Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/79

 K H K H U the whole soil over which the marsh extends becomes encrusted with salt.&quot; l The surface of Khorasan thus consists mainly of high lands, saline swampy deserts, and fertile well-watered upland valleys. Of the last, occurring mainly in the north, the chief are the longitudinal valley stretching from near the Herat frontier through Meshhed, Kuchan, and Shirvan to Bunjurd, and the Daragez district, which lies on the northern skirt of the outer range projecting into the Akhal Tekke domain, now Russian territory. These fertile tracts produce rice and other cereals, some cotton, tobacco, saffron, and especially melons and other fruits in great profusion, 45 K&amp;gt; of splendid grapes being sold in Daragez for ninepence. Other products are manna, gums, and great quantities of asafoetida, which is not used by the natives but exported to India. The chief manufactures are the famous Khorasan sabres, firearms, stoneware, armour, fine carpets and rugs, velvets, woollens, cottons, and sheepskin pelisses. The population is far from homogeneous, consisting of Iranians (Tajiks, Kurds, and Baluchis), Mongols, Tatars, and Arabs, as under : Races. District. Population. Speech. Tajiks (Persians) &amp;lt; Towns and agricultural 400,000 Persian. Kurds districts. N. frontier. 250,000 ( Persian Baluchi s . . East frontier. 10,000 ( mostly. Baluchi. ( Taemuri ( Mongols. ] Aimaks, ( ( Hazarahs. ( Turkomans, ) Tatars ... &amp;lt; Afshars, ( Kaj;irs, &c. 2 ) Arabs South and E. frontiers. Herat frontier. North and W. mainly. S.&&quot;Y. mainly. 250,000 50,000 100,000 100,000 Persian. ( Turki and i Persian. 3 1,160,000 The Persians proper have always represented the settled, industrial, and trading elements, and to them the Kurds (removed to the north by Shah Ismail) and the Arabs have become largely assimilated. Even many of the Tatar nomad tribes, collectively called Iliat, 4 have become Shahr- nishin, i.e., &quot;townsfolk,&quot; or settled. But all the Baluchis are not only still Sahra-nishw, i.e., &quot;country or desert folk,&quot; but have lately resumed their old predatory habits, covering incredible distances on their swift camels, and harassing the country as far west as the Yezd district. On. the other hand the raids of the Turkoman marauders have almost entirely ceased since the reduction of the Akhal Tekke Turkomans by the Russians in the spring of 1881. In religion great uniformity prevails, all except the Baluchis and Turkomans having conformed to the national Shiah sect. The administrative divisions of the province seem to be Daragez, Kuchan, Tnrshiz, Tabbas, Ghayn, Khaf, Meshhed, Nishapur, Shahrud, and Damgan. The chief towns are Meshhed, Kuchan, Mohammadabad, Shirvan, Bostan, Turshiz, Tun, Tabbas, Khaf, and Ghayn. (A. H. K.) KHOSRU. See PERSIA. 1 Colonel C. E. Stewart, in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., September 1881. This traveller visited the north frontier of Persia in 1880-81, disguised as an Armenian horse-dealer from Calcutta. 2 The Kajars are the royal tribe to which the present dynasty belongs; hence the reigning shah s title, Nasir ed-din Shah Kajar. But Nadir Shah, though commonly called a Kajar, was an Afshar. 3 Some travellers have stated that the Khorasan Arabs still speak Arabic as well as Persian a mistake due probably to the fluency with which they repeat passages from the Koran. The great bulk of them have long been &quot; Parsivan&quot; or &quot; Persian-speaking.&quot; 4 Iliat (plural of Hi) simply means &quot; tribes,&quot; and is applied indiffer ently to all the nomads of Persia, whatever their affinities may be. KHOTAN, a city and district of eastern Turkestan, lying between the northern slopes of the Kuenlun mountains and the eastern portion of the Gobi (Takla Makan) desert. The district is well watered by a number of rivers, the most important of which, the Karakash and the Khotan Daria, meet to the north of the city. Both soil and climate are excellent, and the vegetation is charac terized at once by variety and luxuriance. Indian corn, barley, jowar, buckwheat, rice, olives, pears, peaches, apricots, mulberries, grapes, currants, melons, the charas j plant, the cotton plant, are all produced in abundance. Willows, poplars, and tamarisks are the ordinary trees ; in some parts they form extensive forests. Of the mineral wealth of the country glowing accounts are given, gold, copper, iron, antimony, salt, sulphur, coal, jade, and a variety of precious stones being the principal items. Up wards of twenty gold mines are known to exist, and those of Sorghak and Kappa are worked by 4000 and 3000 men i respectively. Jade is obtained, more especially in the Karakash district. Among the wild animals are goats, wolves, jackals, foxes, and hares ; and the Khotanese keep camels, horses, mules, asses, goats, sheep, geese, ducks, and fowls (the goats and the fowls being particularly numer ous). The total number of the inhabitants is variously estimated at from 130,000 to 250,000, and the country is capable of maintaining a much denser population. Females preponderate to as much as 25 per cent. There are six districts, each with a town of its name Khotan or Ilchi (42,000), Karakash (7000), Yurung Kush (7000), Tchira (28,000), Kiria (28,000), and Naya (3500). The city of Khotan (in Chinese Hu-tan, locally Ilchi) is situated 150 miles south-east of Yarkand and 90 miles due east of Sanju, and is only 6 miles distant from the borders of the desert. It has long been celebrated as a great industrial centre, silks, felts, rich carpets (of either silk or wool), paper, and articles in jade being the chief productions ; and its traders maintain an active traffic with Tibet. As early as the 1st century the town contained (according to Chinese authorities) 3300 families. Cotan, as he calls it, -was one of tlie places visited by Marco Polo. In modern times the first European who reached the city was Mr Johnson in 1865. At that time it was governed by a local khan, the Chinese having been expelled by their Mohammedan subjects, in 1863 ; and since then it has been subjugated by Yakub Khan of Kashgar (who perpetrated a terrible massacre at his capture of the place), and again recovered by the Chinese forces. See Johnson, /. 7f. O. S., 1867; Sir T. D. Forsytli, Mission to Tartund, Cal cutta, 1875. KHOTIN, or KHOTEEN (this is the Russian form of the name, which appears in a great variety of disguises partly dialectal such as Khotchim, Chotchim, Choczim, and Chocim), a fortified town of 21,000 inhabitants, in the government of Bessarabia, Russia, situated in 48 30 N. lat. and 26 30 E. long., on the right bank of the Dniester, near the Austrian (Galician) frontier, and opposite Podolian j Kamenetz. Though it possesses a few manufactures and I carries on a considerable trade both legitimate and contra - band, Khotin has all through its history been of importance mainly as a military post. In the Middle Ages it was the seat of a Genoese colony; and it has passed through periods of Polish, Turkish, and Austrian possession. The chief facts in its annals as a fortress are the defeat of the Turks in 1621 by Ladislaus IV., in 1673 by John Sobieski, and in 1739 by the Russians under Miinnich ; the defeat of the Russians by the Turks in 1768 ; the capture by the Russians in 1769 ; and the occupation by the Russians in 1806. It finally passed to Russia along with Bessarabia in 1812 by the peace of Bucharest. KHULNA, or CULNA, a town in Jessor district, Bengal, India, situated at the point where the Bhairab river de bouches on the Sundarban delta, in 22 49 N. lat., 89 57 E. long., may be described as the capital of the Sundar-
 * Persian.