Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/442

LEFT KONIGSTEIN 366 KORDOrAN KONIGSTEIN, a fortress of Saxony, once regarded as impregnable, but now of no military importance, on a rock 800 feet above the Elbe, 24 miles S. E. of Dresden. Here the Saxon army yielded to Frederick the Great in 1756. ) KONKAN, the name given to the strip of coast districts in Bombay presidency, India, extending from Gujarat on the N., past Goa, as far as the S. limit of North Kanara district; the breadth varies from 1 or 2 to 50 miles, as the Western Ghats approach or recede from the sea; area 3 6,415 square miles. The Konkan in- cludes North Kanara, the British dis- tricts of Ratnagiri, Kolaba, and Thana, Bombay city and island, the native states of Jawhar, Janjira, and Sawantwari, and the Portuguese territory of Goa. The common language is Marathi. KONSTANZ. See CONSTANCE. KOO, VI-KYUIN WELLINGTON, a Chinese diplomat, born in Shanghai, China, in 1888. He was educated _ in various schools and colleges in China and at Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1909. After occupying various official positions in China, he was appointed Minister to Mexico in 1915. This was followed by his appointment as Minister to the United States in the same year. He served on many commissions connected with Chinese affairs and_ re- ceived many decorations for his services. He wrote "The Status of Aliens in China" (1912) and edited "Studies in Chinese Treaties" (1914). KOODOO, a beautiful antelope, slate- gray, with transverse white markings. The males with spirally twisted horns, about four feet long; the females horn- less; height about five feet at the shoul- ders. Extends from South Africa to Abyssinia. KOOLOKAMBA, an anthropoid ape shot by Du Chaillu in the forests of West- ern Equatorial Africa. The shoulders are broad, the ears large, the arms extend below the knee; the limbs adapt it to go on all fours and to climb trees ; the waist is as broad and thick as the chest. It feeds on vegetables. KOORIA MOORIA ISLANDS, a group of five islands on the S. E. coast of Arabia, belonging to Great Britain. There was a considerable deposit of guano on the largest island; but it was not of very good quality, and is now ex- hausted. KOOTENAY, a river in British Col- umbia, 300 miles long, noted for its curv- ature. It flows through a pleasant re- gion named also Kootenay. KORAN, the Mohammedan scriptures, which professedly consist of revelations made by Allah (God) to Mohammed, the medium of communication being the angel Gabriel. When a Mussulman quotes from them, the formula he uses is not "Mohammed says," but "God says." He calls the book the Book of God, and the Word of God, or the Book. Moham- med wrote nothing himself, yet his fol- lowers noted down his utterances on leather, palm leaves, stones, and even the shoulder blades of sheep. His com- panions also preserved much by oral reci- tation. The Koran is smaller than the Bible. It is divided into 114 suras, or chapters, arranged achronically. The chapters are named as well as numbered; thus, ch. ii. is denominated "the Cow"; eh. v., "the Table"; Ixxxvi., "the Night Star." The vfork consists of moral, religious, civil, and political teachings, commingled with promises, threatenings, etc., to be fulfilled in the future world; with Bib- lical narratives, Arabic and Christian traditions, etc. Later revelations some- times revoked or essentially modified those which had gone before. The Caliph Abu Beker, or Bacr, directed Zeid ibn Thorbit to collect the scattered utter- ances of the Koran. Afterward there was a revision by the Caliph Othman. It has been translated into most Euro- pean languages. KORDOFAN, or THE WHITE LAND, lately a province of the Egyptian Sudan ; separated from Sennaar on the E. by the White Nile, and from Dar-Fur on the W. by a strip of desert; area esti- mated at 41,500 square miles; pop. about 300,000. The province is traversed by no rivers; but water is found almost everywhere at a comparatively short depth. The chief produce of the soil is millet, the principal food of the inhab- itants. Gum trees, mimosas, thorny plants abound, but there is no forest tim- ber. Gums, hides, ivory, ostrich feath- ers, and gold are exported. Three-fifths of the population are settled; the rest are nomadic. The aborigines belong mainly to the Nuba stock, but use a negro tongue and are mostly pagans. There is a large element of nomad and slave-hunting "Arabs," Moslems in faith. The capital is El-Obeid. In the end of the 18th century Kordofan was con- quered bv the ruler of Sennaar, then by the sultan of Dar-Ffir; in 1821 it was annexed by Mehemet Ali of Egypt, but was lost to the Egyptians by the Mahdi s revolt in 1883. When the Egyptian Sudan was officially organized in 1899, Kordofan became one of its provinces.