and the excommunicators of Maimonides, but he did not succeed in healing the breach. His homiletic books, Epistle on Sanctity (Iggereth ha-qodesh) and Law of Man (Tarath ha-Adam), which deal respectively with the sanctity of marriage and the solemnity of death, are full of intense spirituality, while at the same time treating of ritual customs—a combination which shows essential Rabbinism at its best. He occupies an important position in the history of the acceptance by medieval Jews of the Kabbala (q.v.); for, though he made no fresh contributions to the philosophy of mysticism, the fact that this famous rabbi was himself a mystic induced a favourable attitude in many who would otherwise have rejected mysticism as Maimonides did. In 1263 Naḥmanides was forced to enter into a public disputation with a Jewish-Christian, Pablo Christiani, in the presence of King James of Aragon. Though Nachmanides was assured that perfect freedom of speech was conceded to him, his defence was pronounced blasphemous and he was banished for life. In 1267 he went to Palestine and settled at Acre. He died about 1270.
See S. Schechter, Studies in Judaism, first series, pp. 120 seq.; Graetz, History of the Jews (English translation vol. iii. ch. xvi. and xvii.). (I. A.)
NÁCHOD, a town of Bohemia, Austria, 109 m. E.N.E. of
Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 9899, mostly Czech. It is situated
on the Mettau river, at the entrance of the Lewin-Nachod pass.
The old castle contains a collection of historical paintings and
archives, and there are several old churches, of which that of
St Lawrence is mentioned as the parish church in 1350. The
town originally gathered round the castle of Náchod, of which
the first lord was a member of the powerful family of Hron,
in the middle of the 13th century. It suffered much during the
Hussite Wars, and in 1437 was captured by the celebrated robber
knight Kolda of Žampach, and retaken by George of Podebrad
in 1456 and included in his estates. It was sold in 1623, and in
1634 given to Ottavio Piccolomini; finally, after many changes
of ownership, the castle and titular lordship came in 1840 to
the princes of Schaumburg-Lippe. The important engagements
fought near the town on the 27th and 28th of June 1866 opened
Bohemia to the victorious Prussians.
NACHTIGAL, GUSTAV (1834–1885), German explorer in Central Africa, son of a Lutheran pastor, was born at Eichstedt in the Mark of Brandenburg, on the 23rd of February 1834. After medical study at the universities of Halle, Würzburg and Greifswald, he practised for a few years as a military surgeon. Finding the climate of his native country injurious to his health, he went to Algiers and Tunis, and took part, as a surgeon, in several expeditions into the interior. Commissioned by the king of Prussia to carry gifts to the sultan of Bornu in acknowledgment of kindness shown to German travellers, he set out in 1869 from Tripoli, and succeeded after two years’ journeyings in accomplishing his mission. During this period he visited Tibesti and Borku, regions of the central Sahara not previously known to Europeans. From Bornu he went to Bagirmi, and, proceeding by way of Wadai and Kordofan, emerged from darkest Africa, after having been given up for lost, at Khartum in the winter of 1874. His journey, graphically described in his Sahara und Sudan (3 vols., 1879–1889), placed the intrepid explorer in the front rank of discoverers. On the establishment of a protectorate over Tunisia by France, Nachtigal was sent thither as consul-general for the German empire, and remained there until 1884, when he was despatched by Prince Bismarck to West Africa as special commissioner, ostensibly to inquire into the condition of German commerce, but really to annex territories to the German flag. As the result of his mission Togoland and Cameroon were added to the German empire. On his return voyage he died at sea off Cape Palmas on the 20th of April 1885, and was buried at Grand Bassam.
Nachtigal’s travels are summarized in Gustav Nachtigal’s Reisen in der Sahara und im Sudan, by Dr Albert Frankel (Leipzig, 1887). A French translation, by J. van Vollenhoven, of that part of his work concerning Wadai, appeared in the Bull. du comité de l’Afriq. française for 1903 under the title of “Le Voyage de Nachtigal au Ouadai.” Nachtigal died before transcribing his notes on Wadai, and they were edited in the German edition by E. Groddeck.
NÁDASDY, TAMÁS I., Count, called the great palatine
(1498–1562), Hungarian statesman, was the son of Francis I.
Nádasdy and was educated at Graz, Bologna and Rome. In
1521 he accompanied Cardinal Cajetan (whom the pope had sent
to Hungary to preach a crusade against the Turks) to Buda as
his interpreter. In 1525 he became a member of the council of
state and was sent by King Louis II. to the diet of Spires to ask
for help in the imminent Turkish war. During his absence the
Mohacs catastrophe took place, and Nádasdy only returned
to Hungary in time to escort the queen-widow from Komárom
to Pressburg. He was sent to offer the Hungarian crown to
the archduke Ferdinand, and on his Coronation (Nov. 3rd, 1527)
was made commandant of Buda. On the capture of Buda by
Suleiman the Magnificent, Nádasdy went over to John Zapolya.
In 1530 he successfully defended Buda against the imperialists.
In 1533 his jealousy of the dominant influence of Ludovic
Gritti caused him to desert John for Ferdinand, to whom he
afterwards remained faithful. He was endowed with enormous
estates by the emperor, and from 1537 onwards became
Ferdinand’s secret but most influential counsellor. Subsequently,
as ban of Croatia-Slavonia, he valiantly defended that border
province against the Turks. He did his utmost to promote
education, and the school which he founded at Ûj-Sziget, where
he also set up a printing-press, received a warm eulogy from
Philip Melanchthon. In 1540 Nádasdy was appointed
grand-justiciar; in 1547 he presided over the diet of Nagyszombat,
and finally, in 1559, was elected palatine by the diet of Pressburg.
In his declining years he aided the heroic Miklós Zrinyi against
the Turks.
See Mihály Horvath, The Life of Thomas Nádasdy (Hung.) (Buda, 1838); T. Nádasdy, Family correspondence of Thomas Nádasdy (Hung.) (Budapest, 1882). (R. N. B.)
NADEN, CONSTANCE CAROLINE WOODHILL (1858–1889),
English author, was born at Edgbaston, on the 24th of January
1858, her father being an architect. Her mother died just after
the child’s birth, and Constance was brought up in the home of
her grandfather. In 1881 she began to study physical science
at Mason College, Birmingham. In 1881 she published Songs
and Sonnets of Springtime; in 1887, A Modern Apostle, and other
Poems. Her poems made such an impression on W. E. Gladstone
that he included her, in an article in the Speaker, among the foremost
English poetesses of the day. After her grandfather’s
death Miss Naden found herself rich, and she travelled in the
East and then (1888) settled in London. She died on the 23rd
of December 1889. After 1876 she had paid increasing attention
to philosophy, with her friend Dr Robert Lewins, and the two
had formulated a system of their own, which they called
“Hylo-Idealism.” Her main ideas on the subject are contained in a
posthumous volume of her essays (Induction and Deduction,
1890), edited by Dr Lewins.
NADIA, or Nuddea, a district of British India, in the Presidency division of Bengal. The administrative headquarters are at Krishnagar. Area, 2793 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 1,667,491. It is a district of great rivers. Standing at the head of the Gangetic delta, its alluvial surface, though still liable to periodical inundation, has been raised by ancient deposits of silt sufficiently high to be permanent dry land. Along the entire north-eastern boundary flows the main stream of the Ganges or Padmā, of which all the remaining rivers of the district are offshoots. The Bhāgirathī on the eastern border, and the Jalangi and the Matabhanga meandering through the centre of the district, are the chief of those offshoots, called distinctively the “Nadia rivers.” But the whole surface of the country is interlaced with a network of minor streams, communicating with one another by side channels. All the rivers are navigable in the rainy season for boats of the largest burthen, but during the rest of the year they dwindle down to shallow streams, with dangerous sandbanks and bars. In former times the Nadia rivers afforded the regular means of communication between the upper valley of the Ganges and the seaboard; and much of the trade of the district still comes down to Calcutta by this route during the height of the rainy season. But the railways,
