Nikon \'nye-kon\ orig. Nikita Minin (b. 1605, Veldemanovo, Russia—d. Aug. 27, 1681, en route to Moscow) Leader of the Russian Orthodox church. Born a peasant, he rose through the ranks of the priest¬ hood to become patriarch of Moscow and all Russia in 1652. Granted sovereign power during the absence of Tsar Alexis on military campaigns, he purged Russian religious books and practices of what he considered
corruptions, and he exiled his opponents. His reforms troubled many believers and led to a schism in the church (see Old Believers) as well as to widespread disaffection (see Doukhobors), and his high-handedness alienated Alexis. In 1666 a council of Greek patriarchs convened by Alexis stripped Nikon of all priestly functions but retained his reforms.
Nile, Battle of the (Aug. 1, 1798) Battle between the British fleet under Horatio Nelson and French Revolutionary forces at Abu Qlr Bay, near Alexandria, Egypt. In a plan to constrict British trade routes by invading Egypt, Napoleon ordered the French fleet to sail from its port of Toulon to Alexandria. The French eluded the British fleet to reach Abu Qlr Bay, where they anchored in a defensive line. Nelson discovered the French at twilight and ordered an immediate attack. In an all-night battle, the British destroyed or captured all but two of the 13 French ships. The decisive victory isolated Napoleon’s army in Egypt and secured British control of the Mediterranean.
Nile perch Large food and game fish (family Latidae) found in the Nile and other African rivers and lakes. The Nile perch {hates niloticus ) has a large mouth and is greenish or brownish above, silvery below. It grows to about 6 ft (1.8 m) and weighs 300 lbs (140 kg). It has a slender body, a protruding lower jaw, a rounded tail, and two dorsal fins. Other species in the same family are found in African river systems and in Asian and Australian estuaries and coastal waters. The members of the family are sometimes classified with snooks (family Centropomidae).
Nile River Arabic Bahr al-NTl \bar-al-'nel\ River, eastern and north¬ eastern Africa. The longest river in the world, it is about 4,132 mi (6,650 km) long from its remotest headstream (which flows into Lake Victoria) to the Mediterranean Sea. After leaving the lake, it flows generally north through Uganda, The Sudan, and Egypt. Its major tributaries—including the Al-Ghazal (Gazelle) River, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara River —join it before it enters Lake Nasser near the Egypt-Sudan border. Below the Aswan High Dam, which impounds the lake, it continues northward to its delta near Cairo, where it empties into the Mediterranean. The first use of the Nile for irrigation in Egypt began when seeds were sown in the mud left after its annual floodwaters had subsided. It has supported con¬ tinuous human settlement for at least 5,000 years, and networks of canals and waterworks have been built since the 19th century. The Aswan High Dam, built in 1959-70, provides flood protection, hydroelectric power, and a dependable water supply for both crops and humans. The Nile is also a vital waterway for the transport of people and goods.
Nilo-Saharan \,nI-lo-s3-'ha-r3n\ languages Group of perhaps 115 African languages spoken by more than 27 million people from Mali to Ethiopia and from southernmost Egypt to Tanzania. The concept of Nilo- Saharan as a single stock combining a number of earlier groupings was introduced in 1963 by Joseph H. Greenberg; most Africanists accepted it as a working hypothesis, though shifts have taken place. In terms of num¬ bers of speakers, the most significant divisions of Nilo-Saharan languages include Central Sudanic, Fur, Nilotic, Nubian, Saharan, Songhai, and Sur- mic. Songhai is spoken by more than 2 million people in Mali and Niger, and Kanuri (a Saharan language) is spoken by about 4.5 million in north¬ eastern Nigeria and adjacent Chad and Niger. Central Sudanic comprises languages of southern Chad, southern Sudan, and northeastern Congo (Kinshasa). Nubian languages (including the only Nilo-Saharan language with an ancient written tradition) are spoken along the Nile in northern Sudan and southern Egypt. The Nilotic languages are spoken by some 14 million people (see Nilotes), including the Dinka, Nuer, Luo, Turkana, Kalenjin, and Masai.
Nilot plural Nilotes Any member of a cluster of east-central African peoples living in southern Sudan, northern Uganda, and western Kenya. The name refers to the region of the Upper Nile and its tributaries, where most of them live. Nilotic languages belong to the Eastern Sudanic group of the Nilo-Saharan family. A notable shared physical characteristic is their average height, men commonly reaching 7 ft (210 cm). The Acholi, Dinka, Luo, Masai, Nandi, Nuer, and Shilluk are classed as Nilotes. Alto¬ gether they number about seven million.
Nilsson, Birgit orig. Marta Birgit Svensson (b. May 17, 1918, Vastra Karup, Swed.—d. Dec. 25, 2005, Vastra Karup) Swedish soprano. She made her debut in Stockholm in 1946, and she performed in the com¬ plete Ring cycle of Richard Wagner in Munich (1954-55). She went on to sing most of the major Wagnerian soprano roles at Bayreuth between 1954 and 1970; she was acclaimed as the greatest Wagnerian soprano of her time for the astonishing power and capacities of her rich voice. From 1959 she
Nike, sculpture from a bronze vessel, probably made in a Greek city of southern Italy, c. 490 bc; in the British Museum
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM
Nikolais Vne-ko-lIzV, Alwin (b. Nov. 25, 1910, Southington, Conn., U.S.—d. May 8, 1993, New York,
N.Y.) U.S. dancer, choreographer, composer, and designer. He studied modern dance with various teachers, including Hanya Holm, whose assis¬ tant he later became. In 1948 he became director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York City, and in 1951 he formed the Nikolais Dance Theater to present his productions of integrated motion, sound, shape, and colour. Nikolais directed the Center for Contemporary Dance in Angers, ^Iwin Nikolais.
Fr. (1979-81). In 1989 his company martha swope merged with another to form the Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance Company.
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Nimbarka ► Niobrara River I 1365
often sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Her other signifi¬ cant roles included Richard Strauss’s Elektra and Salome, Giacomo Pucci¬ ni’s Turandot, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore. She retired in 1984.
Nimbarka (fl. 13th century, South India) Indian yogi and founder of the devotional sect called Nimbarkas or Nimandi. Little is known of his life except that he was a Brahman and a notable astronomer. Like Ramanuja, he believed that the creator god and the souls he created were distinct but shared in the same substance, and he stressed devotion to Krishna as the only means of liberation from the cycle of rebirth. The Nimanda sect flourished in the 13th-14th century in eastern India.
Nimeiri \n3-'mer-e\, Gaafar Mohamed el- (b. Jan. 1, 1930, Wad Nubawi, Omdurman, Sudan) President of The Sudan (1971-85). In 1969 he helped overthrow the civilian regime of Isma'Il al-Azharl. Nimeiri’s own government was temporarily ousted in 1971, but he was returned to office following a plebiscite. He granted autonomy to the Southern Sudan in 1972, inaugurated one of the world’s largest sugar-refinery projects (1981), and sought to develop agriculture. His attempts to impose Islamic law were resisted by Christians and others in the south, which led to his fall from power.
NTmes Vnem\ ancient Nemausus ern France. It was the capital of a Gaulish tribe that submitted to Rome in 121 bc. Augustus founded a new city there, and for five centuries it was one of the principal cities of Roman Gaul. It was plundered by the Vandals and Visigoths in the 5th cen¬ tury ad and occupied by Moors in the 8th century. It passed to the French crown in 1229. Damaged in 1815 during fighting between royal¬ ists and Bonapartists, it returned to prosperity with the coming of the railways in the late 19th century. It is noted for its Roman remains, includ¬ ing an amphitheatre, an aqueduct, and the Maison Caree (an ancient temple restored in 1789).