and has an agricultural college, a museum, saw-mills, flour-mills, breweries, and hemp and flax factories.
SARABAND (Ital. Sarabanda, Zarabanda; Fr. Sarabande),
a slow dance, generally believed to have been imported from
Spain in the earlier half of the 16th century, though attempts
have been made to trace it to an Eastern origin. The most
probable account of the word is that the dance was named after
Zarabanda, a celebrated dancer of Seville. During the 16th
and 17th centuries the saraband was exceedingly popular in
Spain, France, Italy and England. Its music was in triple time generally
with three minims in the bar—and almost always consisted
of two strains, each beginning upon the first beat, and most
frequently ending on the second or third. Many very fine
examples occur in the Suites and Partitas of Handel and J. S.
Bach; by far the finest is that which Handel first composed for
his overture to Almira, and afterwards adapted to the words
“ Lascia, ch'io pianga," in Rinaldo.
SARACCO, GIUSEPPE (1821–1907), Italian politician and financier, and knight of the Annunziata, was born' at Bistagno
on the 9th of October 1821, and, after qualifying as an advocate,
entered the Piedmontese parliament in 1849. A supporter of
Cavour until the 1atter's death he joined the party of Rattazzi
and became under-secretary of state for public works in the
Rattazzi cabinet of 1862. In 1864 he was appointed, by Sella,
secretary-general of finance, and after being created senator
in 1865, acquired considerable fame as a financial authority.
In 1879 he succeeded in postponing the total abolition of the
grist tax, and was throughout a fierce opponent of Magliani's
loose hnancial administration. Selected as minister of public
works by Depretis in 1887, and by Crispi in 1893, he contrived
to mitigate the worst consequences of Depretis's corruptly
extravagant policy, and introduced a sounder system of government
participation in public works. In November 1898 he was
elected president of the senate, and in June 1900 succeeded in
forming a “ Cabinet of pacification ” after the Obstructionist
crisis which had caused the downfall of General Pelloux. His
term of office was clouded by the assassination of King Humbert
(29th July 1900), and his administration was brought to an end
in February 1901 by a vote of the chamber condemning his weak
attitude towards a great dock strike at Genoa. After his fall he
resumed his functions as president of the senate; but on the
advent of the third Giolitti cabinet, he was not reappointed
to that position. He died on the 19th of January 1907. He
received the supreme honour of the knighthood of the Annunziata
from King Humbert in 1898.
SARACENS, the current designation among the Christians
in the middle ages for their Moslem enemies, especially for
the Moslems in Europe. In earlier times the name Saraceni
was applied by Greeks and Romans to the nomad Arabs of the
Syro-Arabian desert who harassed the frontier of the empire.
Σαρακηνή, a district in the Sinaitic peninsula, is mentioned by
Ptolemy (v. 16). Its inhabitants, though unknown to Arab
tradition, made themselves notorious in the adjacent Roman
provinces. Thus all Bedouins in that region came to be called
Saraceni, in Aramaic Sarkaje, usually with no very favourable
meaning. The latter form occurs in a dialogue concerning Fate
written about A.D. 210 by a pupil of Bardesanes (Cureton,
Spicilegium Syriacum, 16 ult.). The appellation then became
general, and occurs frequently in Ammianus Marcellinus.
The name “ Saracen ” continued to be used in the West in later
times, probably rather through the influence of literature
than by oral tradition, and was applied to all Arabs, even to all
Moslems.
SARAGHARI. a small signalling post on the Samana Range
in the North-West Frontier Province of India between Forts
Lockhart and Gulistan. It is memorable for the stout defence
made by its garrison of 21 sepoys of the 36th Sikhs in 1897.
Saraghari, a mere mud block-house with a wooden door and a
dead-angle, was held for six and a half hours against seven or
eight thousand Orakzais, till the 21 Sikhs were finally overwhelmed
and killed to a man. A memorial in commemoration
was unveiled at Ferozepore in 1904.
SARAGOSSA (Zaragoza), an inland province of northern
Spain, one of the three into which Aragon was divided in 1833;
bounded on the N. by Logrofio and Navarre, N.E. and E. by
Huesca, S.E. by Lérida and Tarragona, S. by Teruel and Guadalajara
and W. by Soria. Pop. (1900) 421,843; area, 6726 sq. m.
Saragossa belongs wholly to the basin of the Ebro (q.v.). The
main valley is bounded on the south-west by the Sierra de
Moncayo (with the highest elevation in the province, 7707 ft.),
and is continued in a south-easterly direction by the lower
sierras of La Virgen and Vicor; on the north-west are the spurs
of the Pyrenees. The principal tributaries of the Ebro within
the province are the Jalón (q.v.), Huerva and Aguas on the right
and the Arba and Gallego on the left; the Aragon also, which
flows principally through Navarre, has part of its course in the
north of this province. At its lowest point, where the Ebro quits
it, Saragossa is only 105 ft. above sea-level. There are large
tracts of barren land, but where water is abundant the soil is
fertile; its chief productions are wheat, rye, barley, oats, hemp,
flax, oil and wine. Silkworms are bred; and on the higher
grounds sheep are reared. The manufactures are less important
than the agricultural interests. Since 1885, however, the
Aragonese have bestirred themselves, especially since the
extremely protectionist policy of 1890 gave great impetus to
native industries all over Spain. The industries include iron founding
and manufactures of paper, leather, soap, brandies,
liqueurs, machinery, carriages of all sorts, railway material,
pianos, beds, glass, bronze, chocolate, jams and woollen and
linen goods. Much timber is obtained from the Pyrenean forests;
the chief exports are live stock, excellent wines, flour, oil and
fruit. The province contains important mineral resources, the
bulk of which, however, await development.
Saragossa is traversed by the Ebro Valley Railway which connects Miranfa with Lérida, Barcelona and Tarragona, and has a branch to Huesca; it also communicates via Calatayud with Madrid and Sagunto; and there are local lines to Carinena (south-west' from Saragossa) and to Tarazona and Borja (near the right bank of the Ebro). The only towns with upwards of 5000 inhabitants in 1900 were Saragossa (99,118)and Calatayud (11,526) (see separate articles); Tarazona (8790), an episcopal see, with a curious 13th-century cathedral; Caspe (7735); and Borja (5701), the original home of the celebrated family of Borgia (q.v.). (For an account of the imperial canal, and of the inhabitants and history of this region, see Aragon.)
SARAGOSSA (Zaragoza), the capital of the Spanish province
of Saragossa and formerly of the kingdom of Aragon, seat of
an archbishop, of a court of appeal, and of the captain-general
of Aragon; on the right bank of the river Ebro, 212 m. by rail
N.E. of Madrid. Pop. (1900) 99,118. Saragossa is an important
railway junction; it is connected by direct main lines with
Valladolid, Madrid and Valencia in the west and south, and by
the Ebro Valley Railway with Catalonia and the Basque Provinces;
it is also the starting-point of railways to the northern
districts of Aragon and to Cariñena on the south-west. The
city is built in an oasis of highly cultivated land, irrigated by a
multitude of streams which distribute the waters of the Imperial
Canal, and surrounded by an arid plain exposed to the violent
gales which blow down, hot in summer and icy in winter, from
the Castilian plateau. The monthly range of temperature
frequently varies by as much as 50° Fahr., and the climate is
rarely pleasant for many consecutive days except in spring,
when warm easterly winds blow from the Mediterranean. The
city is surrounded by gardens, farms and country-houses (locally
known as torres, “ towers ”). Seen from a distance it has a fine
appearance owing to the number of its domes and towers; on a
nearer approach it presents a remarkable contrast between the
older streets, narrow, gloomy, ill-paved and lined with the
fortress-like palaces of the old Aragonese nobility, and the
business and residential quarters, which are as well build as
any part of Madrid or Barcelona. Saragossa is thus in appearance
at once one of the oldest and one of the newest of Spanish
cities.
One of its two stone bridges, the seven-arched Puente de Piedra, dates from 1447; there is also an iron bridge for the railway to Pamplona. Beside the river there are public walks and avenues of poplar; the suburb on the left.bank is named Arrabal. The two most important buildings of Saragossa are its cathedrals, to each of
