A-Z Browse

  • nafs al-kulliyah (Islamic theology)
    ...al-Ḥākim’s contemporaries. Ḥamzah himself became the first principle, or ḥadd, Universal Intelligence (al-ʿAql); al-ʿAql generated the Universal Soul (an-Nafs), embodied in Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad at-Tamīmī. The Word (al-Kalimah) emanates from an-Nafs and is manifest in the person of Muḥammad i...
  • NAFTA (Canada-United States-Mexico [1992])
    trade pact signed in 1992 that would gradually eliminate most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The pact would effectively create a free-trade bloc among the three largest countries of North America....
  • Nafṭah (Tunisia)
    oasis town situated in southwestern Tunisia. It lies on the northwest shore of Chott El-Jarid (Shaṭṭ Al-Jarīd), a saline lake that is an important source of phosphates. It was known to the Romans as Aggarsel Nepte. Nefta has many small mosques and is an important Sufi centre, where shrines and the tombs of many local hol...
  • Nafūd, Al- (desert, Saudi Arabia)
    desert, northern Saudi Arabia, covering about 25,000 square miles (64,000 square km). The reddish, sandy An-Nafūd (Arabic: “The Desert”) is sometimes called the Great Nafud; it lies at an elevation of 3,000 feet (900 m) and has some watering places and grass that provide for nomadic herding and agriculture. The desert has been a barrier to travel for ages; its frequent sandsto...
  • Nafūsah, Jabal (plateau, Libya)
    hilly limestone massif, northwestern Libya. It extends in a west-northeasterly arc between Al-Jifārah (Gefara) plain and Al-Ḥamrāʾ Plateau. With heights ranging from 1,500 to 3,200 feet (460 to 980 m), the plateau runs east for 120 miles (190 km) from the Tunisian border to the Kiklah Trough and then curves northeast for 93 miles (150 km), ending in hills near the Medit...
  • Nafūsah Plateau (plateau, Libya)
    hilly limestone massif, northwestern Libya. It extends in a west-northeasterly arc between Al-Jifārah (Gefara) plain and Al-Ḥamrāʾ Plateau. With heights ranging from 1,500 to 3,200 feet (460 to 980 m), the plateau runs east for 120 miles (190 km) from the Tunisian border to the Kiklah Trough and then curves northeast for 93 miles (150 km), ending in hills near the Medit...
  • nag (weapon)
    ...in the horizontal plane, such as that described above, are called ballistae. There is no evidence that catapults in the narrow sense were used by the Greeks; the Romans called their catapults onagers, or wild asses, for the way in which their rears kicked upward under the recoil force. The Romans used large ballistae and onagers effectively in siege operations, and a complement of......
  • Nag Hammadi (Egypt)
    town in Qinā muḥāfaẓah (governorate), on the west bank of the Nile, in Upper Egypt, on or near the site of the ancient town of Chenoboskion. It is a market town for the surrounding agricultural region, and it has a sugar refinery; an aluminum plant complex opened in 1975....
  • Nag, The (novel by Abramovitsh)
    The scope of Abramovitsh’s social commentary broadens in Di klyatshe (1873; The Nag), an allegorical novel that compares the Jewish condition in Russia to the lot of a broken-down nag. The mare, unwilling to fight against her tormentors, represents passive Jews who show little interest in efforts at reform. Other elements of the allegory ind...
  • Nāg Tibba (mountain range, Asia)
    ...There is a general conformity of altitude among neighbouring summits, which creates the appearance of a highly dissected plateau. The three principal ranges of the Lesser Himalayas—the Nāg Tibba, the Dhaola Dhār, and the Pīr Panjāl—have branched off from the Great Himalayan Range lying farther north. The Nāg Tibba, the most easterly of the three....
  • nāga (Hindu mythology)
    (“serpent”), in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, a member of a class of semidivine beings, half human and half serpentine. They are considered to be a strong, handsome race who can assume either human or wholly serpentine form. They are regarded as being potentially dangerous but in some ways are superior to humans. They live in an underground kingdom called Nāga-loka, or P...
  • Naga (Philippines)
    city, southeastern Luzon, Philippines. It is situated along the Bicol River, south of San Miguel Bay. Founded in 1573 as Nueva Caceres by the Spaniards, it is the site every September of a festival in honour of Nuestra Señora de (“Our Lady of”) Peñafrancia, the patroness of the Bicol Peninsula. Naga has a large cathedral and is the seat of a bishopric...
  • Nāga (people)
    group of tribes inhabiting the Nāga Hills of Nāgāland state in northeastern India. They include more than 20 tribes of mixed origin, varying cultures, and very different physiques and appearances. The numerous Nāga languages (sometimes classified as dialects) belong to the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Almost every village ...
  • naga (Hindu mythology)
    (“serpent”), in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, a member of a class of semidivine beings, half human and half serpentine. They are considered to be a strong, handsome race who can assume either human or wholly serpentine form. They are regarded as being potentially dangerous but in some ways are superior to humans. They live in an underground kingdom called Nāga-loka, or P...
  • Naga Dumka (India)
    town, east-central Bihār state, northeastern India, east of the Mor River. It is a road junction and major agricultural-trade centre. A weekly cattle mart is held. There is a college affiliated with Bhāgalpur University. Dumka was constituted a municipality in 1903. Pop. (1981) 31,068....
  • Nāga Hills (mountains, Asia)
    part of the complex mountain barrier on the border of India and Myanmar (Burma). A northern extension of the Arakan Yoma system, the Nāga Hills reach a height of 12,552 feet (3,826 m) in Mount Saramati on the India-Myanmar frontier. The part of the range within India constituted the Nāga Hills district of Assam until 1961 and since 1963 has been part of N...
  • Nāga People’s Convention (political organization, India)
    ...government. Despite the agreement, unrest continued in the form of noncooperation with the Indian government, nonpayment of taxes, sabotage, and attacks on the army. A further accord reached at the Nāga People’s Convention meeting of July 1960 resolved that Nāgāland should become a constituent state of the Indian Union. Nāgāland achieved statehood in 19...
  • nāgā sannyāsin (Hindu ascetic)
    Some extreme daśnāmīs go about naked. They are called nāgā (“naked”) sannyāsins and are the most militant among the ascetics. In the past the nāgā sannyāsins on occasion engaged in battles with Islāmic fanatics and with the naked ascetics of other Hindu sects. ...
  • nāgā vairāgin (Hinduism)
    Most vairāgins, when not wandering or on pilgrimage, reside in monastic communities called sthānas (“spots” or “places”); but the nāgā (“naked”) vairāgins, who are also the militants among the Vaiṣṇava ascetics, form their own groups, called akhāṛās. In...
  • naga-bakama (Japanese dress)
    ...under the itsutsu-ginu or to the kosode worn next to the body, but the divided skirt (naga-bakama) that completes the costume is an extremely picturesque garment. Made of stiff, red cloth and fastened high up under the breasts, the ......
  • Nāgabhaṭa II (Indian king)
    ...This initiated a lengthy tripartite struggle. Dharmapala soon retook Kannauj and put his nominee on the throne. The Rashtrakutas were preoccupied with problems in the south. Vatsaraja’s successor, Nagabhata II (reigned c. 793–833), reorganized Pratihara power, attacked Kannauj, and for a short while reversed the situation. However, soon afterward he was defeated by the Rash...
  • Nāgabhaṭa line (Gurjara-Pratihāra dynasty)
    ...dynasties of medieval Hindu India. The line of Haricandra ruled in Mandor, Mārwār (Jodhpur, Rājasthān), during the 6th–9th century, generally with feudatory status. The line of Nāgabhaṭa ruled first at Ujjain and later at Kannauj during the 8th–11th century. Other Gurjara lines existed, but they did not take the surname Pratihāra....
  • Nagādah II culture (Egyptian history)
    predynastic Egyptian cultural phase given the sequence dates 40–65 by Sir Flinders Petrie and later dated c. 3400–c. 3100 bce. Evidence indicates that the Gerzean culture was a further development of the culture of the Amratian period, which immediately preceded the Gerzean. Centred primarily at ...
  • Nagai Kafū (Japanese author)
    Japanese novelist strongly identified with Tokyo and its immediate premodern past....
  • Nagai Sōkichi (Japanese author)
    Japanese novelist strongly identified with Tokyo and its immediate premodern past....
  • Nagako, Dowager Empress (Japanese royal)
    Japanese royal (b. March 6, 1903, Tokyo, Japan—d. June 16, 2000, Tokyo), was the consort of Emperor Hirohito and the mother of Emperor Akihito. The eldest daughter of Prince Kunihiko—a nobleman of a collateral clan of the Japanese Imperial family—Nagako at age 14 was chosen by Hirohito to be his intended bride. The two were married on Jan. 26, 1924. In 1926, upon the death of ...
  • Nāgāland (state, India)
    state of India. It lies in the hills and mountains of the northeastern part of the country. One of the smallest states of India, it has a total area of just 6,401 square miles (16,579 square kilometres). It is bordered by the states of Manipur on the south, Assam on the west and northwest, and Arunāchal Pradesh on the northeast. Myanmar (Burma) lies to the east. The capital is Kohīma...
  • Nagami kumquat (fruit)
    The oval, or Nagami, kumquat (F. margarita) is the most common species. It is native to southern China and bears yellow fruits that are about 3 cm in diameter. The round, or Marumi, kumquat is F. japonica; it is indigenous to Japan and has orangelike fruits that are about 2.5 cm in diameter. The egg-shaped Meiwa kumquat (F.......
  • nagana (pathology)
    a form of the disease trypanosomiasis, occurring chiefly in cattle and horses and caused by several species of the protozoan Trypanosoma. The disease, which occurs in southern and central Africa, is carried from animal to animal chiefly by tsetse flies. Signs of infection include fever, muscular wasting, anemia, and swelling of tissues (edema). There is discharge from ey...
  • Nāgānanda (play by Harṣa)
    To the 7th-century king Harṣa of Kanauj are attributed three charming plays: Ratnāvalī and Priyadarśikā, both of which are of the harem type; and Nāgānanda (“The Joy of the Serpents”), inspired by Buddhism and illustrating the generosity of the snake deity Jīmūtavāhana....
  • Nagano (prefecture, Japan)
    landlocked ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan. Most of the prefecture is more than 2,600 feet (790 m) in elevation, and 15 peaks, mostly volcanic, rise to more than 9,800 feet (3,000 m). Such large rivers as the Tenryū, Kiso, Chikuma, and Shinano have been harnessed for hydroelectricity....
  • Nagano (Japan)
    city, Nagano ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan. It is the capital of the prefecture and is situated in the Nagano Basin. The city dates from the 12th–13th century and grew up around the Zenkō Temple, which was founded in the 7th century. Nagano later developed as a market town and post station along the Hokkoku Road. It is now an important commercial c...
  • Nagano Olympics (1998)
    Twenty-six years after the Sapporo Games, the Winter Olympics returned to Japan. The most memorable aspect of the Nagano Games was arguably the weather, which brought heavy snow and periods of freezing rain. There was even an earthquake. The Alpine skiing competition was most affected by the heavy snows that caused several events to be rescheduled. The earthquake, which occurred on February 20,......
  • Nagano Osami (Japanese admiral)
    Japanese admiral who planned and ordered the attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, which triggered U.S. involvement in World War II....
  • Nagao Torachiyo (Japanese military leader)
    one of the most powerful military figures in 16th-century Japan....
  • Nagaoka (Japan)
    city, Niigata ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the middle reaches of the Shinano River. A castle town in the 1600s, it prospered with the discovery of the Higashiyama oil well in the early 20th century. Despite heavy damage suffered during World War II, the city continued to grow, its industries producing chemicals, machinery, and processed foods. Nagaoka is a hub of r...
  • Nagaoka, Hantaro (Japanese physicist)
    ...positions. In another contemporary model, the atom resembled the solar system or the planet Saturn, with rings of electrons surrounding a concentrated positive charge. The Japanese physicist Nagaoka Hantaro in particular developed the “Saturnian” system in 1904. The atom, as postulated in this model, was inherently unstable because, by radiating continuously, the electron......
  • Nagaon (Assam, India)
    city, central Assam state, northeastern India, lying on the Kalang River. It is an agricultural trade centre and has several colleges affiliated with Gauhāti University, a technical school, and a nursing school. There is a rail junction at Senchoa, 3 miles (5 km) to the southwest....
  • Nagappattinam (India)
    port city, east-central Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. It lies on the Bay of Bengal, about 250 miles (400 km) south of Chennai (Madras). An ancient port known to have traded with Europe in Greek and Roman times, it became a Portuguese and later a Dutch colony. Its influence declined with the growth of Madras. In December 2004 a large ...
  • Nagar Haveli (union territory, India)
    union territory of India, located in the western part of the country between the states of Gujarāt and Mahārāshtra, some 15 miles (24 kilometres) from the Arabian Sea and 80 miles north of Bombay. It consists of two sections: Dādra, with three villages, and Nagar Haveli, with 69 villages. Occupying 190 square miles (491 square kilometres), it is administered by the gove...
  • Nāgara (architectural style)
    style of architecture produced throughout northern India and as far south as Bijāpur district, characterized by its distinctive śikhara, a superstructure, tower, or spire. The style is sometimes referred to as Nāgara, a type of temple mentioned in the Śilpa-śāstras (traditional canons of architecture), b...
  • Nagara Vatta (Cambodian newspaper)
    ...of a figurehead than his father had been. During the 1930s a railway opened between Phnom Penh and the Siamese (Thai) border, while the first Cambodian-language newspaper, Nagara Vatta (“Angkor Wat”), affiliated with the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh, conveyed a mildly nationalistic message to its readers....
  • nagaraka (Mauryan government official)
    ...of 30 officials, divided into six subcommittees, who looked after the administration of Pataliputra. The most important single official was the city superintendent (nagaraka), who had virtual control over all aspects of city administration. Centralization of the government should not be taken to imply a uniform level of development throughout the......
  • “Nagarakertagama” (poem by Prapañcā)
    Javanese epic poem written in 1365 by Prapañcā. Considered the most important work of the vernacular literature that developed in the Majapahit era, the poem venerates King Hayam Wuruk (reigned 1350–89) and gives a detailed account of life in his kingdom. It also includes information about King Kertanagara (reigned 1268–92), great-...
  • Nāgarakṛtāgama (poem by Prapañcā)
    Javanese epic poem written in 1365 by Prapañcā. Considered the most important work of the vernacular literature that developed in the Majapahit era, the poem venerates King Hayam Wuruk (reigned 1350–89) and gives a detailed account of life in his kingdom. It also includes information about King Kertanagara (reigned 1268–92), great-...
  • Nagari (writing system)
    Indian script used to write the Sanskrit, Prākrit, Hindi, and Marathi languages, developed from the North Indian monumental script known as Gupta and ultimately from the Brāhmī alphabet, from which all modern Indian writing systems are derived. In use from the 7th century ad and occurring in its mature form from the 11th century onward, Devanāgarī i...
  • Nagari Dās (Indian ruler)
    ...art were perhaps being done in Kishangarh at the end of the 17th century, the brilliant series of paintings on the Rādhā–Krishna theme were due largely to the inspiration of Raja Sāvant Singh (reigned 1748–57). He was a poet, also, who wrote under the name of Nagari Dās, as well as a devout member of the Vallabhācārya sect, which worships ...
  • Nagarjuna (Buddhist philosopher)
    Indian Buddhist philosopher who articulated the doctrine of emptiness (sunyata) and is traditionally regarded as the founder of the Madhyamika school, an important tradition of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy....
  • Nāgārjunakoṇḍa (ruins, India)
    Nāgārjunakoṇḍa sculpture marks the last phase of the relief style. The figures become stiffer and puppet-like, the patterns of movement frozen and mechanical but still possessing the energy and richness that always characterize this style....
  • Nāgārjunī hills (India)
    ...obtained from the excavated foundations and the few examples imitating wooden originals that were cut into the rock, notably the Sudāmā and the Lomas Ṛṣi caves in the Nāgārjunī and Barābar hills near Gayā. The latter has an intersesting entrance showing an edged barrel-vault roof (an arch shaped like a half cylinder) in profile......
  • Nagarkot (India)
    city, western Himāchal Pradesh state, northwestern India. The city lies on a rail line just south-southwest of Dharmsāla, at an elevation of 2,409 feet (734 m). Kāngra was known as Nagarkot in ancient and medieval times, when it was a fortress stronghold of the Rājput rajas. Maḥmūd of Ghazna, the Turkish conqueror, sacked the town in 1009, as did Emperor F...
  • Nagasaki (Japan)
    capital and largest city, Nagasaki ken (prefecture), western Kyushu, Japan, at the mouth of the Urakami-gawa (Urakami River) where it empties into Nagasaki-kō (Nagasaki Harbour). The harbour is composed of a narrow, deep-cut bay, formed at the meeting point of Nomo-saki (Cape Nomo; south) and Nishisonoki-hantō (Nishisonoki Peninsula; north...
  • Nagasaki (prefecture, Japan)
    ken (prefecture), northwestern Kyushu, Japan, facing the East China Sea. It includes the islands of Tsushima, Iki, Hirado, and the Gotō Archipelago. The prefecture has an irregular shape, with rounded Shimabara Peninsula in the southeast; Cape Nomo and Nishisonoki Peninsula enclose Ōmura Bay also in the southeast. Dominated by mountains, the limited agricultural land is inten...
  • Nagasaki University (university, Nagasaki, Japan)
    ken (prefecture), northwestern Kyushu, Japan, facing the East China Sea. It includes the islands of Tsushima, Iki, Hirado, and the Gotō Archipelago. The prefecture has an irregular shape, with rounded Shimabara Peninsula in the southeast; Cape Nomo and Nishisonoki Peninsula enclose Ōmura Bay also in the southeast. Dominated by mountains, the limited agricultural land is inten...
  • Nagasawa Rosetsu (Japanese painter)
    ...eclectic painters. In addition to nurturing a talented group of students who continued his identifiable style into several succeeding generations, Ōkyo’s studio also raised the incorrigible Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–99), an individualist noted for instilling a haunting preternatural quality to his works, whether landscape, human, or animal studies. Yet another of Ōkyo...
  • Nāgasena (Indian sage)
    ...identical to the Greek Menander, the name of a Bactrian Indo-Greek king (c. 140–110 bc) who was skeptical of the verities of Buddhism and was enlightened by the teaching of an elder, Nāgasena. The extensive Buddhist erudition that the sage displays is artfully presented in the form of simile and parable, and the work has contributed importantly to the edificat...
  • “Nāgasena-sutra” (Buddhist literature)
    lively dialogue on Buddhist doctrine with questions and dilemmas posed by King Milinda—i.e., Menander, Greek ruler of a large Indo-Greek empire in the late 2nd century bce—and answered by Nagasena, a senior monk. Composed in northern India in perhaps the 1st or 2nd century ce (and possibly originally in Sanskrit) by an unknown author, the ...
  • nagasvaram (musical instrument)
    conical double-reed aerophone of southern India. The nagaswaram may be as long as about 95 cm (37 inches). It has a conical bore, is made of dark wood, and has a flaring wooden bell. There are seven equidistant finger holes on the front side and five additional holes toward the bottom that may be filled with wax to adjust tuning. Extra reeds and ivory needles for reed adj...
  • nagaswaram (musical instrument)
    conical double-reed aerophone of southern India. The nagaswaram may be as long as about 95 cm (37 inches). It has a conical bore, is made of dark wood, and has a flaring wooden bell. There are seven equidistant finger holes on the front side and five additional holes toward the bottom that may be filled with wax to adjust tuning. Extra reeds and ivory needles for reed adj...
  • Nagata Tokuhun (Japanese physician)
    ...symptoms—are classified and described in 51 groups; the work is unusual in that it includes a section on the diseases of old age. Another distinguished physician and teacher of the period, Nagata Tokuhun, whose important books were the I-no-ben (1585) and the Baika mujinzo (1611), held that the chief aim of the medical art was to support the natural force, and......
  • Nagaur (India)
    town, administrative headquarters of Nāgaur district, Rājasthān state, western India. Nāgaur, a walled town held successively by the 12th-century Hindu ruler of Dillī (Delhi), Pṛthvīrāja, by the 12th- and 13th-century Muslim conqueror Muḥammad of Ghūr, and by Bīkaner and Jodhpur chieftains, is said to take its name from i...
  • nagauta (Japanese music)
    (Japanese: “long song”), basic lyric musical accompaniment of Japanese Kabuki and classical dances (buyō). The genre is found in the Kabuki plays by the mid-17th century, although the term itself is common in much earlier poetic forms....
  • “Nagaya shinshi roku” (film by Ozu Yasujiro)
    Ozu made no films from 1942 to 1947. In 1947 Nagaya shinshi roku (The Record of a Tenement Gentleman) initiated a series of pictures in which a further refinement of style was combined with a concern for postwar conditions. Plot was almost eliminated, while atmosphere and detailed character studies became preeminent. He almost totally abandoned such devices as camera movement in......
  • nageire (floral arrangement)
    (Japanese: “thrown in”), in Japanese floral art, the style of arranging that stresses fresh and spontaneous designs adhering only loosely to the classical principles of triangular structure and colour harmony. A single long branch with shorter branches and flowers at the base arranged in a tall upright vase are characteristic of the nageire style. Nageire was originall...
  • Nagel, Conrad (American actor)
    ...
  • Nagel, Ernest (American philosopher)
    American philosopher noted for his work on the implications of science....
  • Nagel, Thomas (American philosopher)
    The American philosopher Thomas Nagel was one of the first contemporary moral philosophers to challenge Hume’s thesis that reason alone is incapable of motivating moral action. In The Possibility of Altruism (1969), he argued that, if Hume’s thesis is true, then the ordinary idea of prudence—i.e., the idea that one’s future pains and pleasures are just as c...
  • Nägeli, Hans Franz (Swiss politician)
    Swiss politician and military leader who was prominent in Bern’s public affairs for nearly 40 years....
  • Nägeli, Karl Wilhelm von (Swiss botanist)
    Swiss botanist famous for his work on plant cells....
  • Nagelmackers, Georges (Belgian businessman)
    The Orient-Express was developed by the Belgian businessman Georges Nagelmackers and made its inaugural run in 1883. During its first journey the passengers traveled from Paris to the Bulgarian port of Varna via train and were then ferried by steamship across the Black Sea to Constantinople. By 1889, however, the entire trip was by rail. Nagelmackers’ firm, La Compagnie Internationale des.....
  • Nagercoil (India)
    city, southernmost Tamil Nādu state, southern India. Nāgercoil lies west of the Aramboli Gap in the Western Ghāts. It controls the major routes between Madras and Trivandrum and is a commercial centre for a rich agricultural area. Its name, meaning “snake temple,” indicates the early significance of the town’s Śaiva temple. Although historically a ...
  • nagi (Hindu mythology)
    (“serpent”), in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, a member of a class of semidivine beings, half human and half serpentine. They are considered to be a strong, handsome race who can assume either human or wholly serpentine form. They are regarded as being potentially dangerous but in some ways are superior to humans. They live in an underground kingdom called Nāga-loka, or P...
  • Nago (African masking society)
    ...wear richly coloured, close-fitting costumes with face masks and elaborate headpieces of embroidered cloth, which allow for a dance that accelerates into a climax of rapid, abrupt movement. The Nago and Akakayi ancestral masqueraders of the Gwari wear close-fitting head and body coverings, which permit rapid, staccato movements while dancing at the “second burial” (i.e., the......
  • Nagodba (Croatian-Hungarian history [1868])
    1868, pact that governed Croatia’s political status as a territory of Hungary until the end of World War I. When the Ausgleich, or Compromise, of 1867 created the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, Croatia, which was part of the Habsburg empire, was merged with Slavonia and placed under Hungarian jurisdiction. Although many Croats who so...
  • Nagor (India)
    town, administrative headquarters of Nāgaur district, Rājasthān state, western India. Nāgaur, a walled town held successively by the 12th-century Hindu ruler of Dillī (Delhi), Pṛthvīrāja, by the 12th- and 13th-century Muslim conqueror Muḥammad of Ghūr, and by Bīkaner and Jodhpur chieftains, is said to take its name from i...
  • Nagorik Shakti (political party, Bangladesh)
    In February 2007 Yunus entered the Bangladeshi political arena by forming a political party, Nagorik Shakti (Citizen Power), and announcing his intention to contest the upcoming election. His announcement came during a state of emergency and severe conflict between the country’s two major parties, the Awami League and the Bangladesh National Party. Yunus promised his movement would seek to....
  • Nagorno-Karabach (region, Azerbaijan)
    region of southwestern Azerbaijan. The name is also used to refer to an autonomous oblast (province) of the former Azerbaijan S.S.R. and to the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-declared country whose independence is not internationally recognized. The old autonomous region occupied an area of about 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km), w...
  • Nagorno-Karabakh (region, Azerbaijan)
    region of southwestern Azerbaijan. The name is also used to refer to an autonomous oblast (province) of the former Azerbaijan S.S.R. and to the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-declared country whose independence is not internationally recognized. The old autonomous region occupied an area of about 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km), w...
  • Nagorny Karabakh (region, Azerbaijan)
    region of southwestern Azerbaijan. The name is also used to refer to an autonomous oblast (province) of the former Azerbaijan S.S.R. and to the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-declared country whose independence is not internationally recognized. The old autonomous region occupied an area of about 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km), w...
  • Nagoya (Japan)
    capital of Aichi ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan, and one of the country’s leading industrial cities. It is located at the head of Ise Bay....
  • Nagoya Castle (castle, Nagoya, Japan)
    Nagoya abounds in cultural assets. Educational institutions include Nagoya University (1939), Nagoya Institute of Technology (1949), and Nagoya City University (1950). An important landmark is Nagoya Castle, originally built in 1610–12 but destroyed by fire during World War II; it was rebuilt in 1959. The Tokugawa Art Museum preserves the collection of the Tokugawa family. The Atsuta......
  • Nagoya University (university, Nagoya, Japan)
    Nagoya abounds in cultural assets. Educational institutions include Nagoya University (1939), Nagoya Institute of Technology (1949), and Nagoya City University (1950). An important landmark is Nagoya Castle, originally built in 1610–12 but destroyed by fire during World War II; it was rebuilt in 1959. The Tokugawa Art Museum preserves the collection of the Tokugawa family. The Atsuta.........
  • NAGPRA (United States [1990])
    ...European, rather than Asian, descent. This characteristic touched off a scholarly debate about the peopling of America, a controversy further inflamed by the U.S. government’s application of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, which allowed that all remains of a certain age would be given to the proprietorship of an appropriate party and buried. Inc. 1904. Pop. (1990) city,....
  • Nagpur (India)
    city, northeastern Mahārāshtra state, western India. It lies along the Nāg River and is situated almost at the geographic centre of India. The present city was founded in the early 18th century by Bakht Buland, a Gond raja. It became the capital of the Bhonsles of the Maratha confederacy but in 1817 came under British influence. In 1853 the city lapsed into British control an...
  • Nagpur (Indian dynasty)
    Unlike the Kolhapur Bhonsles and the descendants of Vyamkoji at Thanjavur, both of whom claimed a status equal to that of the Satara raja, the line at Nagpur was clearly subordinate to the Satara rulers. A crucial figure from this line is Raghuji Bhonsle (ruled 1727–55), who was responsible for the Maratha incursions on Bengal and Bihar in the 1740s and early ’50s. The relations of h...
  • Nagpur Plain (plain, India)
    The surrounding area comprises chiefly a central plateau of the Sātpura Range, which rises in the northwest to rugged hills. The plateau slopes toward the Nāgpur Plain in the south. The southern and eastern parts of the plateau include the fertile Chaurai wheat plain. The Nāgpur Plain is a rich cotton and jowar area and is the richest and most populous part of the region. The....
  • Nags Head (North Carolina, United States)
    resort town, Dare county, eastern North Carolina, U.S. It is situated on Bodie Island (one of the Outer Banks barrier islands) between Roanoke Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, just south of Kitty Hawk. It was so named, according to legend, because unscrupulous shipwreckers tied lanterns to the necks of poni...
  • Nagua (Dominican Republic)
    city, northern Dominican Republic, located just north of the mouth of the Nagua River, facing Escocesa Bay, on the Atlantic Ocean. Nagua is located on the main coastal road connecting the main cities of the region; the major functions of the town are administrative and agricultural, processing the goods of the surrounding agricultural plain—bananas, pineapples, peanuts (g...
  • nagual (Mesoamerican religion)
    personal guardian spirit believed by some Mesoamerican Indians to reside in an animal, such as a deer, jaguar, or bird. In some areas the nagual is the animal into which certain powerful men can transform themselves to do evil; thus, the word derives from the Nahuatl word nahualli (“disguise”), applied to the animal forms magically assumed...
  • nagualism (religion)
    ...In some traditions, this is confined to the familiar or guardian of a witch or shaman; in others, it is an individual relationship possible for any man. An example of the latter relationship is nagualism, a phenomenon found among the Indians of Guatemala and Honduras in Central America. Nagualism is the belief that there exists a nagual—an object or, more often, an animal—that......
  • Naguib, Muḥammad (president of Egypt)
    Egyptian army officer and statesman who played a prominent role in the revolutionary overthrow of King Farouk I in 1952....
  • Nagurski, Bronislau (American athlete)
    American collegiate and professional gridiron football player who, at the unusually large size of 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 metres) and 226 pounds (102.5 kg), was the quintessential bruising fullback of his era....
  • Nagurski, Bronko (American athlete)
    American collegiate and professional gridiron football player who, at the unusually large size of 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 metres) and 226 pounds (102.5 kg), was the quintessential bruising fullback of his era....
  • Nagwamatse, Ibrahim (emir of Kontagora)
    ...enlarged the emirate by conquests of Kamuku, Kamberi, Dakarki (Dakarawa), Dukawa, Yauri, Nupe, and Gbari (Gwari) towns and captured many slaves. In the first reign (1880–1901) of his son, Emir Ibrahim Nagwamatse, sarkin sudan, Kontagora again became notorious for slave raids that severely depopulated the region and left numerous walled towns in ruins, many of which are still visib...
  • Nagwamatse, Umaru (Fulani ruler)
    town and traditional emirate, northwestern Niger state, western Nigeria, on the south bank of the Kontagora River. Umaru Nagwamatse, an adventurer of the ruling Fulani house of Sokoto (186 miles [299 km] north), was named sarkin sudan (“king of the blacks”) in 1859 by Ahmadu Zaruku, Sokoto’s sarkin musulmi (“commander of the faithful”). Umaru then c...
  • Nagy, Ferenc (premier of Hungary)
    statesman who in his brief post-World War II term as premier tried to bring democracy to Hungary....
  • Nagy, Imre (premier of Hungary)
    Hungarian statesman, independent Communist, and premier of the 1956 revolutionary government whose attempt to establish Hungary’s independence from the Soviet Union cost him his life....
  • Nagy, Ivan (Hungarian-American dancer)
    Hungarian ballet dancer who lived in the United States from 1965....
  • Nagy Magyar Alföld (region, Hungary)
    a flat, fertile lowland, southeastern Hungary, also extending into eastern Croatia, northern Serbia, and western Romania. Its area is 40,000 square miles (100,000 square km), about half in Hungary. In its natural state the Great Alfold is a steppeland broken up with floodplain groves and swamps—a southwestern projection of the Russian steppes. In Hungary flood control, ir...
  • nagy per, mely ezer éve folyik, A (work by Eötvös)
    ...the Balaton”) and A Bakony (1909; “The Bakony”). His most significant writing was a three-volume description of the Tiszaeszlár case, A nagy per, mely ezer éve folyik (1904; “The Great Trial Going on for a Thousand Years”). His collected works were published from 1901 to 1909 in 24 volumes....

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