Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Israeli law ... Italus, John

Israeli law: the legal practices and institutions of modern Israel. In ancient times, when the people of Israel lived in their homeland, they created their own law: the law of the Torah and the law of the Mishna and the Talmud (see ...
Israeli, Isaac ben Solomon: Jewish physician and philosopher, widely reputed in the European Middle Ages for his scientific writings and regarded as the father of medieval Jewish Neoplatonism. Although there is considerable disagreement about his birth and death dates, he is known to have ...
Israelite: in the broadest sense, a Jew, or a descendant of the Jewish patriarch Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel after an all-night fight at Penuel near the stream of Jabbok (Genesis 32:28). In early Jewish history, Israelites were simply ...
Israels, Jozef: painter and etcher, often called the "Dutch Millet" (see Jean-Francois Millet). Israels was the leader of the Hague school of peasant genre painting, which flourished in The Netherlands between 1860 and 1900. He began his studies in Amsterdam and from ...
Israfil: in Islam, the archangel who will blow the trumpet from a holy rock in Jerusalem to announce the Day of Resurrection. The trumpet is constantly poised at his lips, ready to be blown when God so orders. In Judeo-Christian biblical ...
Issa: a branch of the Somali (q.v.) people living in the Republic of Djibouti (formerly the French Territory of the Afars and Issas) on the east coast of Africa.
Issachar: one of the 12 tribes of Israel that in biblical times constituted the people of Israel who later became the Jewish people. The tribe was named after the fifth son born to Jacob and his first wife, Leah. After the ...
Isserles, Moses ben Israel: Polish-Jewish rabbi and codifier who, by adding notes on Ashkenazic customs to the great legal digest Shulhan 'arukh of the Sephardic codifier Joseph Karo, made it an authoritative guide for Orthodox Jews down to the present day.
Issigonis, Sir Alec: British automobile designer who created the best-selling, economical Mini and the perennially popular Morris Minor.
Issus, Battle of: (333 BC), conflict early in Alexander the Great's invasion of Asia in which he defeated a Persian army under King Darius III. This was one of the decisive victories by which Alexander conquered the Achaemenian Empire. Issus is a plain ...
Issy-les-Moulineaux: town, suburb of Paris, in Hauts-de-Seine departement, Ile-de-France region, north-central France. It is bounded to the northeast by the city limits of Paris. The town has aeronautics and metallurgical industries, and it manufactures chemicals, electrical equipment, and cigarettes. Its airport ...
Issyk-Kul: oblast (province), northeastern Kyrgyzstan, with an area of 16,800 square miles (43,500 square km). In the northeast is Lake Issyk-Kul at an elevation of 5,276 feet (1,608 m) and surrounded by ranges rising to 17,100 feet (5,200 m), while in ...
Issyk-Kul: town, Issyk-Kul oblast (province), Kyrgyzstan. It is a port located on the western shore of Lake Issyk-Kul and is linked to Frunze, about 87 miles (140 km) north-northwest. Issyk-Kul's economy centres on a food industry, including meat-packing and cereal processing, ...
Issyk-Kul, Lake: a drainless lake in Issyk-Kul oblast (province) of Kyrgyzstan. Situated in the northern Tien Shan (mountains), it is one of the largest mountain lakes in the world and is famous for its magnificent scenery and unique scientific interest. It is ...
Istanbul: largest city and seaport of Turkey. It was formerly the capital of the Byzantine Empire, of the Ottoman Empire, and-until 1923-of the Turkish Republic.
Isthmian Games: in ancient Greece, a festival of athletic and musical competitions in honour of the sea god Poseidon, held in the spring of the second and fourth years of each Olympiad at his sanctuary on the Isthmus of Corinth. Legend attributed ...
isthmus: narrow strip of land connecting two large land areas otherwise separated by the sea. Unquestionably the two most famous are the Isthmus of Panama, connecting North and South America, and the Isthmus of Suez, connecting Africa and Asia. Historically the ...
istihsan: (Arabic: "to approve," or "to sanction"), among Muslim theologians, the use of one's own judgment to determine the best solution to a religious problem that cannot be solved by citing sacred texts. This approach to religious problems found special application ...
istislah: (Arabic: "to deem proper"), a norm employed by Muslim jurists to solve perplexing problems that find no clear answer in sacred religious texts. In such a situation, the judge reaches a decision by determining first what is materially most beneficial ...
Istiwa'iyah, Al-: the southernmost region of The Sudan. It is bounded by Ethiopia to the east, Kenya to the southeast, Uganda and Congo (Kinshasa) to the south, and the Central African Republic to the west.
istoriato style: style of pottery decoration, originating about 1500 in Faenza, Italy, and popular throughout the 16th century, in which paintings comparable in seriousness to Italian Renaissance easel paintings were applied to maiolica ware. The subjects-biblical, historical, and mythological scenes-are executed with ...
Istria: triangular peninsula that is part of Croatia and Slovenia. It extends into the northeastern Adriatic Sea between the Gulf of Venice (west) and the Gulf of Kvarner (east). The peninsula has an area of 1,220 square miles (3,160 square km). ...
Isvara: (Sanskrit: "Lord"), in Hinduism, the personal, or immanent, god, as distinct from the absolute, or transcendent, supreme being (Brahman). Isvara refers to the personified aspect of the divine, of whom the various sectarian divinities are particular manifestations. The title is ...
It: city, Shizuoka ken (prefecture), east-central Honshu, Japan. It is located on the east coast of the Izu Peninsula on Sagami Bay. Although its hot springs were discovered in the late 16th century, the city did not develop ...
Itabuna: city, southeastern Bahia estado ("state"), northeastern Brazil. It lies just west of Ilheus on the Cachoeira River at 174 feet (53 m) above sea level. Itabuna, which was elevated to city status in 1910, is the trade centre for a ...
Itacoatiara: city, northeastern Amazonas estado ("state"), northwestern Brazil. Formerly known as Serpa, the settlement lies on the left (north) bank of the Amazon River, downstream from its junction with the Madeira River and approximately 110 miles (180 km) east of Manaus, ...
Itagaki Taisuke, Count: (Hakushaku) founder of Japan's first political party, the Liberal Party, or Jiyuto.
Itagui: city, Antioquia departamento, northern Colombia. It lies along the Porce River between the Andean Cordilleras (mountains) Occidental and Central, at 5,148 feet (1,569 m) above sea level. Formerly a resort and a local commercial and manufacturing centre, Itagui has become ...
Itaipu Dam: hollow gravity dam on the Alto (Upper) Parana River at the Brazil-Paraguay border, north of the town of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. In terms of power output, it is one of the world's largest hydroelectric projects. Its 18 massive turbine ...
Itajai: city, eastern Santa Catarina estado ("state"), southern Brazil. It lies at the mouth of the Itajai River, at 20 feet (6 m) above sea level. Founded in the mid-19th century by German and Italian colonists, Itajai is now the commercial ...
Itajuba: city, southern Minas Gerais estado ("state"), Brazil. It lies along the Sapucai River, in the Mantiquiera Mountains, at 2,769 feet (844 m) above sea level. It was made the seat of a municipality in 1848 and given city status in ...
Italian Confederation of Syndicated Labourers: see Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori.
Italian Confederation of Workers' Unions: Italy's second largest trade union federation. The CISL was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Free General Italian Confederation of Labour (Libera Confederazione Generale Italiana dei Lavoratori) and the Italian Federation of Labour (Federazione Italiana del Lavoro). From ...
Italian Democratic Socialist Party: anticommunist reform party advocating the nationalization of some industries. As a centre party, it was able to join many Italian governments in the decades after World War II.
Italian East Africa: group of Italian possessions in East Africa in the period 1936-41. It comprised Ethiopia (annexed by Italy on May 9, 1936, and was proclaimed a part of Italian East Africa that June 1) together with the Italian colonies of Eritrea, ...
Italian Labour Union: Italian trade union federation with more than a million and a half members. The UIL was formed in 1950 in opposition to the communist-dominated Italian General Confederation of Labour, Italy's largest trade union federation, and the Roman Catholic-supported Italian Confederation ...
Italian language: Romance language spoken by some 66,000,000 persons in Italy (including Sicily and Sardinia), France (including Corsica), Switzerland, and other countries. It is spoken by large numbers of emigrants and their descendants in the Americas, especially in the United States, Argentina, ...
Italian Liberal Party: moderately conservative Italian political party that dominated Italian political life in the decades after unification (1861) and was a minor party in the period after World War II.
Italian literature: the body of written works produced in the Italian language that had its beginnings in the 13th century. Until that time nearly all literary work composed in the Middle Ages was written in Latin. Moreover, it was predominantly practical in ...
Italian Peninsula: one of the three great peninsulas of southern Europe, the other two being the Balkan (to the east) and the Iberian (to the west). The Italian Peninsula extends from the region of the Po River southward for some 600 miles ...
Italian Popular Party: centrist Italian political party whose several factions are united by their Roman Catholicism and anticommunism. They advocate programs ranging from social reform to the defense of free enterprise. The DC usually dominated Italian politics from World War II until the ...
Italian Republican Party: anticlerical social-reform party. Although it had only a small following in the years after World War II, its position in the centre of the Italian political spectrum enabled it to take part in many coalition governments.
Italian Socialist Party: former Italian political party, one of the first Italian parties with a national scope and a modern democratic organization. It was founded in 1892 in Genoa as the Italian Workers' Party (Partito dei Lavoratori Italiani) and formally adopted the name ...
Italianate painters: group of 17th-century northern European painters, principally Dutch, who traveled in Italy and, consciously adopting the style of landscape painting that they found there, incorporated Italian models and motifs into their own works. Chief among the Italianates were Bartholomeus Breenbergh, ...
italic: in printing, a sloping, light-bodied, compact, and almost cursive letter form, which, with roman and black letter shapes, has been one of the three major typefaces in the history of Western printing. Used today almost exclusively as a special function ...
Italic languages: certain Indo-European languages that were once spoken in the Apennine Peninsula (modern Italy) and in the eastern part of the Po valley. These include the Latin, Faliscan, Osco-Umbrian, South Picene, and Venetic languages, which have in common a considerable number ...
italic script: in calligraphy, script developed by the Italian humanists about 1400 from antique Latin texts and inscriptions. The humanists called the Carolingian minuscule in which most of these sources were preserved lettera antica, mistakenly regarding it as a Roman script from ...
Italo-Albanian Church: an Eastern-rite member of the Roman Catholic communion, comprising the descendants of ancient Greek colonists in southern Italy and Sicily and 15th-century Albanian refugees from Ottoman rule. The Italo-Greeks were Byzantine-rite Catholics; but, after the Norman invasion of the 11th ...
Italo-Ethiopian War: (1935-36), an armed conflict that resulted in Ethiopia's subjection to Italian rule. Often seen as one of the episodes that prepared the way for World War II, the war demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations when League decisions ...
Italo-Turkish War: (1911-12), war undertaken by Italy to gain colonies in North Africa by conquering the Turkish provinces of Tripolitana and Cyrenaica (modern Libya). The conflict upset the precarious international balance of power just prior to World War I by revealing the ...
Italus, John: Byzantine philosopher, skilled dialectician, and imputed heretic who, at the imperial court, established a school of Platonism that advanced the work of integrating Christian with pagan Greek thought. Italus exerted a lasting influence on the Byzantine mind.