IRVINGTON

irvington, a town of essex county, new jersey, u.s.a., bordering on the s.w. side of newark. pop. (1900) 5255, of whom 993 were foreign-born; (1905) 7180; (1910) 11,877. irvington is served by the lehigh valley railroad and by electric railway to newark. it is principally a residential suburb of newark, but it has a small smelter (for gold and silver), and various manufactures, including textile working machinery, measuring rules and artisans' tools. there are large strawberry farms here. irvington was settled near the close of the 17th century, and was called camptown until 1852, when the present name was adopted in honour of washington irving. it was incorporated as a village in 1874, and as a town in 1898. isaac (hebrew for "he laughs," on explanatory references to the name, see abraham), the only child of abraham and sarah, was born when his parents were respectively a hundred and ninety years of age (gen. xvii. 17). like his father, isaac lived a nomadic pastoral life, but within much narrower local limits, south of beersheba (gen. xxvi., on the incidents here recorded, see abimelech). after the death of his mother, when he was forty years old, he married rebekah the aramaean, by whom after twenty years of married life he became the father of esau and jacob. he died at the age of one hundred and eighty.[1] "isaac" is used as a synonym for "israel" by amos (vii. 9, 16), who also bears witness to the importance of beersheba as a sanctuary. it was in this district, at the well beer-lahai-roi, that isaac dwelt (gen. xxiv. 62, xxv. 11), and the place was famous for an incident in the life of hagar (xvi. 14). this was perhaps the original scene of the striking episode "in the land of moriah," when at the last moment he was by angelic interposition released from the altar on which he was about to be sacrificed by his father in obedience to a divine command (gen. xxii).[2] the narrative (which must be judged with due regard to the conditions of the age) shows that the sacrifice of the first-born, though not inconsistent with yahweh's claims (ex. xxii. 29), was neither required nor tolerated (cp. micah vi. 6-8). see moloch. isaac is by general consent of the christian church taken as a representative of the unobtrusive, restful, piously contemplative type of human character. by later judaism, which fixed its attention chiefly on the altar scene, he was regarded as the pattern and prototype of all martyrs. the mahommedan legends regarding him are curious, but trifling. the resemblance between incidents in the lives of isaac and abraham is noteworthy; in each case isaac appears to be the more original. see further ishmael, and note that the pair isaac and ishmael correspond to abraham and lot, jacob and esau. on general questions, see e. meyer, _israeliten_ (_index_, s.v.). for attempts to find a mythological interpretation of isaac's life, see goldziher, _mythology of the hebrews_; winckler, _gesch. israels_ (vol. ii.). footnotes: [1] the stories, including the delightful history of the courting of rebekah by proxy, are due to the oldest narrators. the jarring chronological notices belong to the post-exilic framework of the book (see genesis). [2] the name is hopelessly obscure, and the identification with the mountain of the temple in jerusalem rests upon a late view (2 chron. iii. 1). it is otherwise called "yahweh-yir'eh" ("y. sees") which is analogous to "el-ro'i" ("a god of seeing") in xvi. 13. see further the commentaries. isaac i. (comnenus), emperor of the east (1057-1059), was the son of an officer of basil ii. named manuel comnenus, who on his deathbed commended his two sons isaac and john to the emperor's care. basil had them carefully educated at the monastery of studion, and afterwards advanced them to high official positions. during the disturbed reigns of basil's seven immediate successors, isaac by his prudent conduct won the confidence of the army; in 1057 he joined with the nobles of the capital in a conspiracy against michael vi., and after the latter's deposition was invested with the crown, thus founding the new dynasty of the comneni. the first care of the new emperor was to reward his noble partisans with appointments that removed them from constantinople, and his next was to repair the beggared finances of the empire. he revoked numerous pensions and grants conferred by his predecessors upon idle courtiers, and, meeting the reproach of sacrilege made by the patriarch of constantinople by a decree of exile, resumed a proportion of the revenues of the wealthy monasteries. isaac's only military expedition was against the hungarians and petchenegs, who began to ravage the northern frontiers in 1059. shortly after this successful campaign he was seized with an illness, and believing it mortal appointed as his successor constantine ducas, to the exclusion of his own brother john. although he recovered isaac did not resume the purple, but retired to the monastery of studion and spent the remaining two years of his life as a monk, alternating menial offices with literary studies. his _scholia_ to the _iliad_ and other works on the homeric poems are still extant in ms. he died in the year 1061. isaac's great aim was to restore the former strict organization of the government, and his reforms, though unpopular with the aristocracy and the clergy, and not understood by the people, certainly contributed to stave off for a while the final ruin of the byzantine empire. see e. gibbon, _the decline and fall of the roman empire_ (ed. j. bury, london, 1896, vol. v.); g. finlay, _history of greece_ (ed. 1877, oxford, vols. ii. and iii.). isaac ii. (angelus), emperor of the east 1185-1195, and again 1203-1204, was the successor of andronicus i. he inaugurated his reign by a decisive victory over the normans in sicily, but elsewhere his policy was less successful. he failed in an attempt to recover cyprus from a rebellious noble, and by the oppressiveness of his taxes drove the bulgarians and vlachs to revolt (1186). in 1187 alexis branas, the general sent against the rebels, treacherously turned his arms against his master, and attempted to seize constantinople, but was defeated and slain. the emperor's attention was next demanded in the east, where several claimants to the throne successively rose and fell. in 1189 frederick barbarossa of germany sought and obtained leave to lead his troops on the third crusade through the byzantine territory; but he had no sooner crossed the border than isaac, who had meanwhile sought an alliance with saladin, threw every impediment in his way, and was only compelled by force of arms to fulfil his engagements. the next five years were disturbed by fresh rebellions of the vlachs, against whom isaac led several expeditions in person. during one of these, in 1195, alexius, the emperor's brother, taking advantage of the latter's absence from camp on a hunting expedition, proclaimed himself emperor, and was readily recognised by the soldiers. isaac was blinded and imprisoned in constantinople. after eight years he was raised for six months from his dungeon to his throne once more (see crusades). but both mind and body had been enfeebled by captivity, and his son alexius iv. was the actual monarch. isaac died in 1204, shortly after the usurpation of his general, mourzouphles. he was one of the weakest and most vicious princes that occupied the byzantine throne. surrounded by a crowd of slaves, mistresses and flatterers, he permitted his empire to be administered by unworthy favourites, while he squandered the money wrung from his provinces on costly buildings and expensive gifts to the churches of his metropolis. see gibbon, _decline and fall_ (ed. j. bury, london, 1896, vol. vi.); g. finlay, _history of greece_ (ed. 1877, oxford, vols. iii. and iv.).