The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Zaandam or Saardam (15), a town in North Holland, 5 m. NW. of Amsterdam; intersected with a network of canals, with various manufactures, including shipbuilding, and a considerable trade; it was here Peter the Great wrought as a ship carpenter in 1699, and the house is still preserved in which he lived, with a stone tablet inscribed "Petro Magno Alexievitch."

Zabism. See Sabianism.

Zacatecas (40), a town of Mexico, capital of an inland province of the same name (452), 440 m. NW. of Mexico City; a great silver-mining center, an industry which employs over 10,000 of the inhabitants; it is in a valley over 6000 ft. above the sea-level, and has several fine churches, a college, a mint, etc.

Zacharias, Pope from 741 to 752; succeeded Gregory III.; set aside the Merovingian dynasty and sanctioned the elevation of Pepin the Short to the throne of France, in return for which Pepin twice over saved Rome from the Lombards.

Zacoccia, a king of Mozambique who, according to the Lusiad (q.v.), received Vasco da Gama with welcome, believing him to be a Mohammedan, but conceived feelings of bitterest hatred to him when he discovered he was a Christian, and tried, but all in vain, to allure him to his ruin; the agent he employed to compass it failing, in his despair he took away his own life.

Zadig, name of a famous novel by Voltaire, of a philosophical cast, bearing upon life as in the hands of a destiny beyond our control.

Zadkiel, according to the Rabbins, the name of the angel of the planet Jupiter; also pseudonym assumed by Richard James Morrison, a naval officer, believer in astrology, and the compiler of an astrological almanac.

Zagazig (35), a town in the Delta of Egypt, 50 m. NE. of Cairo; a railway center, and entrepôt for the cotton and grain grown in the section of the delta round it, and once a center of worship, and the site of two temples; Tel-el-Kebir (q.v.) lies E. of it.

Zahn, Theodor, biblical scholar, born in Rhenish Prussia, professor of Theology at Erlangen; distinguished for his eminent scholarship in connection with the matter especially of the New Testament canon; b. 1838.

Zähringen, a village 2 m. N. of Freiburg, in Baden, with a castle now in ruins which gives name to the reigning grand-ducal family of Baden, the founders of which were counts of Breisgau.