with the title of rai, is now recognized by the British government as jagirdar of Rupi.
KUM, a small province in Persia, between Teheran on the N. and Kashan on the S. It is divided into seven bulūk (districts):
(1) Humeh, with town; (2) Kumrud; (3) Vazkerud; (4) Kinar Rud
Khaneh; (5) Kuhistan; (6) Jasb; (7) Ardahal; has a population of
45,000 to 50,000, and pays a yearly revenue of about £8000.
The province produces much grain and a fine quality of cotton
with a very long staple.
Kum, the capital, in 34° 39′ N. and 50° 55′ E., on the Anarbar river, which rises near Khunsar, has an elevation of 3100 ft. It owes much of its importance to the fact that it contains the tomb of Imam Reza’s sister Fatmeh, who died there A.D. 816, and large numbers of pilgrims visit the city during six or seven months of the year. The fixed population is between 25,000 and 30,000. A carriage road 92 m. in length, constructed in 1890–1893, connects the city with Teheran. It has post and telegraph offices.
See Eastern Persian Irak, R. G. S. suppl. (London, 1896).
KUMAIT IBN ZAID (679–743), Arabian poet, was born in the
reign of the first Omayyad caliph and lived in the reigns of nine
others. He was, however, a strong supporter of the house of
Hāshim and an enemy of the South Arabians. He was imprisoned
by the caliph Hishām for his verse in praise of the Hāshimites,
but escaped by the help of his wife and was pardoned by the
intercession of the caliph’s son Maslama. Taking part in a
rebellion, he was killed by the troops of Khālid ul-Qasrī.
His poems, the Hāshimīyyāt, have been edited by J. Horovitz (Leiden, 1904). An account of him is contained in the Kitāb ul-Aghāni, xv. 113–130. (G. W. T.)
KUMAON, or Kumaun, an administrative division of British
India, in the United Provinces, with headquarters at Naini Tal.
It consists of a large Himalayan tract, together with two submontane
strips called the Tarai and the Bhabhar; area 13,725
sq. m.; pop. (1901), 1,207,030, showing an increase of less than
2% in the decade. The submontane strips were up to 1850 an
almost impenetrable forest, given up to wild animals; but since
then the numerous clearings have attracted a large population
from the hills, who cultivate the rich soil during the hot and cold
seasons, returning to the hills in the rains. The rest of Kumaon
is a maze of mountains, some of which are among the loftiest
known. In a tract not more than 140 m. in length and 40 m. in
breadth there are over thirty peaks rising to elevations exceeding
18,000 ft. (see Himalaya). The rivers rise chiefly in the
southern slope of the Tibetan watershed north of the loftiest
peaks, amongst which they make their way down valleys of rapid
declivity and extraordinary depth. The principal are the Sarda
(Kali), the Pindar and Kailganga, whose waters join the Alaknanda.
The valuable timber of the yet uncleared forest tracts
is now under official supervision. The chief trees are the chir,
or three-leaved Himalayan pine, the cypress, fir, alder, sāl or
iron-wood, and saindan. Limestone, sandstone, slate, gneiss
and granite constitute the principal geological formations.
Mines of iron, copper, gypsum, lead and asbestos exist; but
they are not thoroughly worked. Except in the submontane
strips and deep valleys the climate is mild. The rainfall of the
outer Himalayan range, which is first struck by the monsoon,
is double that of the central hills, in the average proportion
of 80 in. to 40. No winter passes without snow on the higher
ridges, and in some years it is universal throughout the mountain
tract. Frosts, especially in the valleys, are often severe.
Kumaon is occasionally visited by epidemic cholera. Leprosy is
most prevalent in the east of the district. Goitre and cretinism
afflict a small proportion of the inhabitants. The hill fevers at
times exhibit the rapid and malignant features of plague.
In 1891 the division was composed of the three districts of Kumaon, Garhwal and the Tarai; but the two districts of Kumaon and the Tarai were subsequently redistributed and renamed after their headquarters, Naini Tal and Almora. Kumaon proper constituted an old Rajput principality, which became extinct at the beginning of the 19th century. The country was annexed after the Gurkha war of 1815, and was governed for seventy years on the non-regulation system by three most successful administrators—Mr Traill, Mr J. H. Batten and Sir Henry Ramsay.
KUMASI, or Coomassie, the capital of Ashanti, British West
Africa, in 6° 34′ 50″ N., 2° 12′ W., 168 m. by rail N. of Sekondi
and 120 m. by road N.N.W. of Cape Coast. Pop. (1906), 6280;
including suburbs, over 12,000. Kumasi is situated on a low
rocky eminence, from which it extends across a valley to the hill
opposite. It lies in a clearing of the dense forest which covers
the greater part of Ashanti, and occupies an area about 112 m.
in length and over 3 m. in circumference. The land immediately
around the town, once marshy, has been drained. On the north-west
is the small river Dah, one of the headstreams of the Prah.
The name Kum-asi, more correctly Kum-ase (under the okum
tree) was given to the town because of the number of those trees
in its streets. The most imposing building in Kumasi is the fort,
built in 1896. It is the residence of the chief commissioner and
is capable of holding a garrison of several hundred men. There
are also officers’ quarters and cantonments outside the fort,
European and native hospitals, and stations of the Basel and
Wesleyan missions. The native houses are built with red clay
in the style universal throughout Ashanti. They are somewhat
richly ornamented, and those of the better class are enclosed in
compounds within which are several separate buildings. Near
the railway station are the leading mercantile houses. The
principal Ashanti chiefs own large houses, built in European
style, and these are leased to strangers.
Before its destruction by the British in 1874 the city presented a handsome appearance and bore many marks of a comparatively high state of culture. The king’s palace, built of red sandstone, had been modelled, it is believed, on Dutch buildings at Elmina. It was blown up by Sir Garnet (subsequently Viscount) Wolseley’s forces on the 6th of February 1874, and but scanty vestiges of it remain. The town was only partially rebuilt on the withdrawal of the British troops, and it is difficult from the meagre accounts of early travellers to obtain an adequate idea of the capital of the Ashanti kingdom when at the height of its prosperity (middle of the 18th to middle of the 19th century). The streets were numerous, broad and regular; the main avenue was 70 yds. wide. A large market-place existed on the south-east, and behind it in a grove of trees was the Spirit House. This was the place of execution. Of its population before the British occupation there is no trustworthy information. It appears not to have exceeded 20,000 in the first quarter of the 19th century. This is owing partly to the fact that the commercial capital of Ashanti, and the meeting-place of several caravan routes from the north and east, was Kintampo, a town farther north. The decline of Kumasi after 1874 was marked. A new royal palace was built, but it was of clay, not brick, and within the limits of the former town were wide stretches of grass-grown country. In 1896 the town again suffered at the hands of the British, when several of the largest and most ancient houses in the royal and priestly suburb of Bantama were destroyed by fire. In the revolt of 1900 Kumasi was once more injured. The railway from the coast, which passes through the Tarkwa and Obuassi gold-fields, reached Kumasi in September 1903. Many merchants at the Gold Coast ports thereupon opened branches in Kumasi. A marked revival in trade followed, leading to the rapid expansion of the town. By 1906 Kumasi had supplanted the coast towns and had become the distributing centre for the whole of Ashanti.
KUMISHAH, a district and town in the province of Isfahan, Persia. The district, which has a length of 50 and a breadth of 16 m., and contains about 40 villages, produces much grain. The town is situated on the high road from Isfahan to Shiraz, 52 m. S. of the former. It was a flourishing city several miles in circuit when it was destroyed by the Afghans in 1722, but is now a decayed place, with crumbled walls and mouldering towers and a population of barely 15,000. It has post and telegraph offices. South of the city and extending to the village Maksudbeggi, 16 m. away, is a level plain, which in 1835 (February 28) was the scene of a battle in which the army (2000 men, 16 guns)
