Submarine cables connect Zanzibar with all parts of the world; whilst lines of steamships from Europe and India make it a regular port of call. It was not, however, until 1910 that direct steamship communication with London was established. The average annual value of the external trade for the five years 1902-6 was: imports, £1,075,580; exports, £1,084,224. In 1907 the imports were valued at 1,232,957, the exports at £1,070,067. The figures for 1908 were: imports, £969,841; exports, £977,628. Many of the imports brought from the neighbouring mainland also figure as exports. Of these the most important are ivory, and rhinoceros horn, gum copal, hides and skins. Cloves, clove stems and copra are the chief exports, the production of the island. The bulk of the articles named, with the exception of copra, are sent to the United Kingdom; India, however, has a larger trade with Zanzibar than any other country. From it are imported food stuffs (rice, grain, flour, ghee, groceries) and piece goods. The copra is sent almost exclusively to Marseilles. The most valuable articles of import are piece goods and rice. The piece goods come chiefly from the United Kingdom, India, America and the Netherlands, the rice entirely from India. Other imports of value are building material, coal, petroleum and sugar.
The motley population of Zanzibar is indicative of the commercial importance of the city. Its geographical position has made it the key of East Africa from Cape Guardafui to Delagoa Bay. “When you play on the flute at Zanzibar” (says an Arab proverb) “all Africa as far as the lakes dances.” From the time (1832) when Seyyid Said of Muscat fixed on the town as the capital of his empire, Zanzibar became the centre of the trade between the African continent, India, Arabia and the Persian Gulf, as well as Madagascar and the Mauritius. It also speedily obtained a large trade with Europe and America. The Americans were the first among white merchants to realize the possibilities of the port, and a United States consulate was established as early as 1836. The name Merikani, applied to cotton goods and blankets on the east coast, is a testimony to the enterprise of the American trader. Zanzibar is to a greater degree than any other city the capital of negro Africa; made so, however, not by the negroes but by Arab conquerors and traders. The aspect of the city has changed since the establishment of the British protectorate, the suppression of the slave market and of slavery itself, and the enforcement of sanitation; but Professor Henry Drummond in Tropical Africa (1888) aptly sketched the characteristics of Zanzibar in pre-protectorate days when he wrote of it as a “cesspool of wickedness Oriental in its appearance, Mahommedan in its religion, Arabian in its morals . . . a fit capital for the Dark Continent.” Nevertheless Zanzibar in those days was the focus of all exploring and missionary work for the interior, the portal through which civilizing influences penetrated into the eastern section of equatorial Africa. The growth of the British and German protectorates on the neighbouring shores led in the early years of the 20th century to considerable trade which had hitherto gone through Zanzibar being diverted to Mombasa and Dar-es-Salaam, but Zanzibar maintains its supremacy as the great distributing centre for the eastern seaboard.
ZAPAROS, a tribe or group of tribes of South American Indians of the river Napo. They occupy some 12,000 sq. m. between the Napo and the Pastaza. Their only industries are hammock plaiting and fishing-net weaving. Polygamy is general. They were a long skirt of bark fibre.
ZARA (Serbo-Croatian Zadar), the capital of Dalmatia, Austria. Pop. (1900), of town and commune, 32,506; including a garrison of 1330. Zara is situated on the Adriatic Sea, 52 m. S.E. of Trieste, and opposite the islands of Ugliano and Pasman, from which it is separated by the narrow Channel of Zara. It is the meeting-place of the provincial diet, and the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop and an Orthodox bishop. The promontory on which it stands is separated from the mainland by a deep moat, practically making an island of the city. In 1873 the ramparts of Zara were converted into elevated promenades commanding extensive views to seaward and to landward. Of its four old gates one, the Porta Marina, incorporates the relics of a Roman arch, and another, the Porta di Terraferma, was designed in the 16th century by the Veronese artist Sanmichele. The chief interest of Zara lies in its churches, the most remarkable of which is the cathedral of St Anastasia, a fine Romanesque basilica, built between 1202 and 1205. The churches of St Chrysogonus and St Simeon are also in the Romanesque style, and St Mary’s retains a fine Romanesque campanile of 1105. The round church of St Donatus, traditionally but erroneously said to have been erected in the 9th century on the site of a temple of Juno, is used for secular purposes. The church treasuries contain some of the finest Dalmatian metal-work; notably the silver ark or reliquary of St Simeon (1380), and the pastoral staff of Bishop Valaresso (1460). Most of the Roman remains were used in the construction of the fortifications. But two squares are embellished with lofty marble columns; a Roman tower stands on the east side of the town; and some remains of a Roman aqueduct may be seen outside the ramparts. Among the other chief buildings are the Loggia del Comune, rebuilt in 1565, and containing a public library; the old palace of the priors, now the governor’s residence; and the episcopal palaces. The harbour, to the north-east of the town, is safe and spacious, and it is annually entered by about 2500 small vessels, mainly engaged in the coasting trade. Large quantities of maraschino are distilled in Zara; and the local industries include fishing, glass-blowing, and the preparation of oil, flour and wax.
In the early days of the Roman empire Zara was a flourishing Roman colony under the name of Jadera, subsequently changed to Diadora. It remained united with the eastern empire down to 998, when it sought Venetian protection. For the next four centuries it was always under Venetian or Hungarian rule, changing hands repeatedly. It was occupied by the Hungarians at the end of the 12th century, but was recaptured by the Venetians in 1202, with the aid of French crusaders on their way to Palestine. In 1409 it was finally purchased from Hungary by Venice for 100,000 ducats. In 1792 it passed into the possession of Austria. From 1809 to 1813 it belonged to France.
About 15 m. S.E. is Zara Vecchia, or Old Zara, an insignificant village on the site of Biograd, the former residence of the Croatian kings, which was destroyed during the wars between Venice and Hungary.
See Angelo Nani, Zara, e suoi Dintorni (Zara, 1878), and Notizie Storiche della Citta di Zara, (Zara, 1883).
ZARCILLO Y ALCARAZ, FRANCISCO (1707-1781), Spanish sculptor, was born in Murcia on the 12th of May 1707. At the age of twenty he completed the statue of St Ines of Montepulciano, which had been begun for the Dominicans at Murcia by his father. On the death of the latter the care of the family fell upon Francisco, who with the help of his brothers and sisters organized a workshop. In 1765 he also founded a small academy, which, however, was speedily dissolved owing to disunion among the members. In the Ermita de Jesús in Murcia may be seen Zarcillo's scenes from the Passion of Our Lord, a vast work in which all the sculptor's qualities and defects are revealed. In the church of St Miguel are an Immaculate Conception and a St Francis. Mention should also be made of the Christ at the Well in the church of Santa Maria dellas Gracias in Murcia, and of the sculptures in San Pedro and in the Capucine monastery in Murcia. Zarcillo worked in wood, which was coloured. The ascription of the stone sculptures on the façade of the St Nicolas Church in Murcia to him rests on conjecture. He died at Murcia in 1781.
See B. Haendcke, Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen Plastik (Strassburg, 1900).
ZARHÓN, a mountain in Morocco, 9½ m. N. of Mequinez, on whose hillside is the town Mulai Idris Zarhón, so called after Mulai Idris I., the founder of the Moorish empire, who was buried there in A.D. 791. The whole town is considered as a sanctuary, pays no taxes, provides no soldiers and is never visited save by Mahommedans. Near the town are the ruins
