A-Z Browse

  • IAEA
    autonomous intergovernmental organization dedicated to increasing the contribution of atomic energy to the world’s peace and well-being and ensuring that agency assistance is not used for military purposes. The IAEA and its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2005....
  • IAF (Jordanian organization)
    ...system that allowed voters to cast as many votes as there were representatives in their constituency. In the election the number of seats won by anti-Zionist Islamic militants—who made up the IAF, a coalition of Islamic groupings and the largest of Jordan’s political parties—was reduced from 36 to 16, which gave the king the support he needed to carry out his policy....
  • IAF (American organization)
    ...campaign in a working-class area of Chicago; the result was the Back of the Yards Council, which became a prototype for a generation of community organizations. In 1940, Alinsky founded the Industrial Areas Foundation and trained cadres of organizers in his techniques. Following wartime service in several federal agencies, Alinsky and his IAF team carried their techniques to communities......
  • IAF (Israeli military)
    ...was the nephew of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, and during World War II he served as a pilot in Britain’s Royal Air Force. Afterward he became one of the founding officers of the Israel Air Force (IAF), a branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In 1958 Weizman was appointed commander in chief of the IAF and set out to transform and modernize it, particularly its str...
  • Iago (fictional character)
    the villain of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello. One of Shakespeare’s most intriguing and plausible villains, Iago frequently takes the audience into his confidence, a device that encourages close observation of his skillful manipulations and their disastrous results. He is a complex character, the full development of a type that Shakespeare f...
  • Iakchos (Greek mythology)
    minor deity associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries, the best known of the ancient Greek mystery religions. On the day preceding the commencement of the mysteries, Iacchus’ name was invoked with the names of the earth goddess Demeter and her daughter Kore (Persephone) during the procession from Athens to Eleusis, a city in Attica. Probably originally a personification of...
  • Iakovos (Greek Orthodox primate)
    Greek Orthodox primate (b. July 29, 1911, Imroz [Imbros], Island, Ottomon Empire, [now Gokceada, Turkey]—d. April 10, 2005, Stamford, Conn.), promoted ecumenical religious unity and gained broader acceptance for the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States during his long tenure (1959–96) as primate of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese of North and South America. He was ordained a pri...
  • Ialá, Koumba (president of Guinea-Bissau)
    ...by another coup in 1999 that unseated Vieira. Subsequent elections, deemed free and fair by international observers, brought to power the nation’s first non-PAIGC government, under President Kumba Ialá....
  • Ialysus (painting by Protogenes)
    ...and rival of Apelles, noted for the care and time he devoted to each of his paintings. He lived most of his life at Rhodes. Little else is known of him, and none of his paintings survives. The “Ialysus” and the “Resting Satyr” were among the most renowned of his works....
  • iamb (prosody)
    metrical foot consisting of one short syllable (as in classical verse) or one unstressed syllable (as in English verse) followed by one long or stressed syllable, as in the word ˘be|cause´ . Considered by the ancient Greeks to approximate the natural rhythm of speech, iambic metres were used extensively for dramatic dialogue, invective, satire, and fables. Also suited to the ...
  • iambe (French verse form)
    French satiric verse form consisting of alternating lines of 8 and 12 syllables. The total number of lines is variable. Greek writers, especially Archilochus, used iambics as a vehicle for satire, but the name came into use as a French form in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when André Chénier’s Ïambes and Auguste Barb...
  • Iambes (work by Chénier)
    ...French poetry. In his works of the Revolutionary period, including poems that he smuggled out of prison in a laundry basket, he makes a passionate defense of ideals of liberty and justice: the Iambes, the last of which dates from very shortly before his execution, are a moving testimonial to the human spirit in the face of persecution....
  • iambic hexameter (prosody)
    verse form that is the leading measure in French poetry. It consists of a line of 12 syllables with major stresses on the 6th syllable (which precedes the medial caesura [pause]) and on the last syllable, and one secondary accent in each half line. Because six syllables is a normal breath group and the secondary stresses can be on any other syllables in the line, the alexandrine is a flexible for...
  • iambic pentameter (prosody)
    ...poetry. It combines Romance syllable counting and Germanic stress counting to produce lines of fixed numbers of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. Thus, the most common English metre, iambic pentameter, is a line of ten syllables or five iambic feet. Each iambic foot is composed of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable....
  • iambic tetrameter (prosody)
    ...a stressed one, as in the word ˘be|cause´ ), trochees (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, as in the word ti´|ger),˘ or a combination of the two. Iambic tetrameter is, next to iambic pentameter, the most common metre in English poetry; it is used in the English and Scottish traditional ballads, which are usually composed of four-line stan...
  • iambics (prosody)
    metrical foot consisting of one short syllable (as in classical verse) or one unstressed syllable (as in English verse) followed by one long or stressed syllable, as in the word ˘be|cause´ . Considered by the ancient Greeks to approximate the natural rhythm of speech, iambic metres were used extensively for dramatic dialogue, invective, satire, and fables. Also suited to the ...
  • Iamblichus (Syrian philosopher)
    Syrian philosopher, a major figure in the philosophical school of Neoplatonism and the founder of its Syrian branch....
  • Iangiiul (Uzbekistan)
    ’, city, Tashkent oblast (province), Uzbekistan. The city lies in the middle of the Tashkent oasis. Formerly a village on the site of the ancient settlement of Kaunchi-Tepe, it developed between World Wars I and II because of its proximity to Tashkent and its situation on the Tashkent–Samarkand railway and Great Uzbek Highway. It is now a thriving centre of food and other ligh...
  • Iao Needle (volcanic monolith, Hawaii, United States)
    ...erosion of the caldera whose volcano created the island’s western peninsula, Iao Valley comprises a deep, narrow gorge 5 miles (8 km) long and flanked by heavily forested walls almost a mile high. Iao Needle, a volcanic monolith 2,250 feet (686 metres) high, soars nearly straight up from the valley floor. A 6-acre (2.5-hectare) section of the valley featuring the Iao Needle is designated...
  • Iao Valley (valley, Hawaii, United States)
    valley, Maui county, northwestern Maui island, Hawaii, U.S. Situated on the eastern slope of Puu Kukui Mountain, it lies just north of Wailuku. Formed by erosion of the caldera whose volcano created the island’s western peninsula, Iao Valley comprises a deep, narrow gorge 5 miles (8 km) long and flanked by heavily forested walls almos...
  • IAP (United States program)
    ...institutionalized at residential schools and other facilities. This changed in the late 1950s, when the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs joined with the Child Welfare League of America in launching the Indian Adoption Project (IAP), the country’s first large-scale transracial adoption program. The IAP eventually moved between 25 and 35 percent of the native children in the United States int...
  • Iapetus (astronomy)
    outermost of Saturn’s major regular moons, extraordinary because of its great contrast in surface brightness. It was discovered by the Italian-born French astronomer Gian Domenico Cassini in 1671 and named for one of the Titans of Greek mythology....
  • Iapetus Ocean (geology)
    ...19th century; today a plate tectonic theory is invoked. The earliest Appalachian sediments were deposited near the start of the Cambrian Period (542 million years ago) on the shores of the opening Iapetus Ocean. Subduction of the Iapetus led to its destruction and the collision of different continental blocks and island arcs. Those collisions gave rise to three Appalachian orogenies: the......
  • Iapetus Sea (geology)
    ...19th century; today a plate tectonic theory is invoked. The earliest Appalachian sediments were deposited near the start of the Cambrian Period (542 million years ago) on the shores of the opening Iapetus Ocean. Subduction of the Iapetus led to its destruction and the collision of different continental blocks and island arcs. Those collisions gave rise to three Appalachian orogenies: the......
  • IAPV (biology)
    Studies of adult honeybee carcasses from affected colonies indicate that the bees are infected with a number of pathogens, including viruses. One virus that appears to be associated with CCD is Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). However, scientists have not reached a definitive conclusion on whether a single pathogen is the root cause of the disorder, and many scientists suspect that a......
  • Iapyges (people)
    Indo-European language spoken by tribes (Messapii and Iapyges) living in the southeastern part of Italy in pre-Roman and early Roman times. Messapic inscriptions date from the 6th to the 1st century bc. The language is believed to be related to the extinct Illyrian languages that were spoken on the east side of the Adriatic....
  • Iarbas (Greek mythology)
    Her husband having been slain by her brother Pygmalion, Dido fled to the coast of Africa where she purchased from a local chieftain, Iarbas, a piece of land on which she founded Carthage. The city soon prospered, and Iarbas sought Dido’s hand in marriage. To escape from him, Dido constructed a funeral pyre, on which she stabbed herself before the people. Virgil, however, in his ......
  • Iarmhí, An (county, Ireland)
    county in the province of Leinster, central Ireland. It is bounded by Counties Cavan (north), Meath (east), Offaly (south), Roscommon (west), and Longford (northwest). The western boundary is the lower part of Lough (Lake) Ree and the River Shannon...
  • Iarnród Éireann (Irish company)
    ...Green in the centre of the city began operating in 2004. Connolly and Heuston are the capital’s two railway stations; Connolly serves the north and northwest, Heuston the south, southwest, and west. Irish Railways (Iarnród Éireann), a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE), the national transport company, provides suburban services and intercity connections...
  • IAS paper (paper by von Neumann)
    ...was fully articulated by three of the principal scientists involved in the construction of ENIAC during World War II—Arthur Burks, Herman Goldstine, and John von Neumann—in “Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument” (1946). Although many researchers contributed ideas directly or indirectly to the paper, von Neumann was the......
  • IASB
    ...a group in New York City consisting of 114 professional accounting bodies; the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), which was founded in London in 1973 and succeeded by the IASB in 2001; and arms of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and of the European Economic Community....
  • IASC
    ...to help in harmonizing accounting standards. These groups have included the International Federation of Accountants, a group in New York City consisting of 114 professional accounting bodies; the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), which was founded in London in 1973 and succeeded by the IASB in 2001; and arms of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and......
  • Iaşi (county, Romania)
    judeţ (county), northeastern Romania, bounded on the east by Moldova. The southward-flowing Prut River marks the county’s eastern border with Moldova, and the Siret River drains the hilly terrain of the county to the south. Iaşi county was a part of feudal Moldavia. Area 2,112 square miles (5,469 square km). Pop. (2002) 819,044....
  • Iași (Romania)
    city, northeastern Romania. It is situated on the Bahlui River near its confluence with the Prut River in the Moldavian plain, 8 miles (13 km) west of the border with Moldova and 200 miles (320 km) northeast of Bucharest....
  • Iaşi, Treaty of (1792)
    (Jan. 9, 1792), pact signed at Jassy in Moldavia (modern Iaşi, Romania), at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–92; it confirmed Russian dominance in the Black Sea....
  • Iasion (Greek mythology)
    in Greek mythology, according to Homer and Hesiod, Cretan youth loved by Demeter, the corn goddess, who lay with him in a fallow field that had been thrice plowed. Their son was Plutus, the wealth within the soil. According to Apollodorus, Iasion attempted to ravish the goddess and was struck by lightning hurled by Zeus. In Ovid’s ...
  • Iasios (Greek mythology)
    in Greek mythology, according to Homer and Hesiod, Cretan youth loved by Demeter, the corn goddess, who lay with him in a fallow field that had been thrice plowed. Their son was Plutus, the wealth within the soil. According to Apollodorus, Iasion attempted to ravish the goddess and was struck by lightning hurled by Zeus. In Ovid’s ...
  • IATA (international cartel)
    ...from the government operations. International airline operations and services are regulated by strict treaties between the nations exchanging airline service. Actual fares are established by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a cartel (or organization) of all the world’s air carriers. Cartels known as conferences also regulate the rates charged by ocean liners that carry...
  • Iatmul (people)
    The Sawos and the river-dwelling Iatmul, who historically derive from the Sawos, worked in styles totally different from those of the people to the north. Their ceremonial houses were long rectangular structures, with upper stories elevated on posts often carved with ancestral faces and figures. The gables were not of exaggerated size but had masks in wood or basketry. King posts, which had......
  • iatrogenic disease (pathology)
    ...It may result from a course of medical treatment, either as an unavoidable side effect or because the treatment itself was ill-advised; in either case the disease is classed as iatrogenic. Finally, the disease may be caused by some agent external to the organism, such as a chemical that is a toxic agent. In this case the disease is noncommunicable; that is, it affects only......
  • iatromathematics (pseudoscience)
    Other forms of astrology, such as iatromathematics (application of astrology to medicine) and military astrology, are variants on one or another of the above....
  • iatromechanics (chemistry)
    ...he maintained a frequent correspondence with his Paduan colleagues, the astronomer Galileo Galilei and the anatomist Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente. Santorio was an early exponent of the iatrophysical school of medicine, which attempted to explain the workings of the animal body on purely mechanical grounds, and he adapted several of Galileo’s inventions to medical practice,......
  • IAU
    nongovernmental educational organization founded in 1950 to promote cooperation at the international level among the universities of all countries as well as among other bodies concerned with higher education and research. Membership consists of individual universities and institutions of university rank in 96 countries. The General Conference, convened every five years, elects an administrative b...
  • IAU
    senior body governing international professional astronomical activities worldwide, with headquarters in Paris. It was established in 1919 as the first of a series of international unions for the advancement of specific branches of science. Its professed mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation....
  • Iazyges (Sarmatian tribe)
    ...Sarmatians, a combination of tribes who had overwhelmed and replaced the Scythians, their distant kinsmen, in eastern Europe. The assailants were repelled without undue difficulty; but the Sarmatian Iazyges, now firmly in control of the region between the Tisza and Danube rivers, posed a threat for the future....
  • ib (ancient Egyptian religion)
    The anatomical heart was the haty, the word ib referring to the heart as a metaphysical entity embodying not only thought, intelligence, memory, and wisdom, but also bravery, sadness, and love. It was the heart in its sense of ib that was weighed in the famous judgment scene depicted in the Ani papyrus and elsewhere. After the deceased had enumerated the many sins he had......
  • IBA (British government agency)
    ...The country with the most stringent advertising standards is usually thought to be Great Britain, where, for example, all advertising on independent radio and television is controlled by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the commercial counterpart to the British Broadcasting Corporation. The IBA lays down controls on advertising, banning the use, for instance, of subliminal......
  • iba (musical instrument)
    ...(modern Turkey). Egyptian sistrums are characterized by being closed at the top: the sesheshet was shaped like a temple, the iba like a closed horseshoe. Sacred to the Egyptian goddess Hathor, the iba was played only by women, and after Hathor’s metamorphosis into the.....
  • Ibadan (Nigeria)
    capital city of Oyo state, Nigeria, located on seven hills (average elevation 700 feet [200 metres]) 100 miles (160 km) from the Atlantic coast. It is the nation’s second largest city (after Lagos)....
  • Ibadan, University of (university, Ibadan, Nigeria)
    The University of Ibadan and a technical institute are located in the city, and there are many specialized institutions. The university library maintains the largest collection of books in the country. There is also a branch of the National Archives on the university campus....
  • Ibāḍī imamate (Islamic sect)
    ...central Algeria, in the Sahara. The name is derived from Berber words meaning “the sons of those who keep the faith.” Beni Isguene was founded in the middle of the 11th century by the Ibāḍīyah, a Berber Muslim heretical sect originally from Tiaret. Beni Isguene’s town walls were restored in 1860, and according to tradition it is a sacred town. Strangers...
  • Ibāḍīyah (Islamic sect)
    ...central Algeria, in the Sahara. The name is derived from Berber words meaning “the sons of those who keep the faith.” Beni Isguene was founded in the middle of the 11th century by the Ibāḍīyah, a Berber Muslim heretical sect originally from Tiaret. Beni Isguene’s town walls were restored in 1860, and according to tradition it is a sacred town. Strangers...
  • IBAF (sports organization)
    ...Further, play by U.S. military teams helped make baseball a minor sport in The Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, England, Spain, Australia, and Tunisia. Amateur teams worldwide are represented by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), which was formed by American Leslie Mann in 1938. The organization, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, has hosted a Baseball World Cup since 1938....
  • Ibagué (Colombia)
    city, central Colombia, on the eastern slopes of the Andean Cordillera Central (Central Mountains). Founded as San Bonifacio de Ibagué in 1550 on the site of an Indian village, it was moved to its present location, on a plain 4,216 feet (1,285 metres) above sea level, because of Indian attacks. It was the capital of the republic for a short time in 1854. The rapid expansion of coffee planti...
  • IBAMA (Brazilian agency)
    ...other ecosystems in Brazil. The government has become increasingly willing to address environmental issues, although widespread destruction has continued. The chief Brazilian environmental agency (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis, or IBAMA) was created in 1989 in an attempt to reform Brazil’s conservation system. IBAMA, which operates under ...
  • Iban (people)
    ...Murut, and Bisaya (Bisayah). Chinese make up about one-fourth of the population. The remainder of Brunei’s residents consists of other (non-“Malay”) indigenous peoples, such as the Iban (or Sea Dayak); various peoples of South Asian descent; and temporary workers, primarily from Asia and Europe. The official language is Malay, with English as a major second language. Brunei...
  • Iban language
    ...of “backward speech” (which have as their primary purpose the concealment of messages) have been reported for adolescents. Such phenomena are functionally not unlike English pig Latin. Iban of northwestern Borneo shows an unusually large number of words with what appear to be reversals of the meanings found in cognates in other languages. This, too, may reflect an earlier traditio...
  • Ibañeta Pass (mountain pass, Spain)
    ...(autonomous community) of northern Spain. It lies 3,220 feet (981 metres) above sea level, in the Pyrenees, northeast of Pamplona and near the French frontier. It is known in relation to the Pass of Roncesvalles, or Puerto de Ibañeta, which lies above it at an elevation of 3,862 feet (1,177 metres). This pass is the traditional site of the Battle of Roncesvalles (Aug. 15, 778), in......
  • Ibañeta, Puerto de (mountain pass, Spain)
    ...(autonomous community) of northern Spain. It lies 3,220 feet (981 metres) above sea level, in the Pyrenees, northeast of Pamplona and near the French frontier. It is known in relation to the Pass of Roncesvalles, or Puerto de Ibañeta, which lies above it at an elevation of 3,862 feet (1,177 metres). This pass is the traditional site of the Battle of Roncesvalles (Aug. 15, 778), in......
  • Ibáñez del Campo, Carlos (president of Chile)
    Chilean president from 1927 to 1931 and from 1952 to 1958. Although by preference Ibáñez was aligned with foreign reactionaries, he made many constructive domestic reforms....
  • Ibáñez, Vicente Blasco (Spanish writer)
    Spanish writer and politician, who achieved world renown for his novels dealing with World War I, the most famous of which, Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis (1916; The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1918), was used as the basis for two U.S. films. He was associated with the Generation of ’98....
  • Ibani (Nigeria)
    town and Atlantic oil port situated in Rivers state, southern Nigeria. It lies along the Bonny River (an eastern distributary of the Niger River) 6 miles (10 km) upstream from the Bight of Biafra. A traditional trading centre (fish, salt, palm oil, and palm kernels) of the Ijo people, it was the capital ...
  • Ibar River (river, Balkans)
    river in the Balkans, rising in Kosovo in the Mokra Planina (mountains) and flowing eastward to Kosovska Mitrovica, then northward to join the Zapadna Morava River in Serbia. Its length is 171 miles (276 km), and it has a drainage area of 3,100 sq miles (8,000 sq km). Major tributaries are the Raška, Studenica, and Sitnica. The adjace...
  • Ibara (people)
    Malagasy people who live in south-central Madagascar and speak a dialect of Malagasy, a West Austronesian language....
  • Ibara Saikaku (Japanese author)
    poet and novelist, one of the most brilliant figures of the 17th-century revival of Japanese literature. He enchanted readers with racy accounts of the amorous and financial affairs of the merchant class and the demimonde....
  • Ibaraki (prefecture, Japan)
    ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean. It is located in the northeastern Kantō Plain. Ibaraki is bordered (south) by the Tone River and contains part of Suigo-Tsukuba Quasi-national Park. Main features of this section of the park include Lake Kasumi (Kasumiga-ura), the second largest Japanese lake after Lake Biwa; the cana...
  • Ibarbourou, Juana de (Uruguayan poet)
    Uruguayan poet, one of the most famous Latin American women poets. She was venerated for her lyrical celebration of love and nature....
  • Ibarra (Ecuador)
    city, north-central Ecuador, situated in an Andean valley at an elevation of 7,300 feet (2,200 metres), within the Ecuadoran Lake District. It was founded in 1606 by the soldier Cristóbal Torre, a representative of Miguel de Ibarra, the president of the royal audiencia of Quito (a judicial–legislative body), and was named for...
  • Ibarra, José María Velasco (president of Ecuador)
    lawyer, major political figure in Ecuador from the 1930s to the ’70s, and five times president of Ecuador....
  • Ibárruri, Dolores (Spanish political leader)
    Spanish Communist leader, who earned a legendary reputation as an impassioned orator during the Spanish Civil War, coining the Republican battle cry, “No pasarán! ” (“They shall not pass!”)....
  • Ibárruri Gómez, Isidora Dolores (Spanish political leader)
    Spanish Communist leader, who earned a legendary reputation as an impassioned orator during the Spanish Civil War, coining the Republican battle cry, “No pasarán! ” (“They shall not pass!”)....
  • Ibas (Syrian theologian)
    ...at Edessa developed his lively interest in exegesis and became increasingly identified with the Antiochene line in theology. Among those responsible for this was one of its leading instructors, Ibas (d. 457), who worked energetically translating Theodore of Mopsuestia’s commentaries and disseminating his Christological views. His own stance on the now urgent Christological issue was akin...
  • Ibb (Yemen)
    city, southwestern Yemen, lying in the Yemen Highlands on a spur of the rugged Mount Shamāḥī, at 6,725 feet (2,050 metres) above sea level. The city’s origins, according to Arab myth, date to biblical times. The area became important in the Middle Ages, when the Ṣulayḥid princess Sayyidah Arwā ruled over much of...
  • Ibbi-Sin (king of Ur)
    ...who founded the 3rd dynasty of Ur (“3rd” because it is the third time that Ur is listed in the Sumerian king list). Under Ur-Nammu and his successors Shulgi, Amar-Su’ena, Shu-Sin, and Ibbi-Sin, this dynasty lasted for a century (c. 2112–c. 2004). Ur-Nammu was at first “governor” of the city of Ur under Utu-hegal. How he became king is not ...
  • IBD (pathology)
    Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn disease (regional ileitis) or ulcerative colitis, results in impaired absorption of many nutrients, depending upon which portion of the gastrointestinal tract is affected. Children with IBD may fail to grow properly. Treatment generally includes a diet low in fat and fibre, high in protein and......
  • IBEC
    international bank instituted by an agreement signed by Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union in October 1963 to facilitate economic cooperation among the member countries and to promote their development. It...
  • ibeji (African cult)
    ...in height, is often of very great complexity—for example, a king on horseback, surrounded by two tiers of attendant warriors and musicians. The most widely distributed cult is of twins, ibeji, whose birth among the Yoruba is unusually frequent. Their effigies, made on the instructions of the oracle, are among the most numerous of all classes of African sculpture. Carved doors......
  • Iberia (work by Albéniz)
    Albéniz’ fame rests chiefly on his piano pieces, which utilize the melodic styles, rhythms, and harmonies of Spanish folk music. The most notable work is Iberia (1905–09), a collection of 12 virtuoso piano pieces, considered by many to be a profound evocation of the spirit of Spain, particularly of Andalusia. Also among his best works are the Suite española,...
  • Iberia (Spanish airline)
    Spanish airline created by law on June 7, 1940, and given rights to the air transport of persons and cargo within Spain. It took control of a privately owned company established in 1937, which in turn had revived the name of a company called Iberia, Compañía Aérea de Transportes, founded June 28, 1927; the current name was adopted in 1941. Iberia was nationalized in 1944, but ...
  • Iberia (peninsula, Europe)
    peninsula in southwestern Europe, occupied by Spain and Portugal. Its name derives from its ancient inhabitants whom the Greeks called Iberians, probably after the Ebro (Iberus), the peninsula’s second longest river (after the Tagus). The Pyrenees form an effective land barrier in the northeast from the rest of Europe, and in the south at Gibraltar the peninsula is separated from North Afr...
  • Iberia (ancient kingdom, Georgia)
    The two greatest and longest-lived of the many semi-independent states of the Caucasus in classical and medieval times were eastern Georgia (called Kartli or Iberia) in the north and Armenia in the south. The culture and ethnic character of both can be traced to the period of the breakup of the Hittite empire in the 12th century bc, and both were converted to Christianity early in th...
  • Iberian (people)
    one of a prehistoric people of southern and eastern Spain who later gave their name to the whole peninsula. The waves of migrating Celtic peoples from the 8th to 6th century bc onward settled heavily in northern and central Spain, penetrated Portugal and Galicia, but left the indigenous Bronze Age Iberian people of the south and east intact. Greek geographers give the name Iberian, p...
  • Iberian alphabet
    extinct Indo-European language of the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. Celto-Iberian was written in the Iberic script (borrowed from speakers of the non-Indo-European Iberian language in eastern and southern Spain) and is known primarily from a small number of coin inscriptions and an even smaller number of inscriptions on stone. Leading scholars believe Celto-Iberian to be an archaic......
  • Iberian Anarchist Federation (political organization, Spain)
    ...Since new machinery for the settlement of labour disputes was dominated by the UGT, it was opposed by the CNT, now influenced by the extreme revolutionary apoliticism of an anarchist group, the Iberian Anarchist Federation (Federación Anarquista Ibérica; FAI). Violent strikes were frequent....
  • Iberian language (European language)
    ...between Basque and Caucasian. Still, proof of a genetic relationship beyond reasonable doubt appears remote. Perhaps the most promising theory involves the comparison of Basque with the long-extinct Iberian, the language of the ancient inscriptions of eastern Spain and of the Mediterranean coast of France. But, despite amazing phonological coincidences, Basque has so far contributed next to......
  • Iberian languages
    family of languages including Georgian, Svan, Mingrelian, and Laz that are spoken south of the chief range of the Caucasus. A brief treatment of Kartvelian languages follows. For full treatment, see Caucasian languages....
  • Iberian lynx (mammal)
    ...canadensis) and the bobcat (L. rufus) live in North America. The two other lynx species are the Eurasian lynx (L. lynx) and the Iberian lynx (L. pardinus), an endangered species now found only in the mountains of southern Spain....
  • Iberian Peninsula (peninsula, Europe)
    peninsula in southwestern Europe, occupied by Spain and Portugal. Its name derives from its ancient inhabitants whom the Greeks called Iberians, probably after the Ebro (Iberus), the peninsula’s second longest river (after the Tagus). The Pyrenees form an effective land barrier in the northeast from the rest of Europe, and in the south at Gibraltar the peninsula is separated from North Afr...
  • Iberian range (mountains, Spain)
    ...in elevation southward to the Ebro basin. The Ebro River drains most of Aragon with the exception of its southernmost portion, which is linked to the Tagus River basin and the Mediterranean Sea. The Sierra de Gúdar occupies almost all of Teruel province as well as the southwestern corner of Zaragoza....
  • Iberic alphabet
    extinct Indo-European language of the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. Celto-Iberian was written in the Iberic script (borrowed from speakers of the non-Indo-European Iberian language in eastern and southern Spain) and is known primarily from a small number of coin inscriptions and an even smaller number of inscriptions on stone. Leading scholars believe Celto-Iberian to be an archaic......
  • Iberis (plant)
    any of about 40 species of Eurasian plants of the genus Iberis, of the mustard family (Brassicaceae). Most species are native to the Mediterranean region. Globe candytuft (I. umbellata), widely grown garden annual native to southern Europe, bears flat clusters of pink, violet, white, purple, or red flowers in late summer. The plants are 40 cm (16 inches) tall and have long, narrow le...
  • Iberis amara (plant)
    ...to southern Europe, bears flat clusters of pink, violet, white, purple, or red flowers in late summer. The plants are 40 cm (16 inches) tall and have long, narrow leaves and roundish seedpods. Rocket candytuft (I. amara) has thick, deeply lobed leaves and large, white, often pink-tinged, fragrant flowers on 22-cm (9-inch) stalks. It grows on chalky hills and in fields. Two matting,......
  • Iberis gibraltarica (plant)
    There are more than 500 species of small flowering plants on Gibraltar, and the Gibraltar candytuft is a flower native only to the Rock. Wild olive and pine trees grow on the Upper Rock. Mammals include rabbit, fox, and Barbary macaque (often erroneously identified as apes). Barbary macaques have roamed the Rock for hundreds of years and are Europe’s only wild monkeys. Although free to wand...
  • Iberis umbellata (plant)
    any of about 40 species of Eurasian plants of the genus Iberis, of the mustard family (Brassicaceae). Most species are native to the Mediterranean region. Globe candytuft (I. umbellata), widely grown garden annual native to southern Europe, bears flat clusters of pink, violet, white, purple, or red flowers in late summer. The plants are 40 cm (16 inches) tall and have long, narrow......
  • Ibero (people)
    one of a prehistoric people of southern and eastern Spain who later gave their name to the whole peninsula. The waves of migrating Celtic peoples from the 8th to 6th century bc onward settled heavily in northern and central Spain, penetrated Portugal and Galicia, but left the indigenous Bronze Age Iberian people of the south and east intact. Greek geographers give the name Iberian, p...
  • Ibero-Caucasian languages
    group of languages indigenous to Transcaucasia and adjacent areas of the Caucasus region, between the Black and Caspian seas. As used in this article, the term excludes the Indo-European (Armenian, Ossetic, Talysh, Kurdish, Tat) and Turkic languages (Azerbaijani, Kumyk, Noghay, Karachay, Balkar) and some other languages of the area, all of which were introduced to the Caucasus in historical times....
  • Ibero-Maurusian industry (archaeology)
    North African stone-tool industry dating from the late Würm (last) Glacial Period, about 16,000 years ago. The former presumption that the industry extended into Spain explains the prefix “Ibero-” in the name. The industry does bear a close resemblance to the late Magdalenian culture in Spain, which is broadly contemporary (c. 15,000 bc). Subsequent study,...
  • Iberoamerica
    history of the region from the pre-Columbian period and including colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese beginning in the 15th century, the 19th-century wars of independence, and developments to the end of World War II....
  • Ibert, Jacques (French composer)
    composer whose music is admired for its colourful, technically polished, and often witty neoclassical style....
  • Ibert, Jacques-François-Antoine (French composer)
    composer whose music is admired for its colourful, technically polished, and often witty neoclassical style....

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