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. Nöldeke (Gött. 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 Khabirā seems to have settled in the Babylonian plain.
See Fr. Delitzsch, Die Sprache der Kossäer (1884). (A. H. S.)
KASTAMUNI, or Kastambūl. (1) A vilayet of Asia Minor
which includes Paphlagonia and parts of Pontus and Galatia.
It is divided into four sanjaks—Kastamuni, Boli, Changra and
Sinope—is rich in mineral wealth, and has many mineral springs
and extensive forests, the timber being used for charcoal and
building and the bark for tanning. The products are chiefly
cereals, fruits, opium, cotton, tobacco, wool, ordinary goat-hair
and mohair, in which there is a large trade. There are coal-mines
at and near Eregli (anc. Heracleia) which yield steam coal nearly
as good in quality as the English, but they are badly worked.
Its population comprises about 993,000 Moslems and 27,000
Christians. (2) The capital of the vilayet, the ancient Castamon,
altitude 2500 ft., situated in the narrow valley of the Geuk Irmak
(Amnias), and connected by a carriage road, 54 m., with its port
Ineboli on the Black Sea. The town is noted for its copper
utensils, but the famous copper mines about 36 m. N., worked
from ancient times to the 19th century, are now abandoned.
There are over 30 mosques in the town, a dervish monastery, and
numerous theological colleges (medresses), and the Moslem inhabitants
have a reputation for bigotry. The climate though subject
to extremes of heat and cold is healthy; in winter the roads are
often closed by snow. The population of 16,000 includes about
2500 Christians. Castamon became an important city in later
Byzantine times. It lay on the northern trunk-road to the
Euphrates and was built round a strong fortress whose ruins
crown the rocky hill west of the town. It was taken by the
Danishmand Amirs of Sivas early in the 12th century, and passed
to the Turks in 1393. (J. G. C. A.)
KASTORIA (Turkish Kesrie), a city of Macedonia, European
Turkey, in the vilayet of Monastir, 45 m. S. by W. of Monastir
(Bitolia). Pop. (1905), about 10,000, one-third of whom are
Greeks, one-third Slavs, and the remainder Albanians or Turks.
Kastoria occupies part of a peninsula on the western shore of
Lake Kastoria, which here receives from the north its affluent the
Zhelova. The lake is formed in a deep hollow surrounded by
limestone mountains, and is drained on the south by the Bistritza,
a large river which flows S.E. nearly to the Greek frontier,
then sharply turns N.E., and finally enters the Gulf of Salonica.
The lake has an area of 20 sq. m., and is 2850 ft. above sea-level.
Kastoria is the seat of an Orthodox archbishop. It is usually
identified with the ancient Celetrum, captured by the Romans
under Sulpicius, during the first Macedonian campaign, 200 B.C.,
and better known for the defence maintained by Bryennius
against Alexis I. in 1084. A Byzantine wall with round towers
runs across the peninsula.
KASUR, a town of British India, in the Lahore district of the
Punjab, situated on the north bank of the old bed of the river
Beas, 34 m. S.E. of Lahore. Pop. (1901), 22,022. A Rajput
colony seems to have occupied the present site before the earliest
Mahommedan invasion; but Kasur does not appear in history
until late in the Mussulman period, when it was settled by a
Pathan colony from beyond the Indus. It has an export trade
in grain and cotton, and manufactures of cotton and leather
goods.
KATAGUM, the sub-province of the double province of Kano in the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria. It lies approximately between 11° and 13° N. and 8° 20′ and 10° 40′ E. It is
bounded N. by the French Sudan, E. by Bornu, S. by Bauchi,
and W. by Kano. Katagum consists of several small but ancient
Mahommedan emirates—Katagum, Messau, Gummel, Hadeija,
Machena, with a fringe of Bedde pagans on its eastern frontier
towards Bornu, and other pagans on the south towards Bauchi.
The Waube flows from Kano through the province via Hadeija
and by Damjiri in Bornu to Lake Chad, affording a route for the
transport of goods brought by the Zungeru-Zaria-Kano railway
to the headquarters of Katagum and western Bornu. Katagum
is a fertile province inhabited by an industrious people whose
manufactures rival those of Kano.
In ancient times the province of Katagum formed the debateable country between Bornu and the Hausa states. Though Mahommedan it resisted the Fula invasion. Its northern emirates were for a long time subject to Bornu, and its customs are nearly assimilated to those of Bornu. The province was taken under administrative control by the British in October 1903. In 1904 the capitals of Gummel, Hadeija, Messau and Jemaari, were brought into touch with the administration and native and provincial courts established. At the beginning of 1905 Katagum was incorporated as a sub-province with the province of Kano, and the administrative organization of a double province was extended over the whole. Hadeija, which is a very wealthy town and holds an important position both as a source of supplies and a centre of trade, received a garrison of mounted infantry and became the capital of the sub-province.
Hadeija was an old Habe town and its name, an evident corruption of Khadija, the name of the celebrated wife and first convert of Mahomet, is a strong presumption of the incorrectness of the Fula claim to have introduced Islam to its inhabitants. The ruling dynasty of Hadeija was, however, overthrown by Fula usurpation towards the end of the 18th century, and the Fula ruler received a flag and a blessing from Dan Fodio at the beginning of his sacred war in the opening years of the 19th century. Nevertheless the habit of independence being strong in the town of Hadeija the little emirate held its own against Sokoto, Bornu and all comers. Though included nominally within the province at Katagum it was the boast of Hadeija that it had never been conquered. It had made nominal submission to the British in 1903 on the successful conclusion of the Kano-Sokoto campaign, and in 1905, as has been stated, was chosen as the capital of the sub-province. The emir’s attitude became, however, in the spring of 1906 openly antagonistic to the British and a military expedition was sent against him. The emir with his disaffected chiefs made a plucky stand but after five hours’ street fighting the town was reduced. The emir and three of his sons were killed, and a new emir, the rightful heir to the throne, who had shown himself in favour of a peaceful policy, was appointed. The offices of the war chiefs in Hadeija were abolished and 150 yards of the town wall were broken down.
Slave dealing is at an end in Katagum. The military station at Hadeija forms a link in the chain of British forts which extends along the northern frontier of the protectorate. (See Nigeria.) (F. L. L.)
KATANGA, a district of Belgian Congo, forming the south-eastern part of the colony. Area, approximately, 180,000 sq. m.; estimated population 1,000,000. The natives are members of
