had ministered to the wants of this remnant. In 1853 the city was attacked by the T’ai-p’ing rebels, and, though at the first assault its defenders successfully resisted the enemy, it was subsequently taken. The captors looted and partially destroyed the town. It has now little commerce, but contains several schools on Western lines—including a government college opened in 1902, and a military school near the railway station. A mint was established in 1905, and there is a district branch of the imperial post. The population—largely Mahommedan—was estimated (1908) at 200,000. Jews numbered about 400.
KAILAS, a mountain in Tibet. It is the highest peak of
the range of mountains lying to the north of Lake Manasorawar,
with an altitude of over 22,000 ft. It is famous in Sanskrit
literature as Siva’s paradise, and is a favourite place of pilgrimage
with Hindus, who regard it as the most sacred spot
on earth. A track encircles the base of the mountain, and it
takes the pilgrim three weeks to complete the round, prostrating
himself all the way.
KAIN, the name of a sub-province and of a town of Khorasan,
Persia. The sub-province extends about 300 m. N. to S., from
Khāf to Seīstān, and about 150 m. W. to E., from the hills of
Tūn to the Afghan frontier, comprising the whole of south-western
Khorasan. It is very hilly, but contains many wide
plains and fertile villages at a mean elevation of 4000 ft. It has
a population of about 150,000, rears great numbers of camels
and produces much grain, saffron, wool, silk and opium. The
chief manufactures are felts and other woollen fabrics, principally
carpets, which have a world-wide reputation. The best
Kaini carpets are made at Darakhsh, a village in the Zīrkūh
district and 50 m. N.E. of Birjend. It is divided into eleven
administrative divisions:—Shāhābād (with the capital Birjend),
Naharjān, Alghur, Tabas sunnī Khaneh, Zīrkūh Shakhan, Kain,
Nīmbulūk, Nehbandān, Khūsf, Arab Khāneh or Momenabad.
The town of Kain, the capital of the sub-province until 1740, when it was supplanted by Birjend, is situated 65 m. N. of Birjend on the eastern side of a broad valley, stretching from N. to S., at the base of the mountain Abuzar, in 33° 42′ N. and 59° 8′ E., and at an elevation of 4500 ft. Its population is barely 5000. It is surrounded by a mud wall and bastions, and near it, on a hill rising 500 ft. above the plain, are the ruins of an ancient castle which, together with the old town, was destroyed either by Shah Rukh (1404–1447), a son, or by Baysunkur (d. 1433), a grandson of Timur (Tamerlane), who afterwards built a new town. After a time the Uzbegs took possession and held the town until Shah Abbas I. (1587–1629) expelled them. In the 18th century it fell under the sway of the Afghans and remained a dependency of Herat until 1851. A large number of windmills are at work outside the town. The great mosque, now in a ruinous state, was built A.H. 796 (A.D. 1394) by Kāren b. Jamshid and repaired by Yūsof Dowlatyār.
KAIRA, or Kheda, a town and district of British India,
in the northern division of Bombay. The town is 20 m. S.W.
of Ahmedabad and 7 m. from Mehmadabad railway station.
Pop. (1901), 10,392. Its antiquity is proved by the evidence of
copperplate grants to have been known as early as the 5th
century. Early in the 18th century it passed to the Babi family,
with whom it remained till 1763, when it was taken by the
Mahrattas; it was finally handed over to the British in 1803.
It was a large military station till 1830, when the cantonment
was removed to Deesa.
The District of Kaira has an area of 1595 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 716,332, showing a decrease of 18% in the decade, due to the results of famine. Except a small corner of hilly ground near its northern boundary and in the south-east and south, where the land along the Mahi is furrowed into deep ravines, the district forms one unbroken plain, sloping gently towards the south-west. The north and north-east portions are dotted with patches of rich rice-land, broken by untilled tracts of low brushwood. The centre of the district is very fertile and highly cultivated; the luxuriant fields are surrounded by high hedges, and the whole country is clothed with clusters of shapely trees. To the west this belt of rich vegetation passes into a bare though well-cultivated tract of rice-land, growing more barren and open till it reaches the maritime belt, whitened by a salt-like crust, along the Gulf of Cambay. The chief rivers are the Mahi on the south-east and south, and the Sabarmati on the western boundary. The Mahi, owing to its deeply cut bed and sandbanks, is impracticable for either navigation or irrigation; but the waters of the Sabarmati are largely utilized for the latter purpose. A smaller stream, the Khari, also waters a considerable area by means of canals and sluices. The principal crops are cotton, millets, rice and pulse; the industries are calico-printing, dyeing, and the manufacture of soap and glass. The chief centre of trade is Nadiad, on the railway, with a cotton-mill. A special article of export is ghi, or clarified butter. The Bombay & Baroda railway runs through the district. The famine of 1899–1900 was felt more severely here than in any other part of the province, the loss of cattle being specially heavy.
KAIRAWAN (Kerouan), the “sacred” city of Tunisia, 36 m.
S. by W. by rail from Susa, and about 80 m. due S. from the
capital. Kairawān is built in an open plain a little west of a
stream which flows south to the Sidi-el-Hani lake. Of the
luxuriant gardens and olive groves mentioned in the early Arabic
accounts of the place hardly a remnant is left. Kairawān,
in shape an irregular oblong, is surrounded by a crenellated
brick wall with towers and bastions and five gates. The city,
however, spreads beyond the walls, chiefly to the south and
west. Some of the finest treasures of Saracenic art in Tunisia
are in Kairawān; but the city suffered greatly from the vulgarization
which followed the Turkish conquest, and also from the
blundering attempts of the French to restore buildings falling
into ruin. The streets have been paved and planted with
trees, but the town retains much of its Oriental aspect. The
houses are built round a central courtyard, and present nothing
but bare walls to the street. The chief buildings are the mosques,
which are open to Christians, Kairawān being the only town in
Tunisia where this privilege is granted.
In the northern quarter stands the great mosque founded by Sidi Okba ibn Nafi, and containing his shrine and the tombs of many rulers of Tunisia. To the outside it presents a heavy buttressed wall, with little of either grandeur or grace. It consists of three parts: a cloistered court, from which rises the massive and stately minaret, the maksura or mosque proper, and the vestibule. The maksura is a rectangular domed chamber divided by 296 marble and porphyry columns into 17 aisles, each aisle having 8 arches. The central aisle is wider than the others, the columns being arranged by threes. All the columns are Roman or Byzantine, and are the spoil of many ancient cities. Access to the central aisle is gained through a door of sculptured wood known as the Beautiful Gate. It has an inscription with the record of its construction. The walls are of painted plaster-work; the mimbar or pulpit is of carved wood, each panel bearing a different design. The court is surrounded by a double arcade with coupled columns. In all the mosque contains 439 columns, including two of alabaster given by one of the Byzantine emperors. To the Mahommedan mind the crowning distinction of the building is that through divine inspiration the founder was enabled to set it absolutely true to Mecca. The mosque of Sidi Okba is the prototype of many other notable mosques (see Mosque). Of greater external beauty than that of Sidi Okba is the mosque of the Three Gates. Cufic inscriptions on the façade record its erection in the 9th and its restoration in the 15th century A.D. Internally the mosque is a single chamber supported by sixteen Roman columns. One of the finest specimens of Moorish architecture in Kairawān is the zawia of Sidi Abid-el-Ghariani (d. c. A.D. 1400), one of the Almoravides, in whose family is the hereditary governorship of the city. The entrance, a door in a false arcade of black and white marble, leads into a court whose arches support an upper colonnade. The town contains many other notable buildings, but none of such importance as the mosque of the Companion (i.e. of the Prophet), outside the walls to the N.W. This mosque is specially sacred as possessing what are said to be three hairs of the Prophet’s beard, buried with the saint, who
