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IAMBLICHUS (d.c. A.D. 330). Syrian philosopher. Syrian philosopher. The founder of the Syrian school of neo-Platonism. Taught the theory of emanations, and in addition to the 3 divine substances of Plotinus introduced a number of secondary triads. His works: Life of Pythagorus, discourses Exhorting to Philosophy, two mathematical treatises and a work on Mysteries.
IAMBLICHUS. lived in the 2nd century A.D. Syrian romance writer. Author of Babyloniaca, a love story.
IBN ARABI (1165-1240). Moslem theologian. Much travelled. Settled in Damascus. He professed to have spoken with God and the prophets. He wrote the Meccan Revelations, an account of the Sufic creed and a book on the 27 prophets.
IBN ATHIR. Family name of 3 Arabian writers (brothers) from Kurdistan. Majd ud-din (1149-1210), compiled a dictionary of traditions. Diya ud-din (1163-1239) a celebrated aesthetic critic. Abul-Hassan (1160-1234) wrote a history, the Kamil, and an account of the 7,500 companions of Mahomet.
IBN BATUTA (1304-78). Moslem traveller. Travelled throughout Mesopotamia, Palestine, Asia Minor and Arabia.Made several pilgrimages to Mecca. He travelled down the east African coast, penetrated into Mongolian Russia, crossed the Hindu Kush, reaching the Indus and Delhi. From there he travelled to China via the Maldives, Stri Lanka and Sumatra. On returning home in 1349 he then left for central Africa. He then retired to Fez in 1354.
IBN ISHAQ (d.768). Arabian historian. He was expelled from Medina in 733 due to his reputation as a rationalist. Settling in Bagdad he wrote his Life of the Apostle of God.
IBN KHALDUN (1332-1406). Arabian historian. Falling into disfavour with the sultan of Fez he left Africa and settled in Granada. Forced to return to Africa due to the jealousy of the vizier he served the sultan of Cairo and was made grand cadi. In 1400 he was sent to Damascus to oppose Tamerlane, but threw himself on the conqueror's mercy and was allowed to return to Egypt. He wrote a History of the Arabs, Foreigners and Berbers. He was the greatest Moslem intellectual of that time.
IBN MASARRA. (883-931). Arabian philosopher. Had liberal and unorthodox religious views. Taught esoteric philosophy and mysticism in the mountains near Cordova. At one stage spent time in exile due to his fear of the authorities. He returned to Spain to teach with the accession of Abd al-Rahman III. His form of Neo-Platonism was adopted and developed by many eminent philosophers.
IBN YUNUS. (c.950-1008). Arabian astronomer. He compiled the Hakimite tables of the sun, moon and planets, and observed two solar eclipses in 977 and 978. These were recorded with scientific precision which helped in determining the rate of acceleration of the moon.
IBN YUNUS (c.950-1008) Arabian astronomer. He compiled the famous Kakimite tables of the sun, moon and planets and in 977 and 978 observed two solar eclipses. The first being recorded with scientific precision, made it of great value in determining the rate of acceleration of the moon.
IBSEN, Henrik Johan (1828-1906) Norwegian dramatist, philosopher and poet. His boyhood was spent in poverty. He was apprenticed to a chemist in 1843. He began to publish poems and caustic epigrams in 1849. A year later he went to live in Christiania and his first play Catilina was printed. In 1851 he was made director of the chief theatre at Bergen for which he wrote several dramas. He moved back to Christiania in 1857. He published The Vikings of Helgeland in 1858 and Love's Comedy in 1862. He became director at two different theatres during which period he had his first success with the Pretenders in 1864. When his request for a poet's pension was refused he went into voluntary exile. He received his pension finally in 1866 but until 1891 he rarely went to Norway. After the performances of Brand, 1866 and Peer Gynt, 1867, he found himself a popular playwright, in spite of the criticism of his earlier writings. From then until 1900 he turned out a series of magnificent plays too vast to mention here. From 1891 he lived as a recluse at Christiania. The last 4 years of his life he was in a state of mental and physical collapse. He used his writings to attack the establishment of his day.
IDDESLEIGH, Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of (1818-87). English politician. He became a barrister. 1843 private secretary to Gladstone. 1851 succeeded to family baronetcy and estates. 1855, entered the House of Commons. 1859, financial secreary to the treasury, secretary for India in 1867, chancellor of the exchequer, 1874-1880, leader of the Commons, 1876-1885. Made earl of Iddesleigh 1885, he was then first lord of the treasury, 1885, and foreign secreary in 1886.
IDRISI (1090-1154). Arabian geographer. Came from Morocco. Travelled widely. In 1130 appointed court geographer by the Norman king, Roger II of Sicily. He is famous for his geographical account from personal observation of the whole of the inhabited world. The Al Rojari was completed in the year 1154.
IGNATIEV, Nicholas Pavlovitch, Count (1832-1908) Russian diplomat. He acted as military attache at the congress of Paris, 1856, and later was sent as plenipotentiary to Peking. He was made ambassador to Turkey in 1864 and devoted his 13 years at Constantinople to plans for freeing the Christian peoples under Moslem rule. He was discredited following the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78. Became Minister of the Interior in 1881.
IGNATIUS. Father of the Church. it is probable that he was a disciple of St. John and second bishop of Antioch after St. Peter. He was seized about A.D.116 during the persecution under Trajan and taken to Rome. The Ignatian Epistles, urge unity and obedience to bishops, and inveigh against Gnosticism and other heresies.
IMAGE, Selwyn (1849-1930) English artist. He came under the influence of Ruskin at New College, Oxford. After ordination in 1872 he gave up his clerical life to become an artist. He was known chiefly for his stained glass window designing. From 1910-16 he was Slade professor at Oxford. He published Poems and Carols in 1894 and in 1914 Art, Morals and the War. His letters appeared after his death.
IMHOTEP (C.2080 b.c.) Earliest recorded physician. He was chief minister, architect and physician to Zoser, king of the Third Dynasty of Egypt. Zoser's pyramid at Sakkara, the first built in stone, was designed by Imhotep. Such was his reputation for wisdom in magic and medicine that he became a demi-god and the Greeks identified him with Asklepios.
IMMERMANN, Karl Leberecht (1796-1840). German Author. He entered the Prussian pulic service in 1817, becoming the district judge in 1827 at Dusseldorf. He was also director of the theatre for 2 years, from 1834-36. He wrote many romantic and historical plays but was more successful as a novelist. Two of his most popular novels were Die Epigonen, 1836, and Munchhausen, 1839 which contained Der Oberhof, his most popular story.
IMPEY, Sir Elijah (1732-1809). British lawyer. He was called to the Bar in 1756 and was appointed chief justice to the new supreme court of Calcutta, 1774. He won praise for his impartiality, but as a friend of Warren Hastings, was recalled in 1783 and charged with corruption in 1787. He defended himself successfully but resigned his post.
IM THURN, Sir Everard Ferdinand (1852-1932). British explorer. He became dirrector of the British Guiana museum, 1877-82 and resident magistrate in that colony 1882-91. He served on the Venezuelan boundary commission and was governor of Ceylon 1901-04, and of Fiji, 1904-10, and high commissioner of the western Pacific. He explorred extensively in British Guiana, and was the first to ascent Mt. Roraima. His writings include Among the Indians of Guiana, 1883. He was knighted in 1905.
INCHBALD, Elizabeth (1753-1821). English actess and authoress. In 1753 she married an actor Joseph Inchbald (d.1779). She acted until 1789 on the provincial stage in many parts, and wrote and adapted many plays and farces. She is chiefly remembered as the writer of two classical novels, A sSmple Story, 1791, and Nature and Art 1796.
INCHBOLD, John William (1830-88). British painter. He first exhibited at the Academy in 1851. Praise of The Moorland, 1855, drew attention to his work, which, however, was slow to win general approval. In his broad landscapes, his aerial effects and wide horizons were especially fine, though his colouring was uncertain.
INCHCAPE, James Lyle Mackay, Earl of (1852-1932). British merchant. He entered a firm of Indian agents of which he later became a partner. Chairman of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, 1889-93, he received a knighthood in 1804 for his part in establishing the gold standard in India. He was chosen to represent commercial interests on the council of India in 1897, distinguishing himself further by negotiating a commercial treaty with China in 1902. He built up a unique position in the banking and shipping world, was a member of a large number of commisions. He represented India at the Imperial Conferences of 1907 and 1911. He was a director of the National Provincial Bank, of the Anglo-Persian Oil Co., and of the Great Western railway, and also of the shipping concern the P. and O. Inchcape was made a baron in 1911, rendered service to the state during World War I, was a member of the National Economy Committee under the chairmanship of Sir E. Gedes in 1921-22, made a viscount in 1924 and an earl in 1929. He was a great philanthropist.
INCLEDON, Charles Benjamin [1763-1826]. English singer. He ran away to sea at an early age, but the development of his remarkable voice persuaded him to devote himself from 1784 to singing. He made his first appearance at Covent Garden in 1790, becoming the most successful tenor of his time. Though he appeared mostly in opera, he excelled in sailor songs and ballads.
INE [died circa 730]. King of Wessex. He became King in 688, and reigned until his abdication in 726. He engaged in many wars against the Britons, and the adjoining kingdoms of Kent, Essex, and Mercia; Kent, Essex, and London were brought under his rule. Civil strife growth him into retirement to Rome, where he probably died. He issued a Code of laws which is still extant.
INGEBORG, (c.1176-c.1237). Queen of France. The daughter of Valdemar I of Denmark, she married Philip II of France in 1193. His attempt to annul the marriage in the same year led to his excommunication and the laying of a papal interdict on France. The queen was imprisoned for over 15 years, but survived her husband, living mainly at a priory at Corbeil founded by herself.
INGEMANN, Bernard Severin (1789-1862). Danish poet. He published his first book of poems in 1811, following this with a large number of tragedies and some romantic plays. After he had been appointed, in 1822, a teacher of Danish literature and language at Soro, he wrote a series of historical novels, including King Erik, 1833, and Prince Otto of Denmark, 1835. He also published several very popular national epics.
INGERSOLL, Robert Green (1833-99). American rationalist. He was admitted to the bar in 1854, and entered political life as a Democrat. Having seen service in the Civil War as colonel of cavalry, he went over to the Republican side and exploited his remarkable oratorical powers as an opponent of Christianity. His works include The Gods and other Lectures, 1876; some Mistakes of Moses, 1879; Great Speeches, 1887.
INGLEBY, Clement Mansfield (1823-86). English scholar. He became a solicitor but abandoned this for journalism about 1860. Famous as a Shakespearean scholar and especially for his exposure of the forgeries of J. Payne Collier, he wrote Shakespeare: The Man and the Book, 1877-81, and a curious work, Shakespeare's Bones, 1882.
INGLEFIELD, Sir Edward Augustus (1820-94). English sailor. He entered the navy in 1834, fighting at Acre and on the South American station, and becoming commander in 1845. In 1852-54 he commanded two expeditions to the Arcxtic in search of sir John Franklin, and he later fought in the Crimean War. He was knighted in 1877, made admiral in 1879 and retired in 1885. Apart from his explorations he is remembered mainly for his inventions of the hydraulic steering gear and of the anchor that bears his name and as a painter of marine subjects.
INGLIS, Elsie Maud (1864-1917). British surgeon. Born in India she settled in Scotland in 1878. She gave up her medical practice shortly after the outbreak of World War I to organize the Scottish Women's Hospitals, entirely staffed by women for work at the front. Having gone out to Serbia in 1915, she was taken prisoner but later released, and in 1916, she attached herself to a volunteer corps fighting with the Russians. She died upon her return to England in 1917 from the Russian front.
INGLIS, Sir John Eardley Wilmot (1814-62). British soldier. He entered the army in 1833 and was drafted to India, where he fought at Mooltan and Gujarat, 1848-49. He is remembered solely as the commander, after the death of Sir Henry Lawrence, of the British forces in Lucknow during the historic siege of that city in the Indian Mutiny July-Sept. 1857. For this achievement he was knighted and made major-general in 1857.
INGRAM, Herbert (1811-60). English journalist. He started at The Illustrated London News, May 14, 1842. He was M.P. for Boston from 1856 until Sept. 8, 1860, when he drowned in Lake Michigan. His son, William James (1847-1924), carried on and developed the business founded by his father. Liberal M.P. for Boston, 1874-80, 1885-86, 1892-95, he was made a baronet in 1893, invented the rotary press named after him and with Charles Ingram, started the weekly paper The Sketch.
INGRAM, James (1774-1850) English scholar. He was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, 1803-08, and was made president of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1824. The foremost Anglo-Saxon scholar of his time, he published in edition of the Saxon Chronicle in 1823, and other works.
INGRAM John Kells (1823-1907). Irish economist. He became professor of oratory and English literature, 1852, and regis professor of Greek, 1866, at Trinity College, Dublin. Although a fine classical scholar, a talented mathematician, and a sound philosopher, it is as an economist that Ingram won European fame. His History of Political Economy, 1888, and History of Slavery, 1895, were his most popular works. Librarian and later vice- provost of Trinity Ingram he was the author of the famous poem, Who Fears to Speak of '98?
INGRES, Jean Auguste Dominique (1780-1867). French painter.he became a pupil of David in 1796. He showed marked proficiency in the academic style, and when in 1806 he went to Rome, where he resided until 1820, he devoted himself to an exhaustive study of Raphael and the old masters. He remained an adherent of the classical school all his life. His drawing was often superb, but his colouring was weak,. He succeeded Vernet in the directorate of the French school in Rome in 1834 and was named a Senator in 1862. His most famous works were Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1808. An Odalisque, 1819; Jesus Giving the Keys to S. Peter, 1820; The Apotheosis of Homer, 1827, and The Spring, 1856. He was also a distinguished portrait painter.
INMAN, Henry (1801-46). American painter. He was an organizer and first vice president of the New York National Academy of Design. He became famous in the USA and England as a portrait painter, his English sitters including Wordsworth, and Lord Macaulay.
INMAN, William (1825-81). British shipowner. He established the Inman line of steamers, which took emigrants to the U.S.A., the first ship, the City of Glasgow, sailing in 1850.
INNES, Cosmo (1798-1874). Scottish historian. In 1846 he became professor of constitutional law and history at Edinburgh University. He is remembered as the author of Scotland in the Middle Ages, 1860; and of Sketches of Early Scotch History, 1861.
INNES, Robert' Thornton Axton (1861-1933) British astronomer. As director of the Transvaal observatory he became the greatest living authority on, and discovered over 1000 double stars in the Southern Hemisphere.
INNESS, George (1825-94). American painter. After a period as wood-engraver he took up landscape painting. Self-taught, an experimentalist, and impatient of structural foundations, he excelled in his feeling for color, light and air. His works include The River of Life; Moon Rise in Florida, American Sunset and S. Peter's from the Tiber. Though never representative of any one school he considerably influenced American art.
INNOCENT . Name of 13 popes. Innocent II, pope in 1130-43, was disburbed by the rival claim of the anti-pope Anacletus II. he was for a while supported by Henry I of England and the German king, Lothair, but had twice to flee from Rome. Innocent IV, pope 1243-54, renewed the excommunication against the emperorFrederick II, and finally at the Council of Lyons, 1245, deposed the emperor and ordered a new election. He prosecuted war against Frederick until the latter's death in 1254, and continued to struggle with Frederick successors until his own death in 1254. He was the first to bestow red hats on Roman cardinals. Innocent V, the first Dominican pope only reigned from January to June, 1276. Innocent VI, pope 1352-62 was a Frenchman named Aubert, who reigned at Avignon. He was a patron of Petrarch. Innocent VII was pope during the schism of the antipope Benedict XIII. Innocent VIII, pope 1484-92, declared Henry VII to be lawful king of England, sent Torquemada as grand inquisitor to Spain, and was notorious for his nepotism. Innocent IX, when 72 years old, was pope October to December, 1591. Innocent X, pope 1644-55 was largely dependent on the counsel of his sister-in-law Olimpia Maidalchini. He was a reformer of monastic discipline, and condemned the Jansenists, who replied by denying papal infallibility on matters of fact. Innoncent XIII, pope 1721-24, was the son of the Duke of Poli, and recognized the old pretender as "James III."
INNOCENT I (d. 417). Pope. he succeeded Anastasius I as pope in 402, and by successful intervention in many ecclesiastical disputes did much to strengthen the authority of the Roman see. He strongly supported John Chrysostom, when he was wrongfully ejected from the see of Constantinople, and he confirmed the condemnation of Pelagianism by the African synods. Rome was attacked by the Goths under Alaric in 408, during his pontificate, but when the city was sacked in 410 the pope was absent on an embassy to the Emperor Honorius at Ravenna. When he died he was declared a saint.