was one of the companions of Mahomet. (This legend gave rise to the report that the tomb contained the remains of Mahomet’s barber.) The mosque consists of several courts and chambers, and contains some beautiful stained glass. The court which forms the entrance to the shrine of the saint is richly adorned with tiles and plaster-work, and is surrounded by an arcade of white marble columns, supporting a painted wooden roof. The minaret is faced with tiles and is surmounted by a gilded crescent. The 19th-century mosque of Sidi Amar Abada, also outside the wall, is in the form of a cross and is crowned with seven cupolas. In the suburbs are huge cisterns, attributed to the 9th century, which still supply the city with water. The cemetery covers a large area and has thousands of Cufic and Arabic inscriptions.
Formerly famous for its carpets and its oil of roses, Kairawān is now known in northern Africa rather for copper vessels, articles in morocco leather, potash and saltpetre. The town has a population of about 20,000, including a few hundred Europeans.
Arab historians relate the foundation of Kairawān by Okba with miraculous circumstances (Tabari ii. 63; Yāqūt iv. 213). The date is variously given (see Weil, Gesch. d. Chalifen, i. 283 seq.); according to Tabari it must have been before 670. The legend says that Okba determined to found a city which should be a rallying-point for the followers of Mahomet in Africa. He led his companions into the desert, and having exhorted the serpents and wild beasts, in the name of the Prophet, to retire, he struck his spear into the ground exclaiming “Here is your Kairawān” (resting-place), so naming the city.[1] In the 8th century Kairawān was the capital of the province of Ifrikia governed by amirs appointed by the caliphs. Later it became the capital of the Aghlabite princes, thereafter following the fortunes of the successive rulers of the country (see Tunisia: History). After Mecca and Medina Kairawān is the most sacred city in the eyes of the Mahommedans of Africa, and constant pilgrimages are made to its shrines. Until the time of the French occupation no Christian was allowed to pass through the gates without a special permit from the bey, whilst Jews were altogether forbidden to approach the holy city. Contrary to expectation no opposition was offered by the citizens to the occupation of the place by the French troops in 1881. On that occasion the native troops hastened to the mosques to perform their devotions; they were followed by European soldiers, and the mosques having thus been “violated” have remained open ever since to non-Mahommedans.
See Murray’s Handbook to Algeria and Tunis, by Sir R. L. Playfair (1895); A. M. Broadley, The Last Punic War: Tunis Past and Present (1882) and H. Saladin, Tunis el Kairouan (1908).
KAISERSLAUTERN, a town in the Bavarian palatinate, on the Waldlauter, in the hilly district of Westrich, 41 m. by rail W. of Mannheim. Pop. (1905), 52,306. Among its educational institutions are a gymnasium, a Protestant normal school, a commercial school and an industrial museum. The house of correction occupies the site of Frederick Barbarossa’s castle, which was demolished by the French in 1713. Kaiserslautern is one of the most important industrial towns in the palatinate. Its industries include cotton and wool spinning and weaving, iron-founding, and the manufacture of beer, tobacco, gloves, boots, furniture, &c. There is some trade in fruit and in timber.
Kaiserslautern takes its name from the emperor (Kaiser) Frederick I., who built a castle here about 1152, although it appears to have been a royal residence in Carolingian times. It became an imperial city, a dignity which it retained until 1357, when it passed to the palatinate. In 1621 it was taken by the Spanish, in 1631 by the Swedish, in 1635 by the imperial and in 1713 by the French troops. During 1793 and 1794 it was the scene of fighting; and in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 it was the base of operations of the second German army, under Prince Frederick Charles. It was one of the early stations of the Reformation, and in 1849 was the centre of the revolutionary spirit in the palatinate.
See Lehmann, Urkundliche Geschichte von Kaiserslautern (Kaiserslautern, 1853), and E. Jost, Geschichte der Stadt Kaiserslautern (Kaiserslautern, 1886).
KAISERSWERTH, a town in the Prussian Rhine province, on
the right bank of the Rhine, 6 m. below Düsseldorf. Pop. (1905),
2462. It possesses a Protestant and a large old Romanesque
Roman Catholic church of the 12th or 13th century, with a
valuable shrine, said to contain the bones of St Suitbert, and has
several benevolent institutions, of which the chief is the Diakonissen
Anstalt, or training-school for Protestant sisters of charity.
This institution, founded by Pastor Theodor Fliedner (1800–1864)
in 1836, has more than 100 branches, some being in Asia
and America; the head establishment at Kaiserswerth includes
an orphanage, a lunatic asylum and a Magdalen institution.
The Roman Catholic hospital occupies the former Franciscan
convent. The population is engaged in silk-weaving and other
small industries.
In 710 Pippin of Heristal presented the site of the town to Bishop Suitbert, who built the Benedictine monastery round which the town gradually formed. Until 1214 Kaiserswerth lay on an island, but in that year Count Adolph V. of Berg, who was besieging it, dammed up effectually one arm of the Rhine. About the beginning of the 14th century Kaiserswerth, then an imperial city, came to the archbishopric of Cologne, and afterwards to the duchy of Juliers, whence, after some vicissitudes, it finally passed into the possession of the princes of the palatinate, whose rights, long disputed by the elector of Cologne, were legally settled in 1772. In 1702 the fortress was captured by the Austrians and Prussians, and the Kaiserpfalz, whence the young emperor Henry IV. was abducted by Archbishop Anno of Cologne in 1062, was blown up.
See J. Disselhoff, Das Diaconissenmutterhaus zu Kaiserswerth (new ed., 1903; Eng. trans., 1883).
KAITHAL, or Kythal, an ancient town of British India in
Karnal district, Punjab. Pop. (1901), 14,408. It is said to have
been founded by the mythical hero Yudisthira, and is connected
by tradition with the monkey-god Hanuman. In 1767
it fell into the hands of the Sikh chieftain, Bhai Desu Singh,
whose descendants, the bhais of Kaithal, ranked among the
most powerful Cis-Sutlej chiefs. Their territories lapsed to the
British in 1843. There remain the fort of the bhais, and several
Mahommedan tombs of the 13th century and later. There is
some trade in grain, sal-ammoniac, live stock and blankets; and
cotton, saltpetre, lac ornaments and toys are manufactured.
KAKAPO, the Maori name, signifying “night parrot,” and
frequently adopted by English writers, of a bird, commonly
called by the British in New Zealand the “ground-parrot” or
“owl-parrot.” The existence of this singular form was first
made known in 1843 by Ernst Dieffenbach (Travels in N. Zealand,
ii. 194), from some of its tail-feathers obtained by him, and he
suggested that it was one of the Cuculidae, possibly belonging
to the genus Centropus, but he added that it was becoming scarce,
and that no example had been seen for many years. G. R. Gray,
noticing it in June 1845 (Zool. Voy. “Erebus” and “Terror,”
pt. ix. p. 9), was able to say little more of it, but very soon afterwards
a skin was received at the British Museum, of which, in
the following September, he published a figure (Gen. Birds,
pt. xvii.), naming it Strigops[2] habroptilus, and rightly placing
it among the parrots, but he did not describe it technically for
another eighteen months (Proc. Zool. Society, 1847, p. 61). Many
specimens have now been received in Europe, so that it is represented
in most museums, and several examples have reached
England alive.
In habits the kakapo is almost wholly nocturnal,[3] hiding in holes (which in some instances it seems to make for itself) under the roots of trees or rocks during the day time, and only issuing forth about sunset to seek its food, which is solely vegetable in kind, and consists of the twigs, leaves, seeds and fruits of trees, grass and fern roots—some observers say mosses also. It sometimes climbs trees, but generally remains on the ground, only using its comparatively short wings to balance itself in running or to break its fall when it drops from a tree—though not always then—being apparently incapable of real flight. It thus becomes an easy prey to the marauding creatures—cats, rats and so forth—which European colonists have, by accident or design, let loose in New Zealand. Sir G. Grey says it had been, within the memory of old people, abundant in every part of that country,
- ↑ Though Okba founded his city in a desert place, excavations undertaken in 1908 revealed the existence of Roman ruins, including a temple of Saturn, in the neighbourhood.
- ↑ This generic term was subsequently altered by Van der Hoeven, rather pedantically, to Stringops, a spelling now generally adopted.
- ↑ It has, however, been occasionally observed abroad by day; and, in captivity, one example at least is said to have been as active by day as by night.
