Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/716

 684 P E S P E S ing town. It was recruited with a body of military colonists by Mark Antony, and after the disastrous earthquake of 31 B.C. re ceived another accession from Augustus and took the title Colonia Julia Fclijc. Destroyed by Vitiges the Goth, it was restored and strengthened by Belisarius, and afterwards along with Ancona, Fano, Sinigaglia, and Rimini formed the Pentapolis Maritima. In the course of the 13th century Pesaro was sometimes under the govern ment of the popes, sometimes under that of the emperors ; but the Malatesta family, which first took root in the city about 1285, gradually became the real masters of the place. In 1445 they sold their rights to Francesco Sforza ; and in 1512, through the intluence of Julius II., the Sforza were supplanted by his nephew Francesco Maria, duke of Urbino. Leo X. took the city away from Francesco and gave it to Lorenzo de Medici ; but on Lorenzo s death Fran cesco was restored and Pesaro became the ordinary residence of the dukes of L T rbino till the death of Francesco Maria II. in 1631, when it reverted to the States of the Church. It has formed part of the present kingdom of Italy since 1860. Terenzio Mamiani della Rovere, poet and statesman, was born at Pesaro in 1800. PESHAWAR, 1 or PESHAWUR, a district in the lieu tenant-governorship of the Punjab, with an area of 2504 square miles, situated in the extreme north-western corner of British India, between 33 50 and 34 30 N. lat. and 71 30 and 72 50 E. long. Except on the south-east, where the Indus flows, it is encircled by mountains, and is bounded on the N. by the Mohmand, Utman Khel, and other hills, E. by the Indus, S. by the Khatak and Afridi Hills, and W. by the Khyber Mountains. It forms an important part of the frontier of the Punjab, being crossed by the great route from India to Cabul. The only hills of any consequence in the district are the Khatak Hills, a continuation of the Afridi Hills, which are themselves a spur of the great Sufed Koh range. The plain consists of alluvial deposits of silt and gravel, and throughout the whole valley its surface is studded Avith water- worn shingle or boulders. The district presents, especially in its western and central portions, an appearance of great beauty : it is covered with luxuriant vegetation, which is relieved by the meanderings of the numerous canals and set off by its bare stony surroundings and the far distant snowy peaks. Its rivers, all tributaries of the Indus, are the Cabul, Swat, Bara, Budni, and Ludnai. The district is naturally fertile and well watered, and the valley is entirely drained by the Cabul river. The temperature ranges from a minimum of 17 in February to a maximum of 137 in July. The average rainfall is about 14 inches. According to the census of 1881 the population was 592,674, of whom 329,524 were males and 263,150 females. The people are mostly Afghans and almost entirely of the Moslem religion, no less than 546,117 being Mohammedans, while Hindus numbered only 39,321, Christians 4088, Sikhs 3103, and others 45. The largest tribe in the district is that of the Pathans, of whom in 1881 there were 276,656. The Moslem portion of the population is occupied chiefly in agriculture and the rearing of cattle, while the Hindus are engaged in trade as bankers, merchants, and shop keepers. The prevailing languages are the Urdu and Pushtu. Out of the total area of 2504 square miles 1414 are cultivated and 470 are returned as cultivable. The chief products are wheat, barley, maize, millet. Peshawar also produces some of the finest rice in the world, known as &quot;Bara rice,&quot; named after the river by which the ground yielding it is irrigated. Since the district came into British possession its trade has increased considerably. The principal foreign markets with which it deals are Cabul and Bok hara ; the imports from the former are chiefly silk, nuts and fruits, skins, timber, dyes, and spices, and from the latter gold bullion and gold thread, which go principally to Bombay. The exports consist mainly of piece goods, tea, fancy wares, sugar, salt, and spices. The chief manufactures are Peshawar scarves, celebrated throughout India for their fine texture and tasteful colouring, leather goods, cutlery, the preparation of snuff, and a great deal of broadcloth. The gross revenue of the district in 1882-83 was 95,931, of which the land revenue contributed 68,201. Peshawar in 1881 had five towns with a population exceeding 5000, namely Peshawar (see below); Nowshera, 12,963: Tangi 9037 ; Maira Parang, 8874 ; and Charsadda, 8363. 1 The division of this name comprises the three districts of Peshawar, Kohat, and Hazara, with an area of 8381 square miles. In 1881 it had a population of 1,181,289 males 649,509, females 531,780. By religion 1,101,095 were Moslems, 68,992 Hindus, 6724 Sikhs, 4390 Christians, and 88 others. History, The first authentic record of the tribes seated about Peshawar is in the time of Mahmud. What little is heard of them before then points to their being a bold and independent race. Buddhism was introduced into the district in the reign of Asoka, 263 B. c., and one of his rock edicts still exists. From the time of Sabuktagin, governor of Khorasan, in 978 A.D., who took possession of the country up to the Indus, Peshawar became the scene of fierce contests. Mahmud, his son, was the first Moslem conqueror of Hindustan, and succeeded in converting the Pathans to the Moham medan faith ; and this tribe remained true to him in all his subse quent engagements with the infidels. The last decisive battle of Mahmud with the Hindus was fought on the plains of Chacli in Rawal Pindi, where he totally defeated Anang Pal, the last cham pion of the Hindu creed and nationality in the north. For a century and more after Mahmud s death (1028) Peshawar continued to be a province of Ghazni ; and under his numerous successors it acquired great importance, becoming the centre of their dominions, which were extended to Lahore. Timur s invasion of India at the close of the 13th century did not disturb the district or the tribes about it, but a century later the Khakhai Pathans, a body of roam ing adventurers, invaded the district in three main clans the Yusafzai, Gigianis, and Muhammadzai and obtained permission from the Dilazaks, who then held it, to settle on a portion of their waste lands. Quarrelling with the Dilazaks, they routed them and swept them into the neighbouring district of Hazara. The Gigianis then settled in the fertile strip of land about the confluence of the Swat and the Cabul ; the Muhammadzai took Hashtnagar, and the Yusafzai the remainder of the country north of the Cabul river. For some time these tribes remained unmolested, but in 1519 Babar, fifteen years after his capture of Cabul, allied himself with the in jured Dilazaks and subdued the Afghans of Peshawar. After his death in 1530 the country was the scene of constant feuds, which ended in the Dilazaks being completely ousted. The year 1553 marks the last immigration of Afghans into the district. In 1587 Akbar came to the throne. During the next three reigns the valley rendered an unwilling allegiance to the central authority, and in the reign of Aurangzeb the Pathans succeeded in freeing themselves from Mogul supremacy. In 1738 Nadir Shah held pos session of the district, and under the succeeding Durani dynasty it was often the residence of the Cabul court. On the death of Timur Shah in 1793 the throne was left to be contended for by his sons, whose adventurous enterprises and varied fortunes form a romantic page in Oriental history. In 1818 the Sikhs advanced into the valley and overran the whole district to the foot of the hills ; and the country continued to be ravaged by them until it at last fell into their hands, when they ruled it with their usual severity. In 1848 the district became an integral portion of British India, and, except for its connexion with the mutiny iu 1857, there is little else of importance to notice. PESHAWAR, chief town in the above district, situated in 34 2 N. lat. and 71 37 E. long., is about 14 miles east of the Khyber Pass, and distant from Lahore 276 miles and from Cabul 190 miles. Its population in 1881 was 79,982 (50,322 males, 29,660 females). It is built on a plain 1068 feet above the sea, and is surrounded by a mud wall 10 feet high. Among the chief buildings of the town are the Ghor Khatri, originally a Buddhist monas tery, afterwards rebuilt as a Hindu temple, and now used as a serai. Peshawar is commanded by a mud-fort to the north-west, built on the ruins of Bala Hissar ; and it is well watered, and said to be one of the best-drained cities in the Punjab. PESSIMISM is a word of very modern coinage, employed to denote a mode of looking at and estimating the world, and especially human life, which is antithetical to the estimate designated by the term (a much older one) &quot; Optimism.&quot; Both terms have a general as well as a special application. In their non-technical usage they denote a composite and ill -defined attitude of mind which gives preponderating importance to the good or to the evil, to the joys or to the sorrows, respectively, in the course of experience. The optimist sees everything in couleur de rose ; the pessimist always turns up the seamy side of things. But in their special and technical employment, optimism and pessimism denote specific theories elaborated by philo sophers, the former to show that the world is the work of an author of infinite goodness and wisdom, and is, all things considered, conducive to the happiness of its sentient life ; the latter, that existence, when summed up, has an