pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
ZEMINDAR, in its original meaning, signifies a great landholder of Bengal; but it is now more strictly applicable to those who have their title constituted or confirmed by a patent or charter from government, by which they hold their lands or zemindaries upon certain conditions. It appears from history, that in times prior to the irruption of the Mahommedans, the rajahs who held their residence at Delhi, and possessed the sovereignty of Hindustan, deputed officers to collect their revenues. The word zemindar is Persian, and that language could have had no currency in the countries of India, until it was introduced by the people of Persia. When the emperor Shehab-ul-Dien Ghory conquered the empire of Hindustan at the end of the 12th century, he left Sultan Cutub-ul-Dien to be his viceroy at Delhi, and administer the government of Hindustan. From that time the customs and practices of the Mahommedans began gradually to be established in India: their armies were sent into the countries of the reduced rajahs, under the command of omrahs, in order to preserve the conquest; and lands were allotted to them to defray the expense. From hence arose the system of jaghiredary in Hindustan. But when these omrah jaghiredars had established their own strength, several of them rebelled against the imperial authority, and aspired to the crown. Thus circumstanced, the emperors, in order to obviate these mischiefs, thought it would be more politic to commit the management of the country to the native Hindus, who had most distinguished themselves by the readiness and constancy of their obedience to the sovereign power.

In pursuance of this plan, districts were allotted to num.

bers of them under a reasonable revenue (Jummah Monâsib), which they were required to pay in money to the governors of the provinces, deputed from the emperor; and in case any one of the omrahs or provincial governors should swerve from his allegiance, the zemindars of that country were to exert themselves in such a manner as should check rebellion, and restore good government. For this purpose, grants of zemindary were severally conferred upon such of the Hindus as were obedient, describing their apportionment of the country; and every person who had received a grant under the authority of the crown, was thereby fully invested with the functions of zemindar.

The functions of a zemindar are, 1st, the preservation and defence of their respective boundaries from traitors and insurgents; 2dly, the tranquillity of the subjects, the abundance of cultivators, and increase of his revenue; 3dly, the punishment of thieves and robbers, the prevention of crimes, and the destruction of highwaymen. The accomplishment of these objects is considered in the royal grant as the discharge of office to the sovereign; and on that account the word office (khidmut) is employed in the Dewanny Sunnud for a zemindary. See Hindustan.
ZEMPLIN, a circle of Hungary, in the province of the Hither Theiss. It is bounded on the north by Gallicia; on the east by Unghvar and Garasch; on the west by Borsod, Abouigvar, and Saroch; and on the south by Szabolts. It extends over 2244 square miles, and contains twenty-four market-towns and 428 villages, with 27,199 houses, and 233,604 inhabitants, of whom four fifths are catholics, and the remainder of the protestant church. The northern part includes a portion of the Carpathian Mountains, and is sterile; but in the south the soil is good, yielding, among other products, some of the best wine. The capital is the town of the same name, on the river Bodrog. It has an ancient castle, a catholic and a protestant church, and 2800 inhabitants, whose chief trade is in wine. Long. 21. 43. E. Lat. 48. 25. N.
ZENDEROOD, a river of Persia, which rises in a mountain to the east of Ispahan, and passes through that city, where three handsome bridges are built across it.
ZENGHI, a river of Armenia, which falls into the Aras, ten miles south of Erivan.
ZENITH, in Astronomy, the vertical point, or a point in the heavens directly over our heads.
ZEPHYRUS, one of the Pagan deities, was represented as the son of Aurora, and the lover of the nymph Chloris according to the Greeks, or of Flora according to the Romans; and as presiding over the growth of fruits and flowers. He is described as giving a refreshing coolness to the air by his soft and agreeable breath, and as moderating the heat of summer by fanning the air with his silken wings. He is depicted under the form of a youth, with a very tender air, with wings resembling those of the butterfly, and with his head crowned with a variety of flowers. As the poets of Greece and Rome lived in a warm climate, they are lavish of their praise of this beneficent deity, and under his name describe the pleasure and advantage which they received from the western breezes.
ZERBST, a city, the capital of a bailiwick of the same name, in the duchy of Anhalt Dessau, in Germany. It stands on tire river Ruthe, is surrounded with walls, and is the seat of a superintendent of the superior court of law. It contains two Lutheran, and one reformed church, two hospitals, a gymnasium, 1600 houses, and 8440 inhabitants. It was the residence of the court of the now mediatized prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, and was the birth-place of the empress Catherine II. of Russia. The city has declined since the removal of the court, but has still some manufactures, and four large annual fairs, where the chief commodities are the products of the soil.
ZEST, the woody thick skin quartering the kernel of a walnut; prescribed by some physicians, when dried and taken with white wine, as a remedy against the gravel.
ZEUGMA, a figure in Grammar, by which an adjective or verb that agrees with a nearer word, is also, by way of supplement, referred to another more remote.
ZEUXIS, a celebrated painter, flourished about 400 years before the Christian era. He was born at Heraclea; but as there have been many cities of that name, it cannot be certainly determined which of them had the honour of his birth. Some learned men however conjecture that it was the Heraclea near Crotona in Italy. He carried painting to a much higher degree of perfection than Apollodorus had left it; discovered the art of properly disposing lights and shades, and particularly excelled in colouring. He amassed immense riches, and then resolved to sell no more of his pictures, but gave them away; saying very frankly, that he could not set a price on them equal to their value. Before this time he made people pay for seeing them; and nobody was admitted to see his Helena without ready money, which occasioned the wags calling his picture Helen the courtezan. It is not known whether this Helen of Zeuxis was the same with that which was at Rome in Pliny’s time, or that which he painted for the inhabitants of Crotona, to be hung up in the temple of Juno. This last he painted from five beautiful girls of that city, copying from each her greatest excellencies. Pliny observes, that this admirable painter, disputing for the prize of painting with Parrhasius, painted some grapes so naturally that the birds flew down to peck them. Parrhasius, on the other hand, painted a curtain so very artfully, that Zeuxis, mistaking it for a real one that hid his rival’s work, ordered the curtain to be drawn aside, to show what Parrhasius had done; but having found his mistake, he ingenuously confessed himself vanquished, since he had imposed only upon birds, while Parrhasius had deceived even a master of the art. Another time he painted a boy loaded with grapes; when the birds also flew to this picture, at which he was vexed, and confessed that his work was not sufficiently finished, since, had he painted the boy as perfectly as the grapes, the birds would have been afraid of him. Archelaus king of Macedon made use of Zeuxis’s pencil for the embellishment of his palace. One of this painter’s finest pieces was a Hercules strangling some serpents in his cradle, in the presence of his affrighted mother; but he himself chiefly esteemed his Athleta, or Champion, under which he placed a Greek verse that afterwards became very famous, and in which he says, “that it was easier to criticise than to imitate the picture.” He made a present of his Alemena to the Agrigentines. Zeuxis did not value himself on speedily finishing his pictures; but knowing that Agatharchus gloried in his being able to paint with ease and in a little time, he said, “that for his part he, on the contrary, gloried in his slowness; and if he was long in painting, it was because he painted for eternity.” Verrius Flaccus says that Zeuxis having painted an old woman, he laughed so very heartily at the sight of this picture that he died; but as no other of the ancients has mentioned this particular, there is the greatest reason to believe it fabulous. Carlo Dati has composed in Italian the Life of Zeuxis, with those of Parrhasius, Apelles, and Protogenes. This work was printed at Florence in 1667.
ZIEGENHAM, a province of the principality of Hesse-Cassel, in Germany, formerly a sovereign state, which came under the Hessian family in 1540. It is bounded on the north and the north-east by Lower Hesse, on the south-east by Hersfeld, on the south by Great Hesse, on the south-west by Fritzlar, and on the west by Upper Hesse. It extends over 218 square miles, and contains six cities and towns, seventy-three villages, and twenty-two hamlets, with 32,400 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name, in a marshy situation. It is surrounded with dilapidated walls, has a castle, in which the archives of the Hessian family are preserved; but only contains 260 houses, with 1280 inhabitants.
ZINC, a metallic substance, formerly considered as one of the brittle metals; or, according to the distinction of the older chemists, a semi-metal, or an imperfect metal, because it was found to be destitute of some of the properties of other metals which were considered as perfect. See Chemistry.
ZINZENDQRF, NIcholas Lewis, Count of, the noted founder of the German religious sect called Moravians or Herrnhutters, or, as they pretend, the restorer of that society, was born in the year 1700. From his own narrative it appears, that when he came of age in 1721, his thoughts were wholly bent on gathering together a little society of believers, among whom he might live, and who should entirely employ themselves in exercises of devotion under him. He accordingly purchased an estate at Ber-tholsdorf in Upper Lusatia, where, being joined by some followers, he gave the cure of the village to a person of his own complexion; and Bertholsdorf soon became conspicuous for a new mode of piety. One Christian David, a carpenter, brought a few proselytes from Moravia: they began a new town about half a league from the village, where Count Zinzendorf fixed his residence among them, and whither great numbers of Moravians flocked and established themselves under his protection; so that in 1732 their number amounted to 600. An adjacent hill, called the Huthberg, gave occasion to these colonists to call their new settlement Huth des Herrn, and afterwards Herrnhuth; which may be interpreted “The guard or protection of the Lord ;” and from this the whole sect have taken their name. The count spared neither pains nor money to propagate his opinions: he went himself over all Europe, and at least twice to America; and sent missionaries throughout the world. He died at Herrnhutt on the 9th of May 1760.
ZION, or Sion, a very famous mountain, standing on the north side of the city of Jerusalem (Psalm xlviii. 2), containing the upper city, built by King David, where stood the royal palace (Josephus. Psalm xlviii. 2). A part of Zion, situated at its extremity, was called Millo, of or in the city of David (2 Chron. xxxii. 5). Modern travellers who have examined the spot say that Zion is the whole of the mountain on which Jerusalem stands at this day, though not to the extent in which it anciently stood on the same mountain, as appears Psal. ix. 12, 15; lxv. 1; lxxxvii. 2, 3; Is. lxii. 1. It is swelled into several eminences or tops, as Moriah, Acra Bezetha, and Zion, a particular eminence or mount, and Zion proper, &c., encompassed on three sides, east, west, and south, with one continued deep and steep valley; by means of which it was impregnablc on these three sides, and always attacked and taken, according to Josephus, by the enemy on the north side, where Mount Zion became level, and the vales of Gihon and Jehoshaphat gradually lose themselves. This deep and steep valley incontestably constitutes the compass of the old Jerusalem on those three sides, as plainly appears to any person who has been upon the spot. In opposition to the opinion of former travellers, Dr Clarke thinks that the proper Mount Zion is an eminence entirely without the city, on the south side; and in the valley between this and the city he places the holy sepulchre. That part of the valley which lay to the east was called Jehoshaphat’s, having Mount Olivet lying beyond it; that to the south Gehin-non, and that to the west Gihon, from cognominal mountains lying beyond them. At the west end of Gihon, [7:21:989] without the city, stood Golgotha or Calvary. The same traveller thinks that very little credit is due to the names given to the different places and objects by the monks.

There is another Zion, the same with Hermon.
ZISKA, John, a famous general of the forces of the Hussites, was born in Bohemia about the year 1380. His proper name was Trocznow; but he entered very young into the army, and after distinguishing himself on several occasions, lost an eye in a battle, whence he was called Ziska, or One-eyed. At length the reformation, begun by John Huss, spreading throughout almost all Bohemia, Ziska placed himself at the head of the Hussites, and had soon under his command a body of 40,000 men. With this army he gained several victories over those of the Romish religion, who carried on a kind of crusade against them; and built a town in an advantageous situation, to which he gave the name of Tabor, whence the Hussites were afterwards called Taborites. Ziska lost his other eye by an arrow at the siege of the city of Rubi; but this did not prevent his continuing the war, his fighting battles, and gaining several great victories, among which was that of Ausig on the Elbe, in which 9000 of the enemy were left dead on the field. The emperor Sigismund, alarmed at his progress, caused very advantageous proposals to be made to him, which he readily accepted, and set out to meet Sigismund, but died on the road, on the 11th of October 1424. He ordered that his body should be left a prey to the birds and wild beasts, and that a drum should be made of his skin, being persuaded that the enemy would fly as soon as they heard the sound. It is added that the Hussites executed his will; and that the news of this order made such an impression on the disturbed imaginations of the German papists, that in many battles they actually fled at the beat of the drum with the utmost precipitation, leaving their baggage and artillery behind them.
ZITTAU, a city of the kingdom of Saxony, in the province of Lausitz. It stands on the river Mandau, near to where that stream falls into the Neisse. It is on an elevated spot, 763 feet above the level of the sea, is surrounded with double walls, contains eight churches, a hospital, an orphan-house, 1140 houses, and in 1834 had 8508 inhabitants. The town is well built, has several institutions for education, and some extensive manufactures of linen and cotton, large breweries, and several paper-mills.
ZLOCZOW, a circle of the Austrian kingdom of Gallicia, bounded on the north and north-east by Russia, on the south-east by Tarnapol, on the south by Brezazari, and on the west by Lemberg. It extends over 2024 square miles, comprehends six cities, nineteen market-towns, and 319 villages, with 208,950 inhabitants. It is a level and moderately fertile district, watered by the river Bug and its numerous tributary streams. The capital, likewise called Zloczow, is situated between woods and marshes. It contains a Catholic and two Greek churches, an ancient castle, 1107 houses, and 6440 inhabitants. Long. 24. 47. 40. E. Lat. 49. 49. 45. N.
ZNAYM, a circle of the Austrian province of Moravia, extending over 1320 square miles, comprehending eight cities, thirty-six market-towns, and 369 villages, with 137,980 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name, on the river Taya. It is surrounded with walls, has an ancient fortress, and contains 512 houses, with 5430 inhabitants, who make considerable quantities of woollen cloths. Long. 15. 57. 46. E. Lat. 48. 51. 15. N.
ZODIAC, a broad circle, whose middle is the ecliptic, and its extremes two circles parallel thereto, at such a distance from it as to bound or comprehend the excursions of the sun and planets. See Astronomy. It is a curious enough fact, that the solar division of the Indian zodiac is the same in substance with that of the Greeks, and yet that it has not been borrowed either from the Greeks or the Arabians. The identity, or at least striking similarity, of the division, is universally known; and Montucla has endeavoured to prove that the Brahmins received it from the Arabs. His opinion, we believe, was very generally admitted; but Sir William Jones has adduced a variety of arguments which seem to prove that neither of those nations borrowed that division from the other; that it has been known among the Hindus from time immemorial; and that it was probably invented by the first progenitors of that race, whom he considers, before their dispersion, as the most ancient of mankind. See Asiatic Researches, vol. ii.
ZOMBAR, or Sombor, a city of the Austrian kingdom of Hungary, the capital of a circle of the same name, in the province of Lower Danube. It stands on the navigable canal Francis, and contains a Catholic, a Greek, and a Lutheran church, with a free school of some celebrity. It numbers 2961 houses, with 15,106 inhabitants, chiefly of German origin, who carry on extensive trade in corn and cattle. Long. 21. 9. 48. E. Lat. 48. 8. 32. N.
ZONARAS, Joannes, a miscellaneous Greek writer of considerable note, flourished at Constantinople about the beginning of the twelfth century. Under the emperor Alexius Comnenus, who died in 1118, he rose to the distinction of being nominated great drungarius, ^[1. See Du Cange, Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Inifimae Graecitatis, tom. i. col. 334, voc. Δ goυγγάgιος. ] and chief secretary; but after the death of his wife, he retired to a monastery, and there closed his earthly career. His principal work is his X govιχὸν , or Annals, deduced from the creation of the world to the death of his imperial patron. The earlier portion of it we cannot easily suppose to be very important; but that which relates to the history of the Greek empire is not without a considerable share of historical value. The editio princeps was published by Wolfius, Basil. 1557, 3 tom. fol. This was succeeded by the valuable edition of Du Cange, Paris. 1686, 2 tom. fol.; which was reprinted in the Venice edition of the Byzantine historians. Zonaras is well known to canonists by his work, “In Canones S. S. Apostolorum et sacrorum Conciliorum Commentarii.” Lut. Paris. 1618, fol. These commentaries are inserted in Bishop Beveridge’s Pandectae. Some of his works, one in verse, may be found in other collections. See particularly Cotelerii “Ecclesiae Graecae Monumenta,” tom. ii. p. 483, tom. iii. p. 465. A publication more interesting to philologers remains to be specified: “Jo. Zonarae et Photii Lexica, ex codicibus manuscriptis nunc primum edita, observationibus illustrata, et indicibus instructa.” Lipsiae, 1808, 3 tom. 4to. The first two volumes contain the lexico of Zonaras edited by Tittmann; the third volume contains that of Photius edited by Hermann. In the article Photius , this and another important publication have both been overlooked. *** “Φωr∕'ou vo2 ∏αrja⅛ζou Aiξiωv 2uvaγωγη. E codice Galeano descripsit Ricardus Porsonus.” Lond. 1822, 2 part. 8vo.
ZONE, a division of the terraqueous globe with respect to the different degrees of heat found in its different parts. The zones are denominated torrid, frigid, and temperate. The torrid zone is a band surrounding the terraqueous globe, and terminated by the two tropics. Its breadth is 46° 58'. The equator, running through the middle of it, divides it into two equal parts, each containing 23° 29'. The ancients imagined the torrid zone uninhabitable. The temperate zones are contained between the tropics and the polar circles. The breadth of each is 43° 2'. The frigid zones arc segments of the surface of the earth, terminated, one by the antarctic, and the other by the arctic circle. The breadth of each is 46° 58'.
ZOOLOGY is that part of natural history which relates to animals. See Animal Kingdom.
[7:21:990]
ZOROASTER, or Zerdusht, a celebrated ancient philosopher, said to have been the reformer or the founder of the religion of the Magi. It is wholly uncertain to how many eminent men the name of Zoroaster belonged. Some have maintained that there was but one Zoroaster, and that he was a Persian; others have said that there were six eminent founders of philosophy of this name. Ham the son of Noah, Moses, Osiris. Mithras, and others, both gods and men, have by different writers been asserted to have been the same with Zoroaster. Many different opinions have also been advanced concerning the time when he flourished. Aristotle and Pliny fix the date at so remote a period as 6000 years before the death of Plato. According to Dionysius Laertius, he flourished 600 years before the Trojan war; according to Suidas, 500. If, in the midst of so much uncertainty, any thing can be advanced with the appearance of probability, it seems to be this, that there was a Zoroaster, a Perso-Median, who flourished about the time of Darius Hystaspes; and that besides him there was another Zoroaster, who lived at a much more remote period among the Babylonians, and taught them astronomy. The Greek and Arabian writers are agreed concerning the existence of the Persian Zoroaster; and the ancients unanimously ascribe to a philosopher whom they call Zoroaster, the origin of the Chaldean astronomy, which is certainly of much earlier date than the time of Hystaspes. It seems therefore necessary to suppose a Chaldean Zoroaster distinct from the Persian. Concerning this Zoroaster however nothing more is known than that he flourished towards the beginning of the Babylonish empire, and was the father of the Chaldean astrology and magic. All the writings that have been ascribed to Zoroaster are unquestionably spurious.
ZOSIMUS, a historian of Constantinople, who has had various editors, is supposed to have written in the fifth century. He is described as “comes et exadvocatus fisci and from his own work it is evident that he was not a Christian. He wrote the history of the Roman empire from the reign of Augustus to the year 410. The first book contains brief notices of the earlier emperors, ending with Diocletian; but in the other five books his details are more ample. A Latin version of this history was published by Leunclavius in 1576; and in 1581 H. Stephanus added the Greek text of the first two books to his edition of Herodian. All the six books were published by Sylburgius in the third volume of his “Romanae Historiae Scriptores Graeci Minores.” Francof. 1590, fol. This was followed by other editions, of which the best is that of Reitemeier, Lipsiae, 1784, 8vo; Bonnae, 1837, 8vo. The latter impression, forming a volume of Niebuhr’s “Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae,” was superintended by Bekker, who has corrected the errors of the former edition, and has omitted such critical notes as he did not approve. In both these impressions, some annotations of Heyne are added to those of Reitemeier.