1676.—
"A trial of your kindness I must make;
Though not for mine, so much as virtue's sake,
The Queen of Cassimere...."
Dryden's Aurungzebe, iii. 1.
1814.—"The shawls of Cassimer and the silks of Iran."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 177; [2nd ed. ii. 232]. (See [KERSEYMERE].)
CASIS, CAXIS, CACIZ, &c., s. This Spanish and Portuguese word, though Dozy gives it only as prêtre chrétien, is frequently employed by old travellers, and writers on Eastern subjects, to denote Mahommedan divines (mullas and the like). It may be suspected to have arisen from a confusion of two Arabic terms—kāḍi (see [CAZEE]) and ḳashīsh or ḳasīs, 'a Christian Presbyter' (from a Syriac root signifying senuit). Indeed we sometimes find the precise word ḳashīsh (Caxix) used by Christian writers as if it were the special title of a Mahommedan theologian, instead of being, as it really is, the special and technical title of a Christian priest (a fact which gives Mount Athos its common Turkish name of Ḳashīsh Dāgh). In the first of the following quotations the word appears to be applied by the Mussulman historian to pagan priests, and the word for churches to pagan temples. In the others, except that from Major Millingen, it is applied by Christian writers to Mahommedan divines, which is indeed its recognised signification in Spanish and Portuguese. In Jarric's Thesaurus (Jesuit Missions, 1606) the word Cacizius is constantly used in this sense.
c. 1310.—"There are 700 churches (kalīsīa) resembling fortresses, and every one of them overflowing with presbyters (ḳashīshān) without faith, and monks without religion."—Description of the Chinese City of Khanzai (Hangchau) in Wasāf's History (see also Marco Polo, ii. 196).
1404.—"The town was inhabited by Moorish hermits called Caxixes; and many people came to them on pilgrimage, and they healed many diseases."—Markham's Clavijo, 79.
1514.—"And so, from one to another, the message passed through four or five hands, till it came to a Gazizi, whom we should call a bishop or prelate, who stood at the King's feet...."—Letter of Giov. de Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. Ital. Append. p. 56.