1771.—"Persuadé que les usages modernes de l'Asie doivent leur origine aux Peuples et aux Religions qui l'ont subjuguée, je me suis proposé d'étudier dans les sources l'ancienne Théologie des Nations habituées dans les Contrées immenses qui sont à l'Est de l'Euphrate, et de consulter sur leur Histoire, les livres originaux. Ce plan m'a engagé à remonter aux Monumens les plus anciens. Je les ai trouvé de deux espèces: les prémiers écrits en Samskretan; ce sont les Vedes, Livres sacrés des Pays, qui de l'Indus s'étendent aux frontières de la Chine: les seconds écrits en Zend, ancienne Langue du Nord de la Perse; c'est le Zend Avesta, qui passe pour avoir été la Loi des Contrées bornées par l'Euphrate, le Caucase, l'Oxus, et la mer des Indes."—Anquetil du Perron, Zend-Avesta, Ouvrage de Zoroastre—Documens Préliminaires, p. iii.
" "Dans deux cens ans, quand les Langues Zend et Pehlvie ([Pahlavi]) seront devenues en Europe familières aux Sçavans, on pourra, en rectifiant les endroits où je me serai trompé, donner une Traduction plus exacte du Zend-Avesta, et ci ce que je dis ici excitant l'émulation, avance le terme que je viens de fixer, mes fautes m'auront conduit au but que je me suis proposé."—Ibid. Preface, xvii.
1884.—"The supposition that some of the books were destroyed by Alexander the Great is contained in the introductory chapter of the Pehlevi Viraf-Nama, a book written in the Sassanian times, about the 6th or 7th century, and in which the event is thus chronicled:—'The wicked, accursed Guna Mino (the evil spirit), in order to make the people sceptical about their religion, instigated the accursed Alexiedar (Alexander) the Ruman, the inhabitant of Egypt, to carry war and hardships to the country of Iran (Persia). He killed the monarch of Iran, and destroyed and made desolate the royal court. And this religion, that is, all the books of Avesta and Zend, written with gold ink upon prepared cow-skins, was deposited in the archives of Stakhar (Istakhar or Persepolis) of Papak. The accursed, wretched, wicked Ashmogh (destroyer of the pious), Alexiedar the evil-doer, took them (the books) out and burnt them."—Dosabhai Framji, H. of the Parsis, ii. 158-159.
ZERBAFT, s. Gold-brocade, Pers. zar, 'gold,' bāft, 'woven.'
[1900.—"Kamkwabs, or kimkhwabs ([Kincob]), are also known as zar-baft (gold-woven), and mushajjar (having patterns)."—Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk Fabrics, 86.]
ZILLAH, s. This word is properly Ar. (in Indian pron.) ẓila, 'a rib,' thence 'a side,' a district. It is the technical name for the administrative districts into which British India is divided, each of which has in the older provinces a Collector, or Collector and Magistrate combined, a Sessions Judge, &c., and in the newer provinces, such as the Punjab and B. Burma, a Deputy Commissioner.
[1772.—"With respect to the [Talookdarrys] and inconsiderable Zemindarrys, which formed a part of the Huzzoor ([Huzoor]) Zilahs or Districts which paid their rents immediately to the General [Cutcherry] at Moorshedabad...."—W. Hastings, in Hunter, Annals of Bengal, 4th ed., 388.]
1817.—"In each district, that is in the language of the country, each Zillah ... a Zillah Court was established."—Mill's Hist. v. 422.
ZINGARI, n.p. This is of course not Anglo-Indian, but the name applied in various countries of Europe, and in various modifications, zincari, zingani, zincali, chingari, zigeuner, &c., to the gypsies.
Various suggestions as to its derivation have been made on the supposition that it is of Indian origin. Borrow has explained the word as 'a person of mixt blood,' deriving it from the Skt. sankara, 'made up.' It is true that varṅa sankara is used for an admixture of castes and races (e.g. in Bhāgavad Gītā, i. 41, &c.), but it is not the name of any caste, nor would people to whom such an opprobrious epithet had been applied be likely to carry it with them to distant lands. A writer in the Saturday Review once suggested the Pers. zīngar, 'a saddler.' Not at all probable. In Sleeman's Ramaseeana or Vocabulary of the peculiar Language used by the Thugs (Calcutta, 1836), p. 85, we find: