ZINDER, a town on the northern margin of the central Sudan. Zinder is a great emporium of the trade across the Sahara between the Hausa states of the south and the Tuareg countries and Tripoli in the north. Its ruler was formerly subordinate to Bornu, but with the decline of that kingdom shook off the yoke of the sultan, and on the conquest of that country by Rabah (q.v.) seems to have maintained his independence. The country of which Zinder is the capital is known as Damerghu. It is semi-fertile, and supports considerable numbers of horses and sheep, besides troops of camels. By the Anglo-French agreement of June 1898 it was included in the French sphere, having already been the object of French political action. The explorer Cazemajou was assassinated there in 1897, but the town was occupied in July 1899, after a slight resistance, by Lieutenant Pallier of the reconstructed Voulet-Chanoine mission (see Senegal, country). A French post (named Fort Cazemajou) was built outside the town on a mound of huge granite blocks. Zinder was the first point in the Sudan reached by F. Foureau after his great journey across the Sahara via Air in 1899. Subsequently Commandant Gadel, from his headquarters at Zinder, mapped and pacified the surrounding region, and sent out columns of meharistes (camel corps) which occupied the oasis of Air and Bilma in 1906. Zinder is a large and fine town surrounded with high earthen walls, very thick at the base and pierced with seven gates. Its houses, in part built of clay, in part of straw, are interspersed with trees. There is an important colony of Tuareg merchants, who occupy the suburb of Zengu, and who deal in a variety of wares, from cotton, silks, spices, ostrich feathers, &c., to French scent bottles. Salt is a great article of merchandise. A busy market is held outside one of the gates. Administratively Damerghu is dependent on the French colony of Upper Senegal and Niger.
See Cazemajou, in Bul. Com. de l'Afrique Française (1900); F. Foureau, in La Géographie (December 1900), D’Alger au Congo par le Tchad (Paris, 1902); Joalland, in La Géographie, vol. iii. (1901); E. Arnaud and M. Cortier, Nos Confins Sahariens (Paris, 1908); C. Jean, Les Touarag du Sud-Est (Paris, 1909).
ZINGERLE, IGNAZ VICENZ (1825–1892), Austrian poet and scholar, was born, the son of the Roman Catholic theologian and orientalist, Pius Zingerle (1801–1881), at Meran on the 6th of June 1825. He began his studies at Trient, and entered for a while the Benedictine monastery at Marienberg. Abandoning the clerical profession, he returned to Innsbruck, where, in 1848, he became teacher in the gymnasium, and in 1859 professor of German language and literature at the university. He died at Innsbruck on the 17th of September 1892.
Zingerle is known as an author by his Zeitgedichte (Innsbruck, 1848); Von den Alpen (1850); Die Müllerin, a village tale (1853); Der Bauer von Longvall (1874); and Erzählungen aus dem Burggrafenamte (1884). His ethnographical writings and literary studies, dealing especially with the Tirol, have, however, rendered him more famous. Among them may be mentioned his editions of König Laurin (1850), of the legend, Von den heyligen drei Künigen (1855); Sagen aus Tirol (1850, 2nd ed. 1891); Tirol. Natur, Geschichte und Sage im Spiegel deutscher Dichtung (1851); Die Personen- und Taufnamen Tirols (1855); Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler-Volkes (2nd ed. 1871); Das deutsche Kinderspiel im Mittelalter (2nd ed. 1873); Schildereien aus Tirol (1877, new series, 1888). With E. Inama-Sternegg, he edited Tirolische Weistümer (5 vols., 1875–1891).
ZINNIA, in botany, a genus of the natural order Compositae, containing about a dozen species of half-hardy annual or perennial herbs or under shrubs, natives of the southern United States and Mexico. The numerous single and double garden forms are mostly derived from Zinnia elegans, and grow about 2 ft. high, producing flowers of various colours, the double ones being about the size of asters, and very handsome. The colours include white, yellow, orange, scarlet, crimson and purple. Zinnias do best in a rich deep loamy soil, in a sunny position. They should be sown on a gentle hotbed at the end of March or in April and planted out early in June.
ZINZENDORF, NICOLAUS LUDWIG, Count of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf (1700–1760), German religious and social reformer, was born on the 26th of May 1700 at Dresden. His ancestors belonged to Lower Austria, but had taken the Protestant side in the Reformation struggle, and settled near Nuremberg. Both his parents belonged to the Pietist circle and the lad had Philipp Jakob Spener for his godfather. His father died six weeks after he was born. His mother married again when he was four years old, and he was educated under the charge of his pious and gifted grandmother,[1] Catherine von Gersdorf, who did much to shape his character. His school days were spent at Halle amidst Pietist surroundings, and in 1716 he went to the university of Wittenberg, to study law and fit himself for a diplomatic career. Three years later he was sent to travel in Holland, in France, and in various parts of Germany, where he made the personal acquaintance of men distinguished for practical goodness and belonging to a variety of churches. On his return he visited the branches of his family settled at Oberbirg and at Castell. During a lengthened visit at Castell he fell in love with his cousin Theodora, but the widowed countess, her mother, objected to the marriage, and the lady afterwards became the wife of Count Henry of Reuss. Zinzendorf seems to have considered this disappointment to be a call to betake himself to some special work for God. He had previously, in deference to his family, who wished him to become a diplomatist, rejected the invitation of August Francke to take Baron von Canstein’s place in the Halle orphanage; and he now resolved to settle down as a Christian landowner, spending his life on behalf of his tenantry. He bought Berthelsdorf from his grandmother, and selected John Andrew Rothe for pastor and John George Heiz for factor; he married Erdmule Dorothea, sister of Count Henry of Reuss, and began living on his estate. His intention was to carry out into practice the Pietist ideas of Spener. He did not mean to found a new church or religious organization distinct from the Lutheranism of the land, but to create a Christian association the members of which by preaching, by tract and book distribution and by practical benevolence might awaken the somewhat torpid religion of the Lutheran Church. The “band of four brothers” (Rothe, pastor at Berthelsdorf, Melchior Schäffer, pastor at Görlitz; Francis von Wattewille, a friend from boyhood; and himself) set themselves by sermons, books, journeys and correspondence to create a revival of religion, and by frequent meetings for prayer to preserve in their own hearts the warmth of personal trust in Christ. From the printing-house at Ebersdorf large quantities of books and tracts, catechisms, collections of hymns and cheap Bibles were issued; and a translation of Johann Arndt's True Christianity was published for circulation in France. A dislike of the high and dry Lutheran orthodoxy of the period gave Zinzendorf some sympathy with that side of the growing rationalism which was attacking dogma, while at the same time he felt its lack of earnestness, and of a true and deep understanding of religion and of Christianity, and endeavoured to counteract these defects by pointing men to the historical Christ, the revelation of the Father. He seems also to have doubted the wisdom of Spener’s plan of not separating from the Lutheran Church, and began to think that true Christianity could be best promoted by free associations of Christians, which in course of time might grow into churches with no state connexion. These thoughts took a practical turn from his connexion with the Bohemian or Moravian Brethren. Zinzendorf offered an asylum to a number of persecuted wanderers from Moravia (see Moravian Brethren), and built for them the village of Herrnhut on a corner of his estate of Berthelsdorf. The refugees who came to this asylum (between 1722 and 1732—the first detachment under Christian David) from various regions where persecution raged, belonged to more than one Protestant organization. Persecution had made them cling pertinaciously to small peculiarities of creed, organization and worship, and they could scarcely be persuaded to live in peace with each other. Zinzendorf devoted himself to them. He, with his wife and children, lived in Herrnhut and brought Rothe with him. He had hard work to bring order out of the confusion. He had to
- ↑ A volume of Spiritual Songs, written by Zinzendorf’s grandmother Catherine, was published in 1729 by Paul Anton.
