Glossary • 487National (Liberation) Front: Aden's successful independence movement in 1967
National Pact: 1943 power-sharing agreement among Lebanon's religious and po¬
litical groups
National Party: Egyptian movement seeking independence from foreign control,
led by Urabi in 1881-1882 and by Mustafa Kamil in 1895-1908
National Religious Party: Party of observant Jews in Israel
nationalism: (1) Desire of a group of people to preserve or obtain common state¬
hood; (2) ideology stressing loyalty to the nation-state or seeking indepen¬
dence of a national group
Nationalist Party: Syria's main party after World War II
Negev (ne-GEV): Desert in southern Israel
Neoconservative: Member of a political group, mainly American, that advocates a
militantly pro-US policy in the Middle East and favors supporting Israel and
invading Iraq
Neoplatonist: Supporter of a philosophical system, founded in the third century,
based on Plato's ideas and common in the Middle East up to the Arab conquests
Nestorian: Pertaining to Christians who believe in Christ's separate divine and
human natures, condemned at the 430 Council of Ephesus
Netanyahu, Benjamin (ne-tan-YAH-hoo): Israel's prime minister (1996-1999)
New Ottomans: Turkish political movement in the 1870s demanding a constitu¬
tion, parliamentary government, and other westernizing reforms
Nicaea (nye-SEE-ya): Northwest Anatolian city, site of the Christian church coun¬
cil in 325 that accepted the Trinitarian view of the nature of God: Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit
9/11 or Nine-Eleven: Coordinated attack by Arab militants who hijacked Ameri¬
can passenger jets and flew them into New York's World Trade Center and
Washington's Pentagon Building, so named for September 11 (2001), the date
of the attacks
nizam-i-jedid (ne-ZAWM-e-je-DEED): Military reform program promulgated by
Selim III but crushed by the janissaries in 1807
no-fly zones: areas in which Iraq was forbidden by the US to fly military planes
between 1991 and 2003
Noble Rescript of the Rose Chamber: 1839 Ottoman promise of judicial and ad¬
ministrative reforms; sometimes called the Hatt-i-Sherif of Gulhane, ushering
in the Tanzimat era
Nur al-Din (NOOR-ed-DEEN): Zengid sultan of Mosul and Damascus
(1146-1174)
Nuri al-Sa'id (NOOR-ees-sa-EED): Pro-Western Iraqi leader, killed in 1958
revolution
October War: War started by Egypt and Syria in 1973 to regain lands occupied by
Israel since 1967; also called the Yom Kippur War or Ramadan War
olim (oh-LEEM): Jewish immigrants to Israel