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  • Napoléon III (French steamship)
    ...abandoned the paddle steamer for the Atlantic run, but the recently organized Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (known as the French Line in the United States) in 1865 launched the Napoléon III, which was the last paddle steamer built for the Atlantic Ferry. Early in the history of steam navigation the Swedish engineer John Ericsson had attempted unsuccessfully to......
  • Napoleon III style (architecture)
    architectural style that was dominant internationally during the second half of the 19th century. Developing from a tendency of architects of the second quarter of the 19th century to use architectural schemes drawn from the periods of the Italian Renaissance, Louis XIV, and Napoleon I to give dignity to public buildings, the style was solidified into a recognizable compositional and decorative sc...
  • Napoléon inconnu (work by Masson)
    In Napoléon inconnu (1895; “The Unknown Napoleon”), Masson, with Guido Biagi, brought out the unpublished writings (1786–93) of Napoleon before he became emperor: notes; extracts from historical, philosophical, and literary books; and personal reflections. His other works include several books on Josephine; Napoléon et sa famille, 13 vol.......
  • Napoleon IV (French prince)
    French prince imperial, the only son of Napoleon III by Empress Eugénie....
  • Napoleon; oder, die hundert Tage (work by Grabbe)
    Grabbe’s most important poetic work, Napoleon; oder, die hundert Tage (1831; “Napoleon; or, The Hundred Days”), exemplifies the boldly experimental form of his plays, in which he avoided continuous action by the use of a series of vividly depicted and contrasting scenes. His tragedy Don Juan und Faust (1829) is an imaginative and daring attempt to combine the two...
  • Napoleon of the Prize Ring (English boxer)
    boxer who participated in the first international heavyweight championship match and was one of England’s best-known 19th-century pugilists....
  • Napoleon on his Imperial Throne (painting by Ingres)
    ...Caroline, introduced the spatial and anatomical manipulations that would typify the artist’s mature portraits, particularly of women. It was, however, the monumental portrait Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne (1806) that proved the most controversial. The stiffness and flat frontality of this imposing effigy were derived from medieval and Byzantine prototypes...
  • Napoleon Visiting the Pesthouse at Jaffa (painting by Gros)
    ...who contributed to the Napoleonic myth, Gros had the most profound effect on the rising generation of Romantic painters. The elegance, richness, and dramatic power of such historical paintings as Napoleon Visiting the Pesthouse at Jaffa (1804) and Napoleon on the Battlefield at Eylau, February 1807 (1808) influenced Théodore......
  • Napoléon-Jerome, Prince (French prince)
    youngest son of Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon I’s youngest brother, and his second wife, Catherine of Württemberg. In 1852 he was named heir presumptive to the throne of the Second Empire....
  • Napoleonic Code (France [1804])
    French civil code enacted in 1804 and still extant, with revisions; it has been the main influence in the 19th-century civil codes of most countries of continental Europe and Latin America....
  • Napoleonic Ode, The (work by Manzoni)
    ...poetic drama about Charlemagne’s overthrow of the Lombard kingdom and conquest of Italy. Another ode, written on the death of Napoleon in 1821, “Il cinque maggio” (1822; “The Napoleonic Ode”), was considered by Goethe, one of the first to translate it into German, as the greatest of many written to commemorate the event....
  • Napoleonic Wars (European history)
    a series of wars between 1792 and 1815 that ranged France against shifting alliances of other European powers and that produced a brief French hegemony over most of Europe. The revolutionary wars, which may for convenience be held to have been concluded by 1801, were originally undertaken to defend and then to spread the effects of the French Revolution. With Napoleon’s rise to absolute pow...
  • Napoli (Italy)
    city, capital of Naples provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy. It lies on the west coast of the Italian Peninsula, 120 miles (190 kilometres) southeast of Rome. On its celebrated bay—flanked to the west by the smaller Gulf of Pozzuoli and to the southeast by the more extended indentation of the Gulf of Salerno—the city is situated between two are...
  • Napoli, Golfo di (bay, Italy)
    semicircular inlet of the Tyrrhenian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea), southwest of the city of Naples, southern Italy. It is 10 miles (16 km) wide and extends southeastward for 20 miles (32 km) from Cape Miseno to Campanella Point. The bay is noted for its scenic beauty, which is enhanced by the steep, mainly volcanic hills surrounding it (including the still-active Mount Vesuvius). The majo...
  • Napoli, Università degli Studi di (university, Naples, Italy)
    coeducational state university at Naples founded in 1224 as a studium generale by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II to offset the dominant influence of the university at Bologna. Although universities were generally chartered after students had chosen to study in a particular place, Frederick decreed the existence of the university before any students or teachers had gathered there and th...
  • Napolitano, Giorgio (president of Italy)
    ...coalition against Berlusconi, whom he replaced as prime minister. Just 20 months later, in January 2008, Prodi lost a vote of confidence in the Senate and resigned once again. Italian Pres. Giorgio Napolitano called for the formation of an interim government, charged with revising the country’s problematic electoral law that had been pushed through parliament by Berlusconi just months......
  • Nappanee (Indiana, United States)
    city, Elkhart county, northern Indiana, U.S., 26 miles (42 km) southeast of South Bend. Founded in 1874, it adopted an Algonquian Indian name (probably meaning “flour”) and developed along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. There is a large concentration of Amish farmers in the vicinity, and their horse-drawn buggies are a familiar sight around the public square; nea...
  • nappe (geology)
    in geology, large body or sheet of rock that has been moved a distance of about 2 km (1.2 miles) or more from its original position by faulting or folding. A nappe may be the hanging wall of a low-angle thrust fault (a fracture in the rocks of the Earth’s crust caused by contraction), or it may be a large recumbent fold (i.e., an undulation in the stratified rocks of the Earth...
  • napping
    Napping is a process that may be applied to woollens, cottons, spun silks, and spun rayons, including both woven and knitted types, to raise a velvety, soft surface. The process involves passing the fabric over revolving cylinders covered with fine wires that lift the short, loose fibres, usually from the weft yarns, to the surface, forming a nap. The process, which increases warmth, is......
  • nappy rash
    The infant’s skin has a thin epidermis and immature glands and is particularly susceptible to blistering and infection. Diaper, or napkin, rashes, which affect the areas of skin in contact with a wet diaper, are very common and can become severe when additional infection occurs....
  • Naps (American baseball team)
    American professional baseball team based in Cleveland that plays in the American League (AL). The Indians have won five AL pennants and two World Series titles, the first in 1920 and the second in 1948....
  • Napster (American company)
    ...recording industry’s greatest nightmare. In the United States, the recording industry, represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), attacked a single file-sharing service, Napster, which from 1999 to 2001 allowed users across the Internet access to music files, stored in the data-compression format known as MP3, on other users’ computers by way of Napster...
  • Naqādah (Egypt)
    town, Upper Egypt. It lies on the west bank of the Nile, in the great bend of the river, opposite Qūṣ, in Qinā muḥāfaẓah (governorate). One of the oldest regions of Egypt, it is the site of a Neolithic town and burial grounds of the Predynastic period (before c. 2925 bc). It was first excavated by the British ...
  • Naqādah I culture (ancient Egypt)
    Egyptian Predynastic cultural phase, centred in Upper Egypt, its type-site being Al-ʿĀmirah near modern Abydos. Numerous sites, dating to about 3600 bce, have been excavated and reveal an agricultural way of life similar to that of the preceding Badarian culture but with advan...
  • Naqādah II culture (Egyptian history)
    predynastic Egyptian cultural phase given the sequence dates 40–65 by Sir Flinders Petrie and later dated c. 3400–c. 3100 bce. Evidence indicates that the Gerzean culture was a further development of the culture of the Amratian period, which immediately preceded the Gerzean. Centred primarily at ...
  • Naqāʾiḍ, Al- (Arabic lampoon poetry collection)
    During the Umayyad caliphate, a number of poets indulged in a series of poetic jousts in Al-Mirbad, the central square of the city Al-Baṣrah (Basra). Collected as Al-Naqāʾiḍ (“Flytings”), these contests—involving principally Jarīr and al-Farazdaq but also al-Akhṭal and al-Ṭirimmāh—took the....
  • naqal (Indian drama)
    ...are professional performers belonging to the lower classes. They exploit all the tricks of exaggeration, absurdity, malapropism, comic gags, and lewd references. In the performance of a naqal (comic sketch), two people constitute a troupe. The leader holds a leather folder and slaps his foolish partner, who leads his master to a hilarious situation through absurd replies. Expert......
  • Naqd al-shiʿr (work by Qudāmah ibn Jaʿfar)
    ...his listing became a kind of challenge to future writers on poetics, who managed to compile ever longer lists. The second of these scholars was Qudāmah ibn Jaʿfar, whose Naqd al-shiʿr (“Evaluation of Poetry”) provides specific criteria for assessing the quality of poetry; he defines it as “discourse with rhyme, metre, and......
  • Naqia (queen of Assyria)
    ...successor. The choice is all the more difficult to explain in that Esarhaddon, unlike his father, was friendly toward the Babylonians. It can be assumed that his energetic and designing mother, Zakutu (Naqia), who came from Syria or Judah, used all her influence on his behalf to override the national party of Assyria. The theory that he was a partner in plotting the murder of his father is......
  • naqqārah (musical instrument)
    small kettledrum that reached Europe from the Middle East in the 13th century, during the Crusades. Nakers were made of wood, metal, or clay and were sometimes equipped with snares. They were almost always played in pairs and were struck with hard sticks. They were probably tuned to high and low notes of identifiable pitch. Like the similar Arabic naqqārah, from which they derived, ...
  • Naqqāsh, Mārūn an- (Lebanese dramatist)
    In 1847 Mārūn al-Naqqāsh, who had recently returned from a stay in Italy, obtained permission from the Ottoman authorities in Syria to produce in his house Al-Bakhīl, a play inspired by Molière’s drama L’Avare. Most of the actors involved either were members of his family or were friends. While there...
  • Naqsh-e Bahrām (archaeological site, Iran)
    ...about 180 miles (290 km) southwest of Shīrāz, Shāpūr I is shown triumphing over three Roman emperors—Gordian III, Philip the Arabian, and Valerian. At Naqsh-e Bahrām, north of Kāzerūn, Bahrām III is depicted enthroned. The same ruler appears at Qaṣr-e Abū Nasr, near Shīrāz, and at Gūyom, not......
  • Naqsh-e Rajab (archaeological site, Iran)
    ...relics of Sāsānian art are the great rock sculptures carved on the limestone cliffs that are found in many parts of the country. The best-known groups are at Naqsh-e Rostam and Naqsh-e Rajab, both near Persepolis, and at Bishāpūr, an ancient city a few miles north of Kāzerūn in Fārs. At Fīrūzābād—the ancient......
  • Naqsh-e Rostam (archaeological site, Iran)
    ...on the opposite side of the Pulvār River, rises a perpendicular wall of rock in which four similar tombs are cut at a considerable height from the bottom of the valley. This place is called Naqsh-e Rostam (“Picture of Rostam”), from the Sāsānian carvings below the tombs, which were thought to represent the mythical hero Rostam. That the occupants of these seve...
  • Naqshbandīyah (Ṣūfī order)
    Shaykh Aḥmad joined the mystical order Naqshbandīyah, the most important of the Indian Sufi orders, in 1593–94. He spent his life preaching against the inclination of Akbar and his successor, Jahāngīr (ruled 1605–27), toward pantheism and Shīʿite Islam (one of that religion’s two major branches). Of his several written works, the most ...
  • NAR (political party, Trinidad and Tobago)
    In December 1986 the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), a coalition party led by A.N.R. Robinson, won the majority of seats on a program calling for divestment of most state-owned companies, reorganization of the civil service, and structural readjustment of the economy in the light of shrinking oil revenues. Although the NAR government succeeded somewhat in stimulating economic growth......
  • Nar Narayan (Koch dynasty)
    ...by Khen kings; but early in the 16th century Cooch Behar became the centre of the kingdom of the Koch king Biswa Singh, invading from northeastern Bengal. The greatest monarch of the dynasty was Nar Narayan, the son of Biswa Singh, who extended his power over a large part of Assam and southward over what became the British district of Rangpur. His son became tributary to the Mughal Empire.......
  • Nara (Japan)
    city, Nara ken (prefecture), southern Honshu, Japan. The city of Nara, the prefectural capital, is located in the hilly northeastern edge of the Nara Basin, 25 miles (40 km) east of Ōsaka. It was the national capital of Japan from 710 to 784—when it was called Heijō-kyō—and retains the atmosphere of ancient Japan. The city is most noted ...
  • Nāra (desert, Pakistan)
    ...of land considerably higher than the adjoining valley. It is chiefly desert irrigated by the Sutlej inundation canals and yields crops of wheat, cotton, and sugarcane. Farther east, the Rohi, or Cholistan, is a barren desert tract, bounded on the north and west by the Hakra depression with mound ruins of old settlements along its high banks; it is still inhabited by nomads. The principal......
  • Nara (prefecture, Japan)
    ken (prefecture), southern Honshu, Japan. The prefecture occupies the central part of the Kii Peninsula. Its southern and northeastern portions are mountainous, while the northwest is composed of the lowland of the Nara Basin. The basin is separated from Ōsaka (west) by mountains and contains most of the prefecture’s population, main cities, and transport facilities. Agricult...
  • Nāra Canal (canal, Pakistan)
    important water channel in Sindh province, Pakistan. From its source above Rohri, it runs southward and discharges into the Puran River, an old channel of the Indus River, which flows to the sea farther south through the Rann of Kutch. Because of the uncertain water supply received through the Nāra, it was connected in 1858–59 with the Indus at Rohri by a supply channel 12 miles (19...
  • Nara City Museum of Photography (museum, Nara, Japan)
    ...art museum built there since World War II. To represent the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city, Kurokawa designed an empty circular space at the core of the steel-and-concrete museum. In his Nara City Museum of Photography (1989–91), he displayed an awareness of the area’s architecture, particularly that of the Shinyakushiji Temple, whose roof tiles and general form he echoed...
  • Nara kokuritsu hakubutsukan (museum, Nara, Japan)
    in Nara, Japan, art museum devoted primarily to Buddhist art. Exhibits include dry-lacquer works, wooden statues, and lacquered wood from the earlier and later Heian periods. There are Kamakura sculptures, including Jizō-Bosatsu, and a relief of 1327 from Kōchi of Kobo Daishi (Kūkai), one of the best-known Buddhist saints in Japan. Pieces on display include a fine gilded-bronz...
  • Nara National Museum (museum, Nara, Japan)
    in Nara, Japan, art museum devoted primarily to Buddhist art. Exhibits include dry-lacquer works, wooden statues, and lacquered wood from the earlier and later Heian periods. There are Kamakura sculptures, including Jizō-Bosatsu, and a relief of 1327 from Kōchi of Kobo Daishi (Kūkai), one of the best-known Buddhist saints in Japan. Pieces on display include a fine gilded-bronz...
  • Nara period (Japanese history)
    (ad 710–784), in Japanese history, period in which the imperial government was at Nara, and Sinicization and Buddhism were most highly developed. Nara, the country’s first permanent capital, was modeled on the Chinese T’ang dynasty (618–907) capital, Ch’ang-an. Nara artisans produced refined Buddhist sculpture and erected grand Bu...
  • Nara Singde (Manchu poet)
    In the field of tz’u writing, the 17th-century Manchu poet Nara Singde (Sinicized name, Na-lan Hsing-te) was outstanding; but even he lapsed into conscious imitation of Southern T’ang models except when inspired by the vastness of open space and the beauties of nature. In nonfictional prose, Chin Jen-jui continued the familiar essay form....
  • Narach Lake (lake, Belarus)
    ...by a ship canal, thereby connecting the Baltic and Black seas. The rivers are generally frozen from December to late March, after which occur about two months of maximum flow. The largest lakes are Narach, Asvyeyskaye, and Drysvyaty....
  • Naracoorte (South Australia, Australia)
    town, southeastern South Australia. It lies 190 miles (310 km) southeast of Adelaide, near the Victoria border. Founded as Kincraig in 1845, it took its present name in 1869 from an Aboriginal word meaning “large waterhole.” During the 1850s Naracoorte was an important stopping place along the route to the Victorian goldfields. Created a municipality in 1924, it no...
  • Naracoorte Caves National Park (national park, Naracoorte, Australia)
    ...goldfields. Created a municipality in 1924, it now serves as a market for wool, wheat, and dairy products. Limestone quarrying and lumbering are also undertaken, and tourism based on nearby Naracoorte Caves National Park (established 2001) is an added source of income. In the park’s Victoria Fossil Cave, a rich deposit of fossil bones was discovered in 1969; the fossil chamber is......
  • Nāradīśikṣā (auxiliary text of Sāmaveda)
    ...theory were known in Vedic circles, and there are references to three octave registers (sthāna), each containing seven notes (yama). An auxiliary text of the Sāmaveda, the Nāradīśikṣā, correlates the Vedic tones with the accents described above, suggesting that the Samavedic tones possibly derived from the accents. The Samavedic hym...
  • Narai (king of Siam)
    king of Siam (1656–88), who was best known for his efforts in foreign affairs and whose court produced the first “golden age” of Thai literature....
  • Narain, Jai Prakash (Indian political leader)
    Indian political leader and theorist....
  • Narakasura (Kāmarūpa ruler)
    ...its capital at Pragjyotishapura (now Guwahati). Ancient Kamarupa included roughly the Brahmaputra River valley, Bhutan, the Rangpur region (now in Bangladesh), and Koch Bihar, in West Bengal. King Narakasura and his son Bhagadatta were famous rulers of Kamarupa in the Mahabharata period (roughly 400 bce to 200 ce). A Chinese traveler, Xuan...
  • NARAL Pro-Choice America (American organization)
    American organization, founded in 1969 to centralize state abortion-rights efforts and continuing its mission thereafter to protect and promote reproductive freedom. The organization consists of three related entities: NARAL Pro-Choice America, Inc., a nonprofit organization that focuses on defending abortion rights and on making abortions less necessary; NARA...
  • Naram-Sin (king of Akkad)
    ...of Akkad (c. 2334–c. 2154 bc), from obscurity to fame and his victory over Lugalzagesi of Uruk form the theme of several epic tales. The sudden eclipse of the Akkadian empire long after Naram-Sin, which was wrongly attributed to that ruler’s presumed pride and the gods’ retaliation, is the theme of “The Fall of Akkad.” Akkadian epic tradition con...
  • Narameikhla (king of Arakan)
    founder and first king (reigned 1404–34) of the Mrohaung dynasty in Arakan, the maritime country lying to the west of Lower Burma on the Bay of Bengal, which had been settled by the Burmese in the 10th century....
  • NARAS (American organization)
    any of a series of awards presented annually in the United States by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS; commonly called the Recording Academy) to recognize achievement in the music industry. Winners are selected from more than 25 fields, which cover such genres as pop, rock, country, reggae, classical, and jazz, as well as production and post-production work,......
  • Narasa Nayaka (Vijayanagar minister)
    At his death in 1491, following the siege of Udayagiri (and his own imprisonment there) by Orissa, Narasimha left his kingdom in the hands of his chief minister, Narasa Nayaka, whom he had appointed regent for his two young sons the previous year. The minister in effect ruled Vijayanagar from 1490 until his own death in 1503. Court intrigues led to the murder of the elder prince by one of......
  • Narashino (Japan)
    city, Chiba ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. Narashino is situated on the northeastern shore of Tokyo Bay. Formed in 1951 by the merger of Minomi, Maka, Tsuda-numa, and Okubo, the settlement has no city centre because the former towns are lined up along two railways to Tokyo. Truck farming is an important economic activ...
  • Narasiṃha (Hinduism)
    (Sanskrit: “Man-Lion”), fourth of the 10 avatars (incarnations) of the Hindu god Vishnu. The demon Hiraṇyakaśipu, twin brother of the demon overthrown by Vishnu in his previous incarnation as Varāha, obtained a boon from Brahmā that he could not be killed by man or beast, from inside or outside, by day or by night, and that no weapon could harm him. Thus, ...
  • Narasiṃha I (Indian ruler)
    ...Muslims of Bengal, who invaded Orissa in 1206. Rājarāja’s son Anaṅgabhīma III, however, repulsed the Muslims and built the temple of Megheśvara at Bhuvaneśvara. Narasiṃha I, the son of Anaṅgabhīma, invaded southern Bengal in 1243, defeated its Muslim ruler, captured the capital (Gauḍa), and built the Sun Temple at Kon...
  • Narasiṃha IV (Indian ruler)
    ...death of Narasiṃha in 1264, the Eastern Gaṅgas began to decline; the sultan of Delhi invaded Orissa in 1324, Muslims raided in 1353, and Vijayanagar defeated the Orissan powers in 1356. Narasiṃha IV, the last known king of the Eastern Gaṅga dynasty, ruled until 1425. The “mad king,” Bhānudeva IV, who succeeded him, left no inscriptions; his minis...
  • Narasiṃha, Saluva (Indian military leader)
    ...but the principal source of supply of Middle Eastern horses for the military as well. The death in 1470 of Kapilendra of Orissa temporarily relieved military pressure in the east; but it was Saluva Narasimha (since transferred to Penukonda), rather than Virupaksha, who took advantage of the resultant civil war in Orissa to regain lost territory. He reconquered the Tamil region and became master...
  • Narasimhavarman (Pallava king)
    Mahendravarman’s successor, Narasimhavarman I (reigned c. 630–668), also called Mahamall or Mamalla, avenged the Pallava defeat by capturing Vatapi. He sent two naval expeditions from Mahabalipuram to Sri Lanka to assist the king Manavamma in regaining his throne. Pallava naval interests laid the foundation for extensive reliance on the navy by the succeeding dynasty, the Cola...
  • Narasimhavarman I Mahamalla (Pallava king)
    Mahendravarman’s successor, Narasimhavarman I (reigned c. 630–668), also called Mahamall or Mamalla, avenged the Pallava defeat by capturing Vatapi. He sent two naval expeditions from Mahabalipuram to Sri Lanka to assist the king Manavamma in regaining his throne. Pallava naval interests laid the foundation for extensive reliance on the navy by the succeeding dynasty, the Cola...
  • Narathihapate (king of Myanmar)
    ...the demise of the Pagan dynasty of Myanmar (Burma). After unifying China, the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan sent envoys to neighbouring kingdoms, obliging them to accept Mongol vassalage. The Pagan king Narathihapate (reigned 1254–87) shunned the first Mongol embassy and massacred the members of the second. Confident of victory because of recent Burmese conquests of the territory up to......
  • Narathiwat (Thailand)
    town, extreme southern Thailand, on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. Narathiwat is a minor port inhabited largely by Malay Muslims. Fishing and shipping are the main activities. The surrounding area is heavily planted in coconuts, rice, and rubber. Pop. (1985 est.) 36,956....
  • “Narayam-bushi kō” (film by Kinoshita Keisuke)
    ...examining the weakened Japanese family structure, is skillfully constructed by crosscutting between stories and by the effective incorporation of flashbacks. Narayama-bushi kō (1958; Ballad of Narayama) is praised for the technical excellence with which Kinoshita used colour and the wide screen within the traditional structure of the period film. ...
  • Narayan, Jaya Prakash (Indian political leader)
    Indian political leader and theorist....
  • Narayan, R. K. (Indian author)
    one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English....
  • Narayan, Rasipuram Krishnaswami (Indian author)
    one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English....
  • Nārāyaṇa (Hindu leader)
    ...among the Vallabhācārya, a prominent devotional sect renowned for the deference paid to its gurus (spiritual leaders). The sect was founded in Ahmedabad about 1804 by Swāmī Nārāyaṇa, who emphasized the observance of traditional Hindu law, particularly in matters of caste, diet, and ritual. The sect worships Krishna (Kṛṣṇa) an...
  • Nārāyāṇa (Hindu deity)
    ...cosmogony greatly expands upon the complex cosmogonies of the Brahmanas, Upanishads, and epics. According to one of many versions of the story of the origin of the universe, in the beginning the god Narayana (identified with Vishnu) floated on the snake Ananta (“Endless”) on the primeval waters. From Narayana’s navel grew a lotus, in which the god Brahma was born reciting t...
  • Narayanan, Kocheril Raman (president of India)
    Indian politician and diplomat, who was the president of India from 1997 to 2002. He was the first member of the country’s lowest social caste, the group traditionally considered to be untouchable, to occupy the office....
  • Narayanganj (Bangladesh)
    city, east-central Bangladesh, situated along both banks of the Sitalakhya River at its confluence with the Dhaleswari. The chief river port for nearby Dhaka, the city also has steamer connections with major inland ports and Chittagong. Narayanganj is among the busiest trade markets in the country; it is a terminal market for jute and histor...
  • Narayani River (river, Asia)
    river in central Nepal and northern India. It is formed by the union of the Kāli and Trisūli rivers, which rise in the Great Himalaya Range in Nepal; from this junction to the Indian border the river is called the Nārāyani. It flows southwest into India and then turns southeast along the Uttar Pradesh–Bihār state border and across the Gangetic Plain. It en...
  • Narayanswami, Rasipuram Krishnaswami (Indian author)
    one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English....
  • Narbada River (river, India)
    river in central India, rising in the Maikala Range in east-central Madhya Pradesh state. Following a tortuous course through the hills of Mandla, it enters the structural trough between the Vindhya and Sātpura ranges at Marble Rocks Gorge and then flows westward across Madhya Pradesh and Gujarāt states, entering the Gulf of Cambay through an estuary 13 miles (21 km) wide, just below...
  • Narbonensis (Roman province)
    ancient Roman province that lay between the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Cévennes Mountains. It comprised what is now southeastern France....
  • Narboni, Moses (French philosopher)
    Moses of Narbonne, or Moses Narboni, like many other Jewish scholars of the 14th century, wrote mainly commentaries, including those on biblical books, on treatises of Averroës, and on Maimonides’ Guide. In his commentary on the Guide, Narboni often interprets the earlier philosopher’s opinions by recourse to Averroës...
  • Narbonne (France)
    city, Aude département, Languedoc-Roussillon région, southeastern France. It lies on a vine-growing plain 8 miles (13 km) from the Mediterranean and east of Carcassonne....
  • Narbonne, Louis de (French minister)
    ...the family residence near Geneva. It was here that she gained fame by establishing a meeting place for some of the leading intellectuals of western Europe. Since 1789 she had been the mistress of Louis de Narbonne, one of Louis XVI’s last ministers. He took refuge in England in 1792, where she joined him in 1793. She stayed at Juniper Hall, near Mickleham in Surrey, a mansion that had be...
  • Narborough Island (island, Ecuador)
    one of the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 600 mi (965 km) west of Ecuador. Third largest of the islands, with an area of 245 sq mi (635 sq km), it is separated from Isabela Island by the Bolívar Strait. Its relief is dominated by a single volcanic crater (3,720 feet [1,134 m]), still intensely active. It is without human population....
  • NARC (political organization, Kenya)
    ...would not run again for the presidency, and Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo Kenyatta, was chosen to be KANU’s presidential candidate. Kibaki, this time representing a coalition of opposition groups (the National Rainbow Coalition [NARC]), soundly defeated Kenyatta in the 2002 presidential elections, thus ending KANU’s long period of uninterrupted rule....
  • Narcejac, Thomas Pierre Ayraud (French writer)
    French writer of best-selling crime novels who collaborated with Pierre Boileau on 43 thrillers, about 100 short stories, and 4 plays; their Celle qui n’était plus (1952) was filmed as Les Diaboliques (1954) by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and D’entre les morts (1954) became the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo (b. July 3, 1908, Rochefort-sur-Mer, Franc...
  • Narces (Byzantine general)
    ...resented the Byzantine presence in Armenia, which he had been forced to cede. Using the murder of Maurice (602) and his replacement as emperor by Phocas as a pretext and encouraged by the fact that Narces, who had commanded the Byzantine force that established Khosrow on the throne, refused to recognize Phocas, Khosrow’s armies invaded Armenia and Mesopotamia. The Byzantine forces in......
  • narcissism (psychology)
    A person with this disorder has a grandiose sense of self-importance and a preoccupation with fantasies of success, power, and achievement. The essential characteristic of this disorder is an exaggerated sense of self-importance that is reflected in a wide variety of situations. The sense of self-worth exceeds the individual’s actual accomplishments. People with this disorder are typically....
  • narcissistic number (mathematics)
    Other number curiosities and oddities are to be found. Thus, narcissistic numbers are numbers that can be represented by some kind of mathematical manipulation of their digits. A whole number, or integer, that is the sum of the nth powers of its digits (e.g., 153 = 13 + 53 + 33) is called a perfect digital invariant. On the other hand, a recurring......
  • narcissistic personality disorder (psychology)
    A person with this disorder has a grandiose sense of self-importance and a preoccupation with fantasies of success, power, and achievement. The essential characteristic of this disorder is an exaggerated sense of self-importance that is reflected in a wide variety of situations. The sense of self-worth exceeds the individual’s actual accomplishments. People with this disorder are typically....
  • Narcissus (Greek mythology)
    in Greek mythology, the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was distinguished for his beauty. According to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book III, Narcissus’s mother was told by the blind seer Tiresias that he would have a long life, provided he never recognized himself. His rejection, however, of the love of the nymph Echo...
  • narcissus (plant)
    any member of a genus (Narcissus) of bulbous, often fragrant, ornamental plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The genus contains about 40 species, native primarily to Europe. Daffodil, or narcissus (N. pseudonarcissus), jonquil (N. jonquilla), and poet’s narcissus (N. poeticus) are popular garden flowers. The central crown of each yellow, whit...
  • Narcissus (Roman official)
    freedman who used his position as correspondence secretary (ab epistulis) to the Roman emperor Claudius (ruled 41–54) to become, in effect, a minister of state....
  • Narcissus (work by Butler)
    ...conveyed, is at St. John’s College, Cambridge. Later he tried his hand at musical composition, publishing Gavottes, Minuets, Fugues and Other Short Pieces for the Piano (1885), and Narcissus, a comic cantata in the style of Handel—whom he rated high above all other composers—in 1888; Ulysses: An Oratorio appeared in 1904. It was typical of Butler to use...
  • Narcissus (work by Gide)
    ...Mallarmé’s famous “Tuesday evenings,” which were the centre of the French Symbolist movement, and for a time Gide was influenced by Symbolist aesthetic theories. His works “Narcissus” (1891), Le Voyage d’Urien (1893; Urien’s Voyage), and “The Lovers’ Attempt” (1893) belong to this period....
  • Narcissus and Goldmund (work by Hesse)
    Der Steppenwolf (1927; Steppenwolf ) describes the conflict between bourgeois acceptance and spiritual self-realization in a middle-aged man. In Narziss und Goldmund (1930; Narcissus and Goldmund), an intellectual ascetic who is content with established religious faith is contrasted with an artistic sensualist pursuing his own form of salvation. In his last......
  • “Narcissus and Psyche” (film)
    ...film, Az amerikai anzix (1975; “The Postcard from America”), won several prizes. In 1980 Bódy completed his avant-garde masterpiece, Nárcisz és Psyché (“Narcissus and Psyche”). Based on Hungarian poet Sándor Weöres’s Psyché (1972), an anthology of le...
  • Narcissus jonquilla (plant)
    ...of bulbous, often fragrant, ornamental plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The genus contains about 40 species, native primarily to Europe. Daffodil, or narcissus (N. pseudonarcissus), jonquil (N. jonquilla), and poet’s narcissus (N. poeticus) are popular garden flowers. The central crown of each yellow, white, or pink flower ranges in shape from the form of a......
  • Narcissus of Neronias (Christian philosopher)
    ...Arius to return to communion with his bishop. But events were moving fast, and at a strongly anti-Arian synod at Antioch, about January 325, Eusebius and two of his allies, Theodotus of Laodicea and Narcissus of Neronias in Cilicia, were provisionally excommunicated for Arian views. When the Council of Nicaea, called by the Roman emperor Constantine I, met later in the year, Eusebius had to......
  • Narcissus poeticus (plant)
    ...plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The genus contains about 40 species, native primarily to Europe. Daffodil, or narcissus (N. pseudonarcissus), jonquil (N. jonquilla), and poet’s narcissus (N. poeticus) are popular garden flowers. The central crown of each yellow, white, or pink flower ranges in shape from the form of a trumpet, as in the daffodil, to a ringlike.....
  • Narcissus pseudonarcissus (plant)
    bulb-forming flowering plant of the genus Narcissus, native to northern Europe and widely cultivated there and in North America. The daffodil grows to about 16 inches (41 cm) in height and has five or six leaves that grow from the bulb and are about 12 inches (30 cm) long. The stem bears one large yellow blossom with a corolla deeply cleft into six lobe...
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