Nizam al-Mulk \ne-'zam-ul- , mulk\ orig. Abu ‘All Hasan ibn ‘All
(b. c. 1018/19, Tus, Khorasan, Iran—d. Oct. 14, 1092, Nahavand) Persian vizier of the Turkish SeuGq dynasty sultans. He worked for the rulers of the Ghaznavid dynasty before serving Alp-Arslan as governor of Khorasan. In 1063 he was made vizier, a position he occupied for 30 years, serving Alp-Arslan’s son Malik-Shah from the latter’s ascension. Believing that a ruler’s power should be absolute and that the ruler should preserve the kingdom’s stability and traditions, he recorded his views in the Seyasat- nameh (“Book of Government”). He is seen as the quintessential vizier and as a staunch Sunnite Muslim. He promoted the madrasah as a centre of learning, partly to combat ShTite propaganda. He was murdered, likely by an Isma'Ili Assassin, after falling out of favour with Malik-Shah.
Nizam? See NezamI
Nizam's Dominions See Hyderabad Nizariyyah See Assassin
Nizhny Novgorod Vnizh-ne-'nov-go-rotV formerly (1932-90) Gorky City (pop., 2002: 1,311,200), western Russia. It is located on the
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southern bank of the Volga River at its confluence with the Oka River. Founded in 1221, it was annexed to Moscow in 1392. It was strategically important in the Russian conquest of the Volga through the mid-16th cen¬ tury. In 1932 it was renamed for Maksim Gorky, who was born there. Under the Soviet regime it was a place of internal exile for Andrey Sakharov. The city has several 16th- and 17th-century buildings and is one of Rus¬ sia’s major industrial centres.
Njals Vnyauls\ saga or Njala \'nyau-la\ or Burnt Njdll
Vbornt-'nyaulX Icelanders' saga, one of the longest and finest. Set in a soci¬ ety where blood ties impose inescapable obligations and honour demands vengeance for past injuries, it presents the most comprehensive picture of Icelandic life in the heroic age. Its overriding mood is tragic pessimism. Its vividly drawn characters, who range from comic to sinister, include two heroes—Gunnar (Gunther), a brave, guileless, generous youth, and Njal, a wise and prudent man endowed with prophetic gifts.
Njord Vnyord, 'nyorth\ Norse god of the wind and of the sea and its riches. His aid was invoked in seafaring and hunting, and he was the god of prosperity. He was the father of Freyr and Freyja by his sister. Njord’s tribe, the Vanir, gave him as a hostage to the rival tribe of Aesir, and the giantess Skadi chose him as her husband. The marriage failed because Njord preferred to live in Noatun, his home by the sea, whereas Skadi was happier in her father’s mountain dwelling place. Several traditions hold that Njord was a divine ruler of the Swedes.
Nkomo \en-'ko-mo\, Joshua (Mqabuko Nyongolo) (b. June 19, 1917, Semokwe Reserve, Matabeleland, Rhodesia—d. July 1, 1999, Harare, Zimb.) Zimbabwean (formerly Rhodesian) black nationalist. Nkomo helped lead the guerrilla war against white rule in Rhodesia, but his forces played a less important role than those of Robert Mugabe. As leader of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), he became Mugabe’s longtime rival. They participated in a coalition government in 1980-82, but Nkomo was removed following a breach between them. ZAPU and Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) merged in 1987 to form ZANU-Patriotic Front, and Nkomo became a vice presi¬ dent in Mugabe’s government in 1990.
Nkrumah Ven-'krii-moV Kwame (b. September 1909, Nkroful, Gold Coast—d. April 27, 1972, Bucharest,
Rom.) Nationalist leader and presi¬ dent of Ghana (1960-66). Nkrumah worked as a teacher before going to the U.S. to study literature and socialism (1935-45). In 1949 he formed the Convention People’s Party, which advocated nonviolent protests, strikes, and noncooperation with the British authorities. Elected prime minister of the Gold Coast (1952-60) and then president of independent Ghana, Nkrumah advanced a policy of Africanization and built new roads, schools, and health facilities. After 1960 he devoted much of his time to the Pan- African movement, at the expense of Ghana’s economy. Following an attempted coup in 1962, he increased authoritarian controls, withdrew from public life, increased contacts with communist countries, and wrote works on political philosophy. With the country facing economic ruin, he was deposed in 1966 while visiting Beijing.
no-till farming or till-less agriculture Cultivation technique in which the soil is disturbed only along the slit or hole into which seeds are planted. Reserved detritus from previous crops covers and protects the seedbed. Primary benefits are a decreased rate of soil erosion; reduced need for equipment, fuel, and fertilizer; and significantly less time required for tending crops. The method also improves soil-aggregate for¬ mation, microbial activity in the soil, and water infiltration and storage. Conventional tillage controls weed growth by plowing and cultivating, but no-till farming selectively uses herbicides to kill weeds and the remains of the previous crop. No-till farming is one of several primitive farming methods revived as conservation measures in the 20th century.
Noah Biblical character from Genesis. The son of Lamech and ninth in descent from Adam, he was a man of blameless piety, who was chosen by God to perpetuate the human race after his wicked contemporaries had per¬ ished in the flood. On God’s instructions, Noah built an ark and took into it one male and one female of each of the world’s animals. After the waters receded, God set a rainbow in the sky as a guarantee of his promise never again to curse the earth. Noah was the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from whom the entire human race is supposed to have descended. Noah is also said to have been the originator of vineyard cultivation.
noaide \no-'I-de\ In Sami religion, a shaman who mediates between his clients and various supernatural beings and forces. To aid people suffer¬ ing from illness or other serious troubles, the noaide performs a dramatic seance, which includes divination, trance, confrontation of supernatural beings, and the ritual treatment of the patient. The noaides can accom¬ plish both good and evil, and their powers were formerly much feared.
Nobel \,no-'bel\, Alfred (Bernhard) (b. Oct. 21, 1833, Stockholm, Swed.—d. Dec. 10, 1896, San Remo, Italy) Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist. His attempts to find a safe way to handle nitroglycerin resulted in the invention of dynamite and the blasting cap. He built a net¬ work of factories to manufacture dynamite and corporations to produce and market his explosives. He went on to develop more powerful explo¬ sives and to construct and perfect detonators for explosives that did not explode on simple firing (e.g., when lit with a match). Nobel registered more than 350 patents, many unrelated to explosives (e.g., artificial silk and leather). A complex personality, both dynamic and reclusive, he was a pacifist but was labeled the “merchant of death” for inventing explo¬ sives used in war. Perhaps to counter this label, he left most of his immense fortune, from worldwide explosives and oil interests, to estab¬ lish the Nobel Prizes, which would become the most highly regarded of all international awards.
Nobel Prize Any of the prizes awarded annually by four institutions (three Swedish and one Norwegian) from a fund established under the will of Alfred B. Nobel. The will specified that awards should be given “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” Since 1901, prizes have been awarded for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace; since 1969, a sixth prize, established by the Bank of Sweden, has been awarded in eco¬ nomic sciences. The Nobel Prizes are regarded as the most prestigious prizes in the world. See tables on opposite and following pages.
noble gas or inert gas Any of the six chemical elements that make up the rightmost group of the periodic table as usually arranged: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon. All are colourless, odourless, and nonflammable and occur in tiny amounts in the atmosphere (though helium is the most plentiful element in the universe). Their stable elec¬ tronic configurations, with no unpaired electrons to share, make them extremely unreactive—hence “noble” (i.e., aloof) or inert—though the three heaviest, with outer electrons held less firmly, can form compounds (mainly with fluorine). These gases absorb and give off electromagnetic radiation in a much less complex way than other substances, a property exploited in their use in fluorescent lighting devices and discharge lamps. They glow with a characteristic colour when confined in a transparent container at low pressure with an electric current passing through it. Their very low boiling and melting points make them useful as refrigerants for low-temperature research (see cryogenics).