Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/934

ZOQtTE. 7116 ZOROASTER. Chez, Gramdtica de la lengua Zoque (Mexico, 1877) ; Grasserie, Langue Zoque et langue ilixe (Paris, 1898). ZORILLA, tho-re'lya, :Maxuel Ta'iz (1834- 95). A Spanish statesman, bom at Burgo de Osnia. He studied at Valladolid, became an ad- vocate, and in 1856 was elected to the Cortes, where he joined the Progressists. In 18G6 he took part in an uprising which led to his banish- ment until tlie revolution of 1868. In that year he was made Jlinister of Commerce and Public Instruction under Serrano. In 18C9 he became Jlinister of .Justice and in 1870 president of the Cortes. He was instrumental in the election of Amadeus of Savoy to tlie throne, was Minister of Public Worship in his first Cabinet, and in 1871 formed a Progressist Cabinet. He was the chief adviser of Amadeus till the latter's abdication in 1873. After the accession of Alfonso XII. (De- cember, 1874) he retired to France, and later to Geneva, whence for eighteen years he directed the plots of the Republican conspirators. In 1884 he was sentenced to death, id contumaciam, for his part in the military rising of March, 1884. At last he tired of the struggle, gave up his leadership, and was permitted to return to Spain. ZOBN, tsorn, Axders (I860—). A Swedish painter. He was born at Utmedal, and studied first sculpture and then painting at the Stockholm Academy. His success in portraiture enabled him to "travel in Italy and Spain, and in 1882 he established himself in London, continuing his success. In 1889 he removed to Paris, whence he made frequent journeys to Sweden, England, and America (1893). He paints portrait, genre, landscape, and marine subjects with equal suc- cess. Among his best known paintings are: '•Italian Street Scene" (Luxembourg, Paris) ; "Summer in Sweden" (National Gallery, Ber- lin) ; "The Omnibus"; "A Toast": and the por- traits of Kenan, of himself, and of King Oscar of Sweden. He is also an etcher of great ability, his plates being mainlj' after his pictures. ZORNDORF, tsArn'dorf. A village of Prus- sia, in the Circle of Kiinigsberg, noted as the scene of a victory gained by Frederick the Great of Prussia over a Russian army under General Fermor, August 25, 1758. The battle was de- cided by two splendid cavalry charges under Gen- eral Seydlitz and ended in a panic rout of the Russians, who lost nearly 24,000 men out of a total strength of 50,000. The Prussians, who niunbered 37,000 men, lost somewhat more than 11.000 men. ZO'ROAS'TER (Lat. Zoroastres, from Gk. '/Mpodarpris, from Av. ZaraBustra) . The prophet of ancient Iran, a representative of the faith of the Magi (q.v.) , and one of the great religious teach- ers of the East. The tenets of his creed are preserved in the Avesta (q.v.), in the Pahlavi literature (q.v.), and in later writings, and they are still kept up by the small community of Giiebers (q.v.) in Persia and by the Parsis (q.v.) in India. The fact that Zoroaster was a his- torical character, not a mythical personage, is now generally accepted, and the outlines of his life have been made comparatively clear by recent investigations. Much uncertainty formerly prevailed regard- ing his date because of the statements of some of the classical authors that he flourished six thousand years before the Chri.stian era, but these reports were due to a misunderstanding of the Persian chronology, which recognizes the ex- istence of Zoroaster's spiritual essence or un- born substance at an era corresponding approxi- mately to such a date in the world's liistory, al- though his birth did not take place till a time shortly before the middle of the seventh century B.C. On the basis of the traditional chronology of the Parsis, as found in the Bundahishn and else- where in Pahlavi literature, the probable dates of Zoroaster's liirth and death may be reckoned as falling respectively about B.C. 060 and B.C. 5S3. The etj'raology and precise meaning of Zoroas- ter's name, Zarathushtra in the Avesta, is not wholly certain, although the last element (Av. ustra) means 'camel'; but there is a dispute whether the first element signifies 'old,' 'teasing,' or 'plowing,' or has a different force. The place of his birth is now generally accepted as being in the northwestern part of Persia, Azerbaijan (q.v.), to the west of the Caspian Sea, although a great part of his religious activity must have been in Eastern Iran. Tradition makes Azerbai- jan (corresponding to the Airi/ana Varjah of the Avesta) the home of his father Pourushaspa, and it connects incidents of Zoroaster's early life with Lake L'rinniah, which answers to Caccista in the Avesta, and associates the religious de- votee also with Mount Savalan. Various cities, however, are mentioned directly or indirectly as his birthplace or as connected with him. and the ancient town of Rei (Avesta Raya, the Rhages of the Book of Tobit), near the modern Teheran, is said to have been originally the home of his mother, Dughedha. Legend lias gathered a num- ber of miracles about Zoroaster's birth and child- hood, and tradition leaves space for a period of religious preparation from his fifteenth to his thirtieth year, when he received a revelation of the faith "and came forward as an opponent and reformer of the superstitious beliefs and heresies that existed in the old creed. Seven visions of heaven, the divine being, and the archangels were revealed to Zoroaster in the following ten years of his life. He then is said to have undergone the final test by a temptation from the evil spirit Ahriman (q.v.), but came off triumphant from the encounter with the archfiend. It we follow tradition we may identify, with some degree of likelihood, the scenes of "these supernatural and actual experiences. They tend to .show that Zoroaster traveled over a considerable part of Iran, for mention is made of his having been at one time in Seistan and even in Turan. The place where he made his first convert, his cousin Maidhyoi-maonha, or Medyomah, after the con- iljct with the spirit of evil, is probably the dis- trict of the great forest of reeds near the south- west shore of Lake Urumiah. Zoroaster's first real success, however, was achieved when he converted King Vishtaspa (Av. Knvi ^'ixtd.<lpa) . This was :i<com)dish('d in the prophet's forty-second year, or n.c. 61.8. if we accc|)t the traditional chronology. -As it is gen- erallv believed that Vishtaspa ruled in Eastern Iran,' liactria. Seistan, and Kliorasan. fresh sup- port is given for the claim that Zoroaster's teach- ing was largely in the east, even though he arose in the northwest of Persia, and his creed ulti- mately spread over all Iran. After the King's conversion the religion was adopted by the Queen,