Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/776

 766 CARAITES nent among the numerous operas which he brought out there were Le solitaire and Ma- ganiello ; but even these, though remarkable for sweetness and vivacity, are now obsolete, and the attempt to revive Le solitaire in 1856 was unsuccessful. He has been charged with imita- ting Rossini, but his merits as a composer of pleasing though not vigorous music were in- contestable, and he was elected to the academy of tine arts, and was professor at the conserva- toire and director of the military music at the Gymnase, and in 1847 was made an officer of the legion of honor. The latter part of his life was spent in poverty. CARAITES. See KARAITES. < VI! VM V V or Karaman (anc. Laranda), a town of Asiatic Turkey, in the vilayet and 58 m. S. E. of Konieh, at the foot of Mt. Taurus ; pop. about 12,000. It contains the ruins of several beautiful Saracenic mosques, one of which is of marble, covered with arabesques, and supported in the interior by rows of columns. There are also several temples of modern date, a handsome Armenian church, and a Turkish castle encom- passed by a wall which also encloses about 1 00 houses. Coarse blue cotton cloths and simi- lar fabrics are manufactured. Little is known of the ancient Laranda, on or near the ruins of which the present town was founded in the 14th century by Karaman Oglu, a Turkish chief, after whom it was named. It was the capital of a Turkish kingdom until the subjec- tion of Oaramania by Bajazet II. in 1486, when the seat of government was removed to Ko- nieh (Iconium). The name of Laranda or La- renda is still used by the Christian inhabitants of the country. CABAMANIA, Karamanla, or Karaman, the for- mer designation of a province of Asiatic Tur- key, in the south of Asia Minor, now included in the vilayet of Konieh, mainly between lat. 37 and 39 N., and Ion. 31 and 36 E. It embraces ancient Lycaonia and Isauria, and portions of Pisidia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, and Cappadocia. It is noted for its genial climate, and for its tobacco, silk, cotton, sesamum, honey, wax, and excellent fruit. The soil is rich and dry, yielding abundant harvests; the vino and fig tree, the laurel, myrtle, and clematis, and many odoriferous shrubs flourish in pro- fusion. The Taurus range 'traverses its entire length, and forests of oaks and pines 100 ft. high cover the mountain. The principal rivers are the Kizil-Irmak and the Sihun. In the S. W. are numerous small lakes, also mineral springs. Fish abound in the rivers and the numerous small streams of the country. The inhabitants are mainly devoted to agricultural pursuits, particularly to the rearing of live stock, the vast plains affording abundant pas- turage. The villages of the shepherds are com- posed of huts covered with skins ; most other houses are of earth, or of brick baked in the sun, and present a miserable appearance. Trade embraces, besides the products named, wool, horse and camel hair, gum tragacanth, which CAEAVAGGIO abounds in the mountainous districts, and various other commodities. The exports are carried on by caravans or through the nearest shipping ports. CARAT, the name of an imaginary weight by which diamonds are rated ; and also a term used for expressing the fineness or purity of gold. The alloy is supposed to be divided into 24 parts called carats, and its fineness is reckoned according to the number of these which are pure gold. Gold 20 carats fine is 20 parts of pure gold alloyed with 4 of some other metal. The term has been so long in use that its ori- gin is very obscure. Some suppose it to be derived from the Greek Kcpdnov, a fruit corre- sponding to the Latin siliqua; whence the Arab word kyrat, a weight, imaginary part, or share. Bruce says of a bean he met with in a famous gold mart of Africa: "The fruit of the tree called Mara is a red bean which seems to have been in the earliest ages used for a weight of gold. This bean is called carat." As usually employed by jewellers, the weight of a carat is 4 imaginary grains, of which 74-^ are re- quired to counterbalance 72 grains troy. CARAVAGGIO, a town of N. Italy, in the prov- ince and 14 m. S. of Bergamo; pop. about 7,000. The old walls have been recently de- molished, but a ditch filled with water still remains, and is crossed by six bridges. The parish church has a high bell tower, and paint- ings by Campi ; and the sanctuary of the Ma- donna, beautifully situated a little way out of the town, is a popular resort of pilgrims. In 1448 a Venetian army was totally defeated here by the Milanese under Francesco Sforza. CARAVAGGIO. I. Miehe] Angelo Vmcrisrlii da. an Italian painter, born at Caravaggio in 1561), died near Porto Ercole in 1609. His father was a mason. He himself in his boyhood was .a paint grinder for artists in Milan. These artists awakened his genius and love for art, and he made his way to Venice, where he studied the works of Giorgione, whom he imitated in his earlier style. Leaving Venice, he went to Rome and engaged him- self to a trading artist, for whom he painted chiefly flower and fruit pieces. Soon weary- ing of this, he adopted a peculiar style of his own, of which he was the chief master. His life was wild and vagrant. Having killed a companion in a brawl at Rome, he fled to Naples, and thence to Malta, where he was knighted. Another quarrel with a person of rank caused him to be thrown into prison. Contriving to escape, he fled to Sicily, but was pursued, assaulted by armed men, and serious- ly wounded. His friends having procured the pope's pardon for his first crime, he returned to Italy, but on landing at Porto Ercole in Tuscany was arrested by mistake, lost his money and clothes, suffered from inflammation in his unhcaled wounds, from heat, anxiety, and exhaustion, and sat down and 'died near that place, on his way to Rome. He was 40 years old. His pictures treat of vulgar and