© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
956 I Iqaluit ► Iranian languages
Iqaluit \e-'ka-lu-it\ formerly Frobisher Bay Town (pop., 2001: 5,236), capital of Nunavut territory, Canada. Situated on southeastern Baffin Island, it is the largest community in the eastern Canadian Arctic. It was established as a trading post in 1914 and became an air base dur¬ ing World War II. It later was the site of construction camps for the DEW (Distant Early Warning) line of radar stations. It is the site of a meteo¬ rological station and a hospital. It became Nunavut’s capital in 1999.
Iqbal Vik-,bal\, Sir Muhammad (b. Nov. 9, 1877, Si)lkot, Punjab, India—d. April 21, 1938, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan) Indian poet and phi¬ losopher. He first won fame for his poetry, which was written in the clas¬ sical style for public recitation and became known even among the illiterate. His perspective grew increasingly Pan-Islamic, as revealed in the long poem The Secrets of the Self ( 1915), which he wrote in Persian in order to address a broader Muslim audience. Calling for a revitaliza¬ tion of Islam, he advocated the separate Muslim state that would even¬ tually be realized with the founding of Pakistan in 1947, and he was acclaimed after his death as the father of that country. His poetic master¬ piece is “The Song of Eternity” (1932). He is considered the greatest 20th-century poet to write in Urdu.
iqta* \ik-'ta\ Type of land tenure system practiced in early Islamic soci¬ eties. Under the iqta ( system, which began in the 9th century, political leaders awarded the right of usufruct over land to an individual (usually in exchange for military service) for a limited period. It differed from feu¬ dal land tenure practiced in Europe by the fact that land in the Islamic system remained the property of the original owner, not the recipient or granter of the iqta\ The exact implementation of the system varied from region to region and changed over time.
IRA See Irish Republican Army
Iran officially Islamic Republic of Iran formerly Persia Country, Middle East, southwestern Asia. Area: 636,374 sq mi (1,648,200 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 69,515,000. Capitaclass="underline" Tehran. Persians constitute
OMAN Gulf of Oman
© 2002 Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
about one-third of its population; other eth¬ nic groups include Azerbaijanians, Kurds, Lurs, Bakhtyari, and Balochi. Languages: Persian (Farsi; official), numerous others.
Religions: Islam (official; predominantly Shfite); also Zoroastrianism. Currency: rial. Iran occupies a high plateau, rising higher than 1,500 ft (460 m) above sea level, and is surrounded largely by mountains. More than half of its surface area consists of salt deserts and other wasteland. About one-tenth of its land is arable, and another one-fourth is suitable for grazing. Iran’s rich petroleum reserves account for about one-tenth of world reserves and are the basis of its economy. It is an Islamic republic with one legislative house and several
oversight bodies dominated by clergy. The head of state and government is the president, but supreme authority rests with the rahbar, a ranking cleric. Human habitation in Iran dates to some 100,000 years ago, but recorded history began with the Elamites c. 3000 bc. The Medes flour¬ ished from c. 728 but were overthrown in 550 by the Persians, who were in turn conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th century bc. The Parthians (see Parthia) created an empire that lasted from 247 bc to ad 226, when control passed to the Sasanian dynasty. Various Muslim dynas¬ ties ruled from the 7th century. In 1501 the Safavid dynasty was estab¬ lished and lasted until 1736. The Qajar dynasty ruled from 1796, but in the 19th century the country was economically controlled by the Russian and British empires. Reza Khan (see Reza Shah Pahlavi) seized power in a coup (1921). His son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi alienated religious leaders with a program of modernization and Westernization and was overthrown in 1979; ShTite cleric Ruhollah Khomeini then set up an Islamic republic, and Western influence was suppressed. The destructive Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s ended in a stalemate. Since the 1990s the government has gradually moved to a more liberal conduct of state affairs.
Iran-Contra Affair U.S. political scandal. In 1985 Robert McFarlane, head of the National Security Council (NSC), authorized sales of weap¬ ons to Iran in an attempt to secure the release of U.S. hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian terrorist groups. The deal contravened stated policy regarding both dealings with terrorists and military aid to Iran. At the instigation of Oliver North, a NSC staff member, and with the approval of John M. Poindexter, part of the $48 million paid by Iran for the arms was diverted to the Nicaraguan contras, in direct violation of a 1984 law banning such assistance. A Senate investigation resulted in the conviction of North and Poindexter on charges of obstructing justice and related offenses, though their convictions were later overturned on the ground that testimony given at their trials had been influenced by information they had supplied to Congress under a limited grant of immunity. Pres. Ronald Reagan accepted responsibility for the arms-for-hostages deal but denied any knowledge of the diversion.
Iran hostage crisis (1979-81) Political crisis involving Iran’s deten¬ tion of U.S. diplomats. Anti-American sentiment in Iran—fueled in part by close ties between the U.S. and the unpopular leader Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi —peaked when Pahlavi fled Iran during the 1979 Iranian revolution. When the monarch entered the U.S. for medical treatment later that year, Islamic militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and seized 66 Americans. The hostage-takers, who enjoyed the tacit support of the new Iranian regime of Ruhollah Khomeini, demanded the shah’s extradi¬ tion to Iran, but Pres. Jimmy Carter refused and froze all Iranian assets in the U.S. The Iranians released 13 women and African Americans on Nov. 19-20, 1979, and another hostage was released in July 1980. A rescue attempt in April 1980 failed. Negotiations for the hostages’ return began after the shah died in July 1980, but the remaining 52 hostages were kept in captivity until Jan. 20, 1981, when they were released moments after the inauguration of Ronald Reagan. The crisis contributed to Carter’s fail¬ ure to win reelection. See also Iran-Contra Affair.
Iran-Iraq War (1980-90) Protracted and indecisive conflict prompted by Iraq’s invasion of its eastern neighbour. Following the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Iraqi leadership sought to exploit Iran’s military and politi¬ cal chaos in order to resolve border disputes, gain control of Iran’s oil- rich western (largely Arab) province, and achieve hegemony in the Persian Gulf. Iraq was successful early (1980-82) but began to lose ground and sought to negotiate peace. Iran refused, and the war turned into a bloody stalemate that included the first use of chemical warfare since World War I (1914-18). After additional Iraqi advances, Iran agreed to a cease-fire in 1988. Peace was concluded only when Iraq invaded another neighbour, Kuwait, in 1990. See also Saddam Hussein; Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iranian languages Major subgroup of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Iranian languages are probably spoken by more than 80 million people in southwestern and southern Asia. Only two Old Iranian languages are known, Avestan and Old Persian. A greater number of Middle Iranian languages (c. 300 bc-ad 950) are known; these are divided into a western and an eastern group. Modem Iranian languages fall into four groups. The southwestern group includes Modern Persian (Farsi), Dari (in northern Afghanistan), Tajiki (in Tajikistan and other Central Asian republics); Luri and Bakhtiari (in southwestern Iran); and Tat. The northwestern group includes Kurdish (spoken in Kurdistan) and Baluchi (in southwestern Pakistan, southeastern Iran, and southern Afghanistan). The southeastern group includes Pashto (in Afghanistan and