Glossary of Terms

zaibatsu   [zI bät sU] Huge industrial combines created in Japan in the 1890s as part of the process of industrialization. (p. 823)

zakat   Tax for charity; obligatory for all Muslims. (p. 286)

Zanj   Arabic term for the East African coast. (pp. 298)

Zapata, Emilano   Mexican revolutionary and military commander of peasant guerrilla movement after 1910 centered in Morelos; succeeded along with Pancho Villa in removing Díaz from power; also participated in campaigns that removed Madero and Huerta; demanded sweeping land reform. (p. 935)

zemstvoes   [zemst vO, pl. -stvos] Local political councils created as part of reforms of Tsar Alexander II (1860s); gave some Russians, particularly middle-class professionals, some experience in government; councils had no impact on national policy. (p. 812)

Zhao Kuangyin   [jaoo kwän yin] Founder of Song dynasty; originally a general following fall of Tang; took title of Taizu; failed to overcome northern Liao dynasty that remained independent. (p. 434)

Zhenghe expeditions   [zang gEE] Series of seven overseas trade expeditions under third Ming emperor, Yunglo; led by court eunuch Zhenghe between 1405 and 1433; only Chinese attempt to create worldwide trade empire. (p. 680)

Zhou   Originally a vassal family of Shang China; possibly Turkic in origin; overthrew Shang and established second historical Chinese dynasty. (p. 66)

Zhou Enlai   [jO en lI] After Mao Zedong, the most important leader of the Communist party in China from the 1930s until his death in 1976; premier of China from 1954; notable as perhaps the most cosmopolitan and moderate of the inner circle of Communist leaders. (p. 1024)

Zhu Xi   [tsU shEE, ju shEE] Most prominent of neo-Confucian scholars during the Song dynasty in China; stressed importance of applying philosophical principles to everyday life and action. (p. 435)

ziggurats   Massive towers usually associated with Mesopotamian temple complexes. (p. 33)

Zionism   Movement originating in Eastern Europe during the 1860s and 1870s that argued that the Jews must return to a Middle Eastern Holy Land; eventually identified with the settlement of Palestine. (p. 973)

Zoroastriansim   [zôr O as trEE uh niz uhm, zOr-] Animist religion that saw material existence as battle between forces of good and evil; stressed the importance of moral choice; righteous lived on after death in "House of Song"; chief religion of Persian Empire. (p. 126, 288)

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