Nazirite

“ Unfortunately, not many of Mansúr’s governors were so tender of conscience as to take seriously to heart a word of the Prophet guaranteed on such authority. At the same time, all things considered, I do not venture to maintain that Mansúr was at heart an utter unbeliever. In the East, still less than in the West, does one expect to find absolute consistency in matters of religion. The man who in cold blood violated his most sacred oaths may yet have argued with himself that Alláh the All-merciful would at last forgive him, good Moslem as he was, all his sins. ”

“ We are disposed to believe that the sect of the Nazoraeans was originally the same as the Nasiraeans, the “initiated” or “holy,” who were distinguished from the rest of the Jews by their abstinence from oil and wine and the use of the razor, and by the rigour of their lives; and that the Nazoraeans were those Nasiraeans who conceived the expected Messiah in the sense of the nazar of Isaiah. In Lamentations (iv, 7) the “pure” are called “Nazarites” [Nazaraeans] , and Josephus writes Nazaraios in Antiquities iv, 4, 4, but Naziraios in xix, 6, 1. ”

“ Nazir-jing had for some time commanded his father's army, and availed himself of the power derived from his offices to oppose the pretensions of his nephew Hidayet mohy-o-dean. He began by seizing Nizam-al-muluck's treasures, and with them prepared to keep possession of the sovereignty: he pretended, that his father had named his eldest son Ghazi-o'-din Khan to be his heir: and that Ghazi-o'-din Khan preferring the employment he held at the court of Delhi, had ceded to him the soubahship of the southern provinces: and that this sovereignty was confirmed to him from the throne. ”

“ I passed several hours in conversation with Mar Shimoon, and inquired narrowly into the condition of his people under their new rulers. I may not reveal all he said, but of this I am convinced that Turkish domination will be a curse, and a heavy curse too, to the Christian mountaineers; and my sincere prayer is that God, in His mercy, will soon break the staff of Mohammedan tyranny and oppression, and free the Nestorians from its baneful slavery. "So let Thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might." ”

“ How many of the far-off eastern nations in Tartary, India, and China among whom they preached the Gospel, and among whom their efforts were sometime blessed, might this day have been numbered among the triumphs of the Cross? Placed in the van of Christianity, and where the baneful heresy of the False Prophet made its first conquests, the Nestorians, had they not been cut off from the Church Catholic, might through the Divine blessing, have driven back the impious Invader, and saved the Church from this devastating scourge. ”

“ But some of the ancient priests, who were anointed with the prepared oil, which was called by Moses nazer, were named Nazarites from this word nazer. But our Saviour and Lord, by His own nature possessing in Himself holiness and separation, neither having need of any human anointing, still obtained the title of a Nazarite among men; not as though He were so called from any oil named nazer, but from the city Nazareth, where He was brought up among His own relations, forasmuch as He was a man. ”

“ Nahrwân is the only Nestorian village left in the plain between Zakho and Jezeerah. From the people here I learned that many Nestorians still inhabited the mountain province of Buhtân.
Nov. 6th.—Seven hours' ride brought us to Zakho, a small provincial town built upon an island formed by the divided stream of the Khaboor, and reckoned within the pashalic of Mosul. We found here a few Chaldeans, twenty Papal Syrian families, with a church and priest, and seventy houses of Jews: the rest of the inhabitants, amounting to about 2,000 souls, are chiefly Coords. ”

“ All prisoners of war are liable to the infliction of retaliatory measures.
1.—Nadhr-bin-Harith.
59. The execution of Nadhr Ibn Harith.
Nadhr (Nazr) , one of the prisoners of war, was executed after the battle of Badr for his crime of severely torment [Pg 78] ing the Moslems at Mecca. Musáb had distinctly reminded him of his torturing the companions of Mohammad, [234] so there was nothing of a cruel and vindictive spirit of the Prophet displayed towards his enemies in the execution of Nazr as it is made out by Sir W. Muir. ”

“ The ceremonies at births and burials are not Muslim, but ancient Egyptian.
The Copts are far more close and reserved and backward than the Arabs, and they have been so repudiated by Europeans that they are doubly shy of us. The Europeans resent being called ‘Nazranee’ as a genteel Hebrew gentleman may shrink from ‘Jew.’ But I said boldly, ‘Ana Nazraneeh. Alhamdulillah!’ (I am a Nazranee. Praise be to God) , and found that it was much approved by the Muslims as well as the Copts. ”

“ The Ismailites, who, in this manner, made Hassan a descendant of Nesar, the son of Khalif Mostanssur, were called Nesari, a name considered synonymous with the Impious or the Assassins. They gave Hassan the name of Kaimolkiamet (i. e. Lord of the Resurrection) , and called themselves the sect of the Resurrection or Revelation; for, by the epoch of the resurrection they understood the time when the one about to rise (Kaim, i. e. the imam) , should bring them near to God by the removal of all laws. ”

“ In judging them we judge them from our standpoint instead of theirs, and we too often condemn where we should pity. In respect of these influences Nansie's home shone forth a sweet and bright example of what may be accomplished when the early training is good. There were few poorer homes than Nansie's, there were few lives more full of struggle, but she kept herself and those most dear to her pure through all the bitter phases of the battle she was destined to fight. ”

“ Unlike their abject and timid representatives of the present day, the early Nestorians seem to have dared an invasion of the enemy's camp, and to have fought them on their own ground, instigated thereto, doubtless, by the desperate attempts made to proselyte them to a licentious and heretical creed, as well, perchance, from a desire to wipe out the stigma, that a Nestorian monk was the preceptor and friend of the arch impostor. The list of Mar Abd Yeshua records the names of three authors who feared not to impugn the authority of the False Prophet. ”

“ Fearing to bring down upon themselves the vengeance of the Pasha of Mosul, the Nestorians of Asheetha had listened to the advice of Mar Shimoon, went against this outlaw, and entirely routed his followers. He was afterwards raised to the chief command of Bedr Khan Beg's troops, which he headed in their several attacks upon the Tyari. The circumstance of his having been thwarted and defeated in his designs by the Nestorians, sufficiently accounts for the bitter hatred which he manifested towards them on the occasion of the massacre. ”

“ It came towards them, strong and unspeakably horrible.
'Oh, go away,' cried Anthea; but Cyril cried, 'No; stay!'
The creature hesitated, then bowed low before them on the damp floor of the dungeon.
'Speak,' it said, in a harsh, grating voice like large rusty keys being turned in locks. 'The servant of the Great Ones is your servant. What is your need that you call on the name of Nisroch?'
'We want to go home,' said Robert.
'No, no,' cried Anthea; 'we want to be where Jane is.'
Nisroch raised his great arm and pointed at the wall of the dungeon. ”

“ You know, the slave of the great names?”
“Wait a sec,” said Robert, “though I don’t know why you want it. Nusroch—Nisrock—Nisroch—that’s it.”
Then Anthea pulled herself together. All her muscles tightened, and the muscles of her mind and soul, if you can call them that, tightened too.
“UR HEKAU SETCHEH,” she cried in a fervent voice. “Oh, Nisroch, servant of the Great Ones, come and help us!”
There was a waiting silence. Then a cold, blue light awoke in the corner where the straw was—and in the light they saw coming towards them a strange and terrible figure. ”

“ The modern Nestorians have kept the faith of their fathers (since they first accepted their heresy) amid Moslems, Kurds, Yazīdīs loyally. For this they deserve all honour. We should wonder at it the more, were it not the common phenomenon among all these smaller Eastern Churches. Their conservatism, their fidelity to their traditions in all things, is their most remarkable characteristic.
Of the Nestorian faith, then, not much need be said. We have little against it, save the one point of their heresy as to our Lord's person. ”

“ NAISI—Deirdre! Deirdre! It is not right for you, beautiful woman, to come with tears between a thousand exiles and their own land! Many battles have I fought, knowing well there would be death and weeping after. If I feared to trust to the word of great kings and warriors, it is not with tears I would be remembered. What would the bards sing of Naisi—without trust! afraid of the outstretched hand!—freighted by a woman's fears! By the gods, before the clan Usna were so shamed I would shed my blood here with my own hand. ”

“ Hundreds of years ago, on Nansal, there had lived a wise and brilliant teacher named Norus. He had developed an ideal, a philosophy of life, a code of ethics. He had taught the principles of nobility without arrogance, pride without stubbornness, and humility without servility.
About him had gathered a group of men who began to develop and spread his ideals. As the new philosophy spread across the planet, more and more Nansalians adopted it and began to raise their children according to its tenets.
But no philosophy, however workable, however noble, can hope to convert everyone. ”

“ But I must own to ye, my friends,” said Amer, turning to the elders, “that the youths of the Nazarenes (Nazarene is the Arabic term for Christian) are bolder than ours, though they do not possess higher courage or loftier spirit than our own children. Who would have thought that such large independence could hide within the little body of the American balyuz’s son? That small child cannot be twelve years old, yet he talks with the wisdom of a man. All the Nazarenes are wonderful people—wonderful! Who are stronger, richer than the Nazarenes of England?”
“Ah, but, father,” said Selim ”

“ Then God turned to the Gentiles, who showed more good-will and faith than the chosen people. The Ninivites believed the word of the Lord as soon as the prophet announced it to them; and they practised penance with prayer and fasting when he quoted his own miraculous deliverance as a sign that God had sent him (Luke 11, 30) . Our Lord Himself held up the Ninivites as an example to the hard-hearted Israelites, when He said: “The men of Ninive shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas ”

“ Layard adduces in support of his theory, but which in reality militates against it: "Chaldeans or Assyrians; whom, from that part of the globe which they inhabit, we term Orientals; and from the heresy which they profess, Nestorians." There can be no doubt but that the Chaldeans were of the same family with the Assyrians, who were also called Syrians, by which name, as we have seen, the mountain Nestorians, and the Papal Chaldeans of the plains, who speak the vulgar Syriac, still designate themselves. ”

“ The vizier unsheathed the sabre, looked at it, stared first at Naznai and then at the weapon, and finally rushed, sabre in hand, straight to the king. The king was even more astonished than the vizier. He sent for all the eloquent fools in the city, called together all the wise men who hadn't any judgment, and held a great council. They all said to the king, "You must take the hero Naznai from the land of Daghestan into your service, no matter at what cost, no matter how much you may have to reward him: so long as he lives you will be as573 safe as if you were behind an iron wall." ”

“ When a Nazarite may cut his hair in case he has vowed only one term of Nazariteship, or when he has vowed two successive terms (§§ 1-2) ; whether a Nazarite who has become unclean on the last day of his term must recommence his Nazariteship, and the cases in which he must do so (§§ 3-4) ; the case of one who vows Nazariteship while in a burial-place (§ 5) ; Nazariteship may be observed only in the Holy Land; Helena, Queen of Adiabene, once vowed Nazariteship for seven years, and fulfilled her vow ”

“ All efforts at reconciliation proving fruitless, the rival parties had recourse to armed strength. In A.H. 127 (744) Hārith ibn Surayj, who was permitted to return to Khorāsān from his captivity in Fārāb, set up his standard at Merv, and, gathering many followers around it, openly revolted against Nasr. In the following year Nasr called upon him to swear allegiance to the Caliph Merwān, but Hārith refused, and boasted that he was “the man with the black flag”170 who was to overthrow the Umayyad dynasty. Hostilities thereupon commenced between Nasr and Hārith, in which the latter was worsted. ”

“ North was faithful to his promise. [He] gave him his house which was beautiful and spacious, but mostly underground, or at least in the side of a mountain. All [North's] friends turned out, put in Nayhanimis and gave him the full possession.
But he was no sooner in than they secured all the outlets: doors [and] windows. And [they] set it on fire to destroy one whom they found so much more powerful than themselves! Nayhanimis, finding this to be the case, was not in the least dismayed, but took his smoking bag and thus addressed it. ”