IZMAIL, or ISMAIL

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 103 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: INV-JED

IZMAIL, or ISMAIL , a town of Russia, in the government of Bessarabia, on the left bank of the Kilia branch of the Danube, 35 M. below Reni railway station. Pop. (1866) 31,779, (1900) 33,607, comprising Great and Little Russians, Bulgarians, Jews and

Gipsies

GIPSIES, or GYPSIES

. There are flour-mills and a trade in cereals, wool, tallow and hides. Originally a Turkish fortified post, Izmail had by the end of the 18th century grown into a place of 30,000 inhabitants. It was occupied by the Russians in 1770, and twenty years later its capture was one of the brilliant achievements of the Russian general, Count A. V. Suvarov. On that occasion the garrison was 40,000 strong, and the assault cost the assailants 10,000 and the defenders 30,000 men. The victory was the theme of one of the Russian poet G. R. Derzhavin's odes. In 1809 the town was again captured by the Russians; and, when in 1812 it was assigned to them by the

Bucharest

BUCHAREST (Bucuresci)

peace, they chose it as the central station for their Danube

fleet

FLEET

. It was about this time that the town of Tuchkov, with which it was later (183o) incorporated, grew up outside of the fortifications. These were dismantled in accordance with the treaty of Paris (1856), by which Izmail was made over to Rumania. The town was again transferred to Russia by the peace of Berlin (1878).
IZU-NO-SHICHI-TO, the seven (shichi) islands (to) of Izu, included in the empire of Japan. They stretch in a southerly direction from a point near the mouth of Tokyo Bay, and lie between 330 and 340 48' N. and between 139 and 140 E. Their names, beginning from the north, are Izu-no-Oshima, To-shima, Nii-shima, Kozu-shima, Miyake-shima and Hachijoshima. There are some islets in their immediate vicinity. Izu-no-Oshima, an island ro m. long and 51 M. wide, is 15 M. from the nearest point of the Izu promontory. It is known to western cartographers as Vries Island, a name derived from that of Captain Martin Gerritsz de Vries, a Dutch navigator, who is supposed to have discovered the island in 1643. But the group was known to the Japanese from a remote period, and used as convict settlements certainly from the 12th century and probably from a still earlier era. Hachijo, the most southerly, is often erroneously written " Fatsisio " on English charts. Izu-no-Oshima is remarkable for its smoking volcano, Mihara-yama (2461 ft.), a conspicuous object to all ships bound for Yokohama. Three others of the islandsNii-shima, Kozu-shima and Miyake-shimahave active volcanoes. Those on Nii-shima and Kozu-shima are of inconsiderable size, but that on Miyakeshima, namely, Oyama, rises to a height of 2707 ft. The most southerly island, Hachijo-shima, has a still higher peak, Dsubotake (2838 ft.), but it does not emit any smok,.
J A

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

of the alphabet which, as far as form is concerned, is only a modification of the Latin I and

dates

DATES

back with a separate value only to the 15th century. It was first used as a

special

SPECIAL

form of initial I, the

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

form being kept for use in other positions. As, however, in many cases initial i had the consonantal value of the English y in iugum (yoke), &c., the symbol came to be used for the value of y, a value which it still retains in German: Jai jung, &c. Initially it is pronounced in English as an affricate dzh. The great majority of English words beginning with j are (1) of foreign (mostly French) origin, as " jaundice," " judge "; (2) imitative of sound, like " jar " (the verb) ; or (3) influenced by analogy, like " jaw " (influenced by thaw, according to Skeat). In early French g when palatalized by e or i sounds became con-fused with consonantal i (y), and both passed into the sound of j which is still preserved in English. A similar sound-

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

takes place in other languages, e.g. Lithuanian, where the resulting sound is spelt di.. Modern French and also Provencal and Portuguese have changed j = dzh into (zh). The sound initially is sometimes represented in English by g: gem,

gaol

GAOL, or JAIL

as well as jail. At the end of modern English words the same sound is represented by -dge as in judge, French juge. In this position, however, the sound occurs also in genuine English words like bridge, sedge, singe, but this is true only for the southern dialects on which the literary language is founded. In the northern dialects the pronunciation as brig, seg, sing still survives. (P. GI.)
JA'ALIN (from Ja'al, to settle, i.e. " the squatters "), an African tribe of Semitic stock. They formerly occupied the country on both banks of the Nile from Khartum to Abu Hamed. They claim to be of the Koreish tribe and even trace descent from Abbas, uncle of the prophet. They are of Arab origin, but now of very mixed blood. According to their own tradition they emigrated to

Nubia

NUBIA

in the 12th century. They were at one time subject to the Funj kings, but their position was in a measure independent. At the Egyptian invasion in 1820 they were the most powerful of Arab tribes in the Nile valley. They submitted at first, but in 1822 rebelled and massacred the Egyptian garrison at Shendi. The revolt was mercilessly suppressed, and the Ja'alin were thenceforward looked on with suspicion. They were almost the first of the northern tribes to join the mandi in 1884, and it was their position to the north of Khartum which made communication with General Gordon so difficult. The Ja'alin are now a semi-nomad agricultural people. Many are employed in Khartum as servants, scribes and watchmen. They are a proud religious people, formerly notorious as cruel slave dealers. J. L. Burckhardt says the true Ja'alin from the eastern desert is exactly like the Bedouin of eastern Arabia.
See The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905).

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