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 Constantine the Great was born in 274. Though the emperor Julian improved its defences, the town was destroyed by the Huns under Attila, in the 5th century, but Justinian did his best to restore it. In the 9th century the Bulgarians became masters of Naissus, but had to cede it to the Hungarians in the 11th century, from whom the Byzantine emperor Manuel I. reconquered it in 1173. Towards the end of the 12th century the town was in the hands of the Servian prince Stephen Nemanya, who there received hospitably the German emperor Frederic Barbarossa and his Crusaders. In 1375 the Turks captured Naissus for the first time from the Servians. In 1443 the allied armies of the Hungarians under Hunyady and the Servians under George Brankovich, retook it from the Turks, but in 1456 it again came under Turkish dominion, and remained for more than 300 years the most important Turkish military station on the road between Hungary and Constantinople. In the frequent wars between Austria and Turkey during the 17th and 18th centuries the Austrians captured Naissus twice (in 1689 and 1737), but were not able to retain it long. The Servians having, in the beginning of the 10th century, successfully cleared Servia of Turks, were emboldened to attack Nish in 1809, but were repulsed with great loss. The Turks raised as a monument of their victory a high tower composed entirely of the heads of the Servians slain in the battle of Nish. The remnants of this monument are still kept up. It stands half a mile to the east from Nish, and is called to this day by the Turkish name “Tyele-Koula,” “the Tower of Skulls.” In the Russo-Turkish War the Servian army, under the personal command of King Milan, besieged Nish, and forced it to capitulate on the 10th January 1878. The Berlin congress decided that it should remain with Servia.

 NISHĀPŪR, a province of Persia, situated between Meshed and Sabzevar, in northern Khorasan. The older name of the district was Abarshehr. It has a population of from 130,000 to 140,000, is divided into twelve districts, and pays a yearly revenue of about £12,000. It produces much grain and cotton, and is considered one of the most fertile districts of Persia. One of its subdivisions is that of Bār-i-Mādan, with chief place Mādān (situated 32 m. N.W. of the city of Nishāpūr, at an elevation of 5100 ft., in 36° 28′ N., 58° 20′ E.), where the famous mines are which have supplied the world with turquoises for at least 2000 years. The province used to be one of the administrative divisions of Khorasan, but is now a separate province, with a governor appointed by the shah.

 NISHĀPŪR (Old Pers. Nēv-shāpūr-nēv, New Pers. nīv, nīk＝good; Arab. Naisābūr), the capital of the province of Nishāpūr, Persia, situated at an elevation of 3920 ft., in 36° 12′ N., and 58° 40′ E., about 49 m. west of Meshed. The second element of the name is that of the traditional founder Shāpūr, or Sapor of the Western historians. Some accounts name the first (241–272), others the second Shāpūr (309–379). It was once one of the four great cities of Khorasan, rivalling Rai (Rhages), “the mother of cities,” in importance and population, but is now a small and comparatively unimportant place with a population of barely 15,000. It has post and telegraph offices and a lively trade in wool, cotton and dry fruits (almonds, pistachios).

Eastward of the present city, amongst the mounds and ruins of the old town, in a dilapidated chamber adjoining a blue-domed building over the grave of an imamzadeh, is the tomb of the astronomer-poet Omar Khayyām, an unsightly heap of plaster without inscription, and probably fictitious. Near it is the grave of the celebrated poet and mystic Farīd ud dīn Attār, who was killed by the Mongols when they captured the city c. 1229.

Nishāpūr was an important place during the 5th century, for Yazdegerd II. (438–457) mostly resided there. During the latter Sassanids it is seldom mentioned, and when the Arabs came to Khorasan (641–642) it was of so little importance that, as Tabari relates, it did not even have a garrison. Under the Tahirids (820–872) it became a flourishing town and rose to great importance during the Samanids (874–999). Toghrul, the first ruler of the Seljuk dynasty, made Nishāpūr his residence in 1037. In 1153 the Ghuzz Turkomans overran the country and partly destroyed town and suburbs. In 1208 most of the town was destroyed by an earthquake. The town was hardly rebuilt when it was again destroyed, this time by the Mongols (April 1221) and so effectually that, completely levelled to the ground, it was turned into a vast barley field. The city was again rebuilt, suffered again at the hands of the Mongols (1269) and from another great earthquake (1280), and never again rose to its former greatness.

 NISIBIS (Nasibina in the Assyrian inscriptions), an ancient city and fortress in the north of Mesopotamia, near the point where the Mygdonius (mod. Jaghjagha) leaves the mountains by a narrow defile. The modern Nezib or Nasibin consists of some 4000 inhabitants, largely Jews, who pay tribute to the Shammar Bedouins. The neighbourhood, we are informed by Arab writers, was at one time richly wooded, but is now somewhat marshy and unhealthy. According to the Arabian geographer, Yaqut, Persian scorpions were thrown into the place when it was besieged by Anushirwan; hence their number to-day. 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.

NISI PRIUS, in English law, a term used to denote generally all actions tried before judges of the king’s bench division. For the history and meaning of this term see. As a rule actions only are tried at nisi prius, and a judge is said to sit at nisi prius when he sits, usually in the king’s bench division, for the trial of actions. By a resolution passed by the judges of the king’s bench division in 1894 it was declared of the utmost importance that there should be at least three courts of nisi prius sitting continuously throughout the legal year—one for special jury causes, one for common jury causes, and one for causes without juries (see the Annual Practice).

 NISUS, in Greek mythology, king of Megara, brother of Aegeus, king of Athens. When Minos, king of Crete, was on his way to