[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).