124 



NABIS NADIR SCHAII. 



indicate a proper name which the writer does not 

 know or does nut choose to give ; and, according to 

 Du Frrsne, this sign originated about the eleventh 

 century, from the abbreviated tile or ilia, which was 

 written 111, with a dash through it, which at a later 

 period was taken for two N's. It is certain that 

 ILL appciirs in the formularies of Marculphus, and 

 other writings before the eleventh century. We 

 often find n omitted by the Greeks and by the 

 Rom;in, when not final; thus Cicero writes Forcsia, 

 Megulesia, for Forensia, Megalensia. On inscrip- 

 tions we find IMPESA for IMPENSA, and MESI- 

 BUS for MENSIBUS. In Plautus we find stas for 

 ttans. N, as a numeral, signified 90, or, according 

 to Baronius, 900 ; with a dash over it, it signified 

 90,000. With the Greeks, stood for 50. As an 

 abbreviation, N signifies noster, and on medals of 

 the Lower Empire, D. N. signifies Domimts noster; 

 it often also signified tit;, novus, nepos, nobilis. In 

 geography, it stands for north. On French coins, it 

 means the mint of Montpellier. The Spanish alphabet 

 'has a character , called n with the tilde, and pro- 

 nounced like nt in onion, minion; for instance, 

 Expand. Nunez, ninez. 



NABIS, a Spartan king, who lived about B. C. 

 200, was a tyrant, who at first assumed the appear- 

 ance of a just prince, but afterwards imitated, exter- 

 nally, the Asiatic despots. He was surrounded by 

 an armed guard, and had a multitude of secret spies 

 in his service. Every suspected person was imme- 

 diately put to death or banished. He plundered 

 Messina and Argos, and would have continued to 

 extend his dominion still wider over Peloponnesus 

 by artifice and force, had not the Romans, in alliance 

 with the Achzeans, declared war against him. Quintus 

 Flaminius was not able to conquer him ; but Philo- 

 poemen, with the army of the Achaean league, was 

 more successful. The tyrant was at last killed in 

 Sparta, by his own allies, the ^Etolians, whom he 

 had called into his assistance. 



NABOB (a corruption of navab, the plural of 

 naib, a deputy) ; in India, the title of a governor of 

 a province or the commander of the troops ; borne, 

 however, by many persons as a mere titular appen- 

 dage. The costume and trappings of a nabob are 

 represented below. The nabobs were subordinate to 



the subadars, or governors of a great extent of coun- 

 try (a subaK). After the invasion of Nadir Schah, 

 they made themselves independent of the Great 

 Mogul, but only to fall under the more grinding 

 domination of the British. The term has become 

 proverbial, in English, to signify a person who has 

 acquired great wealth in Hindostan, or lives with 

 peculiar splendour. 



NABONASSAR ; a king of Babylon, with whose 

 reign begins an epoch, called the -era of Nabonaitar, 

 747 or 746 B. C. See Epoch. 



NACRE, or MOTHER OF PEARL, is the inner 

 part of the shell of the pearl muscle. This is of a 

 brilliant and beautifully white colour, and is usually 

 separated from the external port by iiqua-fortis, or 

 the lapidury's mill. Pearl muscle shells are on this 

 account an important article of traffic to China and 

 many parts of India, as well as to the different coun- 

 tries of Europe. They are manufactured into beads, 

 snuff-boxes, buttons, and spoons, fish, and counters 

 for card-playing, and innumerable other articles. 

 The pearl muscles are not considered good as food ; 

 though, after having been dried in the sun, they are 

 sometimes eaten by the lower classes of people in the 

 countries near which they are found. 



NADIR, in astronomy ; that point of the heavens 

 which is diametrically opposite to the zenith, or point 

 directly over our heads. The zenith and nadir are 

 the two poles of the horizon. 



NADIR SCHAH, or THAMAS KOULI KHAN, 

 king of Persia, a famous conqueror and usurper, was 

 born at Calot, in the province of Khorasan, in 1 680. 

 His father was governor of a fortress on the borders 

 of Tartary, to which office he succeeded in his mino- 

 rity, under the guardianship of an uncle who engrossed 

 all the authority. He was subsequently kidnapped 

 by the Usbecks, but escaped, after a detention of four 

 years; and, in 1714, entered into the service of the 

 beglerbeg of Muschadi, in Khorasan, where he so 

 much distinguished himself by his bravery, that he 

 was intrusted with the command of a thousand 

 cavalry, and was soon after placed at the head of an 

 army, with which he gained a great victory over the 

 Usbeck Tartars. This achievement excited so much 

 jealousy in the beglerbeg, that he gave the command 

 to another person, and, when Nadir remonstrated, 

 ordered him to be bastinadoed. Irritated by this 

 disgrace, he joined a band of robbers, and with this 

 troop ravaged all the country, and, surprising Calot, 

 put his uncle to death, although he had been previ- 

 ously negotiating with him, to enter the service ot 

 schah Thamas, king of Persia, then exceedingly 

 pressed by the Turks and Afghans. Such was the 

 bad posture of his affairs, that the schah felt himself 

 impelled to overlook this villany, and take Nadir 

 into his service, who repulsed both his enemies, and 

 was honoured with the title of Thamas Kouli Khun. 

 The schah, during his absence, having in person 

 sustained a defeat from the Turks, was induced to 

 make peace with them, and Nadir was directed to 

 disband his army of 70,000 men. Instead of obey- 

 ing, he immediately led them to Ispahan, where he 

 seized the schah, confined and deposed him, and 

 proclaiming his son Abbas, then an infant, in his 

 stead, assumed the title of regent. He forthwith 

 renewed the war with the Turks, and recovered all 

 the lost provinces ; and the young king dying in 

 1736, he was raised to the sovereignty. TJiis elev.i- 

 tion only extended his views ; and, being invited, by 

 some conspirators about the person of the Great. 

 Mogul (see Mongols), to undertake the conquest of 

 India, he began his march at the head of 120 000 

 men, and, with little resistance, reached Delhi, 

 March 7, 1738. The riches which he found in this 

 capital were immense ; but, being exasperated by 

 some tumults on the part of the inhabitants, he 

 caused a general massacre, in which upwards of 

 100,000 persons perished. After this barbarity, the 

 sanguinary victor concluded a peace with the 

 Mogul, whose daughter he married, receiving with 

 her, as a dowry, some of the finest provinces of the 

 empire that were contiguous to Persia. In this 

 expedition, it is supposed that he carried away, and 



