Table of Contents

  • NIGHTINGALE

    Cross-Reference

    See BOLBOL.

  • NĪRANGDĪN CEREMONY

    Firoze M. Kotwal and Philip G. Kreyenbroek

    a Zoroastrian ritual to consecrate gōmēz, or bull’s urine; the consecrated liquid is known as nīrang or nīrangdīn.

  • NISA

    Antonio Invernizzi

    New Nisa, capital of ancient Parthia, occupies a large area enclosed within stout mud-brick fortifications, which enclose a citadel. Excavations here have brought to light a monumental funerary building of the Parthian era with a flat, crenellated roof, a façade, and wall decoration with terracotta plates.

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  • NISĀBURI, ḤASAN

    David Pingree

     b. Moḥammad al-Aʿraj, Neẓām-al-Din Qommi, astronomer; d. after 1311.

  • NISĀYA

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    the Old Iranian name of several Iranian regions and places, which cannot easily be distinguished from one another.

  • NISHAPUR i. Historical Geography and History to the Beginning of the 20th Century

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    Nishapur (Nišāpur) was, with Balḵ, Marv and Herat, one of the four great cities of the province of Khorasan.  It flourished in Sasanid and early Islamic times, but after the devastations of the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, subsided into a more modest role until it revived in the 20th century.

  • NISHAPUR vi. Archeology

    Rocco Rante

    A major crossroad on the international trade route and silk road, the archeological area in Nishapur has two main sections which have been subjects of discoveries during different eras.

  • NISHAPUR vii. Excavations by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Marika Sardar

    The MMA started expeditions in Iran in 1935 in Qaṣr-e Abu Naṣr, continued to Nishapur, and ended in 1948 after six seasons.

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  • NISIBIS

    Samuel Lieu

    city in northern Mesopotamia, a major focus of military confrontations between the Roman and Sasanian empires an center of theological studies for the Church of the East. Once in Sasanian hands, the city’s role was reversed to that of advanced Persian base of operations against Roman and Byzantine frontier defenses.

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  • NÖLDEKE, THEODOR

    Rüdiger Schmitt

    Nöldeke could convincingly prove the thesis already proposed by Niels Ludvig Westergaard (1815-1878) that Middle Persian was not an Irano-Semitic hybrid language, but an authentic Iranian dialect, the phonetic forms of which were “obscured by a partly cryptographic, partly extremely historicizing spelling.”

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  • NOMADISM

    Eckart Ehlers

    Pastoral nomadism is a livelihood form that is ecologically adjusted at a particular level to the utilization of marginal resources. These resources occur in areas too dry, too elevated, or too steep for agriculture to be a viable mode of livelihood, and the nomadic pastoralist thus makes use of resources that otherwise would be neglected.

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  • NOṢAYRIS

    Meir M. Bar-Asher

    followers of Nusayrism, a syncretistic religion with close affinity to Shiʿism, whose adherents live mostly in Syria and southeastern Turkey.

  • NOWRUZ

    Multiple Authors

    Nowruz, “New Day”, is a traditional ancient festival which celebrates the starts of the Persian New Year. It is the holiest and most joyful festival of the Zoroastrian year.

  • NOWRUZ i. In the Pre-Islamic Period

    Mary Boyce

    Nowruz, “New Day”, is the holiest and most joyful festival of the Zoroastrian year. It is also its focal point, to which all other high holy days relate.

  • NOWRUZ ii. In the Islamic Period

    A. Shapur Shahbazi

    Nowruz survived while less significant festivals were eclipsed by their Islamic rivals and gradually became abandoned by indifferent Mongol and Turkish rulers or hostile clerical authorities.

  • NOWRUZ iii. In the Iranian Calendar

    Simone Cristoforetti

    The day Hormoz (the first day of any Persian month) of the month of Farvardin is the New Year day in the Persian calendar; at present it coincides with the day of the vernal equinox.

  • NOWŠAHR

    Habib Borjian

    port city and sub-province in western Māzandarān Province.

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  • NOZHAT AL-MAJĀLES

    Moḥammad Amin Riāḥi

    an anthology of over 4,000 quatrains (robāʾi) by some 300 poets of the 5th to 7th/11th-13th centuries, compiled around the middle of the 7th/13th century.

  • NUḤ (II) B. MANṢUR (I)

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    (r. 976-97), ABU’L-QĀSEM, Samanid Amir, initially in both Transoxania and Khorasan, latterly in Transoxania only.

  • NUR-AL-DIN MOḤAMMAD II B. ḤASAN

    Farhad Daftary

    (March 1148 - September 1210), an Ismaʿili imam; the fifth lord of Alamut who succeeded to the leadership of the Nezāri Ismaʿili state and daʿwa at the age of seventeen. He reigned for forty-four years, managing the affairs of the Nezāris, especially in Persia.