156 



ISLAM ISLAND. 



llirse five children, there were three fathers Helios, 

 Saturn, and Mercury. Typhon married Nephthys ; 

 Osiris and Isis loved each other even in their 

 mother's womb. Osiris, the good spirit, was perse- 

 cuted by Typhon the bad spirit, who, by stratagem, 

 shut him up in a chest, and threw him into the sea. 

 When Isis learned this, she cut off one of her locks, 

 put on mourning garments, and wandered about dis- 

 consolate, in search of the chest. Meanwhile she 

 learned that Osiris, on a certain occasion, deceived 

 by Nephthys, who was enamoured of him, had mis- 

 taken Nephthys for herself, and that the child which 

 was the fruit of this union had been exposed by its 

 mother. Isis therefore sought the child, and bred 

 him up under the name of Anubis. The chest in 

 which Osiris was shut up, wns, meanwhile, driven 

 ashore at By bios, and thrown on a bush, which, hav- 

 ing suddenly grown into a beautiful tree, had entirely 

 enclosed it. This tree was afterwards cut down by 

 the king of the country as a curiosity, and used as .a 

 pillar in his palace. The chest was finally obtained 

 by an artifice of Isis, but the body, being afterwards 

 discovered by Typhon, was torn by him into fourteen 

 pieces. On discovering this, Isis proceeded to col- 

 lect the fragments ; she found them all but one, an 

 image of which she therefore formed ; and thus the 

 Phallus came to be held sacred, and a festival was 

 instituted in its honour by the Egyptians. Osiris 

 having returned to life, Isis bore him, prematurely, 

 Harpocrates, the god of silence, who was lame 

 in his lower limbs. Horus, the son of Isis, afterwards 

 vanquished Typhon in a war, and gave him to his 

 mother for safe keeping. She set him at liberty, on 

 which account Horus tore the crown from her head, 

 instead of which Mercury gave her an ox's head. 

 As the goddess of fecundity, and the universal 

 benefactress, she superintended the cure of human 

 maladies, and, even in Galen's time, several medi- 

 cines bore her name. After her death, she was rever- 

 enced as the chief of the divinities. According to 

 Herodotus, the Egyptians represented Isis under the 

 form of a woman, with the horns of a cow, as the 

 cow was sacred to her. Another tradition also 

 related, that Isis, in the shape of a young cow, 

 became the mother of Apis, by a ray from heaven 

 (Osiris) ; that is, the sun and moon sustain the earth. 

 She is also known by the attributes of the lotus on 

 her head, and the sistrum in her hand, a musical 

 instrument, which the Egyptians used in the worship 

 cf the gods. The dress of Isis consists of a close 

 under garment, and a mantle drawn together and 

 fastened in a knot on her breast. Her head is 

 covered with the Egyptian hood. Sometimes, like 

 the Diana of Ephesus, the universal mother, she is 

 represented with a great number of breasts. Among 

 the Romans, Isis afterwards received, in countenance, 

 figure, and dress, somewhat of the character of Juno. 

 A foreign character is to be recognised only in the 

 mantle and fringed veil, and other attributes. She 

 was particularly worshipped in Memphis, but at a 

 later period, throughout all Egypt. A festival of 

 eht days (the festival of Isis) was annually solem- 

 nized in her honour, consisting of a general purifi- 

 cation. (See Mysteries) It was introduced into 

 Rome, but frequently prohibited on account of the 

 abuses which it occasioned. Under Augustus, the 

 temples of Isis were the theatres of the grossest 

 licentiousness. From Egypt, the worship of this 

 goddess passed over to Greece and Rome. See 70, 

 also Egyptian Mythology in the article Hieroglyphics. 

 [SLAM, or, as it is pronounced in Syria, Eslam, 

 signifies an entire submission or devotion to the will 

 of another, and especially of God, and thence the 

 attaining of security, peace, and salvation. This act 

 ia performed and these blessings are obtained, accord- 



ing to the doctrine of the Koran, by acknowledging 

 the unity of God, and the apostleship of Mohammed. 

 Every man who makes this profession (aslama) is a 

 Moslem, i. e. has entirely given himself up to the will 

 of God, and is, on that account, in a state of salva- 

 tion (salam). But as Muslimdni, the dual of Muslim, 

 is commonly substituted for the singular by the Per- 

 sians and Turks, the word Musulmdn, or Mussel- 

 man, lias in those, as well as in the European lan- 

 guages, now nearly superseded the shorter and more 

 correct term. 



As Islam comprehends the practical as well as the 

 doctrinal tenets of the Mohammedan religion every 

 thing which Moslems must believe and practise it 

 embraces the whole of their civil and religious 

 polity; for the system of Mohammed relates more to 

 this world tlian the next, and was designed, like the 

 law of Moses, for the secular as well as the spiritual 

 direction of his followers. But, taken in its more 

 common and direct sense, it signifies the profession 

 of the five fundamental doctrines, on which, according 

 to a traditional declaration of the prophet (Reland, 

 Rel. Moh. I. 1. p. 5.) the whole edifice of the faith is 

 built. Those five points are 1. the acknowledg- 

 ment of the Divine Unity and of the prophetic mis- 

 sion of Mohammed; 2. observance of prayer; 3. giving 

 of alms; 4. keeping the fast of Ramadan; and, 5. the 

 performance, if possible, of the pilgrimage to Mecca. 

 They are often, also, subdivided and enlarged, in 

 order to arrange them more conveniently into the two 

 classes of belief (imari) and practice (din). The 

 former relates to 1. God; 2. the angels; 3. the 

 Sacred Book; 4. the prophets; 5. the last day; and, 

 6. the divine decrees : the latter, to 1. purification; 

 2. prayer; 3. alms; 4. fasting; and, 5. the pilgrimage. 

 To the first article of this creed, the Persians and 

 other adherents of Ali add, " Ali is the vicar of 

 God;" and that is the only essential point in which 

 they differ from the Sunnites, or orthodox Mussel- 

 mans, who acknowledge the authority of the four 

 first khalifs. The disputes concerning the succession 

 to the khalifate, or supremacy of the prophet, spiritual 

 and civil, which arose immediately after his death, 

 split his followers, as is well known, into two distinct 

 sects, the Sunnites and the Shiites, who have never 

 since ceased to hate each other with a cordial animo- 

 sity; but they differ more in the degree of veneration 

 paid to Ali, than in any other point; and, professing 

 the same creed, with the exception of one article, 

 they derive their doctrines from the same sources. 

 In their respective rituals, and their interpretation of 

 particular texts, there are many minor differences; 

 but both agree in superadding a traditional to the 

 written law of Mohammed, and both have sanctioned 

 that departure from the original simplicity of his 

 doctrine, the re-establishment of which was the pro- 

 fessed object of the Wahabees. See Mohammed. 



ISLAND; a portion of land less than a continent, 

 and which is entirely surrounded by water. Islands 

 are of very different extent, surface, &c. There are 

 some so large, that authors have doubted whether 

 they should not be called continents, as New Hol- 

 land; this, however, is a mere matter of definition. 

 Borneo. Java, Madagascar, Sumatra, Sicily, Great 

 Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Hayti, Cuba, Newfound- 

 land, are among the most considerable islands, and 

 are capable of containing powerful states; while 

 others, speaking only of those which are inhabited, 

 are only of a few miles in diameter. They differ not 

 less in form than in extent, some being indented 

 with deep bays, and affording fine harbours, and 

 others presenting an almost unbroken line of coast. 

 A cluster of several islands is called an archipelago. 

 (q. v.) The principal clusters in the Atlantic are 

 the West Indies, the Azores,, the Canaries, the He- 



