an as a splinter sect broken off from an Old Terra religion Originally followers of Maometh, the so-called Third Muhammed (1159-1241), the Zensunm abandoned Maometh's teachings m 1381, under the leadership of All Ben Ohashi (Under his nominal leadership, at least, there is some evidence which indicates the Zensunm doctrines may have been almost completely authored by Nisai, Ben Ohashi's second wife) While the Zensunm s mystic doctrines might appear hopelessly complex to the uninitiated, their underlying purpose was simply explained they wished to answer the swrnak-the ten thousand religious questions posed by the Shan-a-with mystical understanding, and not with die more usual rational approaches Some scholars believe that the name "Zensunm" was originally written as "Zen-Sunni," and was meant to incorporate the names of two differing philosophies of the penod These were the Zen, an antirational philosophy which predated the Butlenan Ji- had by an unknown number of centuries and the Sunm, a doctrine whose earliest writings are dated approximately 100 B G , and whose precepts stated that it was the duty and mission of human intelligence to answer each of the sunnah (The Sunm further believed that humanity's tenure in the universe would end when the final answer was discovered The philosophy was not a popular one ) In accordance with their devotion to their religion, the Zensunm also believed that they owed no allegiance whatever to any secular government, on any level For obvious reasons then, the sect found most of its followers in those peoples already disposed to self government The Zensunm represented a small fraction of the Old Terra population In 1572 according to a recently translated record fragment, there were less than 50,000 known Zensunm on the entire planet Add to this the Zensunm preference for li\mg as nomads in areas not usually frequented by comfort minded travelers-the area of Old Terra usu ally referred to as the Sahara Desert for example-and the reason for their continued tribal survival in the face of a steadily tightening governmental system becomes obvious The Zensunm were simply loo unimportant, and too difficult to reach for their reabsorption into the mainstream to be worth attempting By 2800 the Spacing Guild had rediscov ered hundreds of habitable planets, most of them unpopulated Under the Right of Do main rulings in the Great Convention the House paying the Guildsmen for a planetary find gained dominion over that planet condi tional upon the approval of the Landsraad Council and the emperor But no House could expect to meet the Imperial revenues demanded for the new world-much less make a profit from the acquisition-without being able to establish a workforce there Since the House often could not populate the planet, most Houses were content to relinquish all claim to a find and offer it, instead, as an Imperial Colony If accepted, such an offer netted the House a handsome finder's fee, and left the p