Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/253

* NABAT^ANS. 215 NABOPOLASSAR. niiran. The iui])Oitaiice of the Xal)atipans is due to the fact that they formed a sort of Ijufl'er State ayainst the Arabs of the desert and because their country lay in the direct line of the caravan route from Arabia to Syria. Al-Hijr was an em- porium for the products of Yemen ; and many mausoleums built in the rocks and beautifully carved are evidence of the riches which were con- centrated here. The national temple was also sit- uated at this place. The chief gods of the Nabata'an Pantheon seem to have been Dii- sares {Dhu al-Nhnra), JIanat, Kais, AUat, and Hol)al. Consult: Euting, Xabatiiische Inschnftcn cms Arahien (Berlin, 1885) ; Schiircr, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes, vol. i. (Leipzig, 1886-90). NABAYX7GAN,, na'ba-yoo'gan. A head-hunt- ing ;lalay trilje in Cagayan Province, Luzon. See PHIL1I'P1^■E Islands. NABBiES, nabz, Thomas (1605-?). An Eng- lish dramatist, born in Worcestershire. His first comedy, Covent Garden, was produced in London in 1632-33. His second attempt. Totten- ham Court (1633), was followed by Hannibal and Scipio: An- Hystorical Tragedy (163.5), and a comedy called The Bride (1638) ; but more talent was displayed in his masques, such as liprin(fs Glory (1(338). An edition of his works was published by Bullen (London, 1887; Old Eng- lish Phiys, new ser., vols. i. and ii. ). NABHA, nii'ba. An eastern native State of the Punjab, India (Map: India, C 2). Area, 936 square miles. Population, in 1891, 282,756; in 1901, 297,949. Capital, Nabha. NA'BOB, or NA'BAB (Hind., Ar. nawicCih, deputy, from Ar. nCiha, to replace, to be a dep- uty). Under the Mogul Empire of India, the administrator of a province comprised in the region ruled by a suhahdar or viceroy. The title was continued under the British rule, but gradu- ally was applied to unofficial wealthy natives. In the L'nited Kingdom and other European countries it is applied derisively to Euro-Indians who. having amassed fortunes in India, return to make an ostentatious display of their wealth. NA'BONAS'SAB (Ass. yahu-nasir, Xabu (or Nebo) protects). King of Babylonia (B.C. 747- 734). His contemporary in Assyria, Tiglath- pileser III. (B.C. 745-727), succeeded with the help of the Arama-an hordes that at all times were a menace to Babylonian security in oljtain- ing complete control of Babylonia, and empha- sized his success by giving himself in his in- scriptions the title of King of Sumer and Accad (i.e. Southern and Xorthern Baliylonia). and by worshiping at the shrines of the Babylonian gods in the most important cities of the south: 1 Sippar. Xippur. Babylon. Borsippa, Cuthah, Kish. Dilbat. and Erech. It is evident, therefore, that Xabonassar must have been merely a vassal to Tiglath-pileser III., but a semblance of inde- pendence was permitted to Babylonia because of a desire on the jiart of the Assyrian rulers to deal leniently with the old empire in the south for fear of incurring the displeasure of the Babylo- nian gods who were also the gods of Assyria. The history of Babylonia, therefore, in Na- bonassar's reign is merely a part of Assyrian history. His name is preserved in the Ptolemaic canon, whose list of Babylonian kings begins in- deed with Xabonassar. Why the beginning should have been made with this ruler is not clear. There is nothing to warrant the supposi- tion that the Babylonians began a new era — historical or astronomical — at the time of Xa- bonassar, though that dat,e was adopted as a new astronomical era bj- the Greeks. Equally mysterious is Berosus's statement, preserved by Syncellus, that Xabonassar first ^collected and then destro3-ed the chronicles of his predecessors. Consult Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assy- ria, vol. ii. (Xew York, 1900) ; and for the ■reign of Tiglath-pileser, Rost, Kcilschrifltexte Tiylat-Pilesers in. (Leipzig, 1893). NABON'IDXJS (Ass. Nahu-na'id, Xabu (or Xebo) is e.xalted; Herodotus (i. 74, 77, 188) has erroneously Aa/SiixT/Tos, Labynetos). The last King of the Xeo-Babjlouian Empire, sixth in order of succession from Xabopolassar (q.v.), the founder of this empire. He came to the Throne in B.C. 555 as a result of a conspiracy formed apparently by the priests of the city of Babylon against Labosoarchod (Ass. Labashi-Marduk) , the grandson of Xebuchadnezzar (through the female line), which cost Labosoarchod liis life. X^abonidus was a native Babylonian and not, as his predecessors since X^abopolassar, a Chaldean. In his inscriptions, of which a large number have been found, he appears chiefly in the light of a builder and restorer of the sacred edifices in such ancient centres as Ur, Harrau, and Sippar. While he did not neglect the sanctuaries of Marduk and Xebo at Babylon and Borsippa, yet his greater devotion to other centres appears to have aroused the opposition of the priests and of the population of IBabylon, and the neglect of suit- able preparation to resist the threatening ad- vance of Cyrus ( q.v. ), the leader of the Medes, is probably to be ascribed to internal dissensions. It would appear that Xabonidus was not even present in the city of Babylon when in the sum- mer of 538 tl>e Persian army marched upon the capital. His son Belshazzar (Ass. Bel-shar-tisur, Bel. protect the King) had been placed in control, while the father's official residence was at a place called Tema, the exact location of which is not known. Babylon fell, as a Babylonian chron- icle puts it. 'without battle,' and in the autumn Cyrus himself entered the city in triumph and became heir to the glorious past of Mesopotamia and the Euphrates Valley. Belshazzar was put to death, while Xabonidus was banished to Kar- mania. Consult: Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria (Xew York, 1900) ; and the Baby- lonian-Assyrian histories of Tiele ((xotha. 1886), Hommel (Berlin, 1885), and Winckler (Leipzig, 1892). NAB'OPOLAS'SAR (Ass. yabii-apal-usur, Xebo. protect the son). The founder of the Xeo- Babylonian Empire, King of Babylonia B.C. 625- 605. He was not of royal birth, as is indicated by the absence of any reference to his father in the inscriptions that we have of him. By his own eil'orts he rose to a position of supremacy over the district of Chalda-a lying to the south of Baliylonia proper as far as the Persian Gulf, which had managed even during the height of the Babylonian Empire to retain a certain meas- ure of inde])endence, and whose separate position continued to be recognized by the Assyrian kings when Babylonia had come under the control of Assyria. At various times the Chalda?ans made attempts to regain their independence, and the growing weakness of Assyria after the death of