Kapurthála, or Kopurthella, a native state in the Punjab, India, lying between 31° 9' and 31° 39' 30" N. lat., and between 73° 3' 15" and 75° 38' 30" E. long. Area, 800 square miles; estimated population, 250,000. The Kapurthála family at one time held possessions on both sides of the Sutlej, and also in the Bari Doáb. The cis-Sutlej estates and scattered possessions in the Bari Doáb were escheated owing to the hostility of the chief in the first Síkh war, but the latter possessions were afterwards restored to the family in recognition of the loyalty of Rájá Randhír Sinh during the mutiny of 1857, when he led a contingent to Oudh which did good service. He also received a grant of estates in Oudh, 850 square miles in extent, and with an estimated population of 220,000. In these tracts, however, he exercises no sovereign powers, occupying the status only of a large landholder. His total revenue is estimated at £170,000, subject to a charge of £13,000 payable to the British Government in commutation of military service.
Karáchi. See Kurrachee.
Kara-Hissar is the name of several towns in Asiatic Turkey. (1) Afium Kara Hissar has been already noticed, vol. i. p. 244. (2) Eski Kara Hissar, lies 10 miles to the north of Afium. It is identified with the ancient Synnada, which in the time of Pliny was the chief town of a considerable district. The quarries of Docimia, which furnished the famous Synnadic or Docimitic marble, are about 2 miles distant, and in the town numerous traces have been found of ancient sculpture in various stages of execution (see Hamilton's Asia Minor, i. 461, ii. 177; and Texier, Asie Mineure). (3) The eastern Kara-Hissar, usually distinguished by the prefix Shabin (i.e., "alum"), is situated in the vilayet of Siwas, about 70 miles east of Niksar, on a northern tributary of the Lycus. It is the seat of a mutasarrif or vice-governor, and on a hill to the east there is an old castle which must at one time have been of military importance. The population is estimated at 11,000, mainly Mohammedans, though Armenians also form an important element. The district is rich in mineral products—silver, lead, copper, and iron; but only the alum mines, yielding from 120 to 250 tons per annum, are worked. The remains of the citadel, the ruins of a Byzantine church, traces of Roman brickwork, ancient coins, and a few Greek and Latin inscriptions, all go to show that Kara-Hissar has passed through many vicissitudes. The old town was evidently built not at the foot but up the steep slope of the hill, tier above tier. In 1473 Kara-Hissar made voluntary submission to Sultan Mohammed II. A full description, with a plan of the town and neighbourhood, is given by Barth in Petermann's Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft, 1860. See also Taylor's "Journal," &c., in Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc., 1868.
Karaites, or Caraites, a Jewish sect of the Middle Ages, claiming to be distinguished by adherence to Scripture as contrasted with oral tradition, whence the name (from (
Hebrew characters), as if "readers," scripturarii; sometimes also (Hebrew characters)). They have frequently been identified with the Sadducees or with the Samaritans, with neither of whom have they any historical connexion or much spiritual affinity. The schism arose at Baghdad about the middle of the 8th century, when the hereditary claims of Anan, a learned Talmudist, to the office of Resh Galutha were set aside by the Gaonim or heads of rabbinical schools at Sura and Pumbeditha because he was believed to undervalue the authority of the Talmud. An appeal by Anan to the caliph proved unsuccessful, and he appears even to have been imprisoned for some time; but ultimately he was permitted to migrate along with his followers to Palestine, where they erected in Jerusalem a synagogue which continued to be maintained until the time of the crusades. From this centre the sect diffused itself thinly over Syria, spread into Egypt, and ultimately reached south-eastern Europe. Anan, who is said to have died in 765 A.D., was the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch and other works in Talmudic Hebrew and Arabic,—all of which unfortunately are lost; for our knowledge of the distinctive principles maintained by him we are thus left entirely dependent on the hostile indications of opponents. In general we know that he showed great bitterness against the Talmud and its upholders (the "Rabbanites") for their falsification of the written law by arbitrary additions and subtractions, but there is nothing to indicate that he himself had the insight or the fervour by which he could have become the pioneer of any really great reformation in religion or morals. The questions in dispute appear to have turned entirely on points of very minute detail. Several of them related to the regulation of the calendar, the new moon, for example, being fixed by the Karaites by direct observation, not by astronomical calculation, and the intercalary year also being determined empirically; others related to paschal and pentecostal ritual, such as the precise hour for killing the lamb or for burning its remains. The differences which affected social life most deeply were those relating to Sabbath observance and the forbidden degrees of marriage, the Karaites not recognizing any distinction between relationships of consanguinity and those of affinity, while in their zeal to avoid all risk of infringement of the sacredness of the day of rest they prohibited the burning of any light at all in their houses from sunset to sunset. Little information as tot he Karaites can be derived from their liturgies, which are comparatively modern; though differing from those used by the Rabbinical Jews, they are not characterized by any marked divergence in principle. The controversies as to the rule of faith which so deeply divided the Christian church in the 16th century gave to this obscure sect an illusory and passing importance, the Catholics frequently hurling the epithet Karæi, in token of contempt, at the Protestants, who in their turn willingly accepted it as sufficiently descriptive of their attitude towards Scripture. The Karaites never have been numerous; the present community in Jerusalem numbers only about ten families. They occur in Constantinople and elsewhere in Turkey, but are chiefly met with in southern Russia, and especially in the Crimea, where in 1874 they numbered some 6000, chiefly in Eupatoria, Theodosia, and Sebastopol. In the Crimea their historical capital and chief synagogue was formerly the "Jews' Castle" (Tshufut-Kale), near Bakhchisarai. The place is now deserted; its cemetery was the seat of Firkowitsch's notorious forgeries (inscriptions of 1st century), by which he sought to establish a fabulous antiquity for his sect. According to Strack (A. Firkowitsch u. seine Entdeckungen, 1876) the oldest tombstones do not go back beyond the 14th century. The modern Karaites are generally well spoken of for their honesty, perseverance, and simple habits of life; but their enslavement to tradition is quite as complete as that of any Talmudist could possibly be.
Among the older authorities may be mentioned Morinus, Exercit. Bibl., lib. ii. ex. 7, 1669; and Triglandius, Diatribe de Secta Karæorum, 1703. See Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, especially in vol. v., 1860; and Fürst, Gesch. des Karäerthums, 1865.
Karakorum, or Karakoram, a name applied to a city, a mountain range, and a mountain pass in Central Asia. For the range and pass see Kuen-lun. The ancient city or rather camping-ground of Karakorum (the Caracaron of Marco Polo), was situated near the upper course of the Orkhon, a tributary of the Selenga. Founded, according to Chinese authority, by Buku, khan of the
