[1] See G. A. Grierson, "On Pronominal Suffixes in the Kacmiri
Languages," and "On the Radical and Participial Tenses of the Modern
Indo-Aryan Languages," in _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_,
vol. lxiv. (1895), pt. i. pp. 336 and 352.
KASHUBES (sing. _Kaszub_, plur. _Kaszebe_), a Slavonic people numbering
about 200,000, and living on the borders of West Prussia and Pomerania,
along the Baltic coast between Danzig and Lake Garden, and inland as far
as Konitz. They have no literature and no history, as they consist of
peasants and fishermen, the educated classes being mostly Germans or
Poles. Their language has been held to be but a dialect of Polish, but
it seems better to separate it, as in some points it is quite
independent, in some it offers a resemblance to the language of the
Polabs (q.v.). This is most seen in the western dialect of the so-called
Slovinci (of whom there are about 250 left) and Kabatki, whereas the
eastern Kashube is more like Polish, which is encroaching upon and
assimilating it. Lorentz calls the western dialect a language, and
distinguishes 38 vowels. The chief points of Kashube as against Polish
are that all its vowels can be nasal instead of a and e only, that it
has preserved quantity and a free accent, has developed several special
vowels, e.g. _o, oe, u_, and has preserved the original order, e.g.
_gard_ as against _grod_. The consonants are very like Polish. (See also
SLAVS.)
AUTHORITIES.--F. Lorentz, _Slovinzische Grammatik_ (St Petersburg,
1903) and "Die gegenseitigen Verhaltnisse der sogen. Lechischen
Sprachen," in _Arch. f. Slav. Phil._ xxiv. (1902); J. Baudouin de
Courtenay, "Kurzes Resume der Kaschubischen Frage," ibid. xxvi.
(1904); G. Bronisch, _Kaschubische Dialektstudien_ (Leipzig,
1896-1898); S. Ramult, _Stownik jezyka pomorskiego czyli
kaszubskiego_, i.e. "Dictionary of the Seacoast (Pomeranian) or
Kashube Language" (Cracow, 1893). (E. H. M.)
KASIMOV, a town of Russia, in the government of Ryazan, on the Oka
river, in 54 deg. 56' N. and 41 deg. 3' E., 75 m. E.N.E. of Ryazan. Pop.
(1897), 13,545, of whom about 1000 were Tatars. It is famed for its
tanneries and leather goods, sheepskins and post-horse bells. Founded in
1152, it was formerly known as Meshcherski Gorodets. In the 15th century
it became the capital of a Tatar khanate, subject to Moscow, and so
remained until 1667. The town possesses a cathedral, and a mosque
supposed to have been built by Kasim, founder of the Tatar principality.
Near the mosque stands a mausoleum built by Shah-Ali in 1555. Lying on
the direct road from Astrakhan to Moscow and Nizhniy-Novgorod, Kasimov
is a place of some trade, and has a large annual fair in July. The
waiters in the best hotels of St Petersburg are mostly Kasimov Tatars.
See Veliaminov-Zernov, _The Kasimov Tsars_ (St Petersburg, 1863-1866).
KASSA (Germ. _Kaschau_; Lat. _Cassovia_), the capital of the county of
Abauj-Torna, in Hungary, 170 m. N.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900),
35,856. Kassa is one of the oldest and handsomest towns of Hungary, and
is pleasantly situated on the right bank of the Hernad. It is surrounded
on three sides by hills covered with forests and vineyards, and opens to
the S.E. towards a pretty valley watered by the Hernad and the Tarcza.
Kassa consists of the inner town, which was the former old town
surrounded with walls, and of three suburbs separated from it by a
broad glacis. The most remarkable building, considered the grandest
masterpiece of architecture in Hungary, is the Gothic cathedral of St
Elizabeth. Begun about 1270 by Stephen V., it was continued (1342-1382)
by Queen Elizabeth, wife of Charles I., and her son Louis I., and
finished about 1468, in the reign of Matthias I. (Corvinus). The
interior was transformed in the 18th century to the Renaissance style,
and the whole church thoroughly restored in 1877-1896. The church of St
Michael and the Franciscan or garrison church date from the 13th
century. The royal law academy, founded in 1659, and sanctioned by
golden bull of King Leopold I. in 1660, has an extensive library; there
are also a museum, a Roman Catholic upper gymnasium and seminary for
priests, and other schools and benevolent institutions. Kassa is the see
of a Roman Catholic bishopric. It is the chief political and commercial
town of Upper Hungary, and the principal _entrepot_ for the commerce
between Hungary and Galicia. Its most important manufactures are
tobacco, machinery, iron, furniture, textiles and milling. About 3 m.
N.W. of the town are the baths of Banko, with alkaline and ferruginous
springs, and about 12 m. N.E. lies Rank-Herlein, with an intermittent
chalybeate spring. About 20 m. W. of Kassa lies the famous
Premonstratensian abbey of Jaszo, founded in the 12th century. The abbey
contains a rich library and valuable archives. In the neighbourhood is a
fine stalactite grotto, which often served as a place of refuge to the
inhabitants in war time.
Kassa was created a town and granted special privileges by Bela IV. in
1235, and was raised to the rank of a royal free town by Stephen V. in
1270. In 1290 it was surrounded with walls. The subsequent history
presents a long record of revolts, sieges and disastrous conflagrations.
In 1430 the plague carried off a great number of the inhabitants. In
1458 the right of minting money according to the pattern and value of
the Buda coinage was granted to the municipality by King Matthias I. The
bishopric was established in 1804. In the revolutionary war of 1848-49
the Hungarians were twice defeated before the walls of Kassa by the
Austrians under General Schlick, and the town was held successively by
the Austrians, Hungarians and Russians.
KASSALA, a town and _mudiria_ of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The town, a
military station of some importance, lies on the river Gash (Mareb) in
15 deg. 28' N., 36 deg. 24' E., 260 m. E.S.E. of Khartum and 240 m. W.
of Massawa, the nearest seaport. Pop. about 20,000. It is built on a
plain, 1700 ft. above the sea, at the foot of the Abyssinian highlands
15 m. W. of the frontier of the Italian colony of Eritrea. Two
dome-shaped mountains about 2600 ft. high, jebels Mokram and Kassala,
rise abruptly from the plain some 3 m. to the east and south-east. These
mountains and the numerous gardens Kassala contains give to the place a
picturesque appearance. The chief buildings are of brick, but most of
the natives dwell in grass _tukls_. A short distance from the town is
Khatmia, containing a tomb mosque with a high tower, the headquarters of
the Morgani family. The sheikhs El Morgani are the chiefs of a religious
brotherhood widely spread and of considerable influence in the eastern
Sudan. The Morgani family are of Afghan descent. Long settled in Jidda,
the head of the family removed to the Sudan about 1800 and founded the
Morgani sect. Kassala was founded by the Egyptians in 1840 as a
fortified post from which to control their newly conquered territory
near the Abyssinian frontier. In a few years it grew into a place of
some importance. In November 1883 it was besieged by the dervishes. The
garrison held out till the 30th of July 1885 when owing to lack of food
they capitulated. Kassala was captured from the dervishes by an Italian
force under Colonel Baratieri on the 17th of July 1894 and by the
Italians was handed over on Christmas day 1897 to Egypt. The bulk of the
inhabitants are Hallenga "Arabs."
Kassala _mudiria_ contains some of the most fertile land in the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It corresponds roughly with the district formerly
known as Taka. It is a region of light rainfall, and cultivation depends
chiefly on the Gash flood. The river is however absolutely dry from
October to June. White durra of excellent quality is raised.
KASSASSIN, a village of Lower Egypt 22 m. by rail W. of Ismailia on the
Suez Canal. At this place, on the 28th of August and again on the 9th of
September 1882 the British force operating against Arabi Pasha was
attacked by the Egyptians--both attacks being repulsed (see EGYPT:
_Military Operations_).
KASSITES, an Elamite tribe who played an important part in the history
of Babylonia. They still inhabited the north-western mountains of Elam,
immediately south of Holwan, when Sennacherib attacked them in 702 B.C.
They are the Kossaeans of Ptolemy, who divides Susiana between them and
the Elymaeans; according to Strabo (xi. 13, 3, 6) they were the
neighbours of the Medes. Th. Noldeke (_Gott. G. G._, 1874, pp. 173 seq.)
has shown that they are the Kissians of the older Greek authors who are
identified with the Susians by Aeschylus (_Choeph._ 424, Pers. 17, 120)
and Herodotus (v. 49, 52). We already hear of them as attacking
Babylonia in the 9th year of Samsu-iluna the son of Khammurabi, and
about 1780 B.C. they overran Babylonia and founded a dynasty there which
lasted for 576 years and nine months. In the course of centuries,
however, they were absorbed into the Babylonian population; the kings
adopted Semitic names and married into the royal family of Assyria. Like
the other languages of the non-Semitic tribes of Elam that of the
Kassites was agglutinative; a vocabulary of it has been handed down in a
cuneiform tablet, as well as a list of Kassite names with their Semitic
equivalents. It has no connexion with Indo-European, as has erroneously
been supposed. Some of the Kassite deities were introduced into the
Babylonian pantheon, and the Kassite tribe of Khabira seems to have
settled in the Babylonian plain.