Zaara
Encyclopedia
Zaara is an archaic variant of Sahara
, both being English transliterations of the original Arabic word for desert. It is an Africa
n region famed for its arid, barren characteristics, and was used by contemporary writers not just as a geographic reference, but also to illustrate the epitome of a dismal wasteland. Modern references to the Sahara as Zaara are very sparse. It generally cannot be found in online dictionaries or encyclopedias, not even as a footnote under the standard spelling. However, a few references can be found in antique books, particularly those regarding the animals of the region and travelogues; and on antique maps, some as recent as 1834.
's 1781 English translation of Buffon
's Histoire Naturelle http://faculty.njcu.edu/fmoran/lion.htm:
zaara is a drama on sahara one about a woman getting married with the husband of her sister has one child. as she goes along the journey zeenat and popee dadi tryes to snatch her freedom leaving her with only painful times.
This is a description of the English Mastiff
from the Cynographia Britannica, published in 1800. The reference to attacking "the lord of the savage tribes" means the breed's use as lion
-hunters. At the time this was written, lions were commonly referred to as the "king of the beasts" http://www.doralpub.com/doral/mastiffxcrp.html:
This is an early 19th-century complaint about a 1788 American law that made it easier to market fraudulent land grants. It cites the poor quality of Zaara's land as an example of deceptive marketing. This commentary appears in Blackstone's Commentaries: with Notes of Reference, annotated by St. George Tucker
of the College of William and Mary
and published in 1803 http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/tucker/tuck-3d.htm :
The Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816 by Corréard and Savigny, carries this lengthy subtitle http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11772:
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
, both being English transliterations of the original Arabic word for desert. It is an Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n region famed for its arid, barren characteristics, and was used by contemporary writers not just as a geographic reference, but also to illustrate the epitome of a dismal wasteland. Modern references to the Sahara as Zaara are very sparse. It generally cannot be found in online dictionaries or encyclopedias, not even as a footnote under the standard spelling. However, a few references can be found in antique books, particularly those regarding the animals of the region and travelogues; and on antique maps, some as recent as 1834.
Literary references
From the chapter on lions in William SmellieWilliam Smellie (encyclopedist)
William Smellie was a Scottish master printer, naturalist, antiquary, editor and encyclopedist. He was friends with Robert Burns, whose assessment is engraved on Smellie's tombstone: "Here lies a man who did honour to human nature"...
's 1781 English translation of Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author.His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier...
's Histoire Naturelle http://faculty.njcu.edu/fmoran/lion.htm:
zaara is a drama on sahara one about a woman getting married with the husband of her sister has one child. as she goes along the journey zeenat and popee dadi tryes to snatch her freedom leaving her with only painful times.
- The lions of Mount Atlas, the summit of which is sometimes covered with snow, have neither the courage, the strength, nor the ferocity of the lions of BiledulgeridBiledulgeridBiledulgerid was formerly a country in Northern Africa, south of Mount Atlas, bounded on the north by Tunis, on the west by Algiers and the Sahara, on the east by Tripoli, supposed to be about 180 miles square....
or of Zaara, whose plains are covered with burning sands. It is chiefly in these fervid deserts that we meet with those terrible lions, who are the dread of travellers, and the scourge of the neighbouring provinces.
- In the vast deserts of Zaara, in those that seem to separate two very different races of men, the Negroes and the Moors, in the unpeopled regions that lie about the territories of the HottentosKhoikhoiThe Khoikhoi or Khoi, in standardised Khoekhoe/Nama orthography spelled Khoekhoe, are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen . They had lived in southern Africa since the 5th century AD...
, and, in general, in all those southern parts of Africa and Asia, which man has disdained to inhabit, the lions are still very numerous, and continue in their natural state.
This is a description of the English Mastiff
English Mastiff
The English Mastiff, referred to by virtually all Kennel Clubs simply as the Mastiff, is a breed of large dog perhaps descended from the ancient Alaunt through the Pugnaces Britanniae. Distinguishable by enormous size, massive head, and a limited range of colors, but always displaying a black mask,...
from the Cynographia Britannica, published in 1800. The reference to attacking "the lord of the savage tribes" means the breed's use as lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
-hunters. At the time this was written, lions were commonly referred to as the "king of the beasts" http://www.doralpub.com/doral/mastiffxcrp.html:
- This ancient and faithful domestic, the pride of our island, uniting the useful, the brave and the docile, though sought by foreign nations and perpetuated on the continent, is nearly extinct where he probably was an aborigine, or is bastardized by numberless crosses, everyone of which degenerate from the invaluable character of the parent, who was deemed worthy to enter the Roman amphitheatre, and, in the presence of the masters of the worlds, encounter the pardLeopardThe leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
, and assail even the lord of the savage tribes, whose courage was sublimed by torrid suns, and found none gallant enough to oppose him on the deserts of Zaara or the plains of NumidiaNumidiaNumidia was an ancient Berber kingdom in part of present-day Eastern Algeria and Western Tunisia in North Africa. It is known today as the Chawi-land, the land of the Chawi people , the direct descendants of the historical Numidians or the Massyles The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later...
.
This is an early 19th-century complaint about a 1788 American law that made it easier to market fraudulent land grants. It cites the poor quality of Zaara's land as an example of deceptive marketing. This commentary appears in Blackstone's Commentaries: with Notes of Reference, annotated by St. George Tucker
St. George Tucker
St. George Tucker was a lawyer, professor of law at the College of William and Mary, and judge of Virginia's highest court. In 1813, upon the nomination of President James Madison, he became the United States district judge for Virginia.-Early life:Born in St. George, Bermuda, near Port Royal...
of the College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
and published in 1803 http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/tucker/tuck-3d.htm :
- The evil has not rested here; emissaries have been dispatched to every part of Europe with bales of these patents; fictitious plats, and maps of the country, have been offered to the public's eye; rivers and streams have been made to flow where nature has denied water; mountains have been sunk into meadows, and rocks as barren as the sandy deserts of Zaara, have been represented as possessing the fertility of the banks of the Nile. Thousands of ignorant and innocent persons have been defrauded, and, with their families, plunged into irretrievable ruin by these nefarious practices.
The Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816 by Corréard and Savigny, carries this lengthy subtitle http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11772:
- Undertaken by Order of the French Government, Comprising an Account of the Shipwreck of the Medusa, the Sufferings of the Crew, and the Various Occurrences on Board the Raft, in the Desert of Zaara, at St. Louis, and at the Camp of Daccard. To Which Are Subjoined Observations Respecting the Agriculture of the Western Coast of Africa, from Cape Blanco to the Mouth of the Gambia.