine Girondists. On the 3rd of October, however, his arrest was decreed along with that of several other Girondist deputies who had left the Convention and were fomenting civil war in the departments. He escaped, and on the 8th of March 1795 was recalled to the Convention, where he supported all the measures of reaction. He was elected deputy for the Var to the Council of Five Hundred, where he played a very insignificant role. In 1797 he retired to Draguignan. In 1800 he published a pamphlet _De l'immortalite de l'ame_, in which he praised Catholicism; in 1804 _Reflexions relatives au senatus-consulte du 28 floreal an XII._, which is an enthusiastic apology for the Empire. Upon the restoration he professed such royalist sentiments that he was not disturbed, in spite of the law of 1816 proscribing regicide ex-members of the Convention.

See F. A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la Legislative et de la Convention_
(Paris, 2nd ed., 1906).

ISOBAR (from Gr. [Greek: isos], equal, and [Greek: baros], weight), a line upon a meteorological map or pressure chart connecting points where the atmospheric pressure is the same at sea-level, or upon the earth's surface. A general pressure map will indicate, by these lines, the average pressure for any month or season over large areas. The daily weather charts for more confined regions indicate the presence of a cyclonic or anticyclonic system by means of lines, which connect all places having the same barometric pressure at the same time. It is to be noted that isobaric lines are the intersections of inclined isobaric surfaces with the surface of the earth.

ISOCLINIC LINES (Gr. [Greek: isos], equal, and [Greek: klinein], to bend), lines connecting those parts of the earth's surface where the magnetic inclination is the same in amount. (See MAGNETISM, TERRESTRIAL.)

ISOCRATES (436-338 B.C.), Attic orator, was the son of Theodorus, an Athenian citizen of the deme of Erchia--the same in which, about 431 B.C., Xenophon was born--who was sufficiently wealthy to have served the state as choregus. The fact that he possessed slaves skilled in the trade of flute-making perhaps lends point to a passage in which his son is mentioned by the comic poet Strattis.[1] Several popular "sophists" are named as teachers of the young Isocrates. Like other sons of prosperous parents, he may have been trained in such grammatical subtleties as were taught by Protagoras or Prodicus, and initiated by Theramenes into the florid rhetoric of Gorgias, with whom at a later time (about 390 B.C.) he was in personal intercourse. He tells us that his father had been careful to provide for him the best education which Athens could afford. A fact of greater interest is disclosed by Plato's _Phaedrus_ (278 E). "Isocrates is still young, Phaedrus," says the Socrates of that dialogue, "but I do not mind telling you what I prophesy of him.... It would not surprise me if, as years go on, he should make all his predecessors seem like children in the kind of oratory to which he is now addressing himself, or if--supposing this should not content him--some divine impulse should lead him to greater things. My dear Phaedrus, a certain philosophy is inborn in him." This conversation is dramatically supposed to take place about 410 B.C. It is unnecessary to discuss here the date at which the _Phaedrus_ was actually composed. From the passage just cited it is at least clear that there had been a time--while Isocrates could still be called "young"--at which Plato had formed a high estimate of his powers.

Isocrates took no active part in the public life of Athens; he was not fitted, as he tells us, for the contests of the popular assembly or of the law-courts. He lacked strength of voice--a fatal defect in the ecclesia, when an audience of many thousands was to be addressed in the open air; he was also deficient in "boldness." He was, in short, the physical opposite of the successful Athenian demagogue in the generation after that of Pericles; by temperament as well as taste he was more in sympathy with the sedate decorum of an older school. Two ancient biographers have, however, preserved a story which, if true, would show that this lack of voice and nerve did not involve any want of moral courage. During the rule of the Thirty Tyrants, Critias denounced Theramenes, who sprang for safety to the sacred hearth of the council chamber. Isocrates alone, it is said, dared at that moment to plead for the life of his friend.[2] Whatever may be the worth of the story, it would scarcely have connected itself with the name of a man to whose traditional character it was repugnant. While the Thirty were still in power, Isocrates withdrew from Athens to Chios.[3] He has mentioned that, in the course of the Peloponnesian War--doubtless in the troubles which attended on its close--he lost the whole of that private fortune which had enabled his father to serve the state, and that he then adopted the profession of a teacher. The proscription of the "art of words" by the Thirty would thus have given him a special motive for withdrawing from Athens. He returned thither, apparently, either soon before or soon after the restoration of the democracy in 403 B.C.