Page:EB1911 - Volume 15.djvu/722

Rh KASSASSIN, a village of Lower Egypt 22 m. by rail W. of Ismailia on the Suez Canal. At this place, on the 28th of August and again on the 9th of September 1882 the British force operating against Arabi Pasha was attacked by the Egyptians—both attacks being repulsed (see : Military Operations).

 KASSITES, an Elamite tribe who played an important part in the history of Babylonia. They still inhabited the north-western mountains of Elam, immediately south of Holwan, when Sennacherib attacked them in 702 They are the Kossaeans of Ptolemy, who divides Susiana between them and the Elymaeans; according to Strabo (xi. 13, 3, 6) they were the neighbours of the Medes. Th. Nöldeke (Gött. G. G., 1874, pp. 173 seq.) has shown that they are the Kissians of the older Greek authors who are identified with the Susians by Aeschylus (Choeph. 424, Pers. 17, 120) and Herodotus (v. 49, 52). We already hear of them as attacking Babylonia in the 9th year of Samsu-iluna the son of Khammurabi, and about 1780 they overran Babylonia and founded a dynasty there which lasted for 576 years and nine months. In the course of centuries, however, they were absorbed into the Babylonian population; the kings adopted Semitic names and married into the royal family of Assyria. Like the other languages of the non-Semitic tribes of Elam that of the Kassites was agglutinative; a vocabulary of it has been handed down in a cuneiform tablet, as well as a list of Kassite names with their Semitic equivalents. It has no connexion with Indo-European, as has erroneously been supposed. Some of the Kassite deities were introduced into the Babylonian pantheon, and the Kassite tribe of Khabirā seems to have settled in the Babylonian plain.

See Fr. Delitzsch, Die Sprache der Kossäer (1884).

 KASTAMUNI, or. (1) A vilayet of Asia Minor which includes Paphlagonia and parts of Pontus and Galatia. It is divided into four sanjaks—Kastamuni, Boli, Changra and Sinope—is rich in mineral wealth, and has many mineral springs and extensive forests, the timber being used for charcoal and building and the bark for tanning. The products are chiefly cereals, fruits, opium, cotton, tobacco, wool, ordinary goat-hair and mohair, in which there is a large trade. There are coal-mines at and near Eregli (anc. Heracleia) which yield steam coal nearly as good in quality as the English, but they are badly worked. Its population comprises about 993,000 Moslems and 27,000 Christians. (2) The capital of the vilayet, the ancient Castamon, altitude 2500 ft., situated in the narrow valley of the Geuk Irmak (Amnias), and connected by a carriage road, 54 m., with its port Ineboli on the Black Sea. The town is noted for its copper utensils, but the famous copper mines about 36 m. N., worked from ancient times to the 19th century, are now abandoned. There are over 30 mosques in the town, a dervish monastery, and numerous theological colleges (medresses), and the Moslem inhabitants have a reputation for bigotry. The climate though subject to extremes of heat and cold is healthy; in winter the roads are often closed by snow. The population of 16,000 includes about 2500 Christians. Castamon became an important city in later Byzantine times. It lay on the northern trunk-road to the Euphrates and was built round a strong fortress whose ruins crown the rocky hill west of the town. It was taken by the Danishmand Amirs of Sivas early in the 12th century, and passed to the Turks in 1393.

 KASTORIA (Turkish Kesrie), a city of Macedonia, European Turkey, in the vilayet of Monastir, 45 m. S. by W. of Monastir (Bitolia). Pop. (1905), about 10,000, one-third of whom are Greeks, one-third Slavs, and the remainder Albanians or Turks. Kastoria occupies part of a peninsula on the western shore of Lake Kastoria, which here receives from the north its affluent the Zhelova. The lake is formed in a deep hollow surrounded by limestone mountains, and is drained on the south by the Bistritza, a large river which flows S.E. nearly to the Greek frontier, then sharply turns N.E., and finally enters the Gulf of Salonica. The lake has an area of 20 sq. m., and is 2850 ft. above sea-level. Kastoria is the seat of an Orthodox archbishop. It is usually identified with the ancient Celetrum, captured by the Romans under Sulpicius, during the first Macedonian campaign, 200 , and better known for the defence maintained by Bryennius against Alexis I. in 1084. A Byzantine wall with round towers runs across the peninsula.

 KASUR, a town of British India, in the Lahore district of the Punjab, situated on the north bank of the old bed of the river Beas, 34 m. S.E. of Lahore. Pop. (1901), 22,022. A Rajput colony seems to have occupied the present site before the earliest Mahommedan invasion; but Kasur does not appear in history until late in the Mussulman period, when it was settled by a Pathan colony from beyond the Indus. It has an export trade in grain and cotton, and manufactures of cotton and leather goods.

 KATAGUM, the sub-province of the double province of Kano in the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria. It lies approximately between 11° and 13° N. and 8° 20′ and 10° 40′ E. It is bounded N. by the French Sudan, E. by Bornu, S. by Bauchi, and W. by Kano. Katagum consists of several small but ancient Mahommedan emirates—Katagum, Messau, Gummel, Hadeija, Machena, with a fringe of Bedde pagans on its eastern frontier towards Bornu, and other pagans on the south towards Bauchi. The Waube flows from Kano through the province via Hadeija and by Damjiri in Bornu to Lake Chad, affording a route for the transport of goods brought by the Zungeru-Zaria-Kano railway to the headquarters of Katagum and western Bornu. Katagum is a fertile province inhabited by an industrious people whose manufactures rival those of Kano.

In ancient times the province of Katagum formed the debateable country between Bornu and the Hausa states. Though Mahommedan it resisted the Fula invasion. Its northern emirates were for a long time subject to Bornu, and its customs are nearly assimilated to those of Bornu. The province was taken under administrative control by the British in October 1903. In 1904 the capitals of Gummel, Hadeija, Messau and Jemaari, were brought into touch with the administration and native and provincial courts established. At the beginning of 1905 Katagum was incorporated as a sub-province with the province of Kano, and the administrative organization of a double province was extended over the whole. Hadeija, which is a very wealthy town and holds an important position both as a source of supplies and a centre of trade, received a garrison of mounted infantry and became the capital of the sub-province.

Hadeija was an old Habe town and its name, an evident corruption of Khadija, the name of the celebrated wife and first convert of Mahomet, is a strong presumption of the incorrectness of the Fula claim to have introduced Islam to its inhabitants. The ruling dynasty of Hadeija was, however, overthrown by Fula usurpation towards the end of the 18th century, and the Fula ruler received a flag and a blessing from Dan Fodio at the beginning of his sacred war in the opening years of the 19th century. Nevertheless the habit of independence being strong in the town of Hadeija the little emirate held its own against Sokoto, Bornu and all comers. Though included nominally within the province at Katagum it was the boast of Hadeija that it had never been conquered. It had made nominal submission to the British in 1903 on the successful conclusion of the Kano-Sokoto campaign, and in 1905, as has been stated, was chosen as the capital of the sub-province. The emir’s attitude became, however, in the spring of 1906 openly antagonistic to the British and a military expedition was sent against him. The emir with his disaffected chiefs made a plucky stand but after five hours’ street fighting the town was reduced. The emir and three of his sons were killed, and a new emir, the rightful heir to the throne, who had shown himself in favour of a peaceful policy, was appointed. The offices of the war chiefs in Hadeija were abolished and 150 yards of the town wall were broken down.

Slave dealing is at an end in Katagum. The military station at Hadeija forms a link in the chain of British forts which extends along the northern frontier of the protectorate. (See .)

 KATANGA, a district of Belgian Congo, forming the south-eastern part of the colony. Area, approximately, 180,000 sq. m.; estimated population 1,000,000. The natives are members of