Kurds invaded the Alpine pasturages above the valley of the Aras; and after them Kabardians, Circassians, Ossetes and Kara-papaks successively found a refuge in this highland region. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, when this region was transferred to Russia by the treaty of Berlin, some 82,750 Turks emigrated to Asia Minor, their places being taken by nearly 22,000 Armenians, Greeks and Russians. At the census of 1897 the population consisted principally of Armenians (73,400), Kurds (43,000), Greeks (32,600), Kara-papaks (30,000), Russians, Turks and Persians. The capital is Kars. The province is divided into four districts, the chief towns of which are Kars (q.v.), Ardahan (pop. 800 in 1897), Kaghyshman (3435) and Olty. (J. T. Be.)
KARS, a fortified town of Russian Transcaucasia, in the
province of Kars, formerly at the head of a sanjak in the Turkish
vilayet of Erzerum. It is situated in 40° 37′ N. and 43° 6′ E.,
185 m. by rail S.W. of Tiflis, on a dark basalt spur of the Soghanli-dagh,
above the deep ravine of the Kars-chai, a sub-tributary
of the Aras. Pop. (1878), 8672; (1897), 20,891. There are
three considerable suburbs—Orta-kapi to the S., Bairam Pasha
to the E., and Timur Pasha on the western side of the river.
At the N.W. corner of the town, overhanging the river, is the
ancient citadel, in earlier times a strong military post, but
completely commanded by the surrounding eminences. The
place is, however, still defended by a fort and batteries. There
is a 10th century cathedral, Kars being the see of a bishop of
the Orthodox Greek Church. Coarse woollens, carpets and felt
are manufactured.
During the 9th and 10th centuries the seat of an independent Armenian principality, Kars was captured and destroyed by the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century, by the Mongols in the 13th, and by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1387. The citadel, it would appear, was built by Sultan Murad III. during the war with Persia, at the close of the 16th century. It was strong enough to withstand a siege by Nadir Shah of Persia, in 1731, and in 1807 it successfully resisted the Russians. After a brave defence it surrendered on the 23rd of June 1828 to the Russian general Count I. F. Paskevich, 11,000 men becoming prisoners of war. During the Crimean War the Turkish garrison, guided by General Williams (Sir W. Fenwick Williams of Kars) and other foreign officers, kept the Russians at bay during a protracted siege; but, after the garrison had been devastated by cholera, and food had utterly failed, nothing was left but to capitulate (Nov. 1855). The fortress was again stormed by the Russians in the war of 1877–78, and on its conclusion was transferred to Russia.
See Kmety, The Defence of Kars (1856), translated from the German; H. A. Lake, Kars and our Captivity in Russia (London, 1856); and Narrative of the Defence of Kars (London, 1857); Dr Sandwith, Narrative of the Siege of Kars (London, 1856); C. B. Norman, Armenia and the Campaign of 1877 (London, 1878); Greene, Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkey (1879).
KARSHI, a town of Bokhara, in Central Asia, situated 96 m.
S.E. of the city of Bokhara, in a plain at the junction of two
main confluents of the Kashka-darya. It is a large and straggling
place, with a citadel, and the population amounts to
25,000. There are three colleges, and the Biki mosque is a fine
building inlaid with blue and white tiles. Along the river
stretches a fine promenade sheltered by poplars. Poppies and
tobacco are largely grown, the tobacco being deemed the best
in Central Asia. There is a considerable trade in grain; but the
commercial prosperity of Karshi is mainly due to its being a
meeting-point for the roads from Samarkand, Bokhara, Hissar,
Balkh and Maimana, and serves as the market where the
Turkomans and Uzbegs dispose of their carpets, knives and firearms.
Its coppersmiths turn out excellent work. Karshi was
a favourite residence of Timur (Tamerlane).
KARST, in physical geography, the region east of the northern
part of the Adriatic. It is composed of high and dry limestone
ridges. The country is excessively faulted by a long series of
parallel fractures that border the N.E. Adriatic and continue
inland that series of steps which descend beneath the sea and
produce the series of long parallel islands off the coast of Triest
and along the Dalmatian shore. It has been shown by E. Suess
(Antlitz der Erde, vol. i. pt. 2, ch. iii.) that the N. Adriatic is a
sunken dish that has descended along these fractures and folds,
which are not uncommonly the scene of earthquakes, showing
that these movements are still in progress. The crust is very
much broken in consequence and the water sinks readily through
the broken limestone rocks, which owing to their nature are also
very absorbent. The result is that the scenery is barren and
desolate, and as this structure always, wherever found, gives
rise to similar features, a landscape of this character is called a
Karst landscape. The water running in underground channels
dissolves and denudes away the underlying rock, producing
great caves as at Adelsberg, and breaking the surface with
sinks, potholes and unroofed chasms. The barren nature of a
purely limestone country is seen in the treeless regions of some
parts of Derbyshire, while the underground streams and sinks
of parts of Yorkshire, and the unroofed gorge formed by the
Cheddar cliffs, give some indication of the action that in the
high fractured mountains of the Karst produces a depressing
landscape which has some of the features of the “bad lands” of
America, though due to a different cause.
KARSTEN, KARL JOHANN BERNHARD (1782–1853), German mineralogist, was born at Bützow in Mecklenburg, on the 26th of November 1782. He was author of several comprehensive works, including Handbuch der Eisenhüttenkunde (2 vols., 1816; 3rd ed., 1841); System der Metallurgie geschichtlich, statistisch, theoretisch und technisch (5 vols. with atlas, 1831–1832); Lehrbuch der Salinenkunde (2 vols., 1846–1847). He was well known as
editor of the Archiv für Bergbau und Hüttenwesen (20 vols., 1818–1831);
and (with H. von Dechen) of the Archiv für Mineralogie,
Geognosie, Bergbau und Hüttenkunde (26 vols., 1820–1854). He
died at Berlin on the 22nd of August 1853. His son, Dr Hermann
Karsten (1809–1877), was professor of mathematics and physics
in the university of Rostock.
KARTIKEYA, in Hindu mythology, the god of war. Of his
birth there are various legends. One relates that he had no
mother but was produced by Siva alone, and was suckled by six
nymphs of the Ganges, being miraculously endowed with six
faces that he might simultaneously obtain nourishment from
each. Another story is that six babes, miraculously conceived,
were born of the six nymphs, and that Parvati, the wife of Siva,
in her great affection for them, embraced the infants so closely
that they became one, but preserved six faces, twelve arms, feet,
eyes, &c. Kartikeya became the victor of giants and the leader
of the armies of the gods. He is represented as riding a peacock.
In southern India he is known as Subramanya.
KARUN, an important river of Persia. Its head-waters are in the mountain cluster known since at least the 14th century as Zardeh Kuh (13,000 ft.) and situated in the Bakhtiari country about 115 m. W. of Isfahan. In its upper course until it reaches
Shushter it is called Ab i Kurang (also Kurand and Kuran), and in the Bundahish, an old cosmographical work in Pahlavi, it is named Kharāē.[1] From the junction of the two principal sources in the Zardeh Kuh at an altitude of about 8000 ft., the Ab i Kurang is a powerful stream, full, deep and flowing with
great velocity for most of its upper course between precipices
varying in height from 1000 to 3000 ft. The steepness and
height of its banks make it in general useless for irrigation
purposes. From its principal sources to Shushter the distance
as the crow flies is only about 75 m., but the course of the river
is so tortuous that it travels 250 m. before it reaches that
city. Besides being fed on its journey through the Bakhtiari
country by many mountain-side streams, fresh-water and salt,
it receives various tributaries, the most important being the
Ab i Bazuft from the right and the Ab i Barz from the left. At
Shushter it divides into two branches, one the “Gerger,” an
artificial channel cut in olden times and flowing east of the
- ↑ The real principal source of the river has been correctly located at ten miles above the reputed principal source, but the name Kurang has been erroneously explained as standing for Kuh i rang and has been given to the mountain with the real principal source. Kuh i rang has been wrongly explained as meaning the “variegated mountain.”
