Iberian Peninsula or Iberia Peninsula, southwestern Europe, occupied by Spain and Portugal. Its name derives from its ancient inhabitants whom the Greeks called Iberians, probably after the Ebro (Iberus) River, the peninsula’s second longest river. The Pyrenees form a land barrier in the northeast from the rest of Europe, and in the south at Gibraltar the peninsula is separated from North Africa by a narrow strait. Its western and northern coasts are bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, and its eastern coast by the Mediterranean Sea. It includes Cape da Roca, in Portugal, the most west¬ erly point of continental Europe.
Iberville \e-ber-'vel\, Pierre Le Moyne d' (baptized July 20, 1661, Ville-Marie de Montreal—d. July 9,1706, Havana, Cuba, Spanish empire) French Canadian naval hero and explorer. As a young man he led raids on English fur-trading posts on Hudson Bay. He commanded expeditions against British settlements that by 1697 had expanded the area controlled by New France. He then ventured south to fortify the Mississippi River delta and secure the claim made on Louisiana by La Salle. The settlement Iberville founded on Biloxi Bay (1699) and the forts he built below present-day New Orleans (1700) and on the Mobile River (1702) led to the later colonization of Louisiana.
ibex \1-,beks\ Any of several spe¬ cies of surefooted, sturdy wild goats found in the mountains of Europe,
Asia, and North Africa. Ibex are typi¬ cally about 3 ft (90 cm) tall at the shoulder and have brownish gray fur that is darker on the underparts. The male has a beard and large, semicir¬ cular horns.
Ibibio \,ib-9-'be-o\ People of south¬ eastern Nigeria. Their language, Ibi¬ bio, is a Benue-Congo language of the Niger-Congo family. The Ibibio, numbering about three million, are mainly rainforest cultivators. Lin¬ eage heads serve as guardians of ancestral shrines. The secret society is a prominent feature of Ibibio culture.
The Ibibio are noted for their wood sculptures of ancestor figures ( ekpu ).
ibis \'I-b3s\ Any of about 20 species of medium-sized wading birds (sub¬ family Threskiomithinae) of the same family as the spoonbills. Ibises are found in all warm regions except on South Pacific islands. They wade
il
Carved figure from a male dancer's headdress, Ibibio people, Nigeria, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK CITY, THE MICHAEL C. ROCKEFELLER MEMORIAL COLLECTION, GIFT OF THE MATTHEW J. MELLON FOUNDATION, 1960 (1978. 412.403A-C)
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
922 I Ibiza ► Ibn Sa'ud
in shallow lagoons, lakes, bays, and marshes, using their slender, down- curved bill to feed on small fishes and soft mollusks. Species range from 22 to 30 in. (55-75 cm) long. Ibises fly with neck and legs extended, alternately flapping and sailing. They usually breed in vast colonies.
Ibiza \e-‘be-za\ Third largest island (pop., 1999 est.: 86,953) of the Bale¬ aric Islands (Baleares), Spain. Situated in the western Mediterranean, southwest of Majorca, it has an area of 221 sq mi (572 sq km); its capi¬ tal is the town of Ibiza (pop., 2001: 34,826). A flourishing settlement in ancient times, it was inhabited by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians and has notable archaeological sites. Its landscape is hilly, and its rugged northern coast has cliffs exceeding 800 ft (245 m) in height. Its beaches and mild winter climate make it a popular tourist centre.
IblTs \i-‘bles\ In Islam, the personal name of the Devil. Iblls, one of God’s angels, refused to venerate Adam at creation. He and his followers were thrown down from heaven and await punishment at the Last Judgment. Until then he is allowed to tempt everyone but true believers to do evil. Referred to as Shaytan (Satan) in this context, it was he who purportedly tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and caused the Fall. Iblls has long been a figure of speculation among Muslim scholars because of his ambiguous identification in the Qur’an as either an angel or a jinni.
IBM Corp. in full International Business Machines Corpora¬ tion Leading U.S. computer manufacturer, headquartered in Armonk, N.Y. It was incorporated in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co., a consolidation of three office-products companies. It adopted its present name in 1924 under the leadership of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., who built it into the major U.S. manufacturer of punch card tabulators. IBM bought an electric typewriter company in 1933 and soon secured a large share of that market. In the early 1950s it entered the computer industry, investing heavily in development, and in the 1960s it produced 70% of the world’s computers. Its initial specialty was mainframe computers, but in 1981 it produced its first personal computer, the IBM PC. IBM quickly became a leader in this field, but fierce competition undermined its market share and forced the company to retrench in the 1990s. In 1995 IBM bought the software manufacturer Lotus Development Corp.
Ibn al-'Arab? \,ib-nul-ar-a-'be\ (b. July 28, 1165, Murcia, Valencia—d. Nov. 16, 1240, Damascus) Islamic mystic and theologian. Born in Spain, he traveled widely in Spain and North Africa in search of masters of Sufism. In 1198 he began a pilgrimage to the Middle East, visiting Mecca, Egypt, and Anatolia before settling in Damascus in 1223. Famous and honoured as a spiritual master, he spent the rest of his life in contempla¬ tion, teaching, and writing. His great work was The Meccan Revelations, a personal encyclopedia covering all the esoteric sciences in Islam and his own inner life. He also wrote one of the most important works in Islamic mystical philosophy, The Bezels of Wisdom (1229).
Ibn ‘Aqll \,i-b9n-a-'kel\ (b. 1040, Baghad—d. 1119) Islamic theologian. Trained in the tenets of the Hanball school (see Ahmad ibn hanbal), the most traditional school of Islamic law, he outraged his teachers by striv¬ ing to incorporate liberal theological ideas into the tradition. He sought to use reason and logical inquiry to interpret religion, and he was influ¬ enced by the teachings of al-HALLAJ. In 1066 he was appointed professor at the mosque of al-Mansur in Baghdad, but persecution by conservative theologians soon led to his retirement, and in 1072 he was forced to retract his beliefs publicly.
Ibn Battutah \,ib-3n-ba-'tu-ta\ orig. Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Lawati al-Tanjl ibn Battutah
(b. Feb. 24, 1304, Tangier, Mor.—d. 1368/69, Morocco) Noted Arab trav¬ eler and writer. He received a traditional juristic and literary education in Tangier. After a pilgrimage to Mecca (1325), he decided to visit as many parts of the world as possible, vowing “never to travel any road a second time.” His 27-year wanderings through Africa, Asia, and Europe covered some 75,000 mi (120,000 km). On his return, he dictated his reminis¬ cences, which became one of the world’s most famous travel books, the Rihlah.
Ibn Gabirol V.i-bon-ga-'be-roL orig. Solomon ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol Latin Avicebron (b. c. 1022, Malaga, Caliphate of Cordoba—d. c. 1058, Valencia, Kingdom of Valencia) Jewish poet and philosopher. Educated in both the Hebrew and Arabic literary heritages, he became famous at age 16 for his religious hymns in Hebrew and was later a court poet of the vizier of Granada. The more than 200 secular and 200 religious poems that survive make him an outstanding figure of the
Hebrew school of poetry that flourished in Moorish Spain. Other works include influential writings of Neoplatonic philosophy and a collection of proverbs in Arabic.
Ibn Hazm \ I i-b3n- , ka-z9m\ in full AbG Muhammad c Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Sa'Id ibn Hazm (b. Nov. 7, 994, Cordoba, Caliphate of Cordoba—d. Aug. 15, 1064, Manta Lisham, near Sevilla) Islamic scholar and theologian. Born in Spain, he lived through the civil war that ended the Spanish Umayyad caliphate and was afterward imprisoned for hav¬ ing supported it. As a leader of the Zahirl school of jurisprudence, he taught that legal theory must rely on a literal interpretation of the Qur’an and tradition. His beliefs were often attacked, and his books were burned in public. His scholarship included not only jurisprudence and theology but also logic, literature, and history. Famed for his mastery of Arabic, he wrote about 400 books, fewer than 40 of which survive.