Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/840

* IQUIQUE. 746 IKAN. boinbarJod nnd captured after a handtoliand tight liy the insurgents against the Chilean Gov- triijni-iit. IQUITO, f-ke'tA. An important trihc, living aliiiut the junction of the Napu Kiver with the ilirafion (Aniazon), Eastern Kouador. The}- are expert spearmen, and are noted for their making of chicha liquor, whieh they llavor with tlic twigs of a plant having the efTect of an opiate. Jn religion they are still devoted to fetichisni. IBADE, trU'dft (Turk, irudah. will, desire). An Imperial decree pro'nulgate<l liy the Sultan of Turkey, and corresponding tn the Kuropean order in council. IBAK, *riik'. The name of an indefinitely boundiil region extending on both sides of the conllui'iice of the Euphrates and the Tigris, from the Syrian desert northeastward to the Elburz Mountains, on the southern shore of the Ca-spian Sen (Map; Turkey in Asia. L 0). The region consists chielly of sandy deserts in the west, and elevated, mostly barren, plateaus in the east, but is fertile along the river valleys, which are espe- cially numerous in the eastern or Persian part. The western |)aH. called Irak-Arabi, is nearly co- terminous with ancient Babylonia, and includes parts of the modern Turkish vilayi'ts of Bagdad and Basra. It includes the ruins of the ancient cities of Babylon. Seleucia. and Ctesiphon. and the modern cities of Bagdad. Basra, and Kerbela (Jleshcd Hussein). The eastern Irak, called IrakAjemi. coincides nearly with the ancient !Media, and includes a large i)art of Western and Central Persia, containing its largest and most flourishing cities. Ispahan, Teheran, and ITania- dan. The population of the whole of Irak is estimated at about .S.OOO.OOn. The inhabitants of the western part are largely nomadic. IRAK-AJEMI, UjV-nie'. See Irak. IRAK-ARABI, -U'ra-be'. See Irak. IRAN, ^riin'. The native name of Persia, in its broadest sense. (SocPkrsia.) The word /ru/i itself, in its modern fonn. is earlier fouml as Eran (whence often Eranian as an adjective), and it is ultimately connected with Artinn (q.v.) as a racial designation. In the Arcsta (q.v.) the people speak of themselves as Airiin diiinbavo ('Aryan nations'), nnd Ariya in the Old Persian cimeiform inscri]itions is employed in the sense of what we should today call Persian in the larger application of the term. As a more or less defined unit in ancient and modern times, the land of Iran is important geographically, ethnologically. historically, and linguistically. GeonRAPiiv and Etiinoi-oov ov Iran. .s far cs modem times arc concerned, the more impor- tant geographical and ethnological points con- nccle(l with Iran will be found treated under Persia. In remote times, as later, the Iranian boundaries comprehended the entire region from the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea. and Russian Turkestan on the north, to the Tigris, the Per- sian (lulf. and the Arabian Sea on the west and south, and extended to the Indus on the east, likewise comprising the modem Afghanistan and the territory to the north of it as far as the .Taxartes River (Sir Darya). The wide extent of this area showed as great a variety of climate, extremes of heat and cold, in antiquity as at pres- ent, and presented considerable diversity of fea- tures and characteristics. 'VMiile the larger part of the country has ever been marked as highland or mountainous, there are extensive low or de- pressed tracts, with salt deserts, and arid wastes, alt^^rnating with swampy districts and plains. What we know of the country in anticpiity shows that it was generally fertile and well wooiled in parts; but irrigation is nut infn'ipiently referred to. With regard to territorial dislriliution in an- cient times, it may be ailded that in the .1 visia the lands on the wi--t which came more prominently into notice were the coimtry known in history as Media (q.v.), including .Vzorbaijan or .lropa- tente (q.v.). and the districts about the Caspian Sea, and on the cast. Bactria (q.v.), including the modern territories of Ivhorassan and Scistan, together with parts of the present .Mghanisl^in. I'ersis (ancient J'ursn), or Persia proper, is first mentioned at the time of the founding of the .ch;cmcnian kingilom. ( S<>e Ach.i;mknes.) Krom that time the real history of the Iranian Empire as a whole begins. Ethnologically. the Iranian people are memlicrs of the .ryan or lndi>(er- manic family. The general Iranian type may be deduced by a comparison of the racial features of the Persians, Kurds, Ossetes, Baluchis, Af- ghajis, and inhabitants of the Pamir districts. The Ir.anian type, however, has been somewhat alTected. even from the earliest times, by ad- mixture with (he adjoining Semitic. Turanian, anil Iriiiinn trilics that border on the land itself. On tlic other hand, the spread of Iranian blood Ix-yond its own country may be re<'ognized, for instance, among the people of Northwestern India. Similarly, Iranian lineaments, like lin- guistic traits, may bo found penetrating into Armenia and Asia Minor, even from a remote period in the past. When the gradual dispersion of the Aryan or Indo-Germanic triln's took place in prehistoric times, it is presumed that the Iranians may have entered the great plateau from the north, on the west of the Oxus and Jaxartes, and have thus begun their advance into the country that later l)ecame their habitat. Linguistic, mythological, and religious evidences prove that they must long have remained in union with their Indian cousins. History of Iran. The beginnings of Iranian history arc shrouded in darkness, although the existence of an ancient kingdom in Bactria is in- ferred from early Oriental and classical references. (See Bactria.) With the Median kingdom, how- ever, we arc on historic ground, even though the early tradition of a Jledian conqiest of Baby- lonia, B.C. 2400, as recorded by Bcrosus (q.v.), may not be authentic. Nevertheless, with the presumed advance of the Iranian peoples westward in their land, the Jlcdes came earliest into real prominence, and though subject to As- syria for centuries, they were able to throw off the Assyrian yoke about the ninth century n.r., and real unity was given to the Median king- dom in the eighth centur>- by Peioccs. an able Iranian monarch. (For the subsequent history of the kingdom, see Media.) The account of the overthrow of the 'Median dynasty by Cynis (about n.C. 5!i0). and the events which led to the founding of the great Persian Empire of the ,eha>menian kings, and to its fall through .Mcx- ander the Great, will be found in the several articles devoted to those topics. The Seleucid dynasty (see SELET'cm^^) swayed the fortunes otf Iran for about seventy years, and gave place to the Parthian dynasty of the Arsacida: (q.v.).