Za‘im
There is a traditional social dimension that dictates visits by the clients to the za‘im and by him on special occasions and the observance of wajibat (“obligations”) between them. The za‘im might have a religious or community base or transcend confessional boundaries by having a local or geographic base. He might also have a purely economic base as a large employer or landowner. His authority also has a moral dimension and involves a certain amount of reciprocity.
Some distinguish among three different types of zu‘ama’, each referring to a different mode of political activity. First, there are feudal zu‘ama’ who are based mainly in the countryside where large estates and traditional lordships exist and whose power rests on their position as landowners, often of ancient lineage, and their ability to give protection and patronage. Second, there are populist politicans of the mainly Christian regions in the northern half of Lebanon where smallholdings are common who maintain leadership on a less-solid base of socio-economic power. Leadership is derived on the one hand from the use of powers of protection and patronage to maintain political clans and on the other from some kind of ideology or program of action. Third, there are Muslim leaders of the coastal cities who also obtain and retain leadership by ideological appeal and the exercise of patronage but add to these a third source of power -- the manipulation of the urban masses mobilized by strongarm men or qabadays.
In modern Lebanon, za‘imship is often linked to the attainment of high office, such as membership of parliament or a ministerial post. Political loyalty is also expressed by voting during elections. Relations among zu‘ama’ ensure a wider availability of favors to the clients, and competition among them, especially in urban areas, provides a minimum of checks and balances to the otherwise absolute power that a za‘im may wield.
The holding of an office is also important because the za‘im provides two kinds of services: general services, such as the provision of electricity, roads, and other amenities to the region or community; or personal services, such as the provision of employment, wasta’ (mediation), and access to welfare services. Hence the za‘im’s power can be based on the loyalty of people in his district, the relationship he has with the state or central authorities, or both. Both wealth and frequent return to high office, giving the za‘im access to state patronage, are important components in the legitimization of his powers.
Za‘imship as a system can be described as the relations between zu‘ama’ and their clients together with the relationship between local and national zu‘ama’ in a continuous process of fine tuning of the provision of favors and services in exchange for political loyalty and power. In this system, every transaction is connected and dependent on the other. It is often referred to as the traditional political system as opposed to the modern one based on political parties and state institutions.
The final results of the process were not always seen as coinciding with the wider national interest, and the za‘im system was seen as a parallel or “backstage” system, which predominated over the “frontstage” of state institutions. The clash between the system and central government, when the latter impinged on the powerbase from which the authority of the former was derived, was seen as restrictive of state sovereignty and authority and as a hindrance to the development of a strong central government.
The decline and demise of the za‘im system has been declared, but it endures and sometimes emerges stronger from crises and government reforms, for example, during the presidency of General Fuad Chehab (Fu’ad Shihab, 1958-1964), who was particularly opposed to the system. It is also common to attack the system in political rhetoric, even by its very practitioners.
The civil war of 1975-1990 has, however, had consequences onthe system which it is still too early to fully appreciate. The prolonged absence of state authority and institutions, the paralysis of the normal political process, the emergence of new powers in Lebanon, and the fragmentation of society must have taken their toll on the traditional system of zu‘ama’. Whether this involves a radical structural change or simply a change in the cast of characters, with the emergence of new and different types of zu‘ama’, remains to be seen.
Zaki, Sherif
Sherif Zaki (b. November 24, 1955, Alexandria, Egypt - d. November 21, 2021, Atlanta, Georgia, United States). A pathologist who as America's chief infectious disease detective helped identify the Covid-19, Ebola, West Nile and Zika viruses along with the severe acute respiratory syndrome -- SARS.
Sherif Ramzy Zaki was born on November 24, 1955, in Alexandria, Egypt. He spent his first six years in Chapel Hill, N.C., where his father, Ramzy Zaki, was attending graduate school. He later lived in the Caribbean, the Middle East and Europe, where his father worked for the United Nations’ International Labor Organization. His mother, Dalal (Elba) Zaki, was a teacher.
Zaki graduated second in his class of 800 from the Alexandria Medical School in Egypt in 1978. But he was less interested in practicing medicine than in unraveling mysteries, which had been an obsession of his ever since he was captivated by the novels of the British author Enid Blyton as a child. Zaki's obsession with solving puzzles and resolving mysteries was at the heart of his work at the C.D.C
Zaki earned a master’s in pathology from Alexandria University. But since autopsies were not permitted in Egypt for religious reasons, he did his residency in anatomic pathology at Emory University in Atlanta, where he also received a doctorate in experimental pathology.
Zaki then went to work at the C.D.C. and became a naturalized American citizen. Zaki joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1988 and became chief of the agency’s infectious diseases pathology branch in the early 1990s.
Zaki and his team made strides in distinguishing rare diseases and their mutations and determining what made some of them, like SARS and Ebola, so contagious and lethal. To do so they applied a process called immunohistochemistry, which allows researchers to identify foreign pathogens by staining cells and observing them through electron microscopes capable of magnifying bacteria and viruses 740,000 times.
In 2001, after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Zaki determined that a number of people who had come into contact with letters containing a white powder had died from anthrax after their skin was exposed to the bacteria, or after inhaling it.
Zaki and his team helped identify a deadly outbreak of hantavirus in the Navajo Nation in 1993. That discovery spurred the expansion of the infectious diseases pathology branch. The expanded branch subsequently discovered a previously unidentified bacterial illness called leptospirosis in Nicaragua; and the mosquito-borne Zika virus in the brain tissue of babies in Brazil, establishing that it could be transmitted during pregnancy.
Zaki headed the agency’s Unexplained Deaths Project a squad of detectives of last resort responsible for delving into the causes of the 700 or so baffling fatalities from disease that occur in the United States every year.
After four people who received organ transplants in Massachusetts and Rhode Island developed a viral infection and three of them died, Dr. Zaki and his colleagues pinpointed the cause as lymphocytic choriomeningitis, a rare rodent-borne virus. It turned out that the organ donor’s daughter had a pet hamster.
In 2005, a few days after complaining to his pediatrician of a fever, a headache and an itchy scalp, a 10-year-old Mississippi boy became so agitated that he bit a relative. After the boy was hospitalized, tests were inconclusive, but he died two weeks later.
About a week after that, Zaki’s team detected rabies virus in the boy’s body. They learned from follow-up interviews that dead bats had been discovered in the boy’s home, and that he had found a live bat in his bedroom.
Zaki married Nadia Abougad. They had two children, a daughter, Yasmin, and a son, Samy.
Zaky, Ali
Ali Zaky (b. 1930 – d. March 12, 2005) was an Egyptian gymnast who competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics and the 1952 Summer Olympics.
Zamakhshari (Abu’l-Qasim Mahmud al-Zamakhshari) (Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari) (Jar Allah - "God's neighbor") (b. March 8, 1075, Khwarezm [now in Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan] - d. June 14, 1144, Al-Jurjaniya, Khwarezm). Persian born Arabic scholar, theologian and philologist from Khwarazm. As a theologian, he followed the teachings of the Mu‘tazila and as a philologist, in spite of his Persian descent, he championed the absolute superiority of Arabic. His principal work is a commentary on the Qur’an. At the very beginning of the work, he declares the Qur’an created, but notwithstanding this clearly Mu‘tazila point of view, it was widely read in orthodox circles. He also wrote grammatical works, a collection of old proverbs, and composed a series of moral discourses.
Al-Zamakhshari was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian origin who subscribed to the Muʿtazilite theological doctrine. He was born in Khwarezmia, but lived most of his life in Bukhara, Samarkand, and Baghdad. His chief work is Al-Kashshaf ʿan Ḥaqaʾiq at-Tanzil (“The Discoverer of Revealed Truths”), his exhaustive linguistic commentary on the Qurʾan.
As is true for most Muslim scholars of his era, little is known of his youth. He was apparently well-traveled and resided at least twice (once for an extended period of time) in the holy city of Mecca, where he earned his nickname, Jar Allah. He studied at Bukhara and Samarkand (both now in Uzbekistan) and also spent time in Baghdad. At some point in his travels, one of his feet had to be amputated (probably because of frostbite), and thereafter—so the story goes—al-Zamakhsharī felt obliged to carry with him affidavits from noted citizens attesting that his foot had not been amputated as punishment for some crime.
Theologically, he was affiliated with the rationalist Muʿtazilah school. As a philologist, he considered Arabic the queen of languages, in spite of the fact that his own native tongue was Persian (and though he wrote several minor works in that latter language). His great commentary, Al-Kashshāf ʿan Ḥaqāʾiq at-Tanzīl, was written in Arabic and became the work for which he is best known. A comprehensive study of the Muslim scripture that focused on its grammatical nuance, it was completed in 1134. It was widely read, in spite of its Muʿtazilite bias, especially in the East. In the western portions of the Islamic world, his dogmatic point of view was offensive to the Malikiyah school, though the great 14th-century Arab historian Ibn Khaldūn regarded the work highly.
Of al-Zamakhshari’s grammatical works, Al-Mufaṣṣal fi ʿilm al-ʿArabiyah (“Detailed Treatise on Arabic Linguistics,” written 1119–21; and sometimes titled Kitab al Mufaṣṣal fi al-Naḥw ["Detailed Treatise on Grammar"]) is celebrated for its concise but exhaustive exposition. He was also the author of a collection of old proverbs. Though well regarded, this work has been considered second to the anthology Al-Amthal ("The Proverbs") written by his close contemporary Abu Faḍl al-Maydani with whom al-Zamakhshari had a notorious and somewhat undignified feud. Al-Zamakhshari’s other works include three collections of apothegms as well as treatises on moral discourses and a number of poems.
The works of al-Zamakhshari include:
* Al-Kashshaaf ("the Revealer") — A tafsir of the Qur'an
* Rabi al-Abrar
* Asasul-Balaghat dar-Lughat
* Fasul-ul-Akhbar
* Fraiz Dar-ilm Fariz
* Kitab-Fastdar-Nahr
* Muajjam-ul-Hadud
* Manha Darusul
* Diwan-ul-Tamsil
* Sawaer-ul-Islam
* Muqaddimat al-Adab
* Kitab al-Amkinah wa al-Jibal wa al-Miyah
* Mufassal Anmuzaj
Abu’l-Qasim Mahmud al-Zamakhshari see Zamakhshari
Zamindar (Zemindar) (Jomidar). Term which refers to a landowner. Under the Mughals of India, the zamindar was a person who has a right to collect revenues from the land.
In India, a zamindar was a holder or occupier (dār) of land (zamīn). The root words are Persian, and the resulting name was widely used wherever Persian influence was spread by the Mughals or other Indian Muslim dynasties. The meanings attached to it were various. In Bengal the word denoted a hereditary tax collector who could retain 10 percent of the revenue he collected. In the late 18th century the British government made these zamindars landowners, thus creating a landed aristocracy in Bengal and Bihar that lasted until Indian independence (1947). In parts of north India (e.g., Uttar Pradesh), a zamindar denoted a large landowner with full proprietary rights. More generally in north India, zamindar denoted the cultivator of the soil or joint proprietors holding village lands in common as joint heirs. In Maratha territories the name was generally applied to all local hereditary revenue officers.
A zamindar or zemindar, was an official employed by the Mughals to collect taxes from Ryots (peasants). The zamindari system used the existing structure of the bhuiyan land tenure system of the pre-Mughal era by the Mughals as a key economic and political institution to implement the sharia-based Islamic rule over the "zimmis". The practice was continued under British rule with colonial landholders. After independence, however, the system was abolished in India and East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). It is still current in modern Pakistan.
Other terms were and are used in various provinces. For example, a zamindar is known as a wadera in Sindh. In Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya pradesh, Himachal pradesh, Haryana, Uttrakhand, Chhatisgarh, and Bihar it is thakur. In the Punjab and Haryana, many different terms occur, such as chaudhary, lambardar, and sardar. Malik is an Arabic term used in the Punjab which literally means "king". The word zamindar itself comes ultimately from Persian zamīn, "earth", and the common suffix -dar, "-holder".
Zemindar see Zamindar
Jomidar see Zamindar
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