ISPAHAN 



3074 



ITALIAN LANGUAGE 



broken by large water areas, for temperatures 

 vary on land and seas in the same latitude. In 

 the southern hemisphere, where the oceans are 

 of much greater extent, the isotherms follow 

 more closely the parallels of latitude. 



A line drawn near the earth's equator, 

 through the middle of the belt which has the 

 hottest climate, is called the heat equator. 

 This isotherm connects places having an aver- 

 age temperature of about 80 F. The daily 

 charts issued by the weather bureaus of var- 

 ious countries contain isothermal lines. See 

 WEATHER BUREAU. 



ISPAHAN, is pa hahn ' , formerly the capital 

 and now one of the large cities in Persia, is 

 situated on the Zendehrud River, over 200 

 miles south of Teheran, the present capital. It 

 is one of the oldest cities in Persia, and an- 

 ciently was one of the most magnificent in 

 Asia. Only a small part of the city is now 

 inhabited, the greater part being occupied by 

 ruined castles, mosques and schools, monu- 

 ments of former splendor. Notable among 

 these is the celebrated Mesjid-i-Shah, or "royal 

 mosque," a magnificent example of Oriental 

 architecture. One of the most remarkable 

 structures is a bridge across the Zendehrud aver 

 1,000 feet long, resting on thirty-four arches 

 and surmounted by arched galleries. The town 

 is of commercial importance on account of its 

 situation on the main route from Abushehr to 

 Teheran, and it is active industrially, the chief 

 manufactures being pottery, arms, gold and 

 silver wares and cotton and woolen goods. Its 

 principal exports are tobacco, opium, rice and 

 rugs. Population, estimated at 80,000. 



ISRAELITES, iz'ra elites. See JEWS. 



ISRAELS, eesrahels', JOSEF (1824-1911), 

 the great regenerator of Dutch art. He chose 

 to present pathetic scenes in the lives of the 

 humbler classes of Holland, notably its fisher- 

 folk, and his subjects touch the hearts of all 

 who view his canvases. He was born at Gron- 

 ingen, of Jewish parentage. After studying at 

 Amsterdam and at Paris, he started out as an 

 historical painter, but soon turned to the por- 

 trayal of tragic incidents in the lives of the 

 poor. Although he knew but little of the life 

 of fisherfolk until he was past the age of thirty, 

 many of his important pictures were painted 

 while he lived in luxury at The Hague, the 

 most notable of these being The Sewing School 

 at Katwijk, Silent Company, Fine Weather and 

 The Struggle for Life. Among several can- 

 vases in American galleries is his Frugal Meal, 

 now a part of the Vanderbilt collection in the 



Metropolitan Museum, New York. He also 

 showed great skill as an etcher, his plates 

 being as simple and direct as his paintings. 



ISTHMIAN, is 'mi an, GAMES, one of the 

 four national festivals of ancient Greece, in 

 which trained athletes wrestled and boxed, 

 raced and threw the discus. These games were 

 held in the southern part of the Isthmus of 

 Corinth, close by a temple sacred to Poseidon 

 (Neptune), in whose honor they are thought 

 to have originated. After 582 B. c. they were 

 held regularly in the spring of the second and 

 fourth years of each Olympiad, or the four-year 

 period between the Olympian games. The 

 ancient Greek prizes were palm branches and 

 wreaths of parsley; later the Romans substi- 

 tuted prizes of wreaths of fir. The site of these 

 ancient games is now occupied by the modern 

 town of Isthmia; in the vicinity may still be 

 seen traces of the old stadium. See OLYMPIAN 

 GAMES. 



ISTHMUS, is'mus, from a Greek word 

 meaning neck, is a term applied to a narrow 

 strip of land connecting two continents, or a 

 peninsula and the mainland. An isthmus is 

 frequently a barrier to commerce, a condition 

 which was responsible for two of the largest 

 canals in the world. European merchant craft 

 could find no shorter way to India than around 

 Africa until the building of the Suez Canal, 

 which cut the isthmus connecting Africa and 

 Arabia. Similarly, the Isthmus of Panama, 

 connecting the two Americas, made it necessary 

 for boats to sail around South America until 

 the Panama Canal was constructed. See 

 PANAMA CANAL; SUEZ CANAL. 



The Isthmus of Corinth, connecting Morea 

 (the Peloponnesus) with Northern Greece, and 

 the Isthmus of Kra, connecting the Malay 

 Peninsula with Siam, are other well- 

 necks of land. On the former the ancent 

 Greeks were accustomed to celebrate the Is 

 mian games (which see). 



ITALIAN, ital'yan, LANGUAGE, perhaj 

 the most musical and poetic of all the h 

 guages of modern Europe. It has few of tl 

 narrow, closed vowel sounds which English 

 has in such plenty in words like met, sat or 

 tin, and its broad, open sounds and vowel end- 

 ings make it a joy to singers. Many of the 

 world's greatest operas are written in it, and 

 even those hearers who do not understand the 

 language can feel the charm of the liquid 

 sounds. Grand opera singers, even those who 

 have acquired only a superficial knowledge of 

 the tongue, prefer to sing in it rather than in 



