Ishtar In Mesopotamian religion, the goddess of war and sexual love. Known as Ishtar in Akkadia, she was called Astarte by western Semitic peoples and was identified with Inanna in Sumeria. In early Sumeria she was the goddess of the storehouse as well as of rain and thunderstorms. Once a fertility goddess, she evolved into a deity of contradictory quali¬ ties, of joy and sorrow, fair play and enmity. In Akkadia she was asso¬ ciated with the planet Venus and was the patroness of prostitutes and alehouses. Her popularity became universal in the ancient Middle East, and she was called Queen of the Universe.
Ishtar, with her cult-animal the lion, and a worshipper, modern impression from a cylinder seal, c. 2300 bc; in the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
COURTESY OF THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Ishtar Gate Enormous burnt-brick double entryway built in the ancient city of Babylon c. 575 bc. The gate was more than 38 ft (12 m) high and was decorated with glazed brick reliefs. Through the gatehouse ran the stone- and brick-paved Processional Way. Some 120 brick lions lined the street and some 575 dragons and bulls, in 13 rows, adorned the gate.
Entrance to the Outer Shrine of the Grand Shrine of Ise, Japan.
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Isidore of Sevilla ► island I 963
Isidore of Sevilla, Saint (b. c. 560, Cartagena or Sevilla, Spain—d. April 4, 636, Sevilla; canonized 1598; feast day April 4) Spanish prelate and scholar, last of the Western Fathers of the Church. He became arch¬ bishop of Sevilla c. 600 and presided over several councils that shaped church policy, including the fourth Council of Toledo (633). He also pro¬ moted the conversion of the Visigoths from Arianism to orthodox Chris¬ tianity. His best-known work was Etymologies, an encyclopedia that became a standard reference work in the Middle Ages. He also wrote theological works, biographies, and treatises on natural science, cosmol¬ ogy, and history. He was canonized in 1598 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1722.
isinglass See muscovite
Isis \'I-S3s\ One of the major goddesses of ancient Egypt, the wife of Osiris. When Osiris was killed by Seth, she gathered up the pieces of his body, mourned for him, and brought him back to life. She hid their son Horus from Seth until Horns was fully grown and could avenge his father. Worshiped as a goddess of protection, she had great magical powers and was invoked to heal the sick or protect the dead. By Greco-Roman times she was dominant among Egyptian goddesses, and her cult reached much of the Roman world as a mystery religion.
ISKCON See Hare Krishna movement Isla de Pasqua See Easter Island
Islam Major world religion founded by Muhammad in Arabia in the early 7th century ad. The Arabic word islam means “submission”—specifically, submission to the will of the one God, called Allah in Arabic. Islam is a strictly monotheistic religion, and its adherents, called Muslims, regard the Prophet Muhammad as the last and most perfect of God’s messen¬ gers, who include Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and others. The sacred scripture of Islam is the Qur’an, which contains God’s revelations to Muhammad. The sayings and deeds of the Prophet recounted in the sunna are also an important source of belief and practice in Islam. The religious obligations of all Muslims are summed up in the Five Pillars of Islam, which include belief in God and his Prophet and obligations of prayer, charity, pilgrimage, and fasting. The fundamental concept in Islam is the SHARfAH, or Law, which embraces the total way of life commanded by God. Observant Muslims pray five times a day and join in community worship on Fridays at the mosque, where worship is led by an imam. Every believer is required to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city, at least once in a lifetime, barring poverty or physical incapacity. The month of Ramadan is set aside for fasting. Alcohol and pork are always forbid¬ den, as are gambling, usury, fraud, slander, and the making of images. In addition to celebrating the breaking of the fast of Ramadan, Muslims cel¬ ebrate Muhammad’s birthday (see mawlid) and his ascension into heaven (see mi'raj). The Td al-Adha festival inaugurates the season of pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims are enjoined to defend Islam against unbelievers through jihad. Divisions occurred early in Islam, brought about by dis¬ putes over the succession to the caliphate (see caliph). About 90% of Mus¬ lims belong to the Sunnite branch. The ShUtes broke away in the 7th century and later gave rise to other sects, including the IsmATus. Another significant element in Islam is the mysticism known as Sufism. Since the 19th century the concept of the Islamic community has inspired Muslim peoples to cast off Western colonial rule, and in the late 20th century fun¬ damentalist movements (see Islamic fundamentalism) threatened or toppled a number of secular Middle Eastern governments. In the early 21st cen¬ tury, there were more than 1.2 billion Muslims in the world.
Islam, Nation of See Nation of Islam
Islam, Pillars of Five duties incumbent on every Muslim. The first is the profession of faith in the one God and in Muhammad as his Prophet. The others are prayer five times a day, the giving of alms to the poor, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
Islamabad \is-Ta-m9-,bad\ Capital (pop., 1998: 524,500) of Pakistan, located northeast of Rawalpindi. Established in 1959 to replace Karachi as the capital, it was designed to blend modern and traditional Islamic archi¬ tecture. The city itself is small, with an area of 25 sq mi (65 sq km), but the planned capital area is a 350-sq-mi (910-sq-km) expanse of natural terraces and meadows surrounding the city. It is the seat of the Univer¬ sity of Islamabad (founded 1965).
IslambGli \ l is-lam-'bu-le\, Khalid al- or Khaled Islambouli (b.
1958, near Al-Minya, Egypt—d. April 15, 1982, Egypt) Egyptian radical,
assassin of Anwar el-Sadat. Born into a family of rural notables, he attended Egypt’s military academy and was assigned to the artillery corps as a lieutenant. Furious at the arrest of his brother, a leader of the Islam¬ ist opposition to Sadat, he joined the radical Islamic Jihad Group (Jama'at al-Jihad al-Islaml), and, along with a group of accomplices, assassinated Sadat during a parade in 1981. He was executed following a public trial.
Islamic arts Visual, literary, and performing arts of the populations that adopted Islam from the 7th century. Islamic visual arts are decorative, colourful, and, in religious art, nonrepresentational; the characteristic Islamic decoration is the arabesque. From ad 750 to the mid 11th century, ceramics, glass, metalwork, textiles, illuminated manuscripts, and wood¬ work flourished; lustred glass became the greatest Islamic contribution to ceramics. Manuscript illumination became an important and greatly respected art, and miniature painting flourished in Iran after the Mongol invasions (1220-60). Calligraphy, an essential aspect of written Arabic, developed in manuscripts and architectural decoration. Islamic architec¬ ture finds its highest expression in the mosque and related religious build¬ ings. Early Islamic religious architecture drew upon Christian architectural features such as domes, columnar arches, and mosaics, but also included large courtyards for congregational prayer. Religious archi¬ tecture came into its own in the period of the caliphates with the creation of the hypostyle mosque in Iraq and Egypt. Islamic literature is written in four main languages: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu. Arabic is of overwhelming importance as the language of the revelation of Islam and of the Qur’an. The Persians used the genres, forms, and rules of Arabic poetry in their own language but elaborated on them. They also devel¬ oped a new genre, the masnavl, composed of a series of rhyming cou¬ plets, which they employed for epic poetry. Persian literature in turn influenced both Urdu and Turkish literature, especially with regard to vocabulary and metres. In the realm of popular literature, the best-known work is The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment, a rich collection of fairy tales from different parts of the Muslim world. Islamic music is monophonic, devoid of harmony, and characterized by distinctive systems of rhythms and melodies, extensive ornamentation of the single melodic line, and virtuoso improvisation. It is usually performed by a small ensemble—a singer and several instrumentalists who alternate solo vocal and instru¬ mental passages. While the theatre has not flourished as a major art under Islam—indeed, conservative Muslims have consistently disapproved of the theatre—there are traditions of folk dance, dance as an entertainment spectacle, and dance as an art form in most Islamic countries. One note¬ worthy form of devotional dance is that of the dervish. Popular traditions such as mime and shadow-puppet shows have also have persisted, and live popular drama has a strong tradition in Persia, where passion plays took root. See also hypostyle hall; Mozarabic art.