Japanese feminist and politician who led a campaign for women’s social equality. In 1924 she founded the Fusen Kakutoku Domie (“Woman’s Suffrage League”), succeeding in gaining the rights to organize and to attend political meetings. After World War II she joined with the U. S. occupation reformers in proposing the enfranchisement of women within the new Japanese constitution. She was elected five times to the Diet, Japan’s parliament.
I Ching (Yijing)
Chinese classic of divination usually translated as Book of Changes or “Classic of Changes”. Probably compiled during the Warring States period (475-221 b. c.e.), it was attributed to Wen Wang, father of the founder of the Zhou dynasty. The I Ching presents ideas on the nature of the world and on ethics that have had a great influence on Confucianism and Daoism. It became regarded as one of the five Confu-cian classics and is still widely read in East Asia today.
Ife
City in southwestern Nigeria. From at least the eleventh century it was the capital of a powerful kingdom of the same name. The Ife craftspeople produced a wonderfully humanistic copper and brass art as early as the thirteenth century. From the sixteenth century onward the culture went into decline, and Oyo replaced it as the most important Yoruba state.
Iliad
Greek epic poem about Achilles in the Trojan War written by Homer in the eighth century b. c.e. The Iliad is a poem of 15,693 lines in dactylic hexameter. In it, Achilles is offended by Agamemnon, so he withdraws his troops from the Achaean (Greek) force that is besieging Troy and asks the gods to show them how much they need Achilles and how wrong Agamemnon was. The battle goes back and forth, but when the Greek Patroclus is killed and the Greeks are about to lose the battle and their ships, Achilles returns, turns the battle in favor of the Greeks, and kills Hector of Troy. The poem ends with both Patroclus and Hector receiving proper burial.
Imam
Arabic for “before you” or “in front of”; an honorific title indicating leadership within Islam. The titles of Muslim leaders imam and caliph (“successor”) are nearly interchangeable, and both words are found in the Quran. The word imam contains more of the sense of “example.” For Sunni Muslims, imam refers to any Muslim who leads the congregational prayer. For Shias, imam has the more specific meaning of the descendant of the Prophet, who is the sole legitimate leader of the Muslim community.
IMF. See International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Imhotep
Ancient Egyptian chief advisor, architect, and scholar under King Djoser, later deified by classical Greeks and Romans as the god of medicine. Imhotep was elevated to demigod status when he had been dead only 100 years, suggesting that his medical expertise was more than mere fable. Imhotep is seen as initiating the Old Kingdom (2686-2160) as the architect of the step pyramid in Memphis, the first such structure to be built in Egypt.
Imperial City
Inner city of the Chinese capital Beijing containing the imperial court and offices of officialdom during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was surrounded by a 6.5 mile (10 km) wall. Within the Imperial City was the Forbidden City, surrounded by another wall and a moat containing the imperial palaces. The huge scale of the Imperial and Forbidden cities symbolized the grandeur and power of the empire.
Imperial Rome. See Roman Empire
Imperium
The essence of kingship that remained in the Roman Republic. After kingship was abolished and the Roman Republic was established, its two consuls functioned somewhat as monarchs except that they were two, they served for only one year, and they were elected. The essence of authority that they held for that year was “imperium,” in the sense of their being a special caste of human as Rome’s rulers.
Impressionism
Artistic movement of Europe of the late nineteenth century. The term impressionism was coined in 1874 in reference to a painting by Claude Monet (1840-1926). In impressionist painting, artists covered their canvas with flat patches of color to create an impression of the true image, rather than trying to compete with the representational accuracy of photography. Along with Monet, some other impressionists are Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), and Edgar Degas (1834-1917).
Inca Civilization (c. 1440-1532)
South American civilization of Peru, Ecuador, and Chile. The Incas controlled mostly mountainous regions and built terraced population centers with temples, palaces, aqueducts, and suspension bridges at sites such as Machu Picchu and the capital of Cuzco. The Inca expanded dramatically under Pachacutec and his son Topu Inca. Pachacutec expanded the Inca civilization by conquest, but also by skillful threats and claims of divine intervention. Both he and his son were great warriors and administrators. They also built more than 20,000 miles (32,000 km) of roads for transmission of messages and the military. The Incas had no writing system as we know it, but their quipa (a complex set of colored, knotted strings attached to rods) was an effective method of communicating information. They organized the country into districts and had an army of 200,000 men. When Francisco Pizarro arrived in 1532 with only a few hundred men but steel weapons, gunpowder, and horses, he easily defeated the Incas.
World History
