Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/558

514 N I N I S NIORT, a city of France, chief town of the department of Deux Sevres, distant 255 miles south-west of Paris by the railway to Poitiers and La Rochelle (here crossed by the line from Angers to Angouleme), is situated at the head of navigation of the Sevre Niortaise, partly in the valley and partly on the slopes of the enclosing hills. The tower of the church of Notre Dame (16th century) has a spire 246 feet high, with bell -turrets adorned with statues of the evangelists, and at the base a richly-decorated dais in the Renaissance style ; and the north doorway shows a balustrade, whose balusters form the inscription, Mater Dei, memento mei. There is a fine window in the apse of St Andre and St Hilaire contains some beautiful frescos. Of the old castle, whose site is partly occupied by the pre fecture, there still remains the donjon two large square towers, flanked by several of smaller dimensions. Built, it is said, by Henry II. of England or Richard Cceur de Lion, the south tower contains four vaulted chambers one above the other, and the platform on the top affords a fine view of the public garden (one of the most picturesque in France) and the valley of the Sevre. The old town-house (now used as "justice de paix") is known as the Alienor or ^l^onore palace, after Eleonore of Guienne ; near it is a Renaissance belfry. The convent of the Oratorians is occupied by a public library (30,000 volumes), a picture gallery, and museums of geology and antiquities the last containing plaster copies of all objects of interest in the ancient monuments of the surrounding country. Niort further possesses extensive barracks, several hospitals, and a lyce"e named after Fontanes, grandmaster of the imperial university, who was born in the town. The house is still shown in which Madame de Maintenon was born while her father was imprisoned in the donjon. Tanning, currying, shammy-dressing, glove-making, and hair-working are the staple industries of Noirt, gloves alone giving employment to about one thousand workmen, and brush- making, hair-working, and allied industries to nearly as many. A large cotton-mill, oil-works, foundries, distil leries, and a glass-work also exist in the town. Owing to the mildness of its climate, Niort has admirable nurseries, and its market-gardens export onions and artichokes. The population of the city in 1881 was 18,823, and that of the commune 22,254. Up to the 7th century the Niort plain formed part of the Gulf of Poitou ; and the mouth of the Sevre lay at the foot of the hills now occupied by the town which grew up round the castle erected by Henry Plantagenet in 1155. The place was captured by Louis VIII. in 1224. By the peace of Bretigny it was ceded to the English ; but its inhabitants revolted against the Black Prince, and most of them were massacred when his troops recovered the town by assault. In 1369 Duguesclin obtained possession by a stratagem. Protes tantism made numerous proselytes at Niort, and Coligni made him self master of the town, which successfully resisted the Catholic forces after the battle of Jarnac, but surrendered without striking a blow after that of Moncontour. Henry IV. rescued it from the League. It suffered severely by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. NIPPON. See JAPAN, vol. xiii. p. 569. NISH, NISCH, or NISSA, the ancient Naissus, a city of the Balkan peninsula, which at one time was the capital of Servia, and after being the chief town of a Turkish eyalet in the vilayet of the Danube, and (1877) of the new vilayet of Kossovo, was again in 1878 restored to Servia, where it is now the administrative centre of a circle con taining a population of 117,000. The town is a thriving place of 12,800 inhabitants, the see of a Greek bishop, the headquarters of a militia corps, and an important centre in the Servian railway system. It is situated at the east end of a plain, and is traversed by the Nishava, a tributary of the Morava and sub-tributary of the Danube. Fortifi cations on the heights, buildings well massed together, numerous minarets, and abundant foliage in the suburbs render the outward appearance of the town both pleasant and imposing ; but the interior, with its narrow and ill-kept streets, is utterly disappointing. About a quarter of an hour to the north of the citadel is the Voinik (war) hill, where the Turkish army encamped in 1689. Naissus, best known as the birthplace of Constantino the Great, was destroyed by Attila, but restored by Justinian. The chief facts in the history of the modern town are its capture by the Turks in 1375 and by John Hunyady in 1443 ; the victory of Louis of Baden over the Turks in 1689 ; the recovery by the Turks in 1690 ; the capture by the Austrians and the subsequent surrender by General Dochat in 1737 ; and finally the siege by the Servians in 1809. On this last occasion Stephen Singelitch blew up his redoubt, to the destruction at once of his Turkish assailants and himself. NiSHAPlJR, or NESHAPUK, (Arabic, Naisdbur), the most important city of Khorasdn in the Middle Ages, but now much decayed. The second element of the name is that of the traditional founder Shahpuhr or Sapor. Some accounts name the first, others the second Sapor. 1 The older name of the town or district was Abrashahr. The importance of the place under the Sasanians was in part religious; one of the three holiest fire-temples was in its neighbourhood. 2 Nishapur under the Moslems contained a large Arab element ; it became the capital of Khordsan, and greatly increased in prosperity, under the almost inde pendent princes of the house of Tahir (820-873 A.D.). Istakhrf describes it as a well -fortified town, a league square, with a great export of cotton goods and raw silk. In the decline of the empire the city had much to suffer from the Turkomans, whose raids have in modern times destroyed the prosperity of this whole region. In 1153 it was utterly ruined by the Ghuzz Turkomans, but soon rose again, because, as Yakut remarks, its position gave it com mand of the entire caravan trade with the East. It was again taken and razed to the ground by the Mongols in 1221, but a century later Ibn Batuta found the city again flourishing, with four colleges, numerous students, and an export of silk-stuffs to India. Nishapur was famous for its fruits and gardens, which gave it the epithet of "little Damascus." The surname of Naisaburi connects with the city a number of learned men, including OMAR KHAYYAM (q.v, ), the Hafiz Abu Ali (ob. 960), the Koran commentator Ahmed al-Tha labi (ob. 1035), his disciple Wahidi, author of the famous Asbdb noztil al-Ko rdn (ob. 1076), and the disciple of the latter, Maidani, the author of the well-known collection of Arabic proverbs. See further Kazwini, ii. 317 sq. NISIBIS, a once famous city and fortress, situated in 37 N. lat. and 41 20 10" E. long., in the north of Mesopotamia, near the point where the Jaghjagha leaves the mountains by a narrow defile. The modern Nasibin consists of some two hundred wretched huts, mainly inhabited by Jews, who pay tribute to the Sham mar Bedouins. The neighbourhood, we are informed by Arab writers, was at one time richly wooded. The locality is at present somewhat marshy and unhealthy. The number of dangerous scorpions is specially noticeable. According to Ydkiit the legend is that Persian scorpions were thrown into the place when it was besieged by Anushirwan. The church of St James, belonging to a small community of Jacobite Christians, and a few pillars and blocks of masonry are the only remains of the former greatness of the town. The site of Nisibis, on the great military and commercial route between the Tigris and the Mediterranean, and commanding alike the mountain country to the north and the then fertile plain to the south, gave it an importance which began during the Assyrian period and continued under the Seleucidse (see MESOPOTAMIA, vol. xvi. p. 48). From 149 B.C. to 14 A.D. Nisibis was the residence of the kings of Armenia, and it was there that Tigranes had his treasure-houses. The place afterwards figured frequently as a strong frontier fortress 1 Spiegel, Eranische Alterthumskunde, iii. 254 ; Nokleke, Gesch. der Perser . . . aus Tabari, p. 59. The first syllable of the name appears to be Nev, "good" (Noldeke, I.e.). 2 Hoffmann, Syr. Akten pers. Mdrtyrer, p. 290 sq.