[1] The village of Halfaya, a place of some importance before the
foundation of Khartum, is 4 m. to the N., on the eastern bank of the
Nile. From the 15th century up to 1821 it was the capital of a small
state, tributary to Sennar, regarded as a continuation of the
Christian kingdom of Aloa (see DONGOLA).
KHASI AND JAINTIA HILLS, a district of British India, in the Hills
division of Eastern Bengal and Assam. It occupies the central plateau
between the valleys of the Brahmaputra and the Surma. Area, 6027 sq. m.;
pop. (1901), 202,250, showing an increase of 2% in the decade.
The district consists of a succession of steep ridges running east and
west, with elevated table-lands between. On the southern side, towards
Sylhet, the mountains rise precipitously from the valley of the Barak or
Surma. The first plateau is about 4000 ft. above sea-level. Farther
north is another plateau, on which is situated the station of Shillong,
4900 ft. above the sea; behind lies the Shillong range, of which the
highest peak rises to 6450 ft. On the north side, towards Kamrup, are
two similar plateaus of lower elevation. The general appearance of all
these table-lands is that of undulating downs, covered with grass, but
destitute of large timber. At 3000 ft. elevation the indigenous pine
predominates over all other vegetation, and forms almost pure pine
forests. The highest ridges are clothed with magnificent clumps of
timber trees, which superstition has preserved from the axe of the
wood-cutter. The characteristic trees in these sacred groves chiefly
consist of oaks, chestnuts, magnolias, &c. Beneath the shade grow rare
orchids, rhododendrons and wild cinnamon. The streams are merely
mountain torrents; many of them pass through narrow gorges of wild
beauty. From time immemorial, Lower Bengal has drawn its supply of lime
from the Khasi Hills, and the quarries along their southern slope are
inexhaustible. Coal of fair quality crops out at several places, and
there are a few small coal-mines.
The Khasi Hills were conquered by the British in 1833. They are
inhabited by a tribe of the same name, who still live in primitive
communities under elective chiefs in political subordination to the
British government. There are 25 of these chiefs called _Siems_, who
exercise independent jurisdiction and pay no tribute. According to the
census of 1901 the Khasis numbered 107,500. They are a peculiar race,
speaking a language that belongs to the Mon-Anam family, following the
rule of matriarchal succession, and erecting monolithic monuments over
their dead. The Jaintia Hills used to form a petty Hindu principality
which was annexed in 1835. The inhabitants, called Syntengs, a cognate
tribe to the Khasis, were subjected to a moderate income tax, an
innovation against which they rebelled in 1860 and 1862. The revolt was
stamped out by the Khasi and Jaintia Expedition of 1862-63. The
headquarters of the district were transferred in 1864 from Cherrapunji
to Shillong, which was afterwards made the capital of the province of
Assam. A good cart-road runs north from Cherrapunji through Shillong to
Gauhati on the Brahmaputra; total length, 97 m. The district was the
focus of the great earthquake of the 12th of June 1897, which not only
destroyed every permanent building, but broke up the roads and caused
many landslips. The loss of life was put at only 916, but hundreds died
subsequently of a malignant fever. In 1901 the district had 17,321
Christians, chiefly converts of the Welsh Calvinistic Mission.
See _District Gazetteer_ (1906); Major P. R. T. Gurdon, _The Khasis_
(1907).
KHASKOY (also _Chaskoi_, _Haskoi_, _Khaskioi_, _Chaskovo_, _Haskovo_, and
in Bulgarian _Khaskovo_), the capital of the department of Khaskoy in the
eastern Rumelia, Bulgaria; 45 m. E.S.E. of Philippopolis. Pop. (1900),
14,928. The town has a station 7 m. N. on the Philippopolis-Adrianople
section of the Belgrade-Constantinople railway. Carpets and woollen goods
are manufactured, and in the surrounding country tobacco and silk are
produced.
KHATTAK, an important Pathan tribe in the North-West Frontier Province
of India, inhabiting the south-eastern portion of the Peshawar district
and the south-eastern and eastern portions of Kohat. They number 24,000,
and have always been quiet and loyal subjects of the British government.
They furnish many recruits to the Indian army, and make most excellent
soldiers.
KHAZARS (known also as Chozars, as [Greek: Akatziroi] or [Greek:
Chazaroi] in Byzantine writers, as Khazirs in Armenian and Khwalisses in
Russian chronicles, and Ugri Bielii in Nestor), an ancient people who
occupied a prominent place amongst the secondary powers of the Byzantine
state-system. In the epic of Firdousi Khazar is the representative name
for all the northern foes of Persia, and legendary invasions long before
the Christian era are vaguely attributed to them. But the Khazars are an
historic figure upon the borderland of Europe and Asia for at least 900
years (A.D. 190-1100). The epoch of their greatness is from A.D. 600 to
950. Their home was in the spurs of the Caucasus and along the shores of
the Caspian--called by medieval Moslem geographers Bahr-al-Khazar ("sea
of the Khazars"); their cities, all populous and civilized commercial
centres, were Itil, the capital, upon the delta of the Volga, the "river
of the Khazars," Semender (Tarkhu), the older capital, Khamlidje or
Khalendsch, Belendscher, the outpost towards Armenia, and Sarkel on the
Don. They were the Venetians of the Caspian and the Euxine, the
organizers of the transit between the two basins, the universal carriers
between East and West; and Itil was the meeting-place of the commerce of
Persia, Byzantium, Armenia, Russia and the Bulgarians of the middle
Volga. The tide of their dominion ebbed and flowed repeatedly, but the
normal Khazari may be taken as the territory between the Caucasus, the
Volga and the Don, with the outlying province of the Crimea, or Little
Khazaria. The southern boundary never greatly altered; it did at times
reach the Kur and the Aras, but on that side the Khazars were confronted
by Byzantium and Persia, and were for the most part restrained within
the passes of the Caucasus by the fortifications of Dariel. Amongst the
nomadic Ugrians and agricultural Slavs of the north their frontier
fluctuated widely, and in its zenith Khazaria extended from the Dnieper
to Bolgari upon the middle Volga, and along the eastern shore of the
Caspian to Astarabad.
_Ethnology._--The origin of the Khazars has been much disputed, and
they have been variously regarded as akin to the Georgians,
Finno-Ugrians and Turks. This last view is perhaps the most probable.
Their king Joseph, in answer to the inquiry of Hasdai Ibn Shaprut of
Cordova (c. 958), stated that his people sprang from Thogarmah,
grandson of Japhet, and the supposed ancestor of the other peoples of
the Caucasus. The Arab geographers who knew the Khazars best connect
them either with the Georgians (Ibn Athir) or with the Armenians
(Dimishqi, ed. Mehren, p. 263); whilst Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who passed
through Khazaria on a mission from the caliph Moqtadir (A.D. 921),
positively asserts that the Khazar tongue differed not only from the
Turkish, but from that of the bordering nations, which were Ugrian.
Nevertheless there are many points connected with the Khazars which
indicate a close connexion with Ugrian or Turkish peoples. The
official titles recorded by Ibn Fadlan are those in use amongst the
Tatar nations of that age, whether Huns, Bulgarians, Turks or Mongols.
The names of their cities can be explained only by reference to
Turkish or Ugrian dialects (Klaproth, _Mém. sur les Khazars_; Howorth,
_Khazars_). Some too amongst the medieval authorities (Ibn Hauqal and
Istakhri) note a resemblance between the speech in use amongst the
Khazars and the Bulgarians; and the modern Magyar--a Ugrian
language--can be traced back to a tribe which in the 9th century
formed part of the Khazar kingdom. These characteristics, however, are
accounted for by the fact that the Khazars were at one time subject to
the Huns (A.D. 448 et seq.), at another to the Turks (c. 580), which
would sufficiently explain the signs of Tatar influence in their
polity, and also by the testimony of all observers, Greeks, Arabs and
Russians, that there was a double strain within the Khazar nation.
There were _Khazars_ and _Kara_ (black) _Khazars_. The Khazars were
fair-skinned, black-haired and of a remarkable beauty and stature;
their women indeed were sought as wives equally at Byzantium and
Bagdad; while the Kara Khazars were ugly, short, and were reported by
the Arabs almost as dark as Indians. The latter were indubitably the
Ugrian nomads of the steppe, akin to the Tatar invaders of Europe, who
filled the armies and convoyed the caravans of the ruling caste. But
the Khazars proper were a civic commercial people, the founders of
cities, remarkable for somewhat elaborate political institutions, for
persistence and for good faith--all qualities foreign to the Hunnic
character.
They have been identified with the [Greek: Akatziroi] (perhaps
Ak-Khazari, or White Khazars) who appear upon the lower Volga in the
Byzantine annals, and thence they have been deduced, though with less
convincing proof, either from the [Greek: Agathyrsoi] (Agathyrsi) or
the [Greek: Katiaroi] of Herodotus, iv. 104. There was throughout
historic times a close connexion which eventually amounted to
political identity between the Khazars and the Barsileens (the Passils
of Moses of Chorene) who occupied the delta of the Volga; and the
Barsileens can be traced through the pages of Ptolemy (_Geog._ v. 9),
of Pliny (iv. 26), of Strabo (vii. 306), and of Pomponius Mela (ii. c.
1, p. 119) to the so-called Royal Scyths, [Greek: Skythai basilêes],
who were known to the Greek colonies upon the Euxine, and whose
political superiority and commercial enterprise led to this rendering
of their name. Such points, however, need not here be further pursued
than to establish the presence of this white race around the Caspian
and the Euxine throughout historic times. They appear in European
history as White Huns (Ephthalites), White Ugrians (Sar-ogours), White
Bulgarians. Owing to climatic causes the tract they occupied was
slowly drying up. They were the outposts of civilization towards the
encroaching desert, and the Tatar nomadism that advanced with it. They
held in precarious subjection the hordes whom the conditions of the
climate and the soil made it impossible to supplant. They bore the
brunt of each of the great waves of Tatar conquests, and were
eventually overwhelmed.
_History._--Amidst this white race of the steppe the Khazars can be
first historically distinguished at the end of the 2nd century A.D.
They burst into Armenia with the Barsileens, A.D. 198. They were
repulsed and attacked in turn. The pressure of the nomads of the
steppe, the quest of plunder or revenge, these seem the only motives
of these early expeditions; but in the long struggle between the Roman
and Persian empires, of which Armenia was often the battlefield, and
eventually the prize, the attitude of the Khazars assumed political
importance. Armenia inclined to the civilization and ere long to the
Christianity of Rome, whilst her Arsacid princes maintained an
inveterate feud with the Sassanids of Persia. It became therefore the
policy of the Persian kings to call in the Khazars in every collision
with the empire (200-350). During the 4th century however, the growing
power of Persia culminated in the annexation of eastern Armenia. The
Khazars, endangered by so powerful a neighbour, passed from under
Persian influence into that remote alliance with Byzantium which
thenceforth characterized their policy, and they aided Julian in his
invasion of Persia (363). Simultaneously with the approach of Persia
to the Caucasus the terrible empire of the Huns sprang up among the
Ugrians of the northern steppes. The Khazars, straitened on every
side, remained passive till the danger culminated in the accession of
Attila (434). The emperor Theodosius sent envoys to bribe the Khazars
([Greek: Akatziroi]) to divert the Huns from the empire by an attack
upon their flank. But there was a Hunnic party amongst the Khazar
chiefs. The design was betrayed to Attila; and he extinguished the
independence of the nation in a moment. Khazaria became the apanage of
his eldest son, and the centre of government amongst the eastern
subjects of the Hun (448). Even the iron rule of Attila was preferable
to the time of anarchy that succeeded it. Upon his death (454) the
wild immigration which he had arrested revived. The Khazars and the
Sarogours (i.e. White Ogors, possibly the Barsileens of the Volga
delta) were swept along in a flood of mixed Tatar peoples which the
conquests of the Avars had set in motion. The Khazars and their
companions broke through the Persian defences of the Caucasus. They
appropriated the territory up to the Kur and the Aras, and roamed at
large through Iberia, Georgia and Armenia. The Persian king implored
the emperor Leo I. to help him defend Asia Minor at the Caucasus
(457), but Rome was herself too hard pressed, nor was it for fifty
years that the Khazars were driven back and the pass of Derbent
fortified against them (c. 507).
Throughout the 6th century Khazaria was the mere highway for the wild
hordes to whom the Huns had opened the passage into Europe, and the
Khazars took refuge (like the Venetians from Attila) amongst the
seventy mouths of the Volga. The pressure of the Turks in Asia
precipitated the Avars upon the West. The conquering Turks followed in
their footsteps (560-580). They beat down all opposition, wrested even
Bosporus in the Crimea from the empire, and by the annihilation of the
Ephthalites completed the ruin of the White Race of the plains from
the Oxus to the Don. The empires of Turks and Avars, however, ran
swiftly their barbaric course, and the Khazars arose out of the chaos
to more than their ancient renown. They issued from the land of
Barsilia, and extended their rule over the Bulgarian hordes left
masterless by the Turks, compelling the more stubborn to migrate to
the Danube (641). The agricultural Slavs of the Dnieper and the Oka
were reduced to tribute, and before the end of the 7th century the
Khazars had annexed the Crimea, had won complete command of the Sea of
Azov, and, seizing upon the narrow neck which separates the Volga from
the Don, had organized the portage which has continued since an
important link in the traffic between Asia and Europe. The alliance
with Byzantium was revived. Simultaneously, and no doubt in concert,
with the Byzantine campaign against Persia (589), the Khazars had
reappeared in Armenia, though it was not till 625 that they appear as
Khazars in the Byzantine annals. They are then described as "Turks
from the East," a powerful nation which held the coasts of the Caspian
and the Euxine, and took tribute of the Viatitsh, the Severians and
the Polyane. The khakan, enticed by the promise of an imperial
princess, furnished Heraclius with 40,000 men for his Persian war, who
shared in the victory over Chosroes at Nineveh.
Meanwhile the Moslem empire had arisen. The Persian empire was struck
down (637), and the Moslems poured into Armenia. The khakan, who had
defied the summons sent him by the invaders, now aided the Byzantine
patrician in the defence of Armenia. The allies were defeated, and the
Moslems undertook the subjugation of Khazaria (651). Eighty years of
warfare followed, but in the end the Moslems prevailed. The khakan and
his chieftains were captured and compelled to embrace Islam (737), and
till the decay of the Mahommedan empire Khazaria with all the other
countries of the Caucasus paid an annual tribute of children and of
corn (737-861). Nevertheless, though overpowered in the end, the
Khazars had protected the plains of Europe from the Mahommedans, and
made the Caucasus the limit of their conquests.
In the interval between the decline of the Mahommedan empire and the
rise of Russia the Khazars reached the zenith of their power. The
merchants of Byzantium, Armenia and Bagdad met in the markets of Itil
(whither since the raids of the Mahommedans the capital had been
transferred from Semender), and traded for the wax, furs, leather and
honey that came down the Volga. So important was this traffic held at
Constantinople that, when the portage to the Don was endangered by the
irruption of a fresh horde of Turks (the Petchenegs), the emperor
Theophilus himself despatched the materials and the workmen to build
for the Khazars a fortress impregnable to their forays (834). Famous
as the one stone structure is in that stoneless region, the post
became known far and wide amongst the hordes of the steppe as Sarkel
or the White Abode. Merchants from every nation found protection and
good faith in the Khazar cities. The Jews, expelled from
Constantinople, sought a home amongst them, developed the Khazar
trade, and contended with Mahommedans and Christians for the
theological allegiance of the Pagan people. The dynasty accepted
Judaism (c. 740), but there was equal tolerance for all, and each man
was held amenable to the authorized code and to the official judges of
his own faith. At the Byzantine court the khakan was held in high
honour. The emperor Justinian Rhinotmetus took refuge with him during
his exile and married his daughter (702). Justinian's rival Vardanes
in turn sought an asylum in Khazaria, and in Leo IV. (775) the
grandson of a Khazar sovereign ascended the Byzantine throne. Khazar
troops were amongst the bodyguard of the imperial court; they fought
for Leo VI. against Simeon of Bulgaria; and the khakan was honoured in
diplomatic intercourse with the seal of three solidi, which marked him
as a potentate of the first rank, above even the pope and the
Carolingian monarchs. Indeed his dominion became an object of
uneasiness to the jealous statecraft of Byzantium, and Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, writing for his son's instruction in the government,
carefully enumerates the Alans, the Petchenegs, the Uzes and the
Bulgarians as the forces he must rely on to restrain it.
It was, however, from a power that Constantine did not consider that
the overthrow of the Khazars came. The arrival of the Varangians
amidst the scattered Slavs (862) had united them into a nation. The
advance of the Petchenegs from the East gave the Russians their
opportunity. Before the onset of those fierce invaders the precarious
suzerainty of the khakan broke up. By calling in the Uzes, the Khazars
did indeed dislodge the Petchenegs from the position they had seized
in the heart of the kingdom between the Volga and the Don, but only to
drive them inwards to the Dnieper. The Hungarians, severed from their
kindred and their rulers, migrated to the Carpathians, whilst Oleg,
the Russ prince of Kiev, passed through the Slav tribes of the Dnieper
basin with the cry "Pay nothing to the Khazars" (884). The kingdom
dwindled rapidly to its ancient limits between the Caucasus, the Volga
and the Don, whilst the Russian traders of Novgorod and Kiev
supplanted the Khazars as the carriers between Constantinople and the
North. When Ibn Fadlan visited Khazaria forty years later, Itil was
even yet a great city, with baths and market-places and thirty
mosques. But there was no domestic product nor manufacture; the
kingdom depended solely upon the now precarious transit dues, and
administration was in the hands of a major domus also called khakan.
At the assault of Swiatoslav of Kiev the rotten fabric crumbled into
dust. His troops were equally at home on land and water. Sarkel, Itil
and Semender surrendered to him (965-969). He pushed his conquests to
the Caucasus, and established Russian colonies upon the Sea of Azov.
The principality of Tmutarakan, founded by his grandson Mstislav
(988), replaced the kingdom of Khazaria, the last trace of which was
extinguished by a joint expedition of Russians and Byzantines (1016).
The last of the khakans, George, Tzula, was taken prisoner. A remnant
of the nation took refuge in an island of the Caspian (Siahcouyé);
others retired to the Caucasus; part emigrated to the district of
Kasakhi in Georgia, and appear for the last time joining with Georgia
in her successful effort to throw off the yoke of the Seljuk Turks
(1089). But the name is thought to survive in Kadzaria, the Georgian
title for Mingrelia, and in Kadzaro, the Turkish word for the Lazis.
Till the 13th century the Crimea was known to European travellers as
Gazaria; the "ramparts of the Khazars" are still distinguished in the
Ukraine; and the record of their dominion survives in the names of
Kazarek, Kazaritshi, Kazarinovod, Kozar-owka, Kozari, and perhaps in
Kazan.
AUTHORITIES.--_Khazar_: The letter of King Joseph to R. Hasdai Ibn
Shaprut, first published by J. Akrish, _Kol Mebasser_ (Constantinople,
1577), and often reprinted in editions of Jehuda hal-Levy's _Kuzari_.
German translations by Zedner (Berlin, 1840) and Cassel, _Magyar.
Alterth._ (Berlin, 1848); French by Carmoly, _Rev. Or._ (1841). Cf.
Harkavy, _Russische Revue_, iv. 69; Graetz, _Geschichte_, v. 364, and
Carmoly, _Itinéraires de la Terre Sainte_ (Brussels, 1847).
_Armenian_: Moses of Chorene; cf. Saint-Martin, _Mémoires historiques
et géographiques sur l'Armènie_ (Paris, 1818). _Arabic_: The account
of Ibn Fadlan (921) is preserved by Yakut, ii. 436 seq. See also
Istakhry (ed. de Geoje, pp. 220 seq.), _Mas'udy_, ch. xvii. pp. 406
seq. of Sprenger's translation; _Ibn Haukal_ (ed. de Goeje, pp. 279
seq.) and the histories of Ibn el Athir and Tabary. Much of the Arabic
material has been collected and translated by Fraehn, "Veteres
Memoriae Chasarorum" in _Mém. de St Pét._ (1822); Dorn (from the
Persian Tabary), _Mém. de St Pét._ (1844); Dufrémery, _Journ. As._
(1849). See also D'Ohsson's imaginary _Voyage d'Abul Cassim_, based on
these sources. _Byzantine Historians_: The relative passages are
collected in Stritter's _Memoriae populorum_ (St Petersburg, 1778).
_Russian_: The _Chronicle_ ascribed to Nestor.
_Modern_: Klaproth, "Mém. sur les Khazars," in _Journ. As._ 1st
series, vol. iii.; id., _Tableaux hist. de l'Asie_ (Paris, 1823); id.,
_Tabl. hist. de Caucases_ (1827); memoirs on the Khazars by Harkavy
and by Howorth (_Congrès intern. des Orientalistes_, vol. ii.);
Latham, _Russian and Turk_, pp. 209-217; Vivien St Martin, _Études de
géog. ancienne_ (Paris, 1850); id., _Recherches sur les populations du
Caucase_ (1847); id., "Sur les Khazars," in _Nouvelles ann. des
voyages_ (1857); D'Ohsson, _Peuples du Caucase_ (Paris, 1828); S.
Krauss, "Zur Geschichte der Chazaren," in _Revue orientale pour les
études Ourals-altaïques_ (1900). (P. L. G.; C. El.)
KHEDIVE, a Persian word meaning prince or sovereign, granted as a title
by the sultan of Turkey in 1867 to his viceroy in Egypt, Ismail, in
place of that of "vali."
KHERI, a district of British India, in the Lucknow division of the
United Provinces, which takes its name from a small town with a railway
station 81 m. N.W. of Lucknow. The area of the district is 2963 sq. m.,
and its population in 1901 was 905,138. It consists of a series of
fairly elevated plateaus, separated by rivers flowing from the
north-west, each bordered by alluvial land. North of the river Ul, the
country is considered very unhealthy. Through this tract, probably the
bed of a lake, flow two rivers, the Kauriala and Chauka, changing their
courses constantly, so that the surface is seamed with deserted river
beds much below the level of the surrounding country. The vegetation is
very dense, and the stagnant waters are the cause of endemic fevers. The
people reside in the neighbourhood of the low ground, as the soil is
more fertile and less expensive to cultivate than the forest-covered
uplands. South of the Ul, the scene changes. Between every two rivers or
tributaries stretches a plain, considerably less elevated than the tract
to the north. There is very little slope in any of these plains for many
miles, and marshes are formed, from which emerge the headwaters of many
secondary streams, which in the rains become dangerous torrents, and
frequently cause devastating floods. The general drainage of the country
is from north-west to south-east. Several large lakes exist, some formed
by the ancient channels of the northern rivers, being fine sheets of
water, from 10 to 20 ft. deep and from 3 to 4 m. long; in places they
are fringed with magnificent groves. The whole north of the district is
covered with vast forests, of which a considerable portion are
government reserves. _Sal_ occupies about two-thirds of the forest area.
The district is traversed by a branch of the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway
from Lucknow to Bareilly.
KHERSON, a government of south Russia, on the N. coast of the Black Sea,
bounded W. by the governments of Bessarabia and Podolia, N. by Kiev and
Poltava, S. by Ekaterinoslav and Taurida. The area is 27,497 sq. m. The
aspect of the country, especially in the south, is that of an open
steppe, and almost the whole government is destitute of forest. The
Dniester marks the western and the Dnieper the south-eastern boundary;
the Bug, the Ingul and several minor streams drain the intermediate
territory. Along the shore stretch extensive lagoons. Iron, kaolin and
salt are the principal minerals. Nearly 45% of the land is owned by the
peasants, 31% by the nobility, 12% by other classes, and 12% by the
crown, municipalities and public institutions. The peasants rent
1,730,000 acres more from the landlords. Agriculture is well developed
and 9,000,000 acres (51.1%) are under crops. Agricultural machinery is
extensively used. The vine is widely grown, and yields 1,220,000 gallons
of wine annually. Some tobacco is grown and manufactured. Besides the
ordinary cereals, maize, hemp, flax, tobacco and mustard are commonly
grown; the fruit trees in general cultivation include the cherry, plum,
peach, apricot and mulberry; and gardening receives considerable
attention. Agriculture has been greatly improved by some seventy German
colonies. Cattle-breeding, horse-breeding and sheep-farming are pursued
on a large scale. Some sheep farmers own 30,000 or 40,000 merinos each.
Fishing is an important occupation. There are manufactures of wool, hemp
and leather; also iron-works, machinery and especially agricultural
machinery works, sugar factories, steam flour-mills and chemical works.
The ports of Kherson, Ochakov, Nikolayev, and especially Odessa, are
among the principal outlets of Russian commerce; Berislav, Alexandriya
Elisavetgrad, Voznesenask, Olviopol and Tiraspol play an important part
in the inland traffic. In 1871 the total population was 1,661,892, and
in 1897 2,744,040, of whom 1,332,175 were women and 785,094 lived in
towns. The estimated pop. in 1906 was 3,257,600. Besides Great and
Little Russians, it comprises Rumanians, Greeks, Germans (123,453),
Bulgarians, Bohemians, Swedes, and Jews (30% of the total), and some
Gypsies. About 84% belong to the Orthodox Greek Church; there are also
numerous Stundists. The government is divided into six districts, the
chief towns of which are: Kherson (q.v.), Alexandriya (14,002 in 1897),
Ananiev (16,713), Elisavetgrad (66,182 in 1900), Odessa (449,673 in
1900), and Tiraspol (29,323 in 1900). This region was long subject to
the sway of the Tatar khans of the Crimea, and owes its rapid growth to
the colonizing activity of Catherine II., who between 1778 and 1792
founded the cities of Kherson, Odessa and Nikolayev. Down to 1803 this
government was called Nikolayev.
KHERSON, a town of south Russia, capital of the above government, on a
hill above the right bank of the Dnieper, about 19 m. from its mouth.
Founded by the courtier Potemkin in 1778 as a naval station and seaport,
it had become by 1786 a place of 10,000 inhabitants, and, although its
progress was checked by the rise of Odessa and the removal (in 1794) of
the naval establishments to Nikolayev, it had in 1900 a population of
73,185. The Dnieper at this point breaks into several arms, forming
islands overgrown with reeds and bushes; and vessels of burden must
anchor at Stanislavskoe-selo, a good way down the stream. Of the traffic
on the river the largest share is due to the timber, wool, cereals,
cattle and hides trade; wool-dressing, soap-boiling, tallow-melting,
brewing, flour-milling and the manufacture of tobacco are the chief
industries. Kherson is a substantially built and regular town. The
cathedral is the burial-place of Potemkin, and near Kherson lie the
remains of John Howard, the English philanthropist, who died here in
1790. The fortifications have fallen into decay. The name Kherson was
given to the town from the supposition that the site was formerly that
of Chersonesus Heracleotica, the Greek city founded by the Dorians of
Heraclea.
KHEVENHÜLLER, LUDWIG ANDREAS (1683-1744), Austrian field-marshal, Count
of Aschelberg-Frankenburg, came of a noble family, which, originally
Franconian, settled in Carinthia in the 11th century. He first saw
active service under Prince Eugène in the War of the Spanish Succession,
and by 1716 had risen to the command of Prince Eugène's own regiment of
dragoons. He distinguished himself greatly at the battles of
Peterwardein and Belgrade, and became in 1723 major-general of cavalry
(_General-Wachtmeister_), in 1726 proprietary colonel of a regiment and
in 1733 lieutenant field marshal. In 1734 the War of the Polish
Succession brought him into the field again. He was present at the
battle of Parma (June 29), where Count Mercy, the Austrian commander,
was killed, and after Mercy's death he held the chief command of the
army in Italy till Field Marshal Königsegg's arrival. Under Königsegg he
again distinguished himself at the battle of Guastalla (September 19).
He was once more in command during the operations which followed the
battle, and his skilful generalship won for him the grade of general of
cavalry. He continued in military and diplomatic employment in Italy to
the close of the war. In 1737 he was made field marshal, Prince Eugène
recommending him to his sovereign as the best general in the service.
His chief exploit in the Turkish War, which soon followed his promotion,
was at Radojevatz (September 28, 1737), where he cut his way through a
greatly superior Turkish army. It was in the Austrian Succession War
that his most brilliant work was done. As commander-in-chief of the army
on the Danube he not only drove out the French and Bavarian invaders of
Austria in a few days of rapid marching and sharp engagements (January,
1742), but overran southern Bavaria, captured Munich, and forced a large
French corps in Linz to surrender. Later in the summer of 1742, owing to
the inadequate forces at his disposal, he had to evacuate his conquests,
but in the following campaign, though now subordinated to Prince Charles
of Lorraine, Khevenhüller reconquered southern Bavaria, and forced the
emperor in June to conclude the unfavourable convention of
Nieder-Schönfeld. He disapproved the advance beyond the Rhine which
followed these successes, and the event justified his fears, for the
Austrians had to fall back from the Rhine through Franconia and the
Breisgau, Khevenhüller himself conducting the retreat with admirable
skill. On his return to Vienna, Maria Theresa decorated the field
marshal with the order of the Golden Fleece. He died suddenly at Vienna
on the 26th of January 1744.
He was the author of various instructional works for officers and
soldiers (_Des G. F. M. Grafen v. Khevenhüller Observationspunkte für
sein Dragoner-regiment_ (1734 and 1748) and a _règlement_ for the
infantry (1737), and of an important work on war in general, _Kurzer
Begriff aller militärischen Operationen_ (Vienna, 1756; French
version, _Maximes de guerre_, Paris, 1771).
KHEVSURS, a people of the Caucasus, kinsfolk of the Georgians. They live
in scattered groups in East Georgia to the north and north-west of Mount
Borbalo. Their name is Georgian and means "People of the Valleys." For
the most part nomadic, they are still in a semi-barbarous state. They
have not the beauty of the Georgian race. They are gaunt and thin to
almost a ghastly extent, their generally repulsive aspect being
accentuated by their large hands and feet and their ferocious
expression. In complexion and colour of hair and eyes they vary greatly.
They are very muscular and capable of bearing extraordinary fatigue.
They are fond of fighting, and still wear armour of the true medieval
type. This panoply is worn when the law of vendetta, which is sacred
among them as among most Caucasian peoples, compels them to seek or
avoid their enemy. They carry a spiked gauntlet, the terrible marks of
which are borne by a large proportion of the Khevsur faces.
Many curious customs still prevail among the Khevsurs, as for instance
the imprisonment of the woman during childbirth in a lonely hut, round
which the husband parades, firing off his musket at intervals. After
delivery, food is surreptitiously brought the mother, who is kept in
her prison a month, after which the hut is burnt. The boys are usually
named after some wild animal, e.g. bear or wolf, while the girls'
names are romantic, such as Daughter of the Sun, Sun of my Heart.
Marriages are arranged by parents when the bride and bridegroom are
still in long clothes. The chief ceremony is a forcible abduction of
the girl. Divorce is very common, and some Khevsurs are polygamous.
Formerly no Khevsur might die in a house, but was always carried out
under the sun or stars. The Khevsurs like to call themselves
Christians, but their religion is a mixture of Christianity,
Mahommedanism and heathen rites. They keep the Sabbath of the
Christian church, the Friday of the Moslems and the Saturday of the
Jews. They worship sacred trees and offer sacrifices to the spirits of
the earth and air. Their priests are a combination of medicine-men and
divines.
See G. F. R. Radde, _Die Chevs'uren und ihr Land_ (Cassel, 1878);
Ernest Chantre, _Recherches anthropologiques dans le Caucase_ (Lyons,
1885-1887).
KHILCHIPUR, a mediatized chiefship in Central India, under the Bhopal
agency; area, 273 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 31,143; estimated revenue, £7000;
tribute payable to Sindhia, £700. The residence of the chief, who is a
Khichi Rajput of the Chauhan clan, is at Khilchipur (pop. 5121).
KHINGAN, two ranges of mountains in eastern Asia.
(1) GREAT KHINGAN is the eastern border ridge of the immense plateau
which may be traced from the Himalaya to Bering Strait and from the
Tian-shan Mountains to the Khingan Mountains. It is well known from 50°
N. to Kalgan (41° N., 115° E.), where it is crossed by the highway from
Urga to Peking. As a border ridge of the Mongolian plateau, it possesses
very great orographical importance, in that it is an important climatic
boundary, and constitutes the western limits of the Manchurian flora.
The base of its western slope, which is very gentle, lies at altitudes
of 3000 to 3500 ft. Its crest rises to 4800 to 6500 ft., but its eastern
slope sinks very precipitately to the plains of Manchuria, which have
only 1500 to 2000 ft. of altitude. On this stretch one or two
subordinate ridges, parallel to the main range and separated from it by
longitudinal valleys, fringe its eastern slope, thus marking two
different terraces and giving to the whole system a width of from 80 to
100 m. Basalts, trachytes and other volcanic formations are found in the
main range and on its south-eastern slopes. The range was in volcanic
activity in 1720-1721.
South-west of Peking the Great Khingan is continued by the In-shan
mountains, which exhibit similar features to those of the Great
Khingan, and represent the same terraced escarpment of the Mongolian
plateau. Moreover, it appears from the map of the Russian General
Staff (surveys of Skassi, V. A. Obruchev, G. N. Potanin, &c.) that
similar terrace-shaped escarpments--but considerably wider apart than
in Manchuria--occur in the Shan-si province of China, along the
southern border of the South Mongolian plateau. These escarpments are
pierced by the Yellow River or Hwang-ho south of the Great Wall,
between 38° and 39° N., and in all probability a border range
homologous to the Great Khingan separates the upper tributaries of the
Hwang-ho (namely the Tan-ho) from those of the Yang-tsze-kiang. But
according to Obruchev the escarpments of the Wei-tsi-shan and
Lu-huang-lin, by which southern Ordos drops towards the Wei-ho
(tributary of the Hwang-ho), can hardly be taken as corresponding to
the Kalgan escarpment. They fall with gentle slopes only towards the
high plains on the south of them, while a steep descent towards the
low plain seems to exist further south only, between 32° and 34°. Thus
the southern continuations of the Great Khingan, south of 38° N.,
possibly consist of two separate escarpments. At its northern end the
place where the Great Khingan is pierced by the Amur has not been
ascertained by direct observation. Prince P. Kropotkin considers that
the upper Amur emerges from the high plateau and its border-ridge, the
Khingan, below Albazin and above Kumara.[1] If this view
prevail--Petermann has adopted it for his map of Asia, and it has been
upheld in all the Gotha publications--it would appear that the Great
Khingan joins the Stanovoi ridge or Jukjur, in that portion of it
which faces the west coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. At any rate the
Khingan, separating the Mongolian plateau from the much lower plains
of the Sungari and the Nonni, is one of the most important
orographical dividing-lines in Asia.
See Semenov's _Geographical Dictionary_ (in Russian); D. V. Putiata,
_Expedition to the Khingan in 1891_ (St Petersburg, 1893); Potanin,
"Journey to the Khingan," in _Izvestia Russ. Geog. Soc._ (1901).
(2) The name LITTLE KHINGAN is applied indiscriminately to two distinct
mountain ranges. The proper application of the term would be to reserve
it for the typical range which the Amur pierces 40 m. below
Ekaterino-Nikolsk (on the Amur), and which is also known as the Bureya
mountains, and as Dusse-alin. This range, which may be traced from the
Amur to the Sea of Okhotsk, seems to be cleft twice by the Sungari and
to be continued under different local names in the same south-westerly
direction to the peninsula of Liao-tung in Manchuria. The other range to
which the name of Little Khingan is applied is that of the Ilkhuri-alin
mountains (51° N., 122°-126° E.), which run in a north-westerly
direction between the upper Nonni and the Amur, west of
Blagovyeshchensk. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)