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Rh Persia, cool streams and lines of willows running along the broad and regular streets. There are some good buildings, including the governor’s residence, several mosques, a large brick bazaar and a fine caravanserai. There is a large transit trade, and considerable local traffic across the Turkish border. The city surrendered to the Russians in 1827 without fighting and after the treaty of peace (Turkman Chai, Feb. 1828) was held for some time by a garrison of 3000 Russian troops as a guarantee for the payment of the war indemnity. In September 1881 Khoi suffered much from a violent earthquake. It has post and telegraph offices.

KHOJENT, or, a town of the province of Syr-darya, in Russian Turkestan, on the left bank of the Syr-darya or Jaxartes, 144 m. by rail S.S.E. from Tashkent, in 40° 17′ N. and 69° 30′ E., and on the direct road from Bokhara to Khokand. Pop. (1900), 31,881. The Russian quarter lies between the river and the native town. Near the river is the old citadel, on the top of an artificial square mound, about 100 ft. high. The banks of the river are so high as to make its water useless to the town in the absence of pumping gear. Formerly the entire commerce between the khanates of Bokhara and Khokand passed through this town, but since the Russian occupation (1866) much of it has been diverted. Silkworms are reared, and silk and cotton goods are manufactured. A coarse ware is made in imitation of Chinese porcelain. The district immediately around the town is taken up with cotton plantations, fruit gardens and vineyards. The majority of the inhabitants are Tajiks.

Khojent has always been a bone of contention between Khokand and Bokhara. When the amir of Bokhara assisted Khudayar Khan to regain his throne in 1864, he kept possession of Khojent. In 1866 the town was stormed by the Russians; and during their war with Khokand in 1875 it played an important part.

 KHOKAND, or, a town of Asiatic Russia, in the province of Ferghana, on the railway from Samarkand to Andijan, 85 m. by rail S.W. of the latter, and 20 m. S. of the Syr-darya. Pop. (1900), 86,704. Situated at an altitude of 1375 ft., it has a severe climate, the average temperatures being—year, 56°; January, 22°; July, 65°. Yearly rainfall, 3.6 in. It is the centre of a fertile irrigated oasis, and consists of a citadel, enclosed by a wall nearly 12 m. in circuit, and of suburbs containing luxuriant gardens. The town is modernized, has broad streets and large squares, and a particularly handsome bazaar. The former palace of the khans, which recalls by its architecture the mosques of Samarkand, is the best building in the town. Khokand is one of the most important centres of trade in Turkestan. Raw cotton and silk are the principal exports, while manufactured goods are imported from Russia. Coins bearing the inscription “Khokand the Charming,” and known as khokands, have or had a wide currency.

The khanate of Khokand was a powerful state which grew up in the 18th century. Its early history is not well known, but the town was founded in 1732 by Abd-ur-Rahim under the name of Iski-kurgan, or Kali-i-Rahimbai. This must relate, however, to the fort only, because Arab travellers of the 10th century mention Hovakend or Hokand, the position of which has been identified with that of Khokand. Many other populous and wealthy towns existed in this region at the time of the Arab conquest of Ferghana. In 1758–1759 the Chinese conquered Dzungaria and East Turkestan, and the begs or rulers of Ferghana recognized Chinese suzerainty. In 1807 or 1808 Alim, son of Narbuta, brought all the begs of Ferghana under his authority, and conquered Tashkent and Chimkent. His attacks on the Bokharan fortress of Ura-tyube were however unsuccessful, and the country rose against him. He was killed in 1817 by the adherents of his brother Omar. Omar was a poet and patron of learning, but continued to enlarge his kingdom, taking the sacred town of Azret (Turkestan), and to protect Ferghana from the raids of the nomad Kirghiz built fortresses on the Syr-darya, which became a basis for raids of the Khokand people into Kirghiz land. This was the origin of a conflict with Russia. Several petty wars were undertaken by the Russians after 1847 to destroy the Khokand forts, and to secure possession, first, of the Ili (and so of Dzungaria), and next of the Syr-darya region, the result being that in 1866, after the occupation of Ura-tyube and Jizakh, the khanate of Khokand was separated from Bokhara. During the forty-five years after the death of Omar (he died in 1822) the khanate of Khokand was the seat of continuous wars between the settled Sarts and the nomad Kipchaks, the two parties securing the upper hand in turns, Khokand falling under the dominion or the suzerainty of Bokhara, which supported Khudayar-khan, the representative of the Kipchak party, in 1858–1866; while Alim-kul, the representative of the Sarts, put himself at the head of the gazawat (Holy War) proclaimed in 1860, and fought bravely against the Russians until killed at Tashkent in 1865. In 1868 Khudayar-khan, having secured independence from Bokhara, concluded a commercial treaty with the Russians, but was compelled to flee in 1875, when a new Holy War against Russia was proclaimed. It ended in the capture of the strong fort of Makhram, the occupation of Khokand and Marghelan (1875), and the recognition of Russian superiority by the amir of Bokhara, who conceded to Russia all the territory north of the Naryn river. War, however, was renewed in the following year. It ended, in February 1876, by the capture of Andijan and Khokand and the annexation of the Khokand khanate to Russia. Out of it was made the Russian province of Ferghana.

—The following publications are all in Russian: Kuhn, Sketch of the Khanate of Khokand (1876); V. Nalivkin, Short History of Khokand (French trans., Paris, 1889); Niazi Mohammed, Tarihi Shahrohi, or History of the Rulers of Ferghana, edited by Pantusov (Kazañ, 1885); Makshéev, Historical Sketch of Turkestan and the Advance of the Russians (St Petersburg, 1890); N. Petrovskiy, Old Arabian Journals of Travel (Tashkent, 1894); Russian Encyclopaedic Dictionary, vol. xv. (1895).

 KHOLM (Polish Chelm), a town of Russian Poland, in the government of Lublin, 45 m. by rail E.S.E. of the town of Lublin. Pop. (1897), 19,236. It is a very old city and the see of a bishop, and has an archaeological museum for church antiquities.

 KHONDS, or, an aboriginal tribe of India, inhabiting the tributary states of Orissa and the Ganjam district of Madras. At the census of 1901 they numbered 701,198. Their main divisions are into Kutia or hill Khonds and plain-dwelling Khonds; the landowners are known as Raj Khonds. Their religion is animistic, and their pantheon includes eighty-four gods. They have given their name to the Khondmals, a subdivision of Angul district in Orissa: area, 800 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 64,214. The Khond language, Kui, spoken in 1901 by more than half a million persons, is much more closely related to Telugu than is Gondi. The Khonds are a finer type than the Gonds. They are as tall as the average Hindu and not much darker, while in features they are very Aryan. They are undoubtedly a mixed Dravidian race, with much Aryan blood.

The Khonds became notorious, on the British occupation of their district about 1835, from the prevalence and cruelty of the human sacrifices they practised. These “Meriah” sacrifices, as they were called, were intended to further the fertilization of the earth. It was incumbent on the Khonds to purchase their victims. Unless bought with a price they were not deemed acceptable. They seldom sacrificed Khonds, though in hard times Khonds were obliged to sell their children and they could then be purchased as Meriahs. Persons of any race, age or sex, were acceptable if purchased. Numbers were bought and kept and well treated; and Meriah women were encouraged to become mothers. Ten or twelve days before the sacrifice the victim’s hair was cut off, and the villagers having bathed, went with the priest to the sacred grove to forewarn the goddess. The festival lasted three days, and the wildest orgies were indulged in.

See Major Macpherson, Religious Doctrines of the Khonds; his account of their religion in ''Jour. R. Asiatic Soc.'' xiii. 220–221 and his Report upon the Khonds of Ganjam and Cuttack (Calcutta, 1842); also District Gazetteer of Angul (Calcutta, 1908).

 KHORASAN, or (i.e. “land of the sun”), a geographical term originally applied to the eastern of the four 