Chapter 17

KARR, JEAN BAPTISTE ALPHONSE(1808-1890), French critic and novelist, was born in Paris, on the 24th of November 1808, and after being educated at the CollÃ¨ge Bourbon, became a teacher there. In 1832 he published a novel,Sous les tilleuls, characterized by an attractive originality and a delightful freshness of personal sentiment. A second novel,Une heure trop tard, followed next year, and was succeeded by many other popular works. HisVendredi soir(1835) andLe Chemin le plus court(1836) continued the vein of autobiographical romance with which he had made his first success.GÃ©neviÃ¨ve(1838) is one of his best stories, and hisVoyage autour de mon jardin(1845) was deservedly popular. Others wereFeu Bressier(1848), andFort en thÃ¨me(1853), which had some influence in stimulating educational reform. In 1839 Alphonse Karr, who was essentially a brilliant journalist, became editor ofLe Figaro, to which he had been a constant contributor; and he also started a monthly journal,Les GuÃªpes, of a keenly satirical tone, a publication which brought him the reputation of a somewhat bitter wit. His epigrams were frequently quoted;e.g.â€œplus Ã§a change, plus câ€™est la mÃªme chose,â€ and, on the proposal to abolish capital punishment, â€œje veux bien que messieurs les assassins commencent.â€ In 1848 he foundedLe Journal. In 1855 he went to live at Nice, where he indulged his predilections for floriculture, and gave his name to more than one new variety. Indeed he practically founded the trade in cut flowers on the Riviera. He was also devoted to fishing, and inLes SoirÃ©es de Sainte-Adresse(1853) andAu bord de la mer(1860) he made use of his experiences. His reminiscences,Livre de bord, were published in 1879-1880. He died at St RaphaÃ«l (Var), on the 29th of September 1890.

KARRER, FELIX(1825-1903), Austrian geologist, was born in Venice on the 11th of March 1825. He was educated in Vienna, and served for a time in the war department, but he retired from the public service at the age of thirty-two, and devoted himself to science. He made especial studies of the Tertiary formations and fossils of the Vienna Basin, and investigated the geological relations of the thermal and other springs in that region. He became an authority on the foraminifera, on which subject he published numerous papers. He wrote also a little book entitledDer Boden der HauptstÃ¤dte Europas(1881). He died in Vienna on the 19th of April 1903.

KARROO,two extensive plateaus in the Cape province, South Africa, known respectively as the Great and Little Karroo. Karroo is a corruption ofKarusa, a Hottentot word meaning dry, barren, and its use as a place-name indicates the character of the plateaus so designated. They form the two intermediate â€œstepsâ€ between the coast-lands and the inner plateau which constitutes the largest part of South Africa. The Little (also called Southern) Karroo is the table-land nearest the southern coast-line of the Cape, and is bounded north by the Zwaarteberg, which separates it from the Great Karroo. From west to east the Little Karroo has a length of some 200 m., whilst its average width is 30 m. West of the Zwaarteberg the Little Karroo merges into the Great Karroo. Eastward it is limited by the hills which almost reach the sea in the direction of St Francis and Algoa Bays. The Great Karroo is of much larger extent. Bounded south, as stated, by the Zwaarteberg, further east by the Zuurberg (of the coast chain), its northern limit is the mountain range which, under various names, such as Nieuwveld and Sneeuwberg, forms the wall of the inner plateau. To the south-west and west it is bounded by the Hex River Mountains and the Cold Bokkeveld, eastward by the Great Fish River. West to east it extends fully 350 m. in a straight line, varying in breadth from more than 80 to less than 40 m. Whilst the Little Karroo is divided by a chain of hills which run across it from east to west, and varies in altitude from 1000 to 2000 ft., the Great Karroo has more the aspect of a vast plain and has a level of from 2000 to 3000 ft. The total area of the Karroo plateaus is stated to be over 100,000 sq. m. The plains are dotted with low ranges ofkopjes. The chief characteristics of the Karroo are the absence of running water during a great part of the year and the consequent parched aspect of the country. There is little vegetation save stunted shrubs, such as the mimosa (which generally marks the river beds), wild pomegranate, and wax heaths, known collectively as Karroo bush. After the early rains the bush bursts into gorgeous purple and yellow blossoms and vivid greens, affording striking evidence of the fertility of the soil. Such parts of the Karroo as are under perennial irrigation are among the most productive lands in South Africa. Even the parched bush provides sufficient nourishment for millions of sheep and goats. There are also numerous ostrich farms, in particular in the districts of Oudtshoorn and Ladismith in the Little Karroo, where lucerne grows with extraordinary luxuriance. The Karroo is admirably adapted to sufferers from pulmonary complaints. The dryness of the air tempers the heat of summer, which reaches in January a mean maximum of 87Â° F., whilst July, the coldest month, has a mean minimum of 36Â° F. A marked feature of the climate is the great daily range (nearly 30Â°) in temperature; the Karroo towns are also subject to violent dust storms. Game, formerly plentiful, has been, with the exception of buck, almost exterminated. In a looser sense the term Karroo is also used of the vast northern plains of the Cape which are part of the inner table-land of the continent. (SeeCape Colony.)

KARS,a province of Russian Transcaucasia, having the governments of Kutais and Tiflis on the N., those of Tiflis and Erivan on the E., and Asiatic Turkey on the S. and W. Its area amounts to 7410 sq. m. It is a mountainous, or rather a highland, country, being in reality a plateau, with ranges of mountains running across it. The northern border is formed by the Arzyan range, a branch of the Ajari Mts., which attains altitudes of over 9000 ft. In the south the Kara-dagh reach 10,270 ft. in Mount Ala-dagh, and the Agry-dagh 10,720 ft. in Mount Ashakh; and in the middle Allah-akhbar rises to 10,215 ft. The passes which connect valley with valley often lie at considerable altitudes, the average of those in the S.E. being 9000 ft. Chaldir-gol (altitude 6520 ft.) and one or two other smaller lakes lie towards the N.E.; the Chaldir-gol is overhung on the S.W. by the Kysyr-dagh (10,470 ft.). The east side of the province is throughout demarcated by the Arpa-chai, which receives from the right the Kars river, and as it leaves the province at its S.E. corner joins the Aras. The Kura rises within the province not far from the Kysyr-dagh and flows across it westwards, then eastwards and north-eastwards, quitting it in the north-east. The winters are very severe. The towns of Kaghyshman (4620 ft.) and Sarykamish (7800 ft.) have a winter temperature like that of Finland, and at the latter place, with an annual mean (35Â° F.) equal to that of Hammerfest in the extreme north of Norway, the thermometer goes down in winter to 40Â° below zero and rises in summer to 99Â°. The annual mean temperature at Kars is 40.5Â° and at Ardahan, farther north, 37Â°. The Alpine meadows (yailas) reach up to 1000 ft. and afford excellent pasturage in spring and summer. The province is almost everywhere heavily forested. Firs and birches flourish as high as 7000 ft., and the vine up to above 3000 ft. Cereals ripen well, and barley and maize grow up to considerable altitudes. Large numbers of cattle and sheep are bred. Extensive deposits of salt occur at Kaghyshman and Olty. The population was 167,610 in 1883 and 292,863 in 1897. The estimated population in 1906 was 349,100. It is mixed. In remote antiquity the province was inhabited by Armenians, the ruins of whose capital, Ani, attest the ancient prosperity of the country. To the Armenians succeeded the Turks, whileKurds invaded the Alpine pasturages above the valley of the Aras; and after them Kabardians, Circassians, Ossetes and Kara-papaks successively found a refuge in this highland region. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, when this region was transferred to Russia by the treaty of Berlin, some 82,750 Turks emigrated to Asia Minor, their places being taken by nearly 22,000 Armenians, Greeks and Russians. At the census of 1897 the population consisted principally of Armenians (73,400), Kurds (43,000), Greeks (32,600), Kara-papaks (30,000), Russians, Turks and Persians. The capital is Kars. The province is divided into four districts, the chief towns of which are Kars (q.v.), Ardahan (pop. 800 in 1897), Kaghyshman (3435) and Olty.

(J. T. Be.)

KARS,a fortified town of Russian Transcaucasia, in the province of Kars, formerly at the head of a sanjak in the Turkish vilayet of Erzerum. It is situated in 40Â° 37â€² N. and 43Â° 6â€² E., 185 m. by rail S.W. of Tiflis, on a dark basalt spur of the Soghanli-dagh, above the deep ravine of the Kars-chai, a sub-tributary of the Aras. Pop. (1878), 8672; (1897), 20,891. There are three considerable suburbsâ€”Orta-kapi to the S., Bairam Pasha to the E., and Timur Pasha on the western side of the river. At the N.W. corner of the town, overhanging the river, is the ancient citadel, in earlier times a strong military post, but completely commanded by the surrounding eminences. The place is, however, still defended by a fort and batteries. There is a 10th century cathedral, Kars being the see of a bishop of the Orthodox Greek Church. Coarse woollens, carpets and felt are manufactured.

During the 9th and 10th centuries the seat of an independent Armenian principality, Kars was captured and destroyed by the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century, by the Mongols in the 13th, and by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1387. The citadel, it would appear, was built by Sultan Murad III. during the war with Persia, at the close of the 16th century. It was strong enough to withstand a siege by Nadir Shah of Persia, in 1731, and in 1807 it successfully resisted the Russians. After a brave defence it surrendered on the 23rd of June 1828 to the Russian general Count I. F. Paskevich, 11,000 men becoming prisoners of war. During the Crimean War the Turkish garrison, guided by General Williams (Sir W. Fenwick Williams of Kars) and other foreign officers, kept the Russians at bay during a protracted siege; but, after the garrison had been devastated by cholera, and food had utterly failed, nothing was left but to capitulate (Nov. 1855). The fortress was again stormed by the Russians in the war of 1877-78, and on its conclusion was transferred to Russia.

See Kmety,The Defence of Kars(1856), translated from the German; H. A. Lake,Kars and our Captivity in Russia(London, 1856); andNarrative of the Defence of Kars(London, 1857); Dr Sandwith,Narrative of the Siege of Kars(London, 1856); C. B. Norman,Armenia and the Campaign of 1877(London, 1878); Greene,Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkey(1879).

KARSHI,a town of Bokhara, in Central Asia, situated 96 m. S.E. of the city of Bokhara, in a plain at the junction of two main confluents of the Kashka-darya. It is a large and straggling place, with a citadel, and the population amounts to 25,000. There are three colleges, and the Biki mosque is a fine building inlaid with blue and white tiles. Along the river stretches a fine promenade sheltered by poplars. Poppies and tobacco are largely grown, the tobacco being deemed the best in Central Asia. There is a considerable trade in grain; but the commercial prosperity of Karshi is mainly due to its being a meeting-point for the roads from Samarkand, Bokhara, Hissar, Balkh and Maimana, and serves as the market where the Turkomans and Uzbegs dispose of their carpets, knives and firearms. Its coppersmiths turn out excellent work. Karshi was a favourite residence of Timur (Tamerlane).

KARST,in physical geography, the region east of the northern part of the Adriatic. It is composed of high and dry limestone ridges. The country is excessively faulted by a long series of parallel fractures that border the N.E. Adriatic and continue inland that series of steps which descend beneath the sea and produce the series of long parallel islands off the coast of Triest and along the Dalmatian shore. It has been shown by E. Suess (Antlitz der Erde, vol. i. pt. 2, ch. iii.) that the N. Adriatic is a sunken dish that has descended along these fractures and folds, which are not uncommonly the scene of earthquakes, showing that these movements are still in progress. The crust is very much broken in consequence and the water sinks readily through the broken limestone rocks, which owing to their nature are also very absorbent. The result is that the scenery is barren and desolate, and as this structure always, wherever found, gives rise to similar features, a landscape of this character is called a Karst landscape. The water running in underground channels dissolves and denudes away the underlying rock, producing great caves as at Adelsberg, and breaking the surface with sinks, potholes and unroofed chasms. The barren nature of a purely limestone country is seen in the treeless regions of some parts of Derbyshire, while the underground streams and sinks of parts of Yorkshire, and the unroofed gorge formed by the Cheddar cliffs, give some indication of the action that in the high fractured mountains of the Karst produces a depressing landscape which has some of the features of the â€œbad landsâ€ of America, though due to a different cause.

KARSTEN, KARL JOHANN BERNHARD(1782-1853), German mineralogist, was born at BÃ¼tzow in Mecklenburg, on the 26th of November 1782. He was author of several comprehensive works, includingHandbuch der EisenhÃ¼ttenkunde(2 vols., 1816; 3rd ed., 1841);System der Metallurgie geschichtlich, statistisch, theoretisch und technisch(5 vols. with atlas, 1831-1832);Lehrbuch der Salinenkunde(2 vols., 1846-1847). He was well known as editor of theArchiv fÃ¼r Bergbau und HÃ¼ttenwesen(20 vols., 1818-1831); and (with H. von Dechen) of theArchiv fÃ¼r Mineralogie, Geognosie, Bergbau und HÃ¼ttenkunde(26 vols., 1820-1854). He died at Berlin on the 22nd of August 1853. His son, Dr Hermann Karsten (1809-1877), was professor of mathematics and physics in the university of Rostock.

KARTIKEYA,in Hindu mythology, the god of war. Of his birth there are various legends. One relates that he had no mother but was produced by Siva alone, and was suckled by six nymphs of the Ganges, being miraculously endowed with six faces that he might simultaneously obtain nourishment from each. Another story is that six babes, miraculously conceived, were born of the six nymphs, and that Parvati, the wife of Siva, in her great affection for them, embraced the infants so closely that they became one, but preserved six faces, twelve arms, feet, eyes, &c. Kartikeya became the victor of giants and the leader of the armies of the gods. He is represented as riding a peacock. In southern India he is known as Subramanya.

KARUN,an important river of Persia. Its head-waters are in the mountain cluster known since at least the 14th century as Zardeh Kuh (13,000 ft.) and situated in the Bakhtiari country about 115 m. W. of Isfahan. In its upper course until it reaches Shushter it is called Ab i Kurang (also Kurand and Kuran), and in theBundahish, an old cosmographical work in Pahlavi, it is named KharÄÄ“.1From the junction of the two principal sources in the Zardeh Kuh at an altitude of about 8000 ft., the Ab i Kurang is a powerful stream, full, deep and flowing with great velocity for most of its upper course between precipices varying in height from 1000 to 3000 ft. The steepness and height of its banks make it in general useless for irrigation purposes. From its principal sources to Shushter the distance as the crow flies is only about 75 m., but the course of the river is so tortuous that it travels 250 m. before it reaches that city. Besides being fed on its journey through the Bakhtiari country by many mountain-side streams, fresh-water and salt, it receives various tributaries, the most important being the Ab i Bazuft from the right and the Ab i Barz from the left. At Shushter it divides into two branches, one the â€œGerger,â€ an artificial channel cut in olden times and flowing east of thecity, the other the â€œShutaitâ€ flowing west. These two branches, which are navigable to within a few miles below Shushter, unite after a run of about 50 m. at Band i Kir, 24 m. S. of Shushter, and there also take up the Ab i Diz (river of Dizful). From Band i Kir to a point two miles above Muhamrah the river is called Karun (Rio Carom of the Portuguese writers of the 16th and 17th centuries) and is navigable all the way with the exception of about two miles at Ahvaz, where a series of cliffs and rocky shelves cross the river and cause rapids. Between Ahvaz and Band i Kir (46 m. by river, 24 m. by road) the river has an average depth of about 20 ft., but below Ahvaz down to a few miles above Muhamrah it is in places very shallow, and vessels with a draught exceeding 3 ft. are liable to ground. About 12 m. above Muhamrah and branching off to the left is a choked-up river bed called the â€œblind Karun,â€ by which the Karun found its way to the sea in former days. Ten miles farther a part of the river branches off to the left and due S. by a channel called Bahmashir (from Bahman-Ardashir, the name of the district in the early middle ages) which is navigable to the sea for vessels of little draught. The principal river, here about a quarter of a mile broad and 20 to 30 ft. deep, now flows west, and after passing Muhamrah enters into the Shatt el Arab about 20 m. below Basra. This part of the river, from the Bahmashir to the Shatt, is a little over three miles in length and, as its name, Hafar (â€œdugâ€) implies, an artificial channel. It was dugc.A.D.980 by Azud ed-Dowleh to facilitate communication by water between Basra and Ahvaz, as related by the Arab geographer MukaddasiA.D.986. The total length of the river is 460 to 470 m. while the distance from the sources to its junction with the Shatt el Arab is only 160 m. as the crow flies. The Karun up to Ahvaz was opened to international navigation on the 30th of October 1888, and Messrs Lynch of London established a fortnightly steamer service on it immediately after.

To increase the water supply of Isfahan Shah Tahmasp I. (1524-1576) and some of his successors, notably Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629), undertook some works for diverting the Kurang into a valley which drains into the Zayendeh-rud, the river of Isfahan, by tunnelling, or cutting through a narrow rocky ridge separating the two river systems. The result of many yearsâ€™ work, a cleft 300 yds. long, 15 broad and 18 deep, cut into the rock, probably amounting to no more than one-twentieth of the necessary work, can be seen at the junction of the two principal sources of the Kurang.

On the upper Karun see Mrs Bishop,Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan(London, 1891); Lord Curzon,Persia and the Persian Question(London, 1892); Lieut.-Colonel H. A. Sawyer, â€œThe Bakhtiari Mountains and Upper Elam,â€Geog. Journal(Dec. 1894).

(A. H.-S.)

1Therealprincipal source of the river has been correctly located at ten miles above thereputedprincipal source, but the name Kurang has been erroneously explained as standing for Kuh i rang and has been given to the mountain with the real principal source. Kuh i rang has been wrongly explained as meaning the â€œvariegated mountain.â€

KARWAR,orCarwar, a seaport of British India, administrative headquarters of North Kanara district in the Bombay presidency; 295 m. S. of Bombay city. Pop. (1901), 16,847. As early as 1660 the East India Company had a factory here, with a trade in muslin and pepper; but it suffered frequently from Dutch, Portuguese and native attacks, and in 1752 the English agent was withdrawn. Old Karwar fell into ruins, but a new town grew up after the transfer of North Kanara to the Bombay presidency. It is the only safe harbour all the year round between Bombay and Cochin. In the bay is a cluster of islets called the Oyster Rocks, on the largest of which is a lighthouse. Two smaller islands in the bay afford good shelter to native craft during the strong north-west winds that prevail from February to April. The commercial importance of Karwar has declined since the opening of the railway to Marmagao in Portuguese territory.

KARWI,a town of British India, in the Banda district of the United Provinces, on a branch of the Indian Midland railway; pop. (1901), 7743. Before the Mutiny it was the residence of a Mahratta noble, who lived in great state, and whose accumulations constituted the treasure afterwards famous as â€œthe Kirwee and Banda Prize Money.â€

KARYOGAMY(Gr.ÎºÎ¬ÏÏ…Î¿Î½, nut or kernel, thus â€œnucleus,â€ andÎ³Î¬Î¼Î¿Ï‚, marriage), in biology: (1) the fusion of nuclei to form a single nucleus in syngamic processes (seeReproduction); (2) the process of pairing in Infusoria (q.v.), in which two migratory nuclei are interchanged and fuse with two stationary nuclei, while the cytoplasmic bodies of the two mates are in intimate temporary union.

KASAI,orCassai, a river of Africa, the chief southern affluent of the Congo. It enters the main stream in 3Â° 10â€² S., 16Â° 16â€² E. after a course of over 800 m. from its source in the highlands which form the south-western edge of the Congo basinâ€”separating the Congo and Zambezi systems. The Kasai and its many tributaries cover a very large part of the Congo basin. The Kasai rises in about 12Â° S., 19Â° E. and flows first in a north-easterly direction. About 10Â° 35â€² S., 22Â° 15â€² E. it makes a rectangular bend northward and then takes a north-westerly direction. Five riversâ€”the Luembo, Chiumbo, Luijimo or Luashimo, Chikapa and Lovua or Lowoâ€”rise west of the Kasai and run in parallel courses for a considerable distance, falling successively into the parent stream (between 7Â° and 6Â° S.) as it bends westward in its northern course. The Luembo and Chiumbo join and enter the Kasai as one river. A number of rapids occur in these streams. A few miles below the confluence of the Lowo, the last of the five rivers named to join the Kasai, the main stream is interrupted by the Wissmann Falls which, though not very high, bar further navigation from the north. Below this point the river receives several right-hand (eastern) tributaries. These also have their source in the Zambezi-Congo watershed, rising just north of 12Â° S., flowing north in parallel lines, and in their lower course bending west to join the Kasai. The chief of these affluents are the Lulua and the Sankuru, the Lulua running between the Kasai and the Sankuru. The Sankuru makes a bold curve westward on reaching 4Â° S., following that parallel of latitude a considerable distance. Its waters are of a bright yellow colour. After the junction of the two rivers (in 4Â° 17â€² S., 20Â° 15â€² E.), the united stream of the Kasai flows N.W. to the Congo. From the south it is joined by the Loange and the Kwango. The Kwango is a large river rising a little north of 12Â° S., and west of the source of the Kasai. Without any marked bends it flows northâ€”is joined from the east by the Juma, Wamba and other streamsâ€”and has a course of 600 m. before joining the Kasai in 3Â° S., 18â€² E. The lower reaches of the Kwango are navigable; the upper course is interrupted by rapids. On the north (in 3Â° 8â€² S., 17Â° E.) the lower Kasai is joined by the Lukenye or Ikatta. This river, the most northerly affluent of the Kasai, rises between 24Â° and 25Â° E., and about 3Â° S. in swampy land through which the Lomami (another Congo affluent) flows northward. The Lukenye has an east to west direction flowing across a level country once occupied by a lake, of which Lake Leopold II. (q.v.), connected with the lower course of the Lukenye, is the scanty remnant. Below the lake the Lukenye is known as the Mfini. Near its mouth the Kasai, in its lower course generally a broad stream strewn with islands, is narrowed to about half a mile on passing through a gap in the inner line of the West African highlands, by the cutting of which the old lake of the Kasai basin must have been drained. The Kasai enters the Congo with a minimum depth of 25 feet and a breadth of about 700 yards, at a height of 942 ft. above the sea. The confluence is known as the Kwa mouth, Kwa being an alternative name for the lower Kasai. The volume of water entering the Congo averages 321,000 cub. ft. per second: far the largest amount discharged by any of the Congo affluents. In floodtime the current flows at the rate of 5 or 6 m. an hour. The Kasai and its tributaries are navigable for over 1500 m. by steamer.

The Kwango affluent of the Kasai was the first of the large affluents of the Congo known to Europeans. It was reached by the Portuguese from their settlements on the west coast in the 16th century. Of its lower course they were ignorant. Portuguese travellers in the 18th century are believed to have reached the upper Kasai, but the first accurate knowledge of the river basin was obtained by David Livingstone, who reached the upper Kasai from the east and explored in part the upper Kwango (1854-1855). V. L. Cameron and Paul Pogge crossed the upper Kasai in the early â€œseventies.â€ The Kwa mouth was seen by H. M. Stanley in his journey down the Congo in 1877, and he rightly regarded it as theoutlet of the Kwango, though not surmising it was also the outlet of the Kasai. In 1882 Stanley ascended the river to the Kwango-Kasai confluence and thence proceeding up the Mfini discovered Lake Leopold II. In 1884 George Grenfell journeyed up the river beyond the Kwango confluence. The systematic exploration of the main stream and its chief tributaries was, however, mainly the work of Hermann von Wissmann, Ludwig Wolf, Paul Pogge and other Germans during 1880-1887. (See Wissmannâ€™s books, especiallyIm Innern Afrikas, Leipzig, 1888.) On his third journey, 1886, Wissmann was accompanied by Grenfell. Major von Mechow, an Austrian, explored the middle Kwango in 1880, and its lower course was subsequently surveyed by Grenfell and Holman Bentley, a Baptist missionary. In 1899-1900 a Belgian expedition under Captain C. Lemaire traced the Congo-Zambezi watershed, obtaining valuable information concerning the upper courses of the southern Kasai tributaries. The upper Kasai basin and its peoples were further investigated by a Hungarian traveller, E. Torday, in 1908-1909. (See Tordayâ€™s paper inGeog. Jour., 1910; alsoCongoand the authorities there cited.)

KASBEK(Georgian,Mkin-vari; Ossetian,Urs-khokh), one of the chief summits of the Caucasus, situated in 42Â° 42â€² N. and 44Â° 30â€² E., 7 m. as the crow flies from a station of the same name on the high road to Tiflis. Its altitude is 16,545 ft. It rises on the range which runs north of the main range (main water-parting), and which is pierced by the gorges of the Ardon and the Terek. It represents an extinct volcano, built up of trachyte and sheathed with lava, and has the shape of a double cone, whose base lies at an altitude of 5800 ft. Owing to the steepness of its slopes, its eight glaciers cover an aggregate surface of not more than 8 sq. m., though one of them, Maliev, is 36 m. long. The best-known glacier is the Dyevdorak, or Devdorak, which creeps down the north-eastern slope into a gorge of the same name, reaching a level of 7530 ft. At its eastern foot runs the Georgian military road through the pass of Darial (7805 ft.). The summit was first climbed in 1868 by D. W. Freshfield, A. W. Moore, and C. Tucker, with a Swiss guide. Several successful ascents have been made since, the most valuable in scientific results being that of Pastukhov (1889) and that of G. Merzbacher and L. Purtscheller in 1890. Kasbek has a great literature, and has left a deep mark in Russian poetry.

See D. W. Freshfield inProc. Geog. Soc.(November 1888) andThe Exploration of the Caucasus(2nd ed., 2 vols., 1902); Hatisianâ€™s â€œKazbek Glaciersâ€ inIzvestia Russ. Geog. Soc.(xxiv., 1888); Pastukhov inIzvestia of the Caucasus Branch of Russ. Geog. Soc.(x. 1, 1891, with large-scale map).

KASHAN,a small province of Persia, situated between Isfahan and Kum. It is divided into the two districtsgermsir, the â€œwarm,â€ andsardsir, the â€œcold,â€ the former with the city of Kashan in the plains, the latter in the hills. It has a population of 75,000 to 80,000, and pays a yearly revenue of about Â£18,000.Kashan(Cashan) is the provincial capital, in 34Â° 0â€² N. and 51Â° 27â€² E., at an elevation of 3190 ft., 150 m. from Teheran; pop. 35,000, including a few hundred Jews occupied as silk-winders, and a few Zoroastrians engaged in trade. Great quantities of silk stuffs, from raw material imported from Gilan, and copper utensils are manufactured at Kashan and sent to all parts of Persia. Kashan also exports rose-water made in villages in the hilly districts about 20 m. from the city, and is the only place in Persia where cobalt can be obtained, from the mine at Kamsar, 19 m. to the south. At the foot of the hills 4 m. W. of the city are the beautiful gardens of Fin, the scene of the official murder, on the 9th of January 1852, of Mirza Taki Khan, Amir Nizam, the grand vizier, one of the ablest ministers that Persia has had in modern times.

KASHGAR,an important city of Chinese Turkestan, in 39Â° 24â€² 26â€³ N. lat., 76Â° 6â€² 47â€³ E. long., 4043 ft. above sea-level. It consists of two towns, Kuhna Shahr or â€œold city,â€ and Yangi Shahr or â€œnew city,â€ about five miles apart, and separated from one another by the Kyzyl Su, a tributary of the Tarim river. It is called Su-lÄ“h by the Chinese, which perhaps represents an original Solek or Sorak. This name seems to be older than Kashgar, which is said to mean â€œvariegated houses.â€ Situated at the junction of routes from the valley of the Oxus, from Khokand and Samarkand, Almati, Aksu, and Khotan, the last two leading from China and India, Kashgar has been noted from very early times as a political and commercial centre. Like all other cities of Central Asia, it has changed hands repeatedly, and was from 1864-1887 the seat of government of the Amir Yakub Beg, surnamed the Atalik Ghazi, who established and for a brief period ruled with remarkable success a Mahommedan state comprising the chief cities of the Tarim basin from Turfan round along the skirt of the mountains to Khotan. But the kingdom collapsed with his death and the Chinese retook the country in 1877 and have held it since.

Kuhna Shahr is a small fortified city on high ground overlooking the river Tuman. Its walls are lofty and supported by buttress bastions with loopholed turrets at intervals; the fortifications, however, are but of hard clay and are much out of repair. The city contains about 2500 houses. Beyond the bridge, a little way off, are the ruins of ancient Kashgar, which once covered a large extent of country on both sides of the Tuman, and the walls of which even now are 12 feet wide at the top and twice that in height. This cityâ€”Aski Shahr (Old Town) as it is now calledâ€”was destroyed in 1514 by Mirza Ababakar (Abubekr) on the approach of Sultan Said Khanâ€™s army. About two miles to the north beyond the river is the shrine of Hazrat Afak, the saint king of the country, who died and was buried here in 1693. It is a handsome mausoleum faced with blue and white glazed tiles, standing under the shade of some magnificent silver poplars. About it Yakub Beg erected a commodious college, mosque and monastery, the whole being surrounded by rich orchards, fruit gardens and vineyards. The Yangi Shahr of Kashgar is, as its name implies, modern, having been built in 1838. It is of oblong shape running north and south, and is entered by a single gateway. The walls are lofty and massive and topped by turrets, while on each side is a projecting bastion. The whole is surrounded by a deep and wide ditch, which can be filled from the river, at the risk, however, of bringing down the whole structure, for the walls are of mud, and stand upon a porous sandy soil. In the time of the Chinese, before Yakub Begâ€™s sway, Yangi Shahr held a garrison of six thousand men, and was the residence of theambanor governor. Yakub erected hisordaor palace on the site of the ambanâ€™s residence, and two hundred ladies of his harem occupied a commodious enclosure hard by. The population of Kashgar has been recently estimated at 60,000 in the Kuhna Shahr and only 2000 in the Yangi Shahr.

With the overthrow of the Chinese rule in 1865 the manufacturing industries of Kashgar declined. Silk culture and carpet manufacture have flourished for ages at Khotan, and the products always find a ready sale at Kashgar. Other manufactures consist of a strong coarse cotton cloth calledkham(which forms the dress of the common people, and for winter wear is padded with cotton and quilted), boots and shoes, saddlery, felts, furs and sheepskins made up into cloaks, and various articles of domestic use. A curious street sight in Kashgar is presented by the hawkers of meat pies, pastry and sweetmeats, which they trundle about on hand-barrows just as their counterparts do in Europe; while the knife-grinderâ€™s cart, and the vegetable seller with his tray or basket on his head, recall exactly similar itinerant traders further west.

The earliest authentic mention of Kashgar is during the second period of ascendancy of the Han dynasty, when the Chinese conquered the Hiungnu, Yutien (Khotan), Sulei (Kashgar), and a group of states in the Tarim basin almost up to the foot of the Tian Shan mountains. This happened in 76B.C.Kashgar does not appear to have been known in the West at this time but Ptolemy speaks of Scythia beyond the Imaus, which is in aKasia Regio, possibly exhibiting the name whence Kashgar and Kashgaria (often applied to the district) are formed. Next ensues a long epoch of obscurity. The country was converted to Buddhism and probably ruled by Indo-Scythian or Kushan kings. HsÃ¼an Tswang passed through Kashgar (which he calls Ka-sha) on his return journey from India to China. The Buddhist religion, then beginning to decay in India, was working its way to a new growth in China, and contemporaneously the Nestorian Christians were establishing bishoprics at Herat, Merv and Samarkand, whence they subsequently proceeded to Kashgar, and finally to China itself. In the 8th century came the Arab invasion from the west, and we find Kashgar and Turkestan lending assistance to the reigning queen of Bokhara, to enable her to repel the enemy. But although the Mahommedan religion from the very commencement sustained checks, it nevertheless made itsweight felt upon the independent states of Turkestan to the north and east, and thus acquired a steadily growing influence. It was not, however, till the 10th century that Islam was established at Kashgar, under the Uighur kingdom (seeTurks). The Uighurs appear to have been the descendants of the people called TÃ¶las and to have been one of the many Turkish tribes who migrated westwards from China. Boghra Khan, the most celebrated prince of this line, was converted to Mahommedanism late in the 10th century and the Uighur kingdom lasted until 1120 but was distracted by complicated dynastic struggles. The Uighurs employed an alphabet based upon the Syriac and borrowed from the Nestorian missionaries. They spoke a dialect of Turkish preserved in the Kudatku Bilik, a moral treatise composed in 1065. Their kingdom was destroyed by an invasion of the Kara-Kitais, another Turkish tribe pressing westwards from the Chinese frontier, who in their turn were swept away in 1219 by Jenghiz Khan. His invasion gave a decided check to the progress of the Mahommedan creed, but on his death, and during the rule of the Jagatai Khans, who became converts to that faith, it began to reassert its ascendancy. Marco Polo visited the city, which he calls Cascar, about 1275 and left some notes on it.In 1389-1390 Timur ravaged Kashgar, Andijan and the intervening country. Kashgar passed through a troublous time, and in 1514, on the invasion of the Khan Sultan Said, was destroyed by Mirza Ababakar, who with the aid of ten thousand men built the new fort with massive defences higher up on the banks of the Tuman. The dynasty of the Jagatai Khans collapsed in 1572 by the dismemberment of the country between rival representatives; and soon after two powerful Khoja factions, the White and Black Mountaineers (AkandKara Taghluk), arose, whose dissensions and warfares, with the intervention of the Kalmucks of Dzungaria, fill up the history till 1759, when a Chinese army from Ili (Kulja) invaded the country, and, after perpetrating wholesale massacres, finally consolidated their authority by settling therein Chinese emigrants, together with a Manchu garrison. The Chinese had thoughts of pushing their conquests towards western Turkestan and Samarkand, the chiefs of which sent to ask assistance of the Afghan king Ahmed Shah. This monarch despatched an embassy to Peking to demand the restitution of the Mahommedan states of Central Asia, but the embassy was not well received, and Ahmed Shah was too much engaged with the Sikhs to attempt to enforce his demands by arms. The Chinese continued to hold Kashgar, with sundry interruptions from Mahommedan revoltsâ€”one of the most serious occurring in 1827, when the territory was invaded and the city taken by Jahanghir Khoja; Chang-lung, however, the Chinese general of Ili, recovered possession of Kashgar and the other revolted cities in 1828. A revolt in 1829 under Mahommed Ali Khan and Yusuf, brother of Jahanghir, was more successful, and resulted in the concession of several important trade privileges to the Mahommedans of the district of Alty Shahr (the â€œsix citiesâ€), as it was then named. Until 1846 the country enjoyed peace under the just and liberal rule of Zahir-ud-din, the Chinese governor, but in that year a fresh Khoja revolt under Kath Tora led to his making himself master of the city, with circumstances of unbridled licence and oppression. His reign was, however, brief, for at the end of seventy-five days, on the approach of the Chinese, he fled back to Khokand amid the jeers of the inhabitants. The last of the Khoja revolts (1857) was of about equal duration with the previous one, and took place under Wali-Khan, a degraded debauchee, and the murderer of the lamented traveller Adolf Schlagintweit.The great Tungani (Dungani) revolt, or insurrection of the Chinese Mahommedans, which broke out in 1862 in Kan-suh, spread rapidly to Dzungaria and through the line of towns in the Tarim basin. The Tungani troops in Yarkand rose, and (10th of August 1863) massacred some seven thousand Chinese, while the inhabitants of Kashgar, rising in their turn against their masters, invoked the aid of Sadik Beg, a Kirghiz chief, who was reinforced by Buzurg Khan, the heir of Jahanghir, and Yakub Beg, his general, these being despatched at Sadikâ€™s request by the ruler of Khokand to raise what troops they could to aid his Mahommedan friends in Kashgar. Sadik Beg soon repented of having asked for a Khoja, and eventually marched against Kashgar, which by this time had succumbed to Buzurg Khan and Yakub Beg, but was defeated and driven back to Khokand. Buzurg Khan delivered himself up to indolence and debauchery, but Yakub Beg, with singular energy and perseverance, made himself master of Yangi Shahr, Yangi-Hissar, Yarkand and other towns, and eventually became sole master of the country, Buzurg Khan proving himself totally unfitted for the post of ruler. Kashgar and the other cities of the Tarim basin remained under Yakub Begâ€™s rule until 1877, when the Chinese regained possession of their ancient dominion.

In 1389-1390 Timur ravaged Kashgar, Andijan and the intervening country. Kashgar passed through a troublous time, and in 1514, on the invasion of the Khan Sultan Said, was destroyed by Mirza Ababakar, who with the aid of ten thousand men built the new fort with massive defences higher up on the banks of the Tuman. The dynasty of the Jagatai Khans collapsed in 1572 by the dismemberment of the country between rival representatives; and soon after two powerful Khoja factions, the White and Black Mountaineers (AkandKara Taghluk), arose, whose dissensions and warfares, with the intervention of the Kalmucks of Dzungaria, fill up the history till 1759, when a Chinese army from Ili (Kulja) invaded the country, and, after perpetrating wholesale massacres, finally consolidated their authority by settling therein Chinese emigrants, together with a Manchu garrison. The Chinese had thoughts of pushing their conquests towards western Turkestan and Samarkand, the chiefs of which sent to ask assistance of the Afghan king Ahmed Shah. This monarch despatched an embassy to Peking to demand the restitution of the Mahommedan states of Central Asia, but the embassy was not well received, and Ahmed Shah was too much engaged with the Sikhs to attempt to enforce his demands by arms. The Chinese continued to hold Kashgar, with sundry interruptions from Mahommedan revoltsâ€”one of the most serious occurring in 1827, when the territory was invaded and the city taken by Jahanghir Khoja; Chang-lung, however, the Chinese general of Ili, recovered possession of Kashgar and the other revolted cities in 1828. A revolt in 1829 under Mahommed Ali Khan and Yusuf, brother of Jahanghir, was more successful, and resulted in the concession of several important trade privileges to the Mahommedans of the district of Alty Shahr (the â€œsix citiesâ€), as it was then named. Until 1846 the country enjoyed peace under the just and liberal rule of Zahir-ud-din, the Chinese governor, but in that year a fresh Khoja revolt under Kath Tora led to his making himself master of the city, with circumstances of unbridled licence and oppression. His reign was, however, brief, for at the end of seventy-five days, on the approach of the Chinese, he fled back to Khokand amid the jeers of the inhabitants. The last of the Khoja revolts (1857) was of about equal duration with the previous one, and took place under Wali-Khan, a degraded debauchee, and the murderer of the lamented traveller Adolf Schlagintweit.

The great Tungani (Dungani) revolt, or insurrection of the Chinese Mahommedans, which broke out in 1862 in Kan-suh, spread rapidly to Dzungaria and through the line of towns in the Tarim basin. The Tungani troops in Yarkand rose, and (10th of August 1863) massacred some seven thousand Chinese, while the inhabitants of Kashgar, rising in their turn against their masters, invoked the aid of Sadik Beg, a Kirghiz chief, who was reinforced by Buzurg Khan, the heir of Jahanghir, and Yakub Beg, his general, these being despatched at Sadikâ€™s request by the ruler of Khokand to raise what troops they could to aid his Mahommedan friends in Kashgar. Sadik Beg soon repented of having asked for a Khoja, and eventually marched against Kashgar, which by this time had succumbed to Buzurg Khan and Yakub Beg, but was defeated and driven back to Khokand. Buzurg Khan delivered himself up to indolence and debauchery, but Yakub Beg, with singular energy and perseverance, made himself master of Yangi Shahr, Yangi-Hissar, Yarkand and other towns, and eventually became sole master of the country, Buzurg Khan proving himself totally unfitted for the post of ruler. Kashgar and the other cities of the Tarim basin remained under Yakub Begâ€™s rule until 1877, when the Chinese regained possession of their ancient dominion.

(C. E. D. B.; C. El.)

KASHI,orKasi, formerly the Persian word for all glazed and enamelled pottery irrespectively; now the accepted term for certain kinds of enamelled tile-work, including brick-work and tile-mosaic work, manufactured in Persia and parts of Mahommedan India, chiefly during the 16th and 17th centuries.1

Undoubtedly originating in the Semitic word for glass,kas, it is quite possible that the namekashiis immediately derived from Kashan, a town in Persia noted for itsfaÃ¯ence. This ancient pottery site, in turn, probably receives its name from the old-time industry; as a â€œcity of the plainâ€ it would obviously have no claim to the farther-eastern suffixshan, meaning a mountain. Sir George Birdwood wisely considers that â€œthe art of glazingearthenwarehas, in Persia, descended in an almost unbroken tradition from the period of the greatness of Chaldaea and Assyria ... the namekas, by which it is known in Arabic and Hebrew, carries us back to the manufacture of glass and enamels for which great Sidon was already famous 1500 years before Christ ... the designs used in the decoration of Sind and Punjab glazed pottery also go to prove how much these Indian wares have been influenced by Persian examples and the Persian tradition of the much earlier art of Nineveh and Babylonâ€ (The Industrial Arts of India, 1880). The two native names for glass,kanchandshisha, common to Persia and India, are, seemingly, modifications of kashi. The Indian tradition of Chinese potters settling in bygone days at Lahore and Hala respectively, still lingers in the Punjab and Sind provinces, and evidently travelled eastward from Persia with the Moguls. Howbeit in Lahore the name ChÃnÃ is sometimes wrongly applied tokashiwork; and the so-called ChÃnÃ-ka-Rauza mausoleum at Agra is an instance of this misuse. It now seems an established fact that a colony of Chinese ceramic experts migrated to Isfahan during the 16th century (probably in the reign, and at the invitation, of Shah Abbas I.), and there helped to revive the jaded pottery industry of that district.

Kashiwork consisted of two kinds: (a) Enamel-faced tiles and bricks of strongly fired red earthenware, or terra-cotta; (b) Enamel-faced tiles and tesserae of lightly fired â€œlime-mortar,â€ or sandstone. Tile-mosaic work is described by some authorities as the truekashi. From examination of figured tile-mosaic patterns, it would appear that, in some instances, the shaped tesserae had been cut out of enamelled slabs or tiles after firing; in other examples to have been cut into shape before receiving their facing of coloured enamel. Mosaic panels in the fort at Lahore are described by J. L. Kipling as â€œshowing agul dasta, or foliated pattern of a branching tree, each leaf of which is a separate piece of pottery.â€ Conventional representations of foliage, flowers and fruit, intricate geometrical figures, interlacing arabesques, and decorative calligraphyâ€”inscriptions in Arabic and Persianâ€”constitute the ordinarykashidesigns. The colours chiefly used were cobalt blue, copper blue (turquoise colour), lead-antimoniate yellow (mustard colour), manganese purple, iron brown and tin white. A colour-scheme, popular with Mogul and contemporary Persiankashigars, was the design, in cobalt blue and copper blue, reserved on a ground of deep mustard yellow. Before applying the enamel colours, the rough face of the tile, or the tesserae, received a thin coating of slip of variable composition. It is probably owing to some defect in this part of the process, or to imperfect firing, that the enamelled tile surfaces on many old buildings, particularly on the south side, have weathered and flaked away.In India the finest examples ofkashiwork are in the Punjab and Sind provinces. At Lahore, amongst many beautiful structures, the most notable are the mosque of Wazir Khan (A.D.1634) and the gateways of three famous pleasure gardens, the Shalamar Bagh (A.D.1637), the Gulabi Bagh (A.D.1640), and the Charburji (c.A.D.1665). At Tatta the Jami Masjid, built by Shah Jahan (c.A.D.1645), is a splendid illustration; whilst in that â€œvast cemetery of six square milesâ€ on the adjacent Malki plateau, are numerous Mahommedan tombs (A.D.1570-1640) with extraordinarykashiornamentation. Delhi, Multan, Jullundur, Shahdara, Lahore cantonment, Agra and Hyderabad (Sind), all possess excellent monuments of the best period viz. those erected during the reigns of Akbar and Jahangir (A.D.1556-1628).In Persia, at Isfahan, Kashan, Meshed and Kerman are a few buildings and ruins showing the oldkashiwork; the palace of Chehel SitÃ¹n in Isfahan, built during the reign of Shah Abbas I. (c.A.D.1600), is a magnificent specimen of this art.Occasional revivals of the manufacture have taken place both in India and Persia. Mahommed SharÃf, a potter of Jullundur in the Punjab, reproduced the Mogul enamelled tile-work in 1885, and there is a manuscript record of a certain Ustad Ali Mahommed, of Isfahan, who revived the Persian processes in 1887.

In India the finest examples ofkashiwork are in the Punjab and Sind provinces. At Lahore, amongst many beautiful structures, the most notable are the mosque of Wazir Khan (A.D.1634) and the gateways of three famous pleasure gardens, the Shalamar Bagh (A.D.1637), the Gulabi Bagh (A.D.1640), and the Charburji (c.A.D.1665). At Tatta the Jami Masjid, built by Shah Jahan (c.A.D.1645), is a splendid illustration; whilst in that â€œvast cemetery of six square milesâ€ on the adjacent Malki plateau, are numerous Mahommedan tombs (A.D.1570-1640) with extraordinarykashiornamentation. Delhi, Multan, Jullundur, Shahdara, Lahore cantonment, Agra and Hyderabad (Sind), all possess excellent monuments of the best period viz. those erected during the reigns of Akbar and Jahangir (A.D.1556-1628).

In Persia, at Isfahan, Kashan, Meshed and Kerman are a few buildings and ruins showing the oldkashiwork; the palace of Chehel SitÃ¹n in Isfahan, built during the reign of Shah Abbas I. (c.A.D.1600), is a magnificent specimen of this art.

Occasional revivals of the manufacture have taken place both in India and Persia. Mahommed SharÃf, a potter of Jullundur in the Punjab, reproduced the Mogul enamelled tile-work in 1885, and there is a manuscript record of a certain Ustad Ali Mahommed, of Isfahan, who revived the Persian processes in 1887.

Back to Index Next