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NIZAMI (1141–1203)
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See also:NIZAMI (1141–1203) . See also:Nizam-uddin See also:Abu Mahommed Ilyas See also:bin Yusuf, See also:Persian poet, was See also:born 535 A.H. (1141 A.D.). His native See also:place, or at any See also:rate the See also:abode of his See also:father, was in the hills of See also:Kum, but as he spent almost all his days in Ganja in See also:Arran (the See also:present Elizavettpol) he is generally known as Nizami of Ganja or Ganjawi. The See also:early See also:death of his parents,which illustrated to him in the most forcible manner the unstableness of all human existence, threw a gloom over his whole See also:life, and fostered in him that See also:earnest piety and fervent love for solitude and meditation which have See also:left numerous traces in his poetical writings, and served him throughout his See also:literary career as a powerful antidote against the enticing favours of princely courts, for which he, unlike most of his contemporaries, never sacrificed a tittle of his self-esteem. The religious See also:atmosphere of Ganja, besides, was most favourable to such a See also:state of mind; the inhabitants, being zealous See also:Sunnites, allowed nobody to dwell among them who did not come up to their See also:standard of orthodoxy, and it is therefore not surprising to find that Nizami abandoned himself at an early See also:age to a stern ascetic life, as full of intolerance to others as dry and unprofitable to himself. He was rescued at last from this monkish idleness by his inborn See also:genius, which, not being able to give See also:free vent to its poetical inspirations under the crushing See also:weight of bigotry, claimed a greater See also:share in the legitimate enjoyments of life and the appreciation of the beauties of nature, as well as a more enlightened faith of tolerance, benevolence, and liberality. The first poetical See also:work in which Nizami embodied his thoughts on See also:God and See also:man, and all the experiences he had gained, was necessarily of a didactic See also:character, and very appropriately styled Makhzanul Asrar, or " Storehouse of Mysteries," as it bears the unmistakable See also:stamp of Sufic speculations. It shows, moreover, a strong resemblance to Nasir Khosrau's ethical poems and See also:Sana'i's Hadikat-ulhakikat, or See also:Garden of Truth." The date of See also:composition, which varies in the different copies from 552 to 582 A.H., must be fixed in 574 or S75 (1178–1179 A.D.). Although the Makhzan is mainly devoted to philosophic meditations, the propensity of Nizami's genius to purely epic See also:poetry, which was soon to assert itself in a more See also:independent See also:form, makes itself See also:felt even here, all the twenty chapters being interspersed with See also:short tales illustrative of the See also:maxims set forth in each. His claim to the See also:title of the foremost Persian romanticist he fully established only a See also:year or two after the Makhzan by the publication of his first epic masterpiece Khosrau and Shirin, composed, according to the See also:oldest copies, in 576 A.H. (1180 A.D.). As in all his following epopees the subject was taken from what pious Moslems See also:call the See also:time of " heathendom "—here, for instance, from the old See also:Sassanian See also:story of Shah Khosrau Parwiz (See also:Chosroes Parvez), his love affairs with the princess Shirin of See also:Armenia, his See also:jealousy against the architect Ferhad, for some time his successful See also:rival, of whom he got rid at last by a very ingenious See also:trick, and his final reconciliation and See also:marriage with Shirin; and it is a noteworthy fact that the once so devout Nizami never See also:chose a strictly See also:Mahommedan See also:legend for his See also:works of fiction. Nothing could prove better the See also:complete revolution in his views, not only on See also:religion, but also on See also:art. He felt, no doubt, that the See also:object of epic poetry was not to See also:teach moral lessons or doctrines of faith, but to depict the See also:good and See also:bad tendencies of the human mind, the struggles and passions of men; and indeed in the whole range of Persian literature only Firdusi and See also:Fakhr-uddin As'ad Jorjani, the author of the older epopee Wis u. Ramin (about the See also:middle of the 11th See also:century), can compete with Nizami in the wonderful delineation of character and the brilliant See also:painting of human affections, especially of the joys and sorrows of a loving and beloved See also:heart.
Khosrau and Shirin was inscribed to the reigning atabeg of See also:Azerbaijan, Abu Ja'far Mahommed Pahlavan, and his See also:brother Kizil Arslan, who, soon after his See also:accession to the See also:throne in 582 A.H., showed his gratitude to the poet by summoning him to his See also:court, loading him with honours, and bestowing upon him the See also:revenue of two villages, Hamd and Nijan. Nizami accepted the royal See also:gift, but his resolve to keep aloof from a servile court-life was not shaken by it, and he forthwith returned to his quiet See also:retreat. Meanwhile his genius had not been dormant, and two years after his reception at court, in 584 A.H. (1188 A.D.), he completed his Diwan, or collection of kasidas and ghazals (mostly of an ethical and parenetic character), which are said to have numbered 20,000 distichs, although the few copies which have come to us contain only a very small number of
verses. About the same time he commenced, at the See also:desire of the ruler of the neighbouring See also:Shirvan, his second romantic poem, the famous Bedouin love-story of Laila and Majnun, which has so many points in See also:common with See also:Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and finished it in the short space of four months. A more heroic subject, and the only one in which he made a certain See also:attempt to rival Firdousi, was selected by our poet for his third zpopee, the Iskandarnama, or " See also:Book of See also: As for the date of composition, it is evident, from the conflicting statements in the different See also:MSS., that there must have been an earlier and a later recension, the former belonging to 587-589 A.H., and dedicated to the See also:prince of See also:Mosul, 'Izz-uddin Masud, the latter made for the atabeg Nusrat-uddin Abu Bakr of Azerbaijan after 593 A.H., since we find in it a mention of Nizaml's last See also:romance Haft Paikar, or the " Seven Beauties," which comprises seven tales related by the seven favourite wives of the Sassanian See also: See also:Principal See also:Editions.—The whole Khamsa (lithographed, Bombay, 1834 and 1838; See also:Teheran, 1845); Makhzan-ul Asada (edited by N. Bland, London, 1844; lithographed, See also:Cawnpore, 1869; English translation in MS. by See also:Hatton See also:Hindley, in the British Museum Add. 6961) ; Khosrau and Shirin (lithographed, See also:Lahore, 1871; German translation by See also:Hammer in Shirin, ein persisches romantisches Gedicht, Leipzig, 1809); Laila and Majnun (lithographed, See also:Lucknow, 1879; English translation by J. See also:Atkinson, London, 1836); Haft Paikar (lithographed, Bombay, 1849; Lucknow, 1873; the fourth See also:tale in German by F. von See also:Erdmann, Behramgur and See also:die russische Furstentochter, Kasan, 1844) ; Iskandarnama, first part, with commentary (See also:Calcutta, 1812 and 1825; See also:text alone, Calcutta, 1853; lithographed with marginal notes, Lucknow, 1.865; Bombay, 1861 and 1875; English translation by H. See also:Wilberforce See also: Nizhne-Tagilsk is a central foundry for a number of See also:iron-mines and other works scattered in the valley of the Tagil and its tributary the Saida. See also:Gold, See also:platinum and See also:copper are also See also:mined at Nizhne-Tagilsk. The town carries on a brisk See also:corn See also:trade. The inhabitants make wooden boxes and trays, which are sent to the fairs of See also:Irbit and Nizhniy-See also:Novgorod. NIZHNE-UDINSK, a town of East Siberia, in the government of See also:Irkutsk, 315 M. by See also:rail W.N.W. of Irkutsk, on the Siberian railway, and on the Uda See also:river. It is a centre for the Biryusa gold mines, and in See also:winter the head of a See also:line of communication with the See also:Lena and Bratsky See also:Ostrog, on the Angara. Pop. (1897) 5803. NIZHNIY-NOVGOROD or NIJNI-NOVGOROD, abbreviated into NIZHEGOROD, a government of Central Russia, bounded by the governments of See also:Vladimir on the W., See also:Kostroma and See also:Vyatka on the N. and N.E., Kazan and See also:Simbirsk on the E., and See also:Penza and See also:Tambov on the S., with an See also:area of 19,792 sq. m., two-thirds being on the right and the See also:rest on the left See also:bank of.the See also:Volga. The smaller portion, with the exception of the better-drained lands See also:close to the river, is a low, See also:flat, marshy region, covered with thick forests and sandy hills, and thinly peopled. The space between the Oka and the Volga, in the west, is also flat and See also:forest-grown. The best part of the government is that to the east of the Oka; it is hilly, trenched by deep ravines and better drained, and has patches of fertile See also:black See also:earth in the south. The government is drained by the Volga with its tributaries, the Kerzhenets and the Vetluga on the left, and the Sura (with the Pyana) and the Oka on the right. These and their numerous tributaries offer great facilities both for See also:navigation and for the transportation of See also:timber. Numerous small lakes dot the government, especially in the north, and close upon two-fifths of its entire See also:surface is still covered with forests, which occupy nearly the whole of the Zavolyi (to the north of the Volga), and extend without a break for 50 and 8o m. to the west and south-west respectively. The See also:climate is severe, especially in the Zavolyi, where the See also:average yearly temperature is 5.6° Fahr. See also:lower than at Nizhniy. Besides the Carboniferous, See also:Permian and Triassic deposits (" variegated marls "), See also:Jurassic deposits are found in patches, chiefly in the south-east, as also in the south-west and north. They are overlain with Cretaceous black See also:clays and sandstones. Thick strata of See also:Tertiary sands, containing petrified See also:wood, are found in the Ardatov See also:district, and over the whole See also:lie Glacial deposits, sandy gravels and clays.
Black earth, known as the " black earth of the See also:plateau," prevails on the high plains between the river valleys in the south-east; the " valley black earth," even more fertile than the former, covers the gently-sloping portions of the territory, also in the south-east. More or less sandy clays are met with elsewhere, and there are large patches of See also:sand. Iron ores (See also: The estimated pop. in 1906 was 1,823,600. They consist of Russians, to the extent of 88%; See also:Mordvinians, to the number of S3,1oo; See also:Cheremisses, 6700; with See also:Tatars and See also:Chuvashes. Of the See also:total number in 1897 1,525,735 were Orthodox and Old Believers, 75,848 Raskolniks (Nonconformists), 51,236 Mussulmans and 3388 See also:Jews. Both the See also:birth-rate (53 in r000) and the death-rate (42 in r000) are high. A little over 53 % of the area is available for See also:agriculture, and of this 59%. is owned by noblemen and 16% only by the peasantry, the See also:remainder being owned by merchants and others. Of the cultivable land owned by the peasantry 55% is under crops, but of similar land owned by noblemen only 30 % is cultivated. The principal crops are See also:wheat, See also:rye, oats, See also:barley, See also:pease and potatoes. In some years the yield is quite insufficient for the population, and every year over zoo,000 persons quit their villages in quest of temporary work in neighbouring governments. The zemstvo or district See also:council of Nizhniy-Novgorod supports an agricultural school, an experimental See also:farm and an agency for the See also:purchase of improved seeds and machinery. The live-stock See also:industry is inferior, as many as 41 % of the See also:peasant families having no horses, and 24% no cows. The domestic trades, such as the making of See also:cutlery, felts, woollens, See also:leather goods, wooden wares (sledges, spoons, boxes, window-frames, &c.), gloves, wirework, hardware, mats and sacks, are widely practised; 7o% of the male working population among the peasants See also:earn their livelihood in this way, as well as by See also:shipping. This last is an industry of considerable magnitude, goods being shipped and unshipped to the See also:annual value of over £5,000,000. Many of the villages and towns have each its own speciality, those in the district of Semenov being famous for wooden spoons, in Gorbatov for cutlery and locks, in Balakhna for spindles, in Makaryev for See also:fancy boxes, in See also:Arzamas, Knyaginin and Sergach for furs and leather goods. The Mordvinians and Cheremisses keep bees. See also:Fruit and vegetables are cultivated along the Oka and the Volga. The factories are steadily developing, iron and machinery works, See also:flour-See also:mills, See also:potteries, tanneries, See also:shipbuilding yards, saw-mills and distilleries are the more important. See also:Education, owing to the efforts of the zemstvo, is in a better See also:condition than in many other governments of Russia. (P. A. K.; J. T. BE.) NIZHNIY-NOVGOROD, or simply NIZHNIY, a town of Russia, See also:capital of the above government, situated at the confluence of the Oka and the Volga, 272 M. by rail E. of See also:Moscow. It occupies an advantageous position on the great artery of Russian trade, at a place where the manufactured and agricultural products of the See also:basin of the Oka meet the See also:metal wares from that of the See also:Kama, the corn and salt brought from the south-eastern governments, the produce of the See also:Caspian See also:fisheries, and the various wares imported from Siberia, Central See also:Asia, See also:Caucasia and See also:Persia. It has, thus become the seat of the great Makaryevskaya See also:fair (see below), and one of the chief commercial centres of Russia. Its importance was still further increased during the latter part of the 19th century in consequence of the growth of manufacturing industry in the Oka basin, the rapid development of See also:steam-See also:boat See also:traffic on the Volga and its tributaries, the See also:extension of the Russian railway See also:system and the opening of Central Asia for trade. Nizhniy-Novgorod consists of three parts: the upper See also:city, including the Kremlin; the lower town, or Nizhniy See also:Bazaar; and " the Fair," with the suburb of Kunavino. The upper city is built on three hills, which rise as steep crags 400 ft. (490 ft. above See also:sea-level) above the right bank of both the Oka and the Volga. The Kremlin, or old fort, occupies one of these hills facing the Volga. It was begun in the second See also:half of the 14th century, but was erected chiefly in the beginning of the 16th, on the site of the old palisaded fort, and has a wall 2300 yds. See also:long, and 65 to 95 ft. high, with eleven towers; it contains the See also:law-courts, the See also:governor's See also:residence, the See also:arsenal, See also:barracks, the military gymnasium of See also:Count See also:Arakcheev (transferred from old Novgorod), a small museum and two cathedrals, Preobrazhenski and Arkhangelski. These last were erected in 1225 and 1222 respectively, and have been rebuilt more than once; the present structures, in somewhat poor See also:taste, date from 1829-1834 and 1732 respectively. The Preobrazhenski See also:cathedral retains several See also:relics of the past, such as See also:holy pictures of the 14th and 17th centuries and a See also:Bible of 1408; Minin, the See also:hero of Nizhniy (see below) lies buried there. The Kremlin is adorned with a square, containing a See also:monument to Minin and Pozharsky erected in 1826, and See also:pretty boulevards have been laid out along its lower wall. The view from the Kremlin of the broad Volga, with its low-lying and far-spreading left bank, is very striking. The Pechersky monastery, close by, is archaeologically interesting; it was built in the first half of the 16th century—instead of the old monastery founded in 1330 and destroyed by a land-slip in 1596—and has several antiquities and a library which formerly contained very valuable MSS., now at St Petersburg. Another monastery, that of See also:Blagovyeshchensk (1370, rebuilt 1647), is situated on the right bank of the Oka. Its old churches have been destroyed byfire, but it has a very See also:ancient holy picture—probably the oldest in Russia, dating from 993, which attracts many pilgrims. In 1904 a town-See also:house and a monument to See also:Tsar Alexander II. were built in the principal square of the upper town. • Besides the Kremlin, the upper town contains the best streets and public buildings. Five descents See also:lead from it to the lower town, planted on the alluvial See also:terrace, 30 to 35 ft. above the See also:banks of the Oka and the Volga, and in the centre of a very lively traffic. Piles of salt line the salt wharves on the Oka; farther down are the extensive storehouses and heaps of See also:grain of the corn wharves; then comes the steamboat See also:quay on the Volga, opposite the Kremlin, and still farther east the timber wharves. The fair is held on the flat sandy See also:tongue of land between the Oka and the Volga, connected with the town by only a See also:bridge of boats, 1500 yds. long, which is taken to pieces in winter. The shops of the fair, 4000 in number, built of See also: The rail-way from Moscow has its See also:terminus close to the fair buildings, to the south of which is the suburb of Kunavino, widely known throughout the East as a place for amusements of the lowest See also:kind during the fair. On the fair See also:side the Alexander Nevski cathedral was erected in 1881, and there too is the older " Fair " cathedral of 1822. The climate of Nizhniy is harsh and See also:continental, the yearly average temperature being 39° Fahr. (1o•6° in See also:January and 64° in See also:July), and the extreme thermometric readings - 4o° and 104° Fahr. The town has a settled population of (1897) 90,053 inhabitants, who are nearly all Great-Russians, and many of them Nonconformists. The mortality exceeds the birth-rate. The educational institutions include a military school, a technical school, a theological See also:seminary, and two See also:schools for sons and daughters of the See also:clergy. The manufactures include steam flour-mills, iron and machinery works, manufactories of See also:ropes and candles, distilleries and potteries. Shipbuilding, especially for the transport of See also:petroleum on the Caspian Sea, and steamboat See also:building, have recently advanced considerably. Nizhniy is the chief station of the Volga steamboat traffic. The first steamer made its See also:appearance on the Volga in 1821, but it was not till 1845 that steam navigation began to assume large proportions. The merchants carry on a brisk trade, valued (apart from that of the fair) at more than £2,000,000 of purchases and £1,800,000 of sales; the principal items are corn (£200,000 to £5005000), salt, iron, tea, See also:fish, groceries and manufactured goods. The chief importance of the city is due to its fair, which is held from the 29th of July to the loth of See also:September. From remote antiquity Russian merchants were wont to meet in summer with those from the East at different places on the Volga, between the mouths of the Oka and the Kama—the fair changing its site with the increasing or decreasing See also:power of the nationalities which struggled for the See also:possession of the middle Volga. See also:Bolgari, Nizhniy-Novgorod, Kazan and Vasilsursk have successively been its seat since the loth century. From 1641 its seat was at a monastery 55 M. below Nizhniy and close to Makaryev (whence its present name). The situation, however, being in many ways inconvenient, and a conflagration having destroyed the shops at Makaryev, the fair was transferred in 1817 to its present locality at Nizhniy-Novgorod. The goods mostly dealt in are See also:cotton, woollen, See also:linen and See also:silk stuffs (35 to 38 /1 of the whole), iron and iron wares, furs and skins, pottery, salt, corn, fish, See also:wine and all kinds of manufactured goods. The Russian goods constitute four-fifths of the whole trade; those brought from Asia—tea (imported via See also:Kiakhta and via See also:Canton and See also:Suez), raw cotton and silk, leather wares, See also:madder and various manufactured wares—do not exceed 10 or 11 %. Manufactured wares, groceries and wines are the goods principally imported from western See also:Europe. The total turnover of goods sold and " ordered " amounts to nearly 364 millions See also:sterling annually. The former See also:category dropped, however, from 26 millions in 1881 to 14 millions in 1905. In 1880, the Russian manufacturers depending chiefly on the See also:barter-trade in tea at Kiakhta, their See also:production was regulated principally by the prices of tea established at the fair; but now cotton takes the lead, and the prospective output for the year of the mills of central Russia is determined at the fair by the See also:price of raw cotton imported from Asia, by that of madder, and by the results of the year's See also:crop, which became known during the fair. The same holds good with regard to all other stuffs, the prices of See also:wool (See also:pro-visionally established at the earlier fairs of south-western Russia) being ultimately settled at Nizhniy, as well as those of raw silk. The whole of the iron production of the Urals depends also on the same fair. The " caravans " of boats laden with iron-See also:ware, starting from the Urals works in the See also:spring, reach Nizhniy in See also:August, after a stay at the fair of Laishev, which supplies the lower Volga; and the purchases of iron made at Nizhniy for Asia and middle Russia deter-mine the amount of See also:credit that will be granted for the next year's business to the owners of the ironworks, on which credit most of them entirely depend. The fair thus influences directly all the leading branches of Russian manufacture. It exercises a yet greater See also:influence on the corn and 'salt trades throughout Russia, and still more on the whole of the trade in Siberia and See also:Turkestan, both de-pending entirely on the conditions of credit which the Siberian and Turkestan merchants obtain at the fair.
The Makaryevskaya fair attracts no fewer than 400,000 See also:people from all parts of Russia, and partly from Asia.
Two other fairs of some importance are held at Nizhniy—one for wooden wares on the See also:ice of the Oka, and another, in See also:June, for horses.
See also:History.—The confluence of the Oka and the Volga, inhabited in the loth century by Mordvinian tribes, began to be coveted by 'the Russians as soon as they had occupied the upper Volga, and as early as the 11th century they established a fort, Gorodets, 20 M. above the mouth of the Oka. In 1221, the people of Suzdal, under Yuri Vsevolodovich, prince of Vladimir, erected a fort on the See also: It was fortified in 1508–1511, and was able to repel the Tatars in 1513, 1520 and 1536. The second half of the 16th century was for the city a See also:period of peaceful and rapid development. It became a See also:depot for all merchandize brought from the south-east, and even English merchants established warehouses there. With the fall of Kazan, and the opening of free navigation on the Volga, it became the starting-place for the " See also:caravan " of boats yearly sent to the lower Volga under the See also:protection of a military force, whilst the thick forests of the neighbourhood favoured. the development of shipbuilding. In 1606-1611 the trading classes of Nizhniy took an active part in the expeditions against the revolted See also:serfs, and it was a Nizhniy dealer in See also:cattle, Kozma Minin Sukhorukov, who took the initiative in sending an See also:army for the delivery of Moscow from the Poles in 1612. In 1667 the robber chieftain, Stenka See also:Razin, made an unsuccessful attempt to See also:capture the city. During the 17th century the See also:country around Nizhniy became the seat of a vigorous religious agitation, and in its forests the Raskolniks established hundreds of their monasteries and communities, those of the Kerzhenets playing an important part in the history of Russian See also:Nonconformity even to the present time. Nizhniy-Novgorod had at one time two See also:academies, See also:Greek and Slav, and took some part in the literary See also:movement of the end of the 18th century; its theatre also was of some importance in the history of the Russian stage. (P. A. K; J. T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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