Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/357

 IPSWICH IRAK-ARABI 345 IPSWICH, a parliamentary borough and river port of England, capital of the county of Suf- folk, on the river Orwell, 10 m. from the sea and 65 m. N. E. of London; pop. in 1871, 43,- 136. It is situated on a gentle declivity near the junction of the Orwell and Gipping, the latter of which, according to Camden, gave the town its name, which was originally Gip- peswich. The streets are generally narrow and irregular, hut are well paved and are light- ed with gas. It has 42 churches and places of worship, a mechanics' institute, a working men's college, large iron founderies and soap factories, breweries, corn mills, and ship-build- ing docks. Among the principal buildings are Queen Elizabeth's grammar school, the town hall, hall of commerce, corn exchange, coun- ty jail, hospital, assembly room, and barracks. The grammar school was founded originally in the reign of Edward IV., and was revived by Cardinal Wolsey, who intended to make it a Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ipswich. nursery for Christchurch college, which he had founded at Oxford. Its charter was con- firmed by Queen Elizabeth. The present building, the corner stone of which was laid by Prince Albert in 1851 on a different site from the ancient school, is 168 ft. front by 110 ft. deep. It accommodates, besides the grammar school, a public library and museum. The town has considerable foreign and coast- wise trade, chiefly in grain, coal, timber, and local manufactures. Ipswich was sacked by the Danes in the years 991 and 1000. IPSWICH, a town of Queensland, Australia, on the river Bremer, 25 m. W. of Brisbane ; pop. in 1871, 5,092. It has several churches and chapels, a hospital, a grammar school, a mechanics' institute with a library of 2,000 volumes, and two newspapers. Ipswich was incorporated into a municipality in March, 1860, and is now the second town of the colo- ny, rivalling Brisbane in business importance. It is the starting point of the southern and western railways. IKAK-A.IKMI. a central province of Persia, comprising a portion of the great desert, and bounded N. by a range of mountains dividing it from the provinces on the Caspian sea, E. by Khorasan, S. and S. W. by Ears and Khu- zistan, and W. and N. W. by Luristan, Arde- lan, and Azerbijan; area estimated at about 100,000 sq. m., pop. at 1,250,000. The sur- face consists chiefly of a high table land trav- ersed by several mountain ridges and fertile valleys. The Kizil Uzen in the north and the Kerah in the southwest are the principal riv- ers. The country is almost destitute of trees, and a considerable portion of arable land is un- cultivated, hut there are excellent pasture lands. Some of the valleys which are well watered produce large crops of rice, wheat, and other grains ; and fruits, opium, tobacco, cotton, saf- fron, and silk are sta- ples. Ispahan, Teheran, Ilamadan, Casbin, Ker- manshah, and Kum are the principal towns. IRAK-ARABI, or Irak- i-Arabi, the Arabic name, and- a common desig- nation among oriental- ists, for the S. E. portion of Asiatic Turkey, and some adjoining territo- ry to the east. It corre- sponds to ancient Baby- lonia and Elam or Susi- ana, and includes the pashalic of Bagdad, ex- cepting the northern portion, and the S. W. frontier land of Persia, principally Khuzistan. It comprises therefore the alluvium at the head of the Persian gulf as far north as about lat. 33, in the neighborhood of Hit on the Eu- phrates, and between the Syrian desert on the west and the mountain ranges of Kur- distan, Luristan, and Khuzistan on the east. This alluvium is said to increase with extra- ordinary rapidity, and it is supposed that its growth was still more rapid in ancient times, and that when the first Chaldean monarchy was established the Persian gulf reached 120 or 130 m. further inland than at present. Raw- linson says of this region that nothing is more remarkable than its featureless character. It is a dead level, broken only by single solitary mounds, the remains of ancient temples or cities, and by long lines of embankment mark- ing the course of ancient and recent canals. Near the streams and canals are lands of great fertility, but the rest, except in early spring, is almost as parched and arid as the most desolate districts of Arabia. The principal rivers are