VOLUME XV SLICE VI Justinian II. to Kells (continued 8)

(C. Mi.)

KARA-KALPAKS (“Black Caps”), a Mongolo-Tatar people, originally dominant along the east coast of the Aral Sea, where they still number some thousands. They thus form geographically the transition between the northern Kirghiz and the southern Turkomans. Once a powerful nation, they are scattered for the most part in Astrakhan, Perm, Orenburg, in the Caucasian province of Kuban, and in Tobolsk, Siberia, numbering in all about 50,000. These emigrants have crossed much with the alien populations among whom they have settled; but the pure type on the Aral Sea are a tall powerful people, with broad flat faces, large eyes, short noses and heavy chins. Their women are the most beautiful in Turkestan. The name of “Black Caps” is given them in allusion to their high sheepskin hats. They are a peaceful agricultural folk, who have suffered much from their fierce nomad neighbours.

KARAKORUM (Turkish, “black stone débris”), the name of two cities in Mongolia. One of these, according to G. Potanin, was the capital of the Uighur kingdom in the 8th century, and the other was in the 13th century a capital of the steppe monarchy of Mongolia. The same name seems also to have been applied to the Khangai range at the headwaters of the Orkhon. (1) The Uighur Karakorum, also named Mubalik (“bad town”), was situated on the left bank of the Orkhon, in the Talal-khain-dala steppe, to the south-east of Ughei-nor. It was deserted after the fall of the Uighur kingdom, and in the 10th century Abaki, the founder of the Khitan kingdom, planted on its ruins a stone bearing a description of his victories. (2) The Mongolian KARAKORUM was founded at the birth of the Mongolian monarchy established by Jenghiz Khan. A palace for the khan was built in it by Chinese architects in 1234, and its walls were erected in 1235. Plano Carpini visited it in 1246, Rubruquis in 1253, and Marco Polo in 1275. Later, the fourth Mongolian king, Kublai, left Karakorum, in order to reside at Kai-pin-fu, near Peking. When the khan Arik-bog declared himself and Karakorum independent of Kublai-Khan, the latter besieged Karakorum, took it by famine, and probably laid it waste so thoroughly that the town was afterwards forgotten.

The exact sites of the two Mongolian capitals were only established in 1889-1891. Sir H. Yule (The Book of Marco Polo, 1871) was the first to distinguish two cities of this name. The Russian traveller Paderin in 1871 visited the Uighur capital (see Turks), named now by the Mongols Kara Balghasun (“black city”) or Khara-kherem (“black wall”), of which only the wall and a tower are in existence, while the streets and ruins outside the wall are seen at a distance of 1¾ m. Paderin’s belief that this was the old Mongol capital has been shown to be incorrect. As to the Mongolian Karakorum, it is identified by several authorities with a site on which towards the close of the 16th century the Buddhist monastery of Erdeni Tsu was built. This monastery lies about 25 m. south by east of the Uighur capital. North and north-east of the monastery are ruins of ancient buildings. Professor D. Pozdnéev, who visited Erdeni Tsu for a second time in 1892, stated that the earthen wall surrounding the monastery might well be part of the wall of the old city. The proper position of the two Karakorums was determined by the expedition of N. Yadrintsev in 1889, and the two expeditions of the Helsingfors Ugro-Finnish society (1890) and the Russian academy of science, under Dr W. Radlov (1891), which were sent out to study Yadrintsev’s discovery.

See Works (Trudy) of the Orkhon Expedition (St Petersburg, 1892); Yule’s Marco Polo, edition revised by Henri Cordier (of Paris), vol. i. ch. xlvi. (London, 1903). Cordier confines the use of Karakorum to the Mongol capital; Pozdnéev, Mongolia and the Mongols, vol. i. (St Petersburg, 1896); C. W. Campbell, “Journeys in Mongolia,” Geog. Journ. vol. xx. (1903), with map. Campbell’s report was printed as a parliamentary paper (China No. 1, 1904).

KARA-KUL, the name of two lakes (“Great” and “Little “) of Russian Turkestan, in the province of Ferghana, and on the Pamir plateau. Great Kara-kul, 12 m. long and 10 m. wide (formerly much larger), is under 39° N., to the south of the Trans-Alai range, and lies at an altitude of 13,200 ft.; it is surrounded by high mountains, and is reached from the north over the Kyzyl-art pass (14,015 ft.). A peninsula projecting from the south shore and an island off the north shore divide it into two basins, a smaller eastern one which is shallow, 42 to 63 ft., and a larger western one, which has depths of 726 to 756 ft. It has no drainage outlet. Little Kara-kul lies in the north-east Pamir, or Sarikol, north-west of the Mustagh-ata peak (25,850 ft.), at an altitude of 12,700 ft. It varies in depth from 79 ft. in the south to 50 to 70 ft. in the middle, and 1000 ft. or more in the north. It is a moraine lake; and a stream of the same name flows through it, but is named Ghez in its farther course towards Kashgar in East Turkestan.

KARA-KUM (“Black Sands”), a flat desert in Russian Central Asia. It extends to nearly 110,000 sq. m., and is bounded on the N.W. by the Ust-urt plateau, between the Sea of Aral and the Caspian Sea, on the N.E. by the Amu-darya, on the S. by the Turkoman oases, and on the W. it nearly reaches the Caspian Sea. Only part of this surface is covered with sand. There are broad expanses (takyrs) of clay soil upon which water accumulates in the spring; in the summer these are muddy, but later quite dry, and merely a few Solanaceae and bushes grow on them. There is also shor, similar to the above but encrusted with salt and gypsum, and relieved only by Solanaceae along their borders. The remainder is occupied with sand, which, according to V. Mainov, assumes five different forms. (1) Barkhans, chiefly in the east, which are mounds of loose sand, 15 to 35 ft. high, hoof-shaped, having their gently sloping convex sides turned towards the prevailing winds, and a concave side, 30° to 40° steep, on the opposite slope. They are disposed in groups or chains, and the winds drive them at an average rate of 20 ft. annually towards the south and south-east. Some grass (Stipa pennata) and bushes of saksaul (Haloxylon ammodendron) and other steppe bushes (e.g. Calligonium, Halimodendron and Atraphaxis) grow on them. (2) Mounds of sand, of about the same size, but irregular in shape and of a slightly firmer consistence, mostly bearing the same bushes, and also Artemisia and Tamarix; they are chiefly met with in the east and south. (3) A sandy desert, slightly undulating, and covered in spring with grass and flowers (e.g. tulips, Rheum, various Umbelliferae), which are soon burned by the sun; they cover very large spaces in the south-east. (4) Sands disposed in waves from 50 to 70 ft., and occasionally up to 100 ft. high, at a distance of from 200 to 400 ft. from each other; they cover the central portion, and their vegetation is practically the same as in the preceding division. (5) Dunes on the shores of the Caspian, composed of moving sands, 35 to 80 ft. high and devoid of vegetation.

A typical feature of the Kara-kum is the number of “old river beds,” which may have been either channels of tributaries of the Amu and other rivers or depressions which contained elongated salt lakes. Water is only found in wells, 10 to 20 m. apart—sometimes as much as 100 m.—which are dug in the takyrs and give saline water, occasionally unfit to drink, and in pools of rain-water retained in the lower parts of the takyrs. The population of the Kara-kum, consisting of nomad Kirghiz and Turkomans, is very small. The region in the north of the province of Syr-darya, between Lake Aral and Lake Chalkarteniz, is also called Kara-kum.

(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)

KARAMAN (anc. Laranda, a name still used by the Christian inhabitants), a town in the Konia vilayet of Asia Minor, situated in the plain north of Mount Taurus. Pop. 8000. It has few industries and little trade, but the medieval walls, well preserved castle and mosques are interesting, and the old Seljuk medresse, or college, is a beautiful building. Karaman is connected with Konia by railway, having a station on the first section of the Bagdad railway. Little is known of its ancient history except that it was destroyed by Perdiccas about 322 B.C., and afterwards became a seat of Isaurian pirates. It was occupied by Frederick Barbarossa in 1190; in 1466 it was captured by Mahommed II., and in 1486 by Bayezid II.

KARAMANIA, formerly an independent inland province in the south of Asia Minor, named after Karaman, the son of an Armenian convert to Islam, who married a daughter of Ala ed-Din Kaikobad, the Seljuk sultan of Rum, and was granted Laranda in fief, and made governor of Selefke, 1223-1245. The name Karaman is, however, Turkoman and that of a powerful tribe, settled apparently near Laranda. The Armenian convert must have been adopted into this. On the collapse of the Seljuk empire, Karaman’s grandson, Mahmud, 1279-1319, founded a state, which included Pamphylia, Lycaonia and large parts of Cilicia, Cappadocia and Phrygia. Its capital, Laranda, superseded Konia. This state was frequently at war with the kings of Lesser Armenia, the Lusignan princes of Cyprus and the knights of Rhodes. It was also engaged in a long struggle for supremacy with the Osmanli Turks, which only ended in 1472, when it was definitely annexed by Mahommed II. The Osmanlis divided Karamania into Kharij north, and Ichili south, of the Taurus, and restored Konia to its metropolitan position. The name Karamania is now often given by geographers to Ichili only; but so far as it has had any exact significance in modern times, it has stood for the whole province of Konia. Before the present provincial division was made (1864), Karamania was the eyalet of which Konia was the capital, and it did not extend to the sea, the whole littoral from Adalia eastward being under the pasha of Adana. Nevertheless, in Levantine popular usage at the present day, “Karamania” signifies the coast from Adalia to Messina.

(D. G. H.)

KARAMNASA, a river of northern India, tributary to the Ganges on its right bank, forming the boundary between Bengal and the United Provinces. The name means “destroyer of religious merit,” which is explained by more than one legend. To this day all high-caste Hindus have to be carried over without being defiled by the touch of its waters.

KARA MUSTAFA (d. 1683), Turkish vizier, surnamed “Merzifunli,” was a son of Uruj Bey, a notable Sipahi of Merzifun (Marsovan), and brother-in-law to Ahmed Kuprili, whom he succeeded as grand vizier in 1676, after having for some years held the office of Kaimmakam or locum tenens. His greed and ostentation were equalled by his incapacity, and he behaved with characteristic insolence to the foreign ambassadors, from whom he extorted large bribes. After conducting a campaign in Poland which terminated unfortunately, he gave a ready response to the appeal for aid made by the Hungarians under Imre Thököly (q.v.) when they rose against Austria, his hope being to form out of the Habsburg dominions a Mussulman empire of the West, of which he should be the sultan. The plan was foiled in part by his own lack of military skill, but chiefly through the heroic resistance of Vienna and its timely relief by John Sobieski, king of Poland. Kara Mustafa paid for his defeat with his life; he was beheaded at Belgrade in 1683 and his head was brought to the sultan on a silver dish.

Another Kara Mustafa Pasha (d. 1643), who figures in Turkish history, was by birth a Hungarian, who was enrolled in the Janissaries, rose to be Kapudan Pasha under Murad IV., and after the capture of Bagdad was made grand vizier. He was severe, but just and impartial, and strove to effect necessary reforms by reducing the numbers of the Janissaries, improving the coinage, and checking the state expenditure. But the discontent of the Janissaries led to his dismissal and death in 1643.

KARAMZIN, NIKOLAI MIKHAILOVICH (1765-1826), Russian historian, critic, novelist and poet, was born at the village of Mikhailovka, in the government of Orenburg, and not at Simbirsk as many of his English and German biographers incorrectly state, on the 1st of December (old style) 1765. His father was an officer in the Russian army, of Tatar extraction. He was sent to Moscow to study under Professor Schaden, whence he afterwards removed to St Petersburg, where he made the acquaintance of Dmitriev, a Russian poet of some merit, and occupied himself with translating essays by foreign writers into his native language. After residing some time at St Petersburg, he went to Simbirsk, where he lived in retirement till induced to revisit Moscow. There, finding himself in the midst of the society of learned men, he again betook himself to literary work. In 1789 he resolved to travel, and visited Germany, France, Switzerland and England. On his return he published his Letters of a Russian Traveller, which met with great success. These letters were first printed in the Moscow Journal, which he edited, but were afterwards collected and issued in six volumes (1797-1801). In the same periodical Karamzin also published translations of some of the tales of Marmontel, and some original stories, among which may be mentioned Poor Liza and Natalia the Boyar’s Daughter. In 1794 and 1795 Karamzin abandoned his literary journal, and published a miscellany in two volumes, entitled Aglaia, in which appeared, among other things, “The Island of Bornholm” and “Ilia Mourometz,” a story based upon the adventures of the well-known hero of many a Russian legend. In 1797-1799 he issued another miscellany or poetical almanac, The Aonides, in conjunction with Derzhávin and Dmitriev. In 1798 he compiled The Pantheon, a collection of pieces from the works of the most celebrated authors ancient and modern, translated into Russian. Many of his lighter productions were subsequently printed by him in a volume entitled My Trifles. In 1802 and 1803 Karamzin edited the journal the European Messenger. It was not until after the publication of this work that he realized where his strength lay, and commenced his History of the Russian Empire. In order to accomplish the task, he secluded himself for two years; and, on the cause of his retirement becoming known to the emperor Alexander, Karamzin was invited to Tver, where he read to the emperor the first eight volumes of his history. In 1816 he removed to St Petersburg, where he spent the happiest days of his life, enjoying the favour of Alexander, and submitting to him the sheets of his great work, which the emperor read over with him in the gardens of the palace of Tzarskoë Selo. He did not, however, live to carry his work further than the eleventh volume, terminating it at the accession of Michael Romanov in 1613. He died on the 22nd of May (old style) 1826, in the Taurida palace. A monument was erected to his memory at Simbirsk in 1845.

As an historian Karamzin has deservedly a very high reputation. Till the appearance of his work little had been done in this direction in Russia. The preceding attempt of Tatistchev was merely a rough sketch, inelegant in style, and without the true spirit of criticism. Karamzin was most industrious in accumulating materials, and the notes to his volumes are mines of curious information. The style of his history is elegant and flowing, modelled rather upon the easy sentences of the French prose writers than the long periodical paragraphs of the old Slavonic school. Perhaps Karamzin may justly be censured for the false gloss and romantic air thrown over the early Russian annals, concealing the coarseness and cruelty of the native manners; in this respect he reminds us of Sir Walter Scott, whose writings were at this time creating a great sensation throughout Europe, and probably had their influence upon him. Karamzin appears openly as the panegyrist of the autocracy; indeed, his work has been styled the “Epic of Despotism.” He does not hesitate to avow his admiration of Ivan the Terrible, and considers him and his grandfather Ivan III. as the builders up of Russian greatness, a glory which in his earlier writings, perhaps at that time more under the influence of Western ideas, he had assigned to Peter the Great. In the battle-pieces (e.g. the description of the field of Koulikovo, the taking of Kazan, &c.) we find considerable powers of description; and the characters of many of the chief personages in the Russian annals are drawn in firm and bold lines. As a critic Karamzin was of great service to his country; in fact he may be regarded as the founder of the review and essay (in the Western style) among the Russians.

KARA SEA, a portion of the Arctic Ocean demarcated, and except on the north-west completely enclosed, by Novaya Zemlya, Vaygach Island and the Siberian coast. It is approached from the west by three straits—Matochkin, between the two islands of Novaya Zemlya, and Kara and Yugor to the north and south of Vaygach Island respectively. On the south-east Kara Bay penetrates deeply into the mainland, and to the west of this the short Kara river enters the sea. The sea is all shallow, the deepest parts lying off Vaygach Island and the northern part of Novaya Zemlya. It had long the reputation of being almost constantly ice-bound, but after the Norwegian captain Johannesen had demonstrated its accessibility in 1869, and Nordenskiöld had crossed it to the mouth of the Yenisei in 1875, it was considered by many to offer a possible trade route between European Russia and the north of Siberia. But the open season is in any case very short, and the western straits are sometimes ice-bound during the entire year.

KARASU-BAZAR, a town of Russia, in the Crimea and government of Taurida, in 45° 3′ N. and 34° 26′ E., 25 m. E.N.E. of Simferopol. Pop. (1897), 12,961, consisting of Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Qaraite Jews, and about 200 so-called Krymchaki, i.e. Jews who have adopted the Tatar language and dress, and who live chiefly by making morocco leather goods, knives, embroidery and so forth. The site is low, but the town is surrounded by hills, which afford protection from the north wind. The dirty streets full of petty traders, the gloomy bazaar with its multitude of tiny shops, the market squares, the blind alleys, the little gates in the dead courtyard walls, all give the place the stamp of a Tatar or Turkish town. Placed on the high road between Simferopol and Kerch, and in the midst of a country rich in corn land, vineyards and gardens, Karasu-Bazar used to be a chief seat of commercial activity in the Crimea; but it is gradually declining in importance, though still a considerable centre for the export of fruit.

The caves of Akkaya close by give evidence of early occupation of the spot. When in 1736 Khan Feta Ghirai was driven by the Russians from Bakhchi-sarai he settled at Karasu-Bazar, but next year the town was captured, plundered and burned by the Russians.

KARATEGHIN, a country of Central Asia, subject to Bokhara, and consisting of a highland district bounded on the N. by Samarkand and Ferghana (Khokand), on the E. by Ferghana, on the S. by Darvaz, and on the W. by Hissar and other Bokharian provinces. The plateau is traversed by the Surkhab or Vakhsh, a right-hand tributary of the Amu-darya (Oxus). On the N. border run the Hissar and Zarafshan mountains, and on the S. border the Peter I. (Periokhtan) range (24,900 ft.). The area is 8000 sq. m. and the population about 60,000—five-sixths Tajiks, the rest Kara-kirghiz. With the neighbouring lands Karateghin has no communication except during summer, that is, from May to September. The winter climate is extremely severe; snow begins to fall in October and it is May before it disappears. During the warmer months, however, the mountain sides are richly clothed with the foliage of maple, mountain ash, apple, pear and walnut trees; the orchards furnish, not only apples and pears, but peaches, cherries, mulberries and apricots; and the farmers grow sufficient corn to export. Both cattle and horses are of a small and hardy breed. Rough woollen cloth and mohair are woven by the natives, who also make excellent firearms and other weapons. Gold is found in various places and there are salt-pits in the mountains. The chief town, Harm or Garm, is a place of some 2000 inhabitants, situated on a hill on the right bank of the Surkhab.

The native princes, who claimed to be descended from Alexander the Great, were till 1868 practically independent, though their allegiance was claimed in an ineffective way by Khokand, but eventually Bokhara took advantage of their intestine feuds to secure their real submission in 1877.

KARAULI, or Kerowlee, a native state of India, in the Rajputana agency. Area, 1242 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 156,786; estimated revenue about £330,000. Almost the entire territory is composed of hills and broken ground, but there are no lofty peaks, the highest having an elevation of less than 1400 ft. above sea-level. The Chambal river flows along the south-east boundary of the state. Iron ore and building stone comprise the mineral resources. The prevailing agricultural products are millets, which form the staple food of the people. The only manufactures consist of a little weaving, dyeing, wood-turning and stone-cutting. The principal imports are piece goods, salt, sugar, cotton, buffaloes and bullocks; the exports rice and goats. The feudal aristocracy of the state consists of Jadu Rajputs connected with the ruling house. They pay a tribute in lieu of constant military service, but in case of emergency or on occasions of state display they are bound to attend on the chief with their retainers. The maharaja is the head of the clan, which claims descent from Krishna. Maharaja Bhanwar Pal Deo, who was born in 1862 and succeeded in 1866, was appointed G.C.I.E. in 1897, on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee.

The town of Karauli had a population in 1901 of 23,482. It dates from 1348, and is well situated in a position naturally defended by ravines on the north and east, while it is further protected by a great wall. The palace of the maharaja is a handsome block of buildings dating mainly from the middle of the 18th century.

KAREN, one of the chief hill races of Burma. The Karens inhabit the central Pegu Yoma range, forming the watershed between the Sittang and Irrawaddy rivers, the Paunglaung range between the Sittang and the Salween, and the eastern slopes of the Arakan Yoma mountains to the west of the Irrawaddy delta. They are supposed to be the descendants of Chinese tribes driven southwards by the pressure of the Shan races, before they were again made to retire into the hills by the expansion of the Môn power. Their own traditions ascribe their original home to the west of the sandy desert of Gobi stretching between China and Tibet. According to the census of 1901 they numbered in all 727,235 persons within British India, divided into the Sgaw, 86,434, the Pwo, 174,070, and the Bghai, 4936, while 457,355 are returned as “unspecified.” The Sgaw and Pwo are collectively known as the “White Karens,” and chiefly inhabit British territory. They take their name from the colour of their clothes. The Bghai, or “Red Karens,” who are supposed by some to be an entirely distinct race, chiefly inhabit the independent hill state of Karen-ni (q.v.). The Karen is of a squarer build than the Burman, his skin is fairer, and he has more of the Mongolian obliquity of the eyes. In character also the people differ from the Burmese. They are singularly devoid of humour, they are stolid and cautious, and lack altogether the light gaiety and fascination of the Burmese. They are noted for truthfulness and chastity, but are dirty and addicted to drink. The White Karens furnish perhaps the most notable instance of conversion to Christianity of any native race in the British empire. Prepared by prophecies current among them, and by curious traditions of a biblical flavour, in addition to their antagonism to the dominant Burmese, they embraced with fervour the new creed brought to them by the missionaries, so that out of the 147,525 Christians in Burma according to the census of 1901 upwards of a hundred thousand were Karens. The Red Karens differ considerably from the White Karens. They are the wildest and most lawless of the so-called Karen tribes. Every male belonging to the clan used to have the rising sun tattooed in bright vermilion on his back. The men are small and wizened, but athletic, and have broad reddish-brown faces. Their dress consists of a short pair of breeches, usually of a reddish colour, with black and white stripes interwoven perpendicularly or like a tartan, and a handkerchief is tied round the head. The Karen language is tonal, and belongs to the Siamese-Chinese branch of the Indo-Chinese family.

See D. M. Smeaton, The Loyal Karens of Burma (1887); J. Nisbet, Burma under British Rule (1901); M. and B. Ferrars, Burma (1900); and O’Connor Scott, The Silken East (1904).

(J. G. Sc.)

KAREN-NI, the country of the Red Karens, a collection of small states, formerly independent, but now feudatory to Burma. It is situated approximately between 18° 50′ and 19° 55′ N. and between 97° 10′ and 97° 50′ E. The tract is bounded on the N. by the Shan states of Möng Pai, Hsatung and Mawkmai; on the E. by Siam; on the S. by the Papun district of Lower Burma; and on the W. a stretch of mountainous country, inhabited by the Bre and various other small tribes, formerly in a state of independence, divides it from the districts of Toungoo and Yamethin. It is divided in a general way into eastern and western Karen-ni; the former consisting of one state, Gantarawadi, with an approximate area of 2500 sq. m.; the latter of the four small states of Kyebogyi, area about 350 sq. m.; Bawlake, 200 sq. m.; Nammekon, 50 sq. m.; and Naungpale, about 30 sq. m. The small states of western Karen-ni were formerly all subject to Bawlake, but the subordination has now ceased. Karen-ni consists of two widely differing tracts of country, which roughly mark now, and formerly actually did mark, the division into east and west. Gantarawadi has, however, encroached westwards beyond the boundaries which nature would assign to it. The first of these two divisions is the southern portion of the valley of the Hpilu, or Balu stream, an open, fairly level plain, well watered and in some parts swampy. The second division is a series of chains of hills, intersected by deep valleys, through which run the two main rivers, the Salween and the Pawn, and their feeder streams. Many of the latter are dried up in the hot season and only flow freely during the rains. The whole country being hilly, the most conspicuous ridge is that lying between the Pawn and the Salween, which has an average altitude of 5000 ft. It is crossed by several tracks, passable for pack-animals, the most in use being the road between Sawlon, the capital of Gantarawadi and Man Maü. The principal peak east of the Salween is on the Loi Lan ridge, 7109 ft. above mean sea-level. Parts of this ridge form the boundary between eastern Karen-ni and Mawkmai on the west and Siam on the east. It falls away rapidly to the south, and at Pang Salang is crossed at a height of 2200 ft. by the road from Hsataw to Mehawnghsawn. West of the Balu valley the continuation of the eastern rim of the Myelat plateau rises in Loi Nangpa to about 5000 ft. The Nam Pawn is a large river, with an average breadth of 100 yds., but is unnavigable owing to its rocky bed. Even timber cannot be floated down it without the assistance of elephants. The Salween throughout Karen-ni is navigated by large native craft. Its tributary, the Me Pai, on the eastern bank, is navigable as far as Mehawnghsawn in Siamese territory. The Balu stream flows out of the Inle lake, and is navigable from that point to close on Lawpita, where it sinks into the ground in a marsh or succession of funnel holes. Its breadth averages 50 yds., and its depth is 15 ft. in some places.

The chief tribes are the Red Karens (24,043), Bres (3500), and Padaungs (1867). Total revenue, Rs. 37,000. An agent of the British government, with a guard of military police, is posted at the village of Loikaw. Little of the history of the Red Karens is known; but it appears to be generally admitted that Bawlake was originally the chief state of the whole country, east and west, but eastern Karen-ni under Papaw-gyi early became the most powerful. Slaving raids far into the Shan states brought on invasions from Burma, which, however, were not very successful. Eastern Karen-ni was never reduced until Sawlapaw, having defied the British government, was overcome and deposed by General Collett in the beginning of 1889. Sawlawi was then appointed myoza, and received a sanad, or patent of appointment, on the same terms as the chiefs of the Shan states. The independence of the Western Karen-ni states had been guaranteed by the British government in a treaty with King Mindon in 1875. They were, however, formally recognized as feudatories in 1892 and were presented with sanads on the 23rd of January of that year. Gantarawadi pays a regular tribute of Rs. 5000 yearly, whereas these chieflets pay an annual kadaw, or nuzzur, of about Rs. 100. They are forbidden to carry out a sentence of death passed on a criminal without the sanction of the superintendent of the southern Shan states, but otherwise retain nearly all their customary law.

Tin, or what is called tin, is worked in Bawlake. It appears, however, to be very impure. It is worked intermittently by White Karens on the upper waters of the Hkemapyu stream. Rubies, spinels and other stones are found in the upper Tu valley and in the west of Nammekon state, but they are of inferior quality. The trade in teak is the chief or only source of wealth in Karen-ni. The largest and most important forests are those on the left bank of the Salween. Others lie on both banks of the Nam Pawn, and in western Karen-ni on the Nam Tu. The yearly out-turn is estimated at over 20,000 logs, and forest officers have estimated that an annual out-turn of 9000 logs might be kept up without injury to the forests. Some quantity of cutch is exported, as also stick-lac, which the Red Karens graft so as to foster the production. Other valuable forest produce exists, but is not exported. Rice, areca-nuts, and betel-vine leaf are the chief agricultural products. The Red Karen women weave their own and their husbands’ clothing. A characteristic manufacture is the pa-si or Karen metal drum, which is made at Ngwedaung. These drums are from 2½ to 3 ft. across the boss, with sides of about the same depth. The sound is out of proportion to the metal used, and is inferior to that of the Shan and Burmese gongs. It is thought that the population of Karen-ni is steadily decreasing. The birth-rate of the people is considered to exceed the death-rate by very little, and the Red Karen habit of life is most unwholesome. Numbers have enlisted in the Burma police, but there are various opinions as to their value.

(J. G. Sc.)

KARIKAL, a French settlement in India, situated on the south-east coast, within the limits of Tanjore district, with an area of 53 sq. m., and a population (1901) of 56,595. The site was promised to the French by the Tanjore raja in 1738, in return for services rendered, but was only obtained by them by force in 1739. It was captured by the British in 1760, restored in 1765, again taken in 1768, and finally restored in 1817. The town is neatly built on one of the mouths of the Cauvery, and carries on a brisk trade with Ceylon, exporting rice and importing chiefly European articles and timber. A chef de l’administration, subordinate to the government at Pondicherry, is in charge of the settlement, and there is a tribunal of first instance.

KARLI, a village of British India, in the Poona district of the Bombay presidency, famous for its rock caves. Pop. (1901), 903. The great cave of Karli is said by Fergusson to be without exception the largest and finest chaitya cave in India; it was excavated at a time when the style was in its greatest purity, and is splendidly preserved. The great chaitya hall is 126 ft. long, 45 ft. 7 in. wide, and about 46 ft. high. A row of ornamental columns rises on either side to the ribbed teak roof, and at the far end of the nave is a massive dagoba. Dating from the beginning of the Christian era or earlier, this cave has a wooden roof, which repeats the pattern of the walls, and which Fergusson considers to be part of the original design. Since wood rapidly deteriorates in India owing to the climate and the ravages of white ants, the state of preservation of this roof is remarkable.

KARLOWITZ, or Carlowitz (Hungarian, Karlóeza; Croatian, Karlovci), a city of Croatia-Slavonia, in the county of Syrmia; on the right bank of the Danube, and on the railway from Peterwardein, 6 m. N.W. to Belgrade. Pop. (1900), 5643. Karlowitz is the seat of an Orthodox metropolitan, and has several churches and schools, and a hospital. The fruit-farms and vineyards of the Fruška Gora, a range of hills to the south, yield excellent plum brandy and red wine. An obelisk at Slankamen, 13 m. E. by S., commemorates the defeat of the Turks by Louis of Baden, in 1691. The treaty of Karlowitz, between Austria, Turkey, Poland and Venice, was concluded in 1699; in 1848-1849 the city was the headquarters of Servian opposition to Hungary. It was included, until 1881, in the Military Frontier.

KARLSKRONA [Carlscrona,] a seaport of Sweden, on the Baltic coast, chief town of the district (län) of Blekinge, and headquarters of the Swedish navy. Pop. (1900), 23,955. It is pleasantly situated upon islands and the mainland, 290 m. S.S.W. of Stockholm by rail. The harbour is capacious and secure, with a sufficient depth of water for the largest vessels. It has three entrances; the principal, and the only one practicable for large vessels, is to the south of the town, and is defended by two strong forts, at Drottningskär on the island of Aspö, and on the islet of Kungsholm. The dry docks, of great extent, are cut out of the solid granite. There is slip-accommodation for large vessels. Karlskrona is the seat of the Royal Naval Society, and has a navy-arsenal and hospital, and naval and other schools. Charles XI., the founder of the town as naval headquarters (1680), is commemorated by a bronze statue (1897). There are factories for naval equipments, galvanized metal goods, felt hats, canvas, leather and rice, and breweries and granite quarries. Exports are granite and timber; imports, coal, flour, provisions, hides and machinery.

KARLSRUHE, or Carlsruhe, a city of Germany, capital of the grand-duchy of Baden, 33 m. S.W. of Heidelberg, on the railway Frankfort-on-Main-Basel, and 39 m. N.W. of Stuttgart. Pop. (1895), 84,030; (1905), 111,200. It stands on an elevated plain, 5 m. E. of the Rhine and on the fringe of the Hardtwald forest. Karlsruhe takes its name from Karl Wilhelm, margrave of Baden, who, owing to disputes with the citizens of Durlach, erected here in 1715 a hunting seat, around which the town has been built. The city is surrounded by beautiful parks and gardens. The palace (Schloss), built in 1751-1776 on the site of the previous erection of 1715, is a plain building in the old French style, composed of a centre and two wings, presenting nothing remarkable except the octagon tower (Bleiturm), from the summit of which a splendid view of the city and surrounding country is obtained, and the marble saloon, in which the meridian of Cassini was fixed or drawn. In front of the palace is the Great Circle, a semicircular line of buildings, containing the government offices. From the palace the principal streets, fourteen in number, radiate in the form of an expanded fan, in a S.E., S. and S.W. direction, and are again intersected by parallel streets. This fan-like plan of the older city has, however, been abandoned in the more modern extensions. Karlsruhe has several fine public squares, the principal of which are the Schlossplatz, with Schwanthaler’s statue of the grand duke Karl Friedrich in the centre, and market square (Marktplatz), with a fountain and a statue of Louis, grand duke of Baden. In the centre of the Rondelplatz is an obelisk in honour of the grand duke Karl Wilhelm. The finest street is the Kaiserstrasse, running from east to west and having a length of a mile and a half and a uniform breadth of 72 ft. In it are several of the chief public buildings, notably the technical high school, the arsenal and the post office. Among other notable buildings are the town hall; the theatre; the hall of representatives; the mint; the joint museum of the grand-ducal and national collections (natural history, archaeology, ethnology, art and a library of over 150,000 volumes); the palace of the heir-apparent, a late Renaissance building of 1891-1896; the imperial bank (1893); the national industrial hall, with an exhibition of machinery; the new law courts; and the hall of fine arts, which shelters a good picture gallery. The city has six Evangelical and four Roman Catholic Churches. The most noteworthy of these are the Evangelical town church, the burial-place of the margraves of Baden; the Christuskirche, and the Bernharduskirche. Karlsruhe possesses further the Zähringen museum of curiosities, which is in the left wing of the Schloss; an architectural school (1891); industrial art school and museum; cadet school (1892); botanical and electro-technical institutes; and horticultural and agricultural schools. Of its recent public monuments may be mentioned one to Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1826-1886); a bronze equestrian statue of the emperor William I. (1896); and a memorial of the 1870-71 war. Karlsruhe is the headquarters of the XIV. German army corps. Since 1870 the industry of the city has grown rapidly, as well as the city itself. There are large railway workshops; and the principal branches of industry are the making of locomotives, carriages, tools and machinery, jewelry, furniture, gloves, cement, carpets, perfumery, tobacco and beer. There is an important arms factory. Maxau, on the Rhine, serves as the river port of Karlsruhe and is connected with it by a canal finished in 1901.

See Fecht, Geschichte der Haupt- und Residenzstadt Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe, 1887); F. von Weech, Karlsruhe, Geschichte der Stadt und ihrer Verwaltung (Karlsruhe, 1893-1902); Naeher, Die Umgebung der Residenz Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe, 1888); and the annual Chronik der Haupt- und Residenzstadt Karlsruhe.

KARLSTAD [Carlstad], a town of Sweden, the capital of the district (län) of Vermland, on the island of Tingvalla under the northern shore of Lake Vener, 205 m. W. of Stockholm by the Christiania railway. Pop. (1900), 11,869. The fine Klar River here enters the lake, descending from the mountains of the frontier. To the north-west lies the Fryksdal or valley of the Nors River, containing three beautiful lakes and fancifully named the “Swedish Switzerland.” In this and other parts of the district are numerous iron-works. Karlstad was founded in 1584. It is the seat of a bishop and has a cathedral. Trade is carried on by way of the lake and the Göta canal. There are mechanical works, match factories and stockinet factories, and a mineral spring rich in iron, the water of which is bottled for export. Under the constitution of united Sweden and Norway, in the event of the necessity of electing a Regent and the disagreement of the parliaments of the two countries, Karlstad was indicated as the meeting-place of a delegacy for the purpose. Here, on the 31st of August 1905 the conference met to decide upon the severance of the union between Sweden and Norway, the delegates concluding their work on the 23rd of September.

KARLSTADT or Carlstadt (Hungarian, Károlyváros; Croatian, Karlovac), a royal free city, municipality and garrison town in the county of Agram, Croatia-Slavonia; standing on hilly ground beside the river Kulpa, which here receives the Korana and the Dobra. Pop. (1900), 7396. Karlstadt is on the railway from Agram to Fiume. It consists of the fortress, now obsolete, the inner town and the suburbs. Besides the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, its chief buildings are the Franciscan monastery, law-courts and several large schools, including one for military cadets. Karlstadt has a considerable transit trade in grain, wine, spirits and honey, and manufactures the liqueur called rosoglio.

KARMA, sometimes written Karman, a Sanskrit noun (from the root kri, to do), meaning deed or action. In addition to this simple meaning it has also, both in the philosophical and the colloquial speech of India a technical meaning, denoting “a person’s deeds as determining his future lot.” This is not merely in the vague sense that on the whole good will be rewarded and evil punished, but that every single act must work out to the uttermost its inevitable consequences, and receive its retribution, however many ages the process may require. Every part of the material universe—man, woman, insect, tree, stone, or whatever it be—is the dwelling of an eternal spirit that is working out its destiny, and while receiving reward and punishment for the past is laying up reward and punishment for the future. This view of existence as an endless and concomitant sowing and reaping is accepted by learned and unlearned alike as accounting for those inequalities in human life which might otherwise lead men to doubt the justice of God. Every act of every person has not only a moral value producing merit or demerit, but also an inherent power which works out its fitting reward or punishment. To the Hindu this does not make heaven and hell unnecessary. These two exist in many forms more or less grotesque, and after death the soul passes to one of them and there receives its due; but that existence too is marked by desire and action, and is therefore productive of merit or demerit, and as the soul is thus still entangled in the meshes of karma it must again assume an earthly garb and continue the strife. Salvation is to the Hindu simply deliverance from the power of karma, and each of the philosophic systems has its own method of obtaining it. The last book of the Laws of Manu deals with karmaphalam, “the fruit of karma,” and gives many curious details of the way in which sin is punished and merit rewarded. The origin of the doctrine cannot be traced with certainty, but there is little doubt that it is post-vedic, and that it was readily accepted by Buddha in the 6th century B.C. As he did not believe in the existence of soul he had to modify the doctrine (see Buddhism).

KÁRMÁN, JÓZSEF (1769-1795), Hungarian author, was born at Losoncz on the 14th of March 1769, the son of a Calvinist pastor. He was educated at Losoncz and Pest, whence he migrated to Vienna. There he made the acquaintance of the beautiful and eccentric Countess Markovics, who was for a time his mistress, but she was not, as has often been supposed, the heroine of his famous novel Fanni Hagyománai (Fanny’s testament). Subsequently he settled in Pest as a lawyer. His sensibility, social charm, liberal ideas (he was one of the earliest of the Magyar freemasons) and personal beauty, opened the doors of the best houses to him. He was generally known as the Pest Alcibiades, and was especially at home in the salons of the Protestant magnates. In 1792, together with Count Ráday, he founded the first theatrical society at Buda. He maintained that Pest, not Pressburg, should be the literary centre of Hungary, and in 1794 founded the first Hungarian quarterly, Urania, but it met with little support and ceased to exist in 1795, after three volumes had appeared. Kármán, who had long been suffering from an incurable disease, died in the same year. The most important contribution to Urania was his sentimental novel, Fanni Hagyománai, much in the style of La nouvelle Héloïse and Werther, the most exquisite product of Hungarian prose in the 18th century and one of the finest psychological romances in the literature. Kármán also wrote two satires and fragments of an historical novel, while his literary programme is set forth in his dissertation Anemzet csinosodása.

Kármán’s collected works were published in Abafi’s Nemzeti Könyvtár (Pest, 1878), &c., preceded by a life of Kármán. See F. Baráth, Joseph Kármán (Hung., Vas. Ujs, 1874); Zsolt Beöthy, article on Kármán in Képes Irodalomtörtenet (Budapest, 1894).

(R. N. B.)

KARNAK, a village in Upper Egypt (pop. 1907, 12,585), which has given its name to the northern half of the ruins of Thebes on the east bank of the Nile, the southern being known as Luxor (q.v.). The Karnak ruins comprise three great enclosures built of crude brick. The northernmost and smallest of these contained a temple of the god Mont, built by Amenophis III., and restored by Rameses II. and the Ptolemies. Except a well-preserved gateway dating from the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes I., little more than the plan of the foundations is traceable. Its axis, the line of which is continued beyond the enclosure wall by an avenue of sphinxes, pointed down-stream (N.E.). The southern enclosure contained a temple of the goddess Mūt, also built by Amenophis III., and almost as ruinous as the last, but on a much larger scale. At the back is the sacred lake in the shape of a horse-shoe. The axis of the temple runs approximately northward, and is continued by a great avenue of rams to the southern pylons of the central enclosure. This last is of vast dimensions, forming approximately a square of 1500 ft., and it contains the greatest of all known temples, the Karnak temple of Ammon (see Architecture, sect. “Egyptian,” with plan).

Inside and outside each of these enclosures there were a number of subsidiary temples and shrines, mostly erected by individual kings to special deities. The triad of Thebes was formed by Ammon, his wife Mūt and their son Khons. The large temple of Khons is in the enclosure of the Ammon temple, and the temple of Mūt, as already stated, is connected with the latter by the avenue of rams. The Mont temple, on the other hand, is isolated from the others and turned away from them; it is smaller than that of Khons. Mont, however, may perhaps be considered a special god of Thebes; he certainly was a great god from very ancient times in the immediate neighbourhood, his seats being about 4 m. N.E. at Medamot, the ancient Madu, and about 10 m. S.W. on the west bank at Hermonthis.

It is probable that a temple of Ammon existed at Karnak under the Old Kingdom, if not in the prehistoric age; but it was unimportant, and no trace of it has been discovered. Slight remains of a considerable temple of the Middle Kingdom survive behind the shrine of the great temple, and numbers of fine statues of the twelfth and later dynasties have been found; two of these were placed against the later seventh pylon, while a large number were buried in a great pit, in the area behind that pylon, which has yielded an enormous number of valuable and interesting monuments reaching to the age of the Ptolemies. The axis of the early temple lay from E. to W., and was followed by the main line of the later growth; but at the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty, Amenophis I. built a temple south of the west front of the old one, and at right angles to it, and thus started a new axis which was later developed in the series of pylons VII.-X., and the avenue to the temple of Mūt. The VIIIth pylon in particular was built by Hatshepsut, probably as an approach to this temple of Amenophis, but eventually Tethmosis III. cleared the latter away entirely. Thebes was then the royal residence, and Ammon of Karnak was the great god of the state. Tethmosis I. built a court round the temple of the Middle Kingdom, entered through a pylon (No. V.), and later added the pylon No. IV. with obelisks in front of it. Hatshepsut placed two splendid obelisks between the Pylons IV. and V., and built a shrine in the court of Tethmosis I., in front of the old temple. Tethmosis III., greatest of the Pharaohs, remodelled the buildings about the obelisks of his unloved sister with the deliberate intention of hiding them from view, and largely reconstructed the surroundings of the court. At a later date, after his wars were over, he altered Hatshepsut’s sanctuary, engraving on the walls about it a record of his campaigns; to this time also is to be attributed the erection of a great festival hall at the back of the temple. The small innermost pylon (No. VI.) is likewise the work of Tethmosis III. Amenophis III., though so great a builder at Thebes, seems to have contented himself with erecting a great pylon (No. III.) at the west end. The closely crowded succession of broad pylons here suggests a want of space for westward expansion, and this is perhaps explained by a trace of a quay found by Legrain in 1905 near the southern line of pylons; a branch of the Nile or a large canal may have limited the growth. As has been stated, Tethmosis III. continued on the southern axis; he destroyed the temple of Amenophis I. and erected a larger pylon (No. VII.) to the north of Hatshepsut’s No. VIII. To these Haremheb added two great pylons and the long avenue of ram-figures, changing the axis slightly so as to lead direct to the temple of Mūt built by Amenophis III. All of these southern pylons are well spaced. In the angle between these pylons and the main temple was the great rectangular sacred lake. By this time the temple of Karnak had attained to little more than half of its ultimate length from east to west.

With the XIXth Dynasty there is a notable change perhaps due to the filling of the hypothetical canal. No more was added on the southern line of building, but westward Rameses I. erected pylon No. II. at an ample distance from that of Amenophis III., and Seti I. and Rameses II. utilized the space between for their immense Hall of Columns, one of the most celebrated achievements of Egyptian architecture. The materials of which the pylon is composed bear witness to a temple having stood near by of the heretic and unacknowledged kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty. Haremheb’s pylon No. IX. was likewise constructed out of the ruins of a temple dedicated by Amenophis IV. (Akhenaten) to the sun-god Harmakhis. Rameses III. built a fine temple, still well preserved, to Ammon at right angles to the axis westward of pylon No. II.; Sheshonk I. (Dynasty XXII.) commenced a great colonnaded court in front of the pylon, enclosing part of this temple and a smaller triple shrine built by Seti II. In the centre of the court Tirhaka (Tirhaka, Dynasty XXV.) set up huge columns 64 ft. high, rivalling those of the central aisle in the Hall of Columns, for some building now destroyed. A vast unfinished pylon at the west end (No. I.), 370 ft. wide and 142½ ft. high, is of later date than the court, and is usually attributed to the Ptolemaic age. It will be observed that the successive pylons diminish in size from the outside inwards. Portions of the solid crude-brick scaffolding are still seen banked against this pylon. About 100 metres west of it is a stone quay, on the platform of which stood a pair of obelisks of Seti II.; numerous graffiti recording the height of the Nile from the XXIst to the XXVIth Dynasties are engraved on the quay.

Besides the kings named above, numbers of others contributed in greater or less measure to the building or decoration of the colossal temple. Alexander the Great restored a chamber in the festival hall of Tethmosis III., and Ptolemy Soter built the central shrine of granite in the name of Philip Arrhidaeus. The walls throughout, as usually in Egyptian temples, are covered with scenes and inscriptions, many of these, such as those which record the annals of Tethmosis III., the campaign of Seti I. in Syria, the exploit of Rameses II. at the battle of Kadesh and his treaty with the Hittites, and the dedication of Sheshonk’s victories to Ammon, are of great historical importance. Several large stelae with interesting inscriptions have been found in the ruins, and statues of many ages of workmanship. In December 1903 M. Legrain, who has been engaged for several years in clearing the temple area systematically, first tapped an immense deposit of colossal statues, stelae and other votive objects large and small in the space between pylon No. VII. and the great hypostyle hall. After three seasons’ work, much of it in deep water, 750 large monuments have been extracted, while the small figures, &c. in bronze and other materials amount to nearly 20,000. The value of the find, both from the artistic and historical standpoints, is immense. The purpose of the deposit is still in doubt; many of the objects are of the finest materials and finest workmanship, and in perfect preservation: even precious metals are not absent. Multitudes of objects in wood, ivory, &c., have decayed beyond recovery. That all were waste pieces seems incredible. They are found lying in the utmost confusion; in date they range from the XIIth Dynasty to the Ptolemaic period.

The inundation annually reaches the floor of the temple, and the saltpetre produced from the organic matter about the ruins, annually melting and crystallizing, has disintegrated the soft sandstone in the lower courses of the walls and the lower drums and bases of the columns. There is moreover no solid foundation in any part of the temple. Slight falls of masonry have taken place from time to time, and the accumulation of rubbish was the only thing that prevented a great disaster. Repairs, often on a large scale, have therefore gone on side by side with the clearance, especially since the fall of many columns in the great hall in 1899. All the columns which fell in that year were re-erected by 1908.

The temple of Khons, in the S.W. corner of the great enclosure, is approached by an avenue of rams, and entered through a fine pylon erected by Euergetes I. It was built by Rameses III. and his successors of the XXth Dynasty, with Hrihōr of Dynasty XXI. Excavations in the opposite S.E. corner have revealed flint weapons and other sepulchral remains of the earliest periods, proving that the history of Thebes goes back to a remote antiquity.

See Baedeker’s Handbook for Egypt; also Description de l’Égypte. Atlas, Antiquités (tome iii.); A. Mariette, Karnak, Étude topographique et archéologique; L. Borchardt, Zur Baugeschichte des Ammontempels von Karnak; G. Legrain in Recueil des travaux rélatifs à l’arch. Égypt., vol. xxvii. &c.; and reports in Annales du service des antiquités de l’Égypte.

(F. Ll. G.)

KARNAL, a town and district of British India, in the Delhi division of the Punjab. The town is 7 m. from the right bank of the Jumna, with a railway station 76 m. N. of Delhi. Pop. (1901), 23,559. There are manufactures of cotton cloth and boots, besides considerable local trade and an annual horse fair.

The District of Karnal stretches along the right bank of the Jumna, north of Delhi. It is entirely an alluvial plain, but is crossed by the low uplift of the watershed between the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Area, 3153 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 883,225, showing an increase of nearly 3% in the decade. The principal crops are millets, wheat, pulse, rice, cotton and sugar-cane. There are several factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The district is traversed by the Delhi-Umballa-Kalka railway, and also by the Western Jumna canal. It suffered from famine in 1896-1897, and again to some extent in 1899-1900.

No district of India can boast of a more ancient history than Karnal, as almost every town or stream is connected with the legends of the Mahabharata. The town of Karnal itself is said to owe its foundation to Raja Karna, the mythical champion of the Kauravas in the great war which forms the theme of the national epic. Panipat, in the south of the district, is said to have been one of the pledges demanded from Duryodhana by Yudisthira as the price of peace in that famous conflict. In historical times the plains of Panipat have three times proved the theatre of battles which decided the fate of Upper India. It was here that Ibrahim Lodi and his vast host were defeated in 1526 by the veteran army of Baber; in 1556 Akbar reasserted the claims of his family on the same battlefield against the Hindu general of the house of Adil Shah, which had driven the heirs of Baber from the throne for a brief interval; and at Panipat too, on the 7th of January 1761, the Mahratta confederation was defeated by Ahmad Shah Durani. During the troublous period which then ensued the Sikhs managed to introduce themselves, and in 1767 one of their chieftains, Desu Singh, appropriated the fort of Kaithal, which had been built during the reign of Akbar. His descendants, the bhais of Kaithal, were reckoned amongst the most important Cis-Sutlej princes. Different portions of this district have lapsed from time to time into the hands of the British.

KÁROLYI, ALOYS, Count (1825-1889), Austro-Hungarian diplomatist, was born in Vienna on the 8th of August 1825. The greatness of the Hungarian family of Károlyi dates from the time of Alexander Károlyi (1668-1743), one of the generals of Francis Rákóczy II., who in 1711 negotiated the peace of Szatmár between the insurgent Hungarians and the new king, the emperor Charles VI., was made a count of the Empire in 1712, and subsequently became a field marshal in the imperial army. Aloys Károlyi entered the Austrian diplomatic service, and was attached successively to embassies at various European capitals. In 1858 he was sent to St Petersburg on a special mission to seek the support of Russia against Napoleon III. He was ambassador at Berlin in 1866 at the time of the rupture between Prussia and Austria, and after the Seven Weeks’ War was charged with the negotiation of the preliminaries of peace at Nikolsburg. He was again sent to Berlin in 1871, acted as second plenipotentiary at the Berlin congress of 1878, and was sent in the same year to London, where he represented Austria for ten years. He died on the 2nd of December 1889 at Tótmegyer.

KAROSS, a cloak made of sheepskin, or the hide of other animals, with the hair left on. It is properly confined to the coat of skin without sleeves worn by the Hottentots and Bushmen of South Africa. These karosses are now often replaced by a blanket. Their chiefs wore karosses of the skin of the wild cat, leopard or caracal. The word is also loosely applied to the cloaks of leopard-skin worn by the chiefs and principal men of the Kaffir tribes. Kaross is probably either a genuine Hottentot word, or else an adaptation of the Dutch kuras (Portuguese couraça), a cuirass. In a vocabulary dated 1673 karos is described as a “corrupt Dutch word.”

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 Collège 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. His Vendredi soir (1835) and Le Chemin le plus court (1836) continued the vein of autobiographical romance with which he had made his first success. Géneviève (1838) is one of his best stories, and his Voyage autour de mon jardin (1845) was deservedly popular. Others were Feu Bressier (1848), and Fort en thème (1853), which had some influence in stimulating educational reform. In 1839 Alphonse Karr, who was essentially a brilliant journalist, became editor of Le Figaro, to which he had been a constant contributor; and he also started a monthly journal, Les Guêpes, of a keenly satirical tone, a publication which brought him the reputation of a somewhat bitter wit. His epigrams were frequently quoted; e.g. “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” and, on the proposal to abolish capital punishment, “je veux bien que messieurs les assassins commencent.” In 1848 he founded Le 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 in Les Soirées de Sainte-Adresse (1853) and Au 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 Raphaël (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 entitled Der Boden der Hauptstädte 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 of Karusa, 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 “steps” 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 of kopjes. 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 87° F., whilst July, the coldest month, has a mean minimum of 36° F. A marked feature of the climate is the great daily range (nearly 30°) 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. (See Cape 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 (35° F.) equal to that of Hammerfest in the extreme north of Norway, the thermometer goes down in winter to 40° below zero and rises in summer to 99°. The annual mean temperature at Kars is 40.5° and at Ardahan, farther north, 37°. 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, while Kurds 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 40° 37′ N. and 43° 6′ 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 suburbs—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); and Narrative 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 “bad lands” of America, though due to a different cause.

KARSTEN, KARL JOHANN BERNHARD (1782-1853), German mineralogist, was born at Bützow in Mecklenburg, on the 26th of November 1782. He was author of several comprehensive works, including Handbuch der Eisenhüttenkunde (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 the Archiv für Bergbau und Hüttenwesen (20 vols., 1818-1831); and (with H. von Dechen) of the Archiv für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Bergbau und Hüttenkunde (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 the Bundahish, an old cosmographical work in Pahlavi, it is named Kharāē.1 From 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 “Gerger,” an artificial channel cut in olden times and flowing east of the city, the other the “Shutait” 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 “blind Karun,” 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 (“dug”) implies, an artificial channel. It was dug c. A.D. 980 by Azud ed-Dowleh to facilitate communication by water between Basra and Ahvaz, as related by the Arab geographer Mukaddasi A.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 years’ 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, “The Bakhtiari Mountains and Upper Elam,” Geog. Journal (Dec. 1894).

(A. H.-S.)

1 The real principal source of the river has been correctly located at ten miles above the reputed principal 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 “variegated mountain.”

KARWAR, or Carwar, 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 “the Kirwee and Banda Prize Money.”

KARYOGAMY (Gr. κάρυον, nut or kernel, thus “nucleus,” and γάμος, marriage), in biology: (1) the fusion of nuclei to form a single nucleus in syngamic processes (see Reproduction); (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, or Cassai, a river of Africa, the chief southern affluent of the Congo. It enters the main stream in 3° 10′ S., 16° 16′ E. after a course of over 800 m. from its source in the highlands which form the south-western edge of the Congo basin—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 12° S., 19° E. and flows first in a north-easterly direction. About 10° 35′ S., 22° 15′ E. it makes a rectangular bend northward and then takes a north-westerly direction. Five rivers—the Luembo, Chiumbo, Luijimo or Luashimo, Chikapa and Lovua or Lowo—rise west of the Kasai and run in parallel courses for a considerable distance, falling successively into the parent stream (between 7° and 6° 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 12° 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 4° 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 4° 17′ S., 20° 15′ 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 12° S., and west of the source of the Kasai. Without any marked bends it flows north—is joined from the east by the Juma, Wamba and other streams—and has a course of 600 m. before joining the Kasai in 3° S., 18′ E. The lower reaches of the Kwango are navigable; the upper course is interrupted by rapids. On the north (in 3° 8′ S., 17° E.) the lower Kasai is joined by the Lukenye or Ikatta. This river, the most northerly affluent of the Kasai, rises between 24° and 25° E., and about 3° 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 “seventies.” The Kwa mouth was seen by H. M. Stanley in his journey down the Congo in 1877, and he rightly regarded it as the outlet 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 Wissmann’s books, especially Im 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 Torday’s paper in Geog. Jour., 1910; also Congo and the authorities there cited.)

KASBEK (Georgian, Mkin-vari; Ossetian, Urs-khokh), one of the chief summits of the Caucasus, situated in 42° 42′ N. and 44° 30′ 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 in Proc. Geog. Soc. (November 1888) and The Exploration of the Caucasus (2nd ed., 2 vols., 1902); Hatisian’s “Kazbek Glaciers” in Izvestia Russ. Geog. Soc. (xxiv., 1888); Pastukhov in Izvestia 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 districts germsir, the “warm,” and sardsir, the “cold,” 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 £18,000. Kashan (Cashan) is the provincial capital, in 34° 0′ N. and 51° 27′ 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 39° 24′ 26″ N. lat., 76° 6′ 47″ E. long., 4043 ft. above sea-level. It consists of two towns, Kuhna Shahr or “old city,” and Yangi Shahr or “new city,” about five miles apart, and separated from one another by the Kyzyl Su, a tributary of the Tarim river. It is called Su-lēh by the Chinese, which perhaps represents an original Solek or Sorak. This name seems to be older than Kashgar, which is said to mean “variegated houses.” 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 city—Aski Shahr (Old Town) as it is now called—was destroyed in 1514 by Mirza Ababakar (Abubekr) on the approach of Sultan Said Khan’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 Beg’s sway, Yangi Shahr held a garrison of six thousand men, and was the residence of the amban or governor. Yakub erected his orda or palace on the site of the amban’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 called kham (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-grinder’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 76 B.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 a Kasia 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. Hsüan 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 its weight 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 (see Turks). The Uighurs appear to have been the descendants of the people called Tölas 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.