199,313, showing an apparent increase of 55% in the decade; estimated revenue, £90,000. Like other parts of Sind, Khairpur consists of a great alluvial plain, very rich and fertile in the neighbourhood of the Indus and the irrigation canals, the remaining area being a continuous series of sand-hill ridges covered with a stunted brushwood, where cultivation is altogether impossible. A small ridge of limestone hills passes through the northern part of the state, being a continuation of a ridge known as the Ghar, running southwards from Rohri. The state is watered by five canals drawn off from the Indus, besides the Eastern Nara, a canal which follows an old bed of the Indus. In the desert tracts are pits of natron.
Khairpur town is situated on a canal 15 m. E. of the Indus, with a railway station, 20 m. S. of Sukkur, on the Kotri-Rohri branch of the North-Western railway, which here crosses a corner of the state. Pop. (1901), 14,014. There are manufactures of cloth, carpets, goldsmiths’ work and arms, and an export trade in indigo, grain and oilseeds.
The chief, or mir, of Khairpur belongs to a Baluch family, known as the Talpur, which rose on the fall of the Kalhora dynasty of Sind. About 1813, during the troubles in Kabul incidental to the establishment of the Barakzai dynasty, the mirs were able to withhold the tribute which up to that date had been somewhat irregularly paid to the rulers of Afghanistan. In 1832 the individuality of the Khairpur state was recognized by the British government in a treaty under which the use of the river Indus and the roads of Sind were secured. When the first Kabul expedition was decided on, the mir of Khairpur, Ali Murad, cordially supported the British policy; and the result was that, after the battles of Meeanee and Daba had put the whole of Sind at the disposal of the British, Khairpur was the only state allowed to retain its political existence under the protection of the paramount power. The chief mir, Faiz Mahommed Khan, G.C.I.E., who was an enlightened ruler, died in 1909, shortly after returning from a pilgrimage to the Shiite shrine of Kerbela.
KHAJRAHO, a village of Central India, in the state of
Chhatarpur, famous for its old temples; pop. (1901), 1242. It
is believed to have been the capital of the ancient kingdom of
Jijhoti, corresponding with modern Bundelkhand. The temples
consist of three groups: Saiva, Vaishnav and Jain, almost all
built in the 10th and 11th centuries. They are covered outside
and inside with elaborate sculptures, and also bear valuable
inscriptions.
KHAKI (from Urdu khak, dust), originally a dust-coloured
fabric, of the character of canvas, drill or holland, used by the
British and native armies in India. It seems to have been first
worn by the Guides, a mixed regiment of frontier troops, in 1848,
and to have spread to other regiments during the following years.
Some at any rate of the British troops had uniforms of khaki
during the Indian Mutiny (1857–58), and thereafter drill or
holland (generally called “khaki” whatever its colour) became
the almost universal dress of British and native troops in Asia
and Africa. During the South African War of 1899–1902, drill
of a sandy shade of brown was worn by all troops sent out
from Great Britain and the Colonies. Khaki drill, however,
proved unsuitable material for the cold weather in the uplands
of South Africa, and after a time the troops were supplied with
dust-coloured serge uniforms. Since 1900 all drab and green-grey
uniforms have been, unofficially at any rate, designated
khaki.
KHALIFA, THE. Abdullah et Taaisha (Seyyid Abdullah ibn Seyyid Mahommed) (1846–1899), successor of the mahdi Mahommed Ahmed, born in 1846 in the south-western portion
of Darfur, was a member of the Taaisha section of the Baggara
or cattle-owning Arabs. His father, Mahommed et Taki, had
determined to emigrate to Mecca with his family; but the
unsettled state of the country long prevented him, and he died
in Africa after advising his eldest son, Abdullah, to take refuge
with some religious sheikh on the Nile, and to proceed to Mecca
on a favourable opportunity. Abdullah, who had already had
much connexion with slave-hunters, and had fought against the
Egyptian conquest of Darfur, departed for the Nile valley with
this purpose; hearing on the way of the disputes of Mahommed
Ahmed, who had not yet claimed a sacred character, with the
Egyptian officials, he went to him in spite of great difficulties,
and, according to his own statement, at once recognized in him
the mahdi (“guide”) divinely appointed to regenerate Islam in
the latter days. His advice to Mahommed to stir up revolt in
Darfur and Kordofan being justified by the result, he became
his most trusted counsellor, and was soon declared principal
khalifa or vicegerent of the mahdi, all of whose acts were to
be regarded as the mahdi’s own. The mahdi on his deathbed
(1885) solemnly named him his successor; and for thirteen years
Abdullah ruled over what had been the Egyptian Sudan.
Khartum was deserted by his orders, and Omdurman, at first
intended as a temporary camp, was made his capital. At length
the progress of Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener’s
expedition compelled him to give battle to the Anglo-Egyptian
forces near Omdurman, where on the 2nd of September 1898 his
army, fighting with desperate courage, was almost annihilated.
The khalifa, who had not left Omdurman since the death of
the mahdi, fled to Kordofan with the remnant of his host. On
the 25th of November 1899 he gave battle to a force under
Colonel (afterwards General Sir) F. R. Wingate, and was
slain at Om Debreikat. He met death with great fortitude,
refusing to fly, and his principal amirs voluntarily perished with
him.
The khalifa was a man of iron will and great energy, and possessed some military skill. By nature tyrannical, he was impatient of all opposition and appeared to delight in cruelty. It must be remembered, however, that he had to meet the secret or open hostility of all the tribes of the Nile valley and that his authority was dependent on his ability to overawe his opponents. He maintained in public the divine character of the power he inherited from the mahdi and inspired his followers to perform prodigies of valour. Although he treated many of his European captives with terrible severity he never had any of them executed. It is said that their presence in Omdurman ministered to his vanity—one of the most marked features of his character. In private life he showed much affection for his family.
Personal sketches of the khalifa are given in Slatin Pasha’s Fire and Sword in the Sudan (London, 1896), and in Father Ohrwalder’s Ten Years in the Mahdi’s Camp (London, 1892). See also Sir F. R. Wingate’s Mahdiism and the Egyptian Sudan (London, 1891).
KHALĪL IBN AḤMAD [Abū ‛AbdurraḤmān ul-Khalīl ibn AḤmad ibn ‛Amr ibn Tamīm] (718–791), Arabian philologist, was a native of Oman. He was distinguished for having written the
first Arabic dictionary and for having first classified the Arabic
metres and laid down their rules. He was also a poet, and lived
the ascetic life of a poor student. His grammatical work was
carried on by his pupil Sībawaihī. The dictionary known as the
Kitāb-ul-‛Ain is ascribed, at least in its inception, to Khalīl. It
was probably finished by one of his pupils and was not known in
Bagdad until 862. The words were not arranged in alphabetical
order but according to physiological principles, beginning with
‛Ain and ending with Ya. The work seems to have been in
existence as late as the 14th century, but is now only known
from extracts in manuscript.
Various grammatical works are ascribed to Khalīl, but their authenticity seems doubtful; cf. C. Brockelmann, Gesch. der arabischen Literatur, i. 100 (Weimar, 1898). (G. W. T.)
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KHAMGAON, a town of India, in the Buldana district of Berar, 340 m. N.E. of Bombay. Pop. (1901), 18,341. It is an important centre of the cotton trade. The cotton market, the second in the province, was established about 1820. Khamgaon was connected in 1870 with the Great Indian Peninsula railway by a short branch line.
KHAMSEH, a small but important province of Persia, between Kazvin and Tabriz. It consisted formerly of five districts,
whence its name Khamseh, “the five,” but is now subdivided
into seventeen districts. The language of the inhabitants is
Turkish. The province pays a revenue of about £20,000 per
annum, and its capital is Zenjān.
KHAMSIN (Arabic for “fifty”), a hot oppressive wind arising in the Sahara. It blows in Egypt at intervals for about fifty days during March, April and May, and fills the air with sand. In Guinea the wind from the Sahara is known as harmattan (q.v.).
