154 



ISAIAH ISIIMAELITES. 



affairs, he devoted himself to instruction in eloquence, 

 and wrote speeches for others. Of his fifty orations, 

 eleven are extant, which are recommended by their 

 simple and often forcible style, and are generally on 

 causes respecting inheritance. They are to be found 

 in the 7th vol. of Reiske's Oratores Greed. Sir W. 

 Jones translated ten orations of Isteus, with a com- 

 mentary (London, 1779). The eleventh, now known, 

 has been discovered since. 



ISAIAH, the first of the four great prophets, pro- 

 phesied during the reigns of the kings ot'Judah, from 

 Usziah to Hezekiah, at least forty-seven years. Of 

 the circumstances of his life nothing is known, but 

 that he had an important influence over the kings and 

 people. Of the sacred compositions which pass under 

 his name in the Old Testament, that part which is un- 

 questionably his gives him a high rank among the 

 greatest poets. His style is peculiarly appropriate 

 to the subjects of which he treats ; it unites simpli- 

 city and clearness with the highest dignity and ma- 

 jesty ; and in fulness and power, his poetry far sur- 

 passes that of all the other prophets. His writings 

 tire chiefly denunciations and complaints of the sins 

 of the people, menaces of approaching ruin, and ani- 

 mating anticipations of a more glorious future. The 

 whole bears the stamp of genius and true inspiration, 

 and is marked throughout by nobleness of thought 

 and feeling. See Lowth's New Translation of Isaiah, 

 and his Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews; 

 also, the article Prophets. 



ISAURIA, in ancient geography ; a country in 

 Asia Minor, forming a part of Pisidia, lying on the 

 west of Cilicia, and on the south of Lycaonia. 

 The inhabitants were shepherds and herdsmen, and 

 formidable as robbers. Their capital, Isaura, was a 

 mere haunt of bandits. The consul Publius Servilius 

 destroyed it ; but another Isaura was built not far 

 from it. Hence Strabo mentions two. 



ISCHIA (anciently Pithecusa, J&naria, Prinze, 

 and Inarime) ; an island in the Mediterranean, six 

 miles from the coast of Naples, about ten miles in 

 circuit. Lon. 13 56' E. ; lat. 40 50' N. ; popula- 

 tion, 24,000 ; square miles, twenty-five. It contains 

 several high hills, one of which is 2300 feet above the 

 sea. It is fertile in fruits, and abounds in game. 

 The white wine is much esteemed. The air is 

 healthy, on which account it is much resorted to by 

 invalids, as it is but a small distance from the conti- 

 nent, and hardly more than four leagues from Naples. 

 It is volcanic ; and an earthquake in 1828 destroyed 

 several villages on the island. The porcelain clay of 

 Ischia was prized by the ancients, but the true terra 

 d'lschia is rare. Ischia, the capital town, is situated 

 on the N. coast of the island, and is an episcopal see 

 with 3101 inhabitants. 



ISENBURG, or UPPER ISENBURG ; a princi- 

 pality in Germany, situated in the Wetterau, about 

 thirty miles long and ten wide, on the borders of the 

 county of Hanau ; subject partly to Hesse-Cassel, and 

 partly to Hesse-Darmstadt. Population, 47,457; 

 square miles, 318. Isenburg, a principality belong- 

 ing to Hesse-Cassel, erected since 1816, contains 

 16,200 inhabitants, and 137 square miles. 



ISENBURG, NEW ; a town of Hesse-Darmstadt, 

 in Isenburg,* founded in 1700 by French refugees ; 

 three miles Si of Frankfort on the Maine ; four S. W. 

 of Oflenbach ; Ion. 8 38' E. ; lat. 50 3' N. ; popu- 

 lation. 1170. 



ISERE (anciently Isara) ; a river which rises in 

 the Alps, about twelve miles from mount Cenis, in a 

 mountain called Iseran, in the duchy of Savoy. After 

 entering France, it passes by Grenoble, St Quentin, 

 Romans, &c., and joins the Rhone about three miles 

 above Valence. 



ISERE; a department of France, constituted of 



the former Dauphiny. It takes its name from the 

 river Iserc, which crosses it. It is divided into four 

 arrondissements. Grenoble is the capital. Square 

 miles, 3440; population, 525,984. See Depart- 

 ment. 



ISERLOHN ; a town in the Prussian county of 

 Mark, province of Westphalia, on the small river 

 Baaren, with 5500 inhabitants, in 730 houses. The 

 inhabitants are mostly Lutherans, but there are also 

 some Catholics and Calvinists. There is a gymnasium 

 here. It has manufactures of iron, brass, wire, and 

 small wares, as needles, brass scales, &c. More than 

 sixty considerable commercial houses keep up an in- 

 tercourse with Italy, France, and Germany. There 

 are also woollen and silk manufactories and bleach- 

 cries in the environs. Iscrlohn is about 15 leagues 

 S. of Munster. 



ISHMAELITES, in ancient t geography and his- 

 tory; the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abra- 

 ham by Hagar (q. v.). Ishmael was born 1910 B.C. 

 After the dismission of Hagar from the house of 

 Abraham, she wandered with her son to the wilder- 

 ness of*Paran, which bordered on Arabia, and here 

 Ishmael became an expert hunter and warrior. His 

 mother procured him a wife from Egypt, by whom 

 he had twelve sons, who became the heads of so 

 many Arabian tribes. 



The name of Ishmaelites, or Ismaelians, is also 

 given to a Mohammedan sect which originally be- 

 longed to the Shiites, the adherents of Ali and the 

 opponents of the Sunnites. In the first century of 

 the Hegira, the Iman Giaffir-el-Sadek, a descendant 

 of Ali, on the death of his eldest son, Ishmael, having 

 transferred the succession to his younger son, Mousa, 

 to the prejudice of the children of Ishmael, a party 

 refused to acknowledge Mousa, and considered Ish- 

 mael' s posterity as the legitimate Imans. By the 

 Oriental historians, they are reckoned with the 

 Nassarians, among the Bathenins or Batenites, that 

 is, adherents of the mystical, allegorical doctrines of 

 Islainism. From the 8th to the 12th century, they 

 were powerful in the East. Under the name of 

 Carmatians (as they were called, from Carmati, near 

 Cufa, the birthplace of their chief Karfeh, in the 8th 

 century,) they devastated Irak and Syria. In Persia, 

 which they likewise overran about this time, they 

 were called Meladehs, that is, impious, or Talimites, 

 because they professed Ta lira's doctrine, that man 

 can learn truth only by instruction. One dynasty of 

 the Ismaelians, founded by Mohammed Abu-Obkid- 

 Allah, conquered Egypt about 910, and was over- 

 thrown by Saladin, the caliph of Bagdad, about 

 1 177, when the dynasty became extinct with Adhed- 

 Udin-Allah. The other (still existing) Ishmaelite 

 branch founded a kingdom in Syria in 1090, under 

 the Iman Hassan Ben-Sabbah, which became for- 

 midable in the East, by its military power. Hassan, 

 with his seven successors, is known in the East under 

 the name of the Old Man of the Mountain, because 

 his residence was in the mountain fastness of Mesiadc 

 in Syria. Thence he despatched his warriors who 

 were called Haschischim, from their immoderate use 

 of the henbane (Arab, haschischeh), which produces 

 an excitement amounting to fury on expeditions of 

 robbery and murder. These Ismaelians, therefore, 

 acquired in the West the name of Assassins (corrup- 

 tion of Haschischim), which thence became, in the 

 western languages of Europe, a common name for 

 murderer. At the close of the 12th century, the 

 Mongols put an end to the dominion of the Old Man 

 of the Mountain, who, according to Von Hammer's 

 researches, was not a prince, but merely the head of 

 a sect. From this time, only a feeble residue of the 

 Ismaelians, from whom proceeded the Druses, about 

 A. D. 1020, has survived in Persia and Syria. At 



