Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/978

 between the Miranzai and Kurram valleys. Their country may be described as a triangle, with the range of hills known as the Samana as its base, and the village of Thal in the Kurram valley as its apex. This includes a tract on its western side occupied by an Orakzai clan. The total area is about 400 sq. m., of which the Orakzais occupy a fourth. The Zaimukhts are a fine-looking powerful race, with a fighting strength of some 3000 men.

ZAIRE, a name by which the river Congo was formerly known. Zaire is a Portuguese variant of a Bantu word (nzari) meaning river. In the 16th and 17th centuries the powerful native kingdom of Congo possessed both banks of the lower river, and the name of the country was in time given to the river also. Until, however, the last quarter of the 19th century “Zaire” was frequently used to designate the stream. It is so called by Camoens in the Lusiads. Since H. M. Stanley’s discoveries “Congo” has become the general name for the river from its mouth to Stanley Falls, despite an effort on the part of Stanley to have the stream re-named Livingstone. (See, river.)

 ZAISAN, or, a town of Russian Central Asia, in the province of Semipalatinsk, near the Chinese frontier, at an altitude of 2200 ft. and near the S.E. corner of Lake Zaisan. Pop. (1897) 4471. Lake Zaisan, situated in an open valley between the Altai range on the north-east and the Tarbagatai on the south, lies at an altitude of 1355 ft. It has a length of 65m., a width of 14 to 30m., an area of 707 sq. m., and a maximum depth of 50 ft. Its water is fresh, as it receives the Black Irtysh and the Kendyrlyk from the east, and several small streams from the west, all of which leave the lake at its north-west extremity by the White Irtysh. The fisheries, which yield abundantly, are in the hands of the Siberian Cossacks. The lake is generally frozen from the beginning of November to the end of April.

 ZALEUCUS, of Locri Epizephyrii in Magna Graecia, Greek lawgiver, is supposed to have flourished about 660 The statement that he was a pupil of Pythagoras is an anachronism. Little is known of him, and Timaeus even doubted his existence, but it is now generally agreed that this is an error. He is said to have been the author of the first written code of laws amongst the Greeks. According to the common story, the Locrians consulted the Delphic oracle as to a remedy for the disorder and lawlessness that were rife amongst them. Having been ordered to make laws for themselves, they commissioned one Zaleucus, a shepherd and slave (in later tradition, a man of distinguished family) to draw up a code. The laws of Zaleucus, which he declared had been communicated to him in a dream by Athena, the patron goddess of the city, were few and simple, but so severe that, like those of Draco, they became proverbial. They remained essentially unchanged for centuries, and the Locrians subsequently enjoyed a high reputation as upholders of the law. One of the most important provisions was that the punishment for different offences was definitely fixed, instead of being left to the discretion of the judge before whom a case was tried. The penalty for adultery was the loss of the eyes, and in general the application of the lex talionis was enjoined as the punishment for personal injuries. Special enactments concerning the rights of property, the alienation of land, settlement in foreign countries, and various sumptuary laws (e.g. the drinking of pure wine, except when ordered medicinally, was forbidden) are attributed to him. After the code was firmly established, the Locrians introduced a regulation that, if a citizen interpreted a law differently from the cosmopolis (the chief magistrate), each had to appear before the council of One Thousand with a rope round his neck, and the one against whom the council decided was immediately strangled. Any one who proposed a new law or the alteration of one already existing was subjected to the same test, which continued in force till the 4th century and even later. Zaleucus is often confused with Charondas, and the same story is told of their death. It is said that one of Zaleucus’s laws forbade a citizen, under penalty of death, to enter the senate-house bearing a weapon. During the stress of war, Zaleucus violated this law; and, on its being pointed out to him, he committed suicide by throwing himself upon the point of his sword, declaring that the law must be vindicated.

 ZALMOXIS, or, a semi-mythical social and religious reformer, regarded as the only true God by the Thracian Getae. According to Herodotus (iv. 94), the Getae, who believed in the immortality of the soul, looked upon death merely as going to Zalmoxis. Every five years they selected by lot one of the tribesmen as a messenger to the god. The man was thrown into the air and caught upon the points of spears. If he did not die, he was considered unfit to undertake the mission and another was chosen. By the euhemeristic Hellespontine Greeks Herodotus was told that Zalmoxis was really a man, formerly a slave of Pythagoras at Samos, who, having obtained his freedom and amassed great wealth, returned to Thrace, and instructed his fellow-tribesmen in the doctrines of Pythagoras and the arts of civilization. He taught them that they would pass at death to a certain place, where they would enjoy all possible blessings for all eternity, and to convince them of this he had a subterranean chamber constructed, to which he withdrew for three years. Herodotus, who declines to commit himself as to the existence of Zalmoxis, expresses the opinion that in any case he must have lived long before the time of Pythagoras. It is probable that Zalmoxis is Sabazius. the Thracian Dionysus or Zeus; Mnaseas of Patrae identified him with Cronus. In Plato (Charmides, 158 B) he is mentioned with Abaris as skilled in the arts of incantation. No satisfactory etymology of the name has been suggested.

 ZAMAKHSHARĪ [Abū-l Qāsim Mahmūd ibn ‛Umar uz-Zamakhsharī] (1074–1143), Arabian theologian and grammarian, was born at Zamakhshar, a village of Khwarizm, studied at Bokhara and Samarkand, and enjoyed the fellowship of the jurists of Bagdad. For many years he stayed at Mecca, from which circumstance he was known as Jar-ullah (“God’s client”). Later he returned to Khwarizm, where he died at the capital. Jurjanīyya. In theology he was a pronounced Mo‛tazilite (see : section Sects). Although he used Persian for some of his works he was a strong supporter of the superiority of the Arabic language and an opponent of the Shu'ubite movement. Zamakhsharī’s fame as a commentator rests upon his commentary on the Koran, called al-Kashshāf (“the Revealer”). In spite of its Mo‛tazilite theology it was famous among scholars and was the basis of the widely-read commentary of (q.v.). It has been edited by W. Nassau Lees (Calcutta, 1856), and has been printed at Cairo (1890). Various glosses on it have been written by different authors. His chief grammatical work is the Kitāb ul-mufassal, written about 1120 and edited by J. P. Broch (2nd ed., Christiania, 1879). Many commentaries have been written on this work, the fullest being that of Ibn Ya‛ish (d. 1245), edited by G. Jahn (2 vols., Leipzig, 1876–86).

 ZAMBEZI, the fourth in size of the rivers of Africa, and the largest of those flowing eastwards to the Indian Ocean. Its length (taking all curves into consideration) is about 2200 m. The area of its basin, according to Dr Bludau, is 513,500 sq. m.,