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Ithna 'Ashariyah ... Izvolsky, Aleksandr, Count

Ithna 'Ashariyah: an important sect of the Shi'ah (one of the major branches of Islam), believing in a succession of 12 imams, leaders of the faith after the death of Muhammad, beginning ...
itinerarium: road manual or route map of the ancient Roman Empire. They were constructed according to basic concepts formulated by Greek cartographers such as Agrippa and Ptolemy, and they were frequently ...
Ito Hirobumi: Japanese elder statesman (genro) and premier (1885-88, 1892-96, 1898, 1900-01), who played a crucial role in building modern Japan. He helped draft the Meiji constitution (1889) and brought about the ...
Ito Jakuchu: Japanese painter of the mid-Tokugawa period (1603-1867) who excelled in drawing flowers, fish, and birds, especially fowl, which he used to keep at his home in order to observe them ...
Ito Jinsai: Japanese sinologist, philosopher, and educator of the Edo (Tokugawa) period (1603-1867), who founded the Kogigaku ("Study of Ancient Meaning") school of thought , which subsequently became part of the larger ...
Itsekiri: ethnic group inhabiting the westernmost part of the Niger River delta of extreme southern Nigeria. The Itsekiri make up an appreciable proportion of the modern towns of Sapele, Warri, Burutu, ...
Itsuku Island: offshore island, Hiroshima ken (prefecture), Japan, in the Inland Sea. The small island, one of Japan's most scenic locations, is 19 miles (31 km) in circumference and ...
ITT Corporation: , former American telecommunications company that grew into a successful conglomerate corporation before its breakup in 1995.
Ituiutaba: city, western Minas Gerais estado ("state"), Brazil. It lies at 1,981 feet (604 m) above sea level, in the highlands between the Tijuco and da Prata rivers. It was made ...
Iturbide, Agustin de: Mexican caudillo (military chieftain) who became the leader of the conservative factions in the Mexican independence movement and, as Agustin I, briefly emperor of Mexico.
Ituri Forest: dense tropical rainforest lying on the northeastern lip of the Congo River basin in the Central African nation of Congo (Kinshasa). Situated between 0° and 3° N latitude and 27° ...
Itzamna: (Mayan: "Iguana House"), principal pre-Columbian Mayan deity. The ruler of heaven, day, and night, he frequently appeared as four gods called Itzamnas, who encased the world. Like some of the ...
IUD: plastic or metal object that is implanted in the uterus to prevent conception. See contraception.
Ivan Asen I: tsar of the Second Bulgarian empire from 1186 to 1196, during one of the most brilliant periods of the restored Bulgarian nation. He and his brother Peter II were founders ...
Ivan Asen II: tsar of the Second Bulgarian empire from 1218 to 1241, son of Ivan Asen I.
Ivan I: grand prince of Moscow (1328-40) and grand prince of Vladimir (1331-40) whose policies increased Moscow's power and made it the richest principality in northeastern Russia.
Ivan II: grand prince of Moscow and Vladimir.
Ivan III: grand prince of Moscow (1462-1505), who subdued most of the Great Russian lands by conquest or by the voluntary allegiance of princes, rewon parts of Ukraine from Poland-Lithuania, and repudiated ...
Ivan IV: grand prince of Moscow (1533-84) and the first to be proclaimed tsar of Russia (from 1547). His reign saw the completion of the construction of a centrally administered Russian state ...
Ivan V: in full Ivan Alekseyevich nominal tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1696.
Ivan VI: infant emperor of Russia in 1740-41.
Ivano-Frankivsk: oblast (province), western Ukraine. It was formed in 1939 from territory annexed from Poland. The oblast lies on the northern flank of the Carpathian Mountains and extends from the crest ...
Ivano-Frankivsk: city and administrative centre of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast (province), western Ukraine. It lies along the Bystritsa River just above its confluence with the Dniester River. Founded in 1661 as the ...
Ivanov, Ilya Ivanovich: Soviet biologist who developed a method for artificially inseminating domestic animals.
Ivanov, Lev: Russian ballet dancer who was choreographic assistant to Marius Petipa, the director and chief choreographer of the Imperial Russian Ballet.
Ivanov, Vsevolod Vyacheslavovich: Soviet prose writer noted for his vivid naturalistic realism, one of the most original writers of the 1920s.
Ivanov, Vyacheslav: Soviet rower who became the first three-time Olympic gold medalist in the prestigious single scull event.
Ivanov, Vyacheslav Ivanovich: philosopher, classical scholar, and leading poet of the Russian Symbolist movement.
Ivanovo: oblast (province), western Russia, occupying an area of 9,225 sq mi (23,900 sq km), northeast of Moscow astride the middle Volga River and centred on Ivanovo city. The surface is ...
Ivanovo: city and administrative centre of Ivanovo oblast (province), western Russia, on both banks of the Uvod River. It was created from two villages, Ivanovo and Voznesensk, in 1871; until 1932 ...
Ivanovsky, Dmitry Iosifovich: Russian microbiologist who, from his study of mosaic disease in tobacco, first detailed many of the characteristics of the organisms that came to be known as viruses. Although he is ...
Ivens, Joris: Dutch motion-picture director who filmed more than 50 international documentaries that explored leftist social and political concerns.
Iverson, Allen: American basketball player known for both explosive play on the court and controversy away from the game. He became the first great athlete to be strongly identified with the hip-hop ...
Ives, Charles: significant American composer who is known for a number of innovations that anticipated most of the later musical developments of the 20th century.
Ives, Frederic Eugene: American photographer and inventor.
Ivittuut: town in southwestern Greenland, on the 20-mi- (32-km-) long Arsuk Fjord, southeast of Frederikshab. Nearby is a large open-pit cryolite mine (deposit discovered in 1794) of major economic importance to ...
Ivo of Chartres, Saint: bishop of Chartres who was regarded as the most learned canonist of his age.
ivory: variety of dentin of which the tusk of the elephant is composed, prized for its beauty, durability, and suitability for carving. The tusk is the upper incisor and continues to ...
ivory carving: the carving or shaping of ivory into sculptures, ornaments, and decorative or utilitarian articles. Elephant tusks have been the main source of ivory used for such carvings, although the tusks ...
ivory-billed woodpecker: 45-cm (18-inch) black-and-white bird with a flaring crest (red in the male) and a long whitish bill. It belongs to the family Picidae (order Piciformes). The species was thought to ...
Ivrea: town and episcopal see, Torino province, Piemonte (Piedmont) region, northwestern Italy, on the Dora Baltea River, north of Turin. The importance of its gold mines led the Romans to seize ...
Ivry-sur-Seine: industrial suburb southeast of Paris, in Val-de-Marne departement, Paris region, France. It is bounded on the northwest by the city limits of Paris and on the northeast by the Seine ...
ivy: any plant of the genus Hedera, with about five species of evergreen woody vines (rarely shrubs), in the ginseng family (Araliaceae). The name ivy especially denotes the commonly grown English ...
Ivy League: a group of colleges and universities in the northeastern United States that are widely regarded as high in academic and social prestige: Harvard (established 1636), Yale (1701), Pennsylvania (1740), Princeton ...
Iwaki: city, Fukushima ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean. The city is divided into several sections that are located on the Abukuma Plateau and the alluvial plains of the ...
Iwakuni: city, Yamaguchi ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It is situated in the delta of the Nishiki River, facing Hiroshima Bay. A castle town founded in 1603 by the Kikkawa daimyo family, ...
Iwakura Tomomi: one of Japan's most influential statesmen of the 19th century.
Iwamizawa: city, central Hokkaido, Japan. It lies along the levee of the Ikushunbetsu River, northeast of Sapporo. It developed around the railway station built on the levee in 1882. With the ...
Iwasa Matabei: Japanese painter of the early Tokugawa period (1603-1867).
Iwasaki Yataro: industrial entrepreneur who founded the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, the second largest of the family-owned industrial-financial combines that dominated the economic life of Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Iwaszkiewicz, Jaroslaw: Polish poet, novelist, playwright, and essayist whose reputation rests largely on his achievements in new poetic forms.
Iwate: ken (prefecture), northeastern Honshu, Japan, bordering the Pacific Ocean (east). The greater part of its area is mountainous, and the climate is cold. The fishing port of Miyako serves as ...
Iwo: town, Osun state, southwestern Nigeria. It lies 6 miles (10 km) north of the Iwo station on the Lagos-Kano railway and at the intersection of roads from Ibadan, Oyo, and ...
Iwo Jima: island that is part of the Volcano Islands archipelago, Japan. It lies in the western Pacific at a point about 760 miles (1,220 km) south-southeast of Tokyo. Iwo Jima is ...
Ixcatec: Middle American Indians living in a single town, Santa Maria Ixcatlan, in northern Oaxaca, Mex. There were perhaps 10,000 Ixcatec before the Spanish conquest, but their numbers now remain stable ...
Ixelles: commune, Brussels region, central Belgium. A southeastern suburb of Brussels, it is one of the 19 communes that make up Greater Brussels. Factories in Ixelles process metals and make chemicals ...
Ixion: in Greek legend, son either of the god Ares or of Phlegyas, king of the Lapiths in Thessaly. He murdered his father-in-law and could find no one to purify him ...
Ixtlilxochitl: Aztec chieftain, the chief of Texcoco who supported the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes in the conquest of rival Aztecs in Tenochtitlan.
Izabal, Lake: lake in northeastern Guatemala. The nation's largest lake, Izabal occupies part of the lowlands between the Santa Cruz Mountains to the northwest and the Minas and San Isidro mountains to ...
Izalco Volcano: volcano in western El Salvador. It is the most active volcano in Central America, having erupted more than 50 times since 1700. Its black symmetrical cone, which was formed by ...
Izanagi and Izanami: (Japanese: "He Who Invites and She Who Invites"), the central deities in the Japanese creation myth. They were the eighth pair of brother and sister gods to appear after heaven ...
Izhevsk: city and capital of Udmurtia, in west-central Russia, lying along the Izh River. Izhevsk was founded in 1760 as a centre of ironworking and later of armaments, and the city ...
Izmail: city, Odessa oblast (province), southern Ukraine. It lies on the north bank of the main Danube distributary some 50 miles (80 km) from the Black Sea. The Turkish fortress established ...
Iznik ware: in Islamic ceramics, a school of Turkish pottery making that flowered throughout the 16th and on into the 17th century. There may have been potteries at Iznik, where there were ...
Izra'il: in Islam, the angel of death who separates souls from their bodies; he is one of the four archangels (with Jibril, Mikal, and Israfil). 'Izra'il is of cosmic size: with ...
Iztacalco: municipio ("municipality"), northeastern Federal District, central Mexico. It is situated at an elevation of 7,418 feet (2,261 m) in the Valley of Mexico. Iztacalco was once simply the commercial centre ...
Iztaccihuatl: dormant volcano situated on the Mexico-Puebla state line in central Mexico. It lies 10 miles (16 km) north of its twin, Popocatepetl, and 40 miles (65 km) south-southeast of Mexico ...
Iztapalapa: municipio ("municipality"), northeastern Federal District, central Mexico. It is situated at 7,480 feet (2,280 m) above sea level in the Valley of Mexico. It was formerly a city built on ...
Izu Islands: ("Seven Islands of Izu"), archipelago off Honshu, Japan, stretching southward into the Pacific Ocean for about 190 miles (300 km) from Tokyo Bay. Administratively part of Tokyo to (metropolis), the ...
Izu Peninsula: peninsula in Shizuoka ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. The peninsula extends 37 miles (60 km) into the Pacific Ocean between Suruga Bay on the west and Sagami Gulf on the east. ...
Izumi Kyoka: prolific Japanese short-story writer who created his own romantic, often mystical world and peopled it with characters representing his ideal moral values.
Izumi-Otsu: city, Osaka fu (urban prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It is situated facing Osaka Bay. An important port since the 8th century, it became a centre of cotton textile production during the ...
Izumi-Sano: city, Osaka fu (urban prefecture), Honshu, Japan. The city faces Osaka Bay. An important transportation centre during the Heian period (794-1185), the city became a market for cotton, agricultural produce, ...
Izumo: city, Shimane ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. First formed as a market town, it has been a commercial centre for the surrounding agricultural and stock-raising area since the 18th century. The ...
Izvestiya: (Russian: "News of the Councils of Working People's Deputies of the U.S.S.R."), historically important Russian daily newspaper published in Moscow. The paper was published by the Presidium of the Supreme ...
Izvolsky, Aleksandr, Count: diplomat who was responsible for a major Russian diplomatic defeat in the Balkans (1908-09) that increased tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary prior to World War I.