N E E 
NEE 
■of El Arad, which has already produced a revolution in 
the government of Arabia. Its founder was one Abd al 
Wahkeb, a native of Aijsene, a town in El Arad. In 
liis youth he ftudied thole fciences which are chiefly cul¬ 
tivated in Arabia ; and he afterwards fpent lome time at 
JBafra, and made feveral journeys to Bagdad, and through 
Perfia. After his return to his native place, he began to 
propagate his opinions among his countrymen, and, hav¬ 
ing converted feveral independent fliieks, their l'ubje&s 
became followers of this new prophet. The fliieks who 
had been engaged in inteftine contefts, were reconciled to 
one another by the mediation of Abd al Wahkeb, and 
mutually ftipulated to undertake no future enterprife 
witliout consulting their apoftle. By this affociation the 
balance of power in Nedsjed was deftroyed ; the wars be¬ 
came more frequent, and religion blended itfelf with 
other difputes. The new prophet reduced a confiderable 
part of El Arad, and defeated the fliiek of Lachfa, to 
•whom the vanquifhed fliieks of El Arad applied for affift- 
ance. The fliiek Mecrami of Nedsjeran, whofe princi¬ 
ples refembled thofe of Abd al Wahkeb, joined the latter, 
or rather his fon Mahomet, who fucceeded his father, in 
order to reduce the Sunnite fliieks. After the death of 
Abd al Wahkeb, bis fon retained the fame authority and 
profecuted his view's. He fuftained the lupreme ecclefi- 
aftical character in El Arad, and became fovereign of the 
whole diitrift, the hereditary fliieks of the fmail indepen¬ 
dent ftates retaining only a nominal authority. The Sun¬ 
nites have complained of his perfecutions; and thole in¬ 
habitants of Nedsjed who were unwilling to embrace the 
new religion, have retired to other parts of the country; 
and tliefe refugees have peopled the ancient Bafra, now 
called Zobayer, fo that, from being a decayed hamlet, it 
is become a large town. From the information obtained 
by Niebuhr from an intelligent Bedouin fliiek, he has 
given the following account of this new religion : Abd 
al Wahkeb taught, that God is the only proper objeft of 
worffiip, as the creator and governor of the world. He 
forbade the invocation of faints, and the mention of Ma¬ 
homet or any other prophet in prayer, as pradfices favour¬ 
ing of idolatry. He confidered Mahomet, Jelus Chrift, 
Moles, and many others, relpedled by the Sunnites in the 
character of prophets, as merely great men, whofe hiltory 
might be read with improvement; denying, at the fame 
time, that any book had ever been written by divine in- 
fpiration, or brought dowm from heaven by the angel 
Gabriel. He prohibited, as a crime againft Providence, 
the making of vows, in the manner of the Sunnites, to 
obtain deliverance from danger. This new religion is re¬ 
garded as a reformation of Mahometanifm, by which it is 
reduced to its original fimplicity. He has probably gone 
farther than lome other reformers; and it remains to be 
been, whether a religion ftripped of every thing that is 
adapted to Itrike the femes, can maintain its ground among 
a people fo rude and ignorant as the Arabs. 
NEDS'JERA, a town of Arabia, in the province of 
Yemen : fourteen miles north-welt of Sana. 
NEDSJERAN', a principality of Arabia, in the coun¬ 
try of Yemen, three days’journey north-eafl from Saade ; 
founded, in the middle of the la ft century, by a Ihiek 
named Mecrami. This narrow territory is fertile in corn 
and fruits, efpecially in dates. It affords excellent paf- 
turage; audits horfes and camels are in high requeft 
through all Arabia. 
The capital of this finall kingdom is Nedsjeran, an an¬ 
cient city, famous in Arabian hillory. The other towns 
in it are places„of little confequence. 
NEDWES'TA, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of 
Boleflaw : fixteen miles welt-north- weft of Jung Buntzel. 
NEDWI'ETITZ, a town of Moravia, in the circle of 
Brunn : twenty miles north-weft of Brunn. 
NEED, f. [neob, Sax.] Exigency ; prefling difficulty ; 
neceffity.—-The very.itream of his life, and the bulinefs 
he hath helmed, muff, upon a warranted need, give him a 
better proclamation. Shakefpeare't Meal'ure for Mealure, 
Vol. XVI. No. 1145, 
678 
In thy native innocence proceed, 
And furamon all thy reafon at thy need. Bryden. 
Want; diftrefsful poverty.—Defer not to give to him 
that is in need. Ecclus. iv. 3.—God lometimes calls upon 
thee to relieve the needs of thy brother, lometimes the lie- 
ceflities of thy country, and lometimes the urgent wants 
of thy prince. South. 
Famine is in thy cheeks ; 
IVeedand oppreffion ftare within thine eyes, 
Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back. Shahcfpeare. 
Want; lack of any thing for ufe.—God grant we never 
may have need of you. ShakeJ'pearc. —God, who fees all 
things intuitively, neither Hands in need of logick, nor 
ufes it. Halier. 
To NEED, v. a. To want; to lack ; to be in want of; 
to require.—To alk whether the will has freedom ? is to 
alk, whether one power has another ? A queftion too 
abfurd to need an anlwer. Locke. 
Allow not nature more than nature needs. 
Man’s life is cheap as beaft’s. ShakeJ’peare K. Lear. 
To NEED, v. 11. To be wanted ; to be neceflary.— 
When we have done it, we have done all that is in our 
power, and all that needs. Locke. 
More ample fpirit than hitherto was wont 
Here needs me, whiles the famous anceftors 
Of my moft dreadful fovereign I recount. Spcnjer. 
To have neceffity of any thing; to be in want of any 
thing.—We have inftances of perception whilft we are 
afleep : but how incoherent and how little conformable 
to the perfection of a rational being, thofe who are ac¬ 
quainted with d;‘eams need not be told. Locke. 
NEE'DER,y.' One that wants any thing; 
If the time thruft forth 
A caufe for thy repeal, we lhall not fend 
O’er the vaft world, to feek a Angle man ; 
And lofe advantage, which doth ever cool 
In th’ ablence of the needer. Shaltefpeare''s Coriolanus „ 
NEE'DFUL, adj. Diftrefled; in want.—Why ftandeft 
thou fo far off’, O Lord, and hideft thy face in the need¬ 
ful time of trouble. Pfalm x. 1. Common Prayer. —Necef- 
fary ; indifpenfably requifite.—Give us all things that be 
needful, both for our louls and bodies. Common Prayer. 
A lonely defart and an empty land, 
Shall fcarce afford, for needful hours of reft, 
A Angle houfe to their benighted guell. Addifonon Italy. 
NEE'DFULLY, adv. Neceflarily : 
They, who 
Dare for thefe poems yet both alk and read. 
And like them too, muff needfully, though few, 
Be of the beft. B. Jonfon. 
NEE'DFULNESS, f. Neceffity. 
NEE'DHAM, a townlhip of America, in Norfolk 
county, Maflachufetts : eleven miles from Bolton ; about 
nine miles long, and five broad, almoft encompafled by 
Charles river, which at a fall of twenty feet between 
Newton and Needham, divides Middlefex from Norfolk 
county. It was incorporated in 1711, and contains 107a 
inhabitants. 
NEE'DHAM (Marchamont), a political writer, was 
born at Burford in Oxfordlhire in 1620. His father dying 
while he was an infant, his mother married again to Air. 
Glynn, vicar of Burford, and mailer of the tree-lchool, 
under whom he received his early education. At the 
age of fourteen, he was fent to All-Souls college in Ox¬ 
ford, where he continued till he took the degree of B. A. 
and then removed to St. Mary’s Hall. He afterwards 
became an uflier in Merchant-Taylor’s fcliool, which oc¬ 
cupation he quitted on the breaking out of the civil war, 
for that of writer to an attorney in Gray’s Inn. Ia 
J643 he commenced a weekly paper of intelligence on 
2 I tbs 
