DURANDO, GIACOMO (1807-1894), Italian general and statesman, was born at Mondovì in Piedmont. He was implicated in the revolutionary movements of 1831 and 1832, after which he was obliged to take refuge abroad. He served in the Belgian army, taking part in the war of 1832, and fought in Portugal in 1833. The following year he entered the service of Spain, when he fought in various campaigns, and was promoted colonel in 1838. After a short stay in France he returned to Italy and identified himself with the Liberal movement; he became an active journalist, and founded a newspaper called L’Opinione in 1847. In 1848 he was one of those who asked King Charles Albert for the constitution. On the outbreak of the war with Austria he took command of the Lombard volunteers as major-general, and in the campaign of 1849 he was aide-de-camp to the king. He was elected member of the first Piedmontese parliament and was a strenuous supporter of Cavour; during the Crimean campaign he took General La Marmora’s place as war minister. In 1855 he was nominated senator, lieutenant-general in 1856, ambassador at Constantinople in 1859, and minister for foreign affairs in the Rattazzi cabinet two years later. He was president of the senate from 1884 to 1887, after which year he retired from the army. He died in 1894.
His brother, Giovanni Durando (1804-1869), was in early life driven into exile on account of his Liberal opinions. He served in the armies of Belgium, Portugal and Spain, distinguishing himself in many engagements. Returning to Italy on the outbreak of the revolution of 1848, he was appointed commander of a division of the pontifical forces, and fought against the Austrians in Venetia until the fall of Vicenza, when he returned to Piedmont as major-general. In the campaign of 1849 he commanded the first Piedmontese division; he subsequently served in the Crimea, in the war of 1859, and in that of 1866 as commander of the I. Army Corps. In 1867 he was appointed president of the supreme military and naval tribunal.
DURANGO, a state of northern Mexico, bounded N. by Chihuahua, E. and S.E. by Coahuila, S. by Zacatecas and the territory of Tepic, and W. by Sinaloa. Pop. (1895) 292,549; (1900) 370,294. Area 38,009 sq. m. Durango is a continuation southward of the high, semi-arid plateau of Chihuahua, with the Sierra Madre extending along its western side. The Bolsón de Mapimí covers its N.E. angle, and in the S. there are peculiar volcanic hills, covering about 1000 sq. m. and known as La Breña. The Bolsón de Mapimí, previous to the building of the Mexican Central railway across it, had been considered an uninhabitable desert, but irrigation experiments have demonstrated that its soil is highly fertile and well adapted to the production of cotton and fruit. The rainfall is very light in the eastern part of the state, a succession of years sometimes passing without any precipitation whatever, but in the W. it is sufficient to produce good pasturage and considerable areas of forest. There are no rivers of any magnitude in the state. The largest is the Rio Nazas, which flows eastward into the lakes of the Mapimí depression, and the Mezquital, which flows S.W. through the sierras to the Pacific coast. The climate is generally dry and healthful. Cotton is produced to a limited extent, especially where irrigation is employed, and wheat, Indian corn, tobacco, sugar-cane and grapes are also grown. In the elevated valleys of the sierras stock-raising is successful. The principal industry of Durango, however, is mining, and some of the richest and best known mines of Mexico are found in the state. Besides silver, which has been extensively mined since the first arrival of the Spanish under Francisco de Ibarra (1554-1562), gold, copper, iron, cinnabar, tin, coal and rubies are found. The famous Cerro del Mercado, 2 m. from the city of Durango, is a hill composed in great part of remarkably pure iron ore, and is estimated to contain 300,000,000 tons of that metal. Near it are iron and steel works. The principal mining districts of Durango include San Dimas (on the western slope of the main sierra), Guarisamey, Buenavista, Gavilanes, Guanaceví, Mapimí, El Oro and Indé. In the first-named is the celebrated Candelaria mine, where the ores (largely argentite) assay between $70 and $140 a ton, the aggregate output being estimated as over $100,000,000 before the close of the 19th century. With the exception of silver, the mineral resources of the state have been but slightly developed because of difficult and expensive transportation. The Mexican Central railway crosses the eastern side of the state, and the Mexican International crosses N.E. to S.W. through the state capital on its way to the port of Mazatlán. The history of Durango is similar to that of Chihuahua, the state originally forming part of the province of Nueva Viscaya. The capital is Durango, and among the principal towns are Guanaceví (pop. 6859), El Oro, Nombre de Dios (the first Spanish settlement in the state), San Juan de Guadalupe, San Dimas and Villa Lerdo. These are comparatively small mining towns. Mapimí lies 130 m. N.N.E. of Durango and gives its name to the great arid depression situated still farther north.
DURANGO, sometimes called Ciudad de Victoria, a city of Mexico, capital of the state of Durango, 574 m. N.W. of the federal capital, in lat. 24° 25′ N., long. 105° 55′ W. Pop. (1900) 31,092. Durango is served by the Mexican International railway. The city stands in the picturesque Guadiana valley formed by easterly spurs of the Sierra Madre, about 6850 ft. above the sea. It has a mild, healthy climate, and is surrounded by a district of considerable fertility. Durango is an important mining and commercial centre, and was for a time one of the most influential towns of northern Mexico. It is the seat of a bishop, and has a handsome cathedral, ten parish churches, a national institute or college, an episcopal seminary, government buildings, a public library, hospital, penitentiary and bull-ring. The city is provided with urban and suburban tramways, electric light, telephone service and an abundant water-supply, and there are thermal springs in its vicinity. Its manufacturing establishments include reduction works, cotton and woollen mills, glass works, iron foundries, tanneries, flour mills, sugar refineries and tobacco factories. Durango was founded in 1563 by Alonso Pacheco under the direction of Governor Francisco de Ibarra, who named it after a city of his native province in Spain. It was known, however, as Guadiana for a century thereafter, and its first bishops were given that title. It was the capital of Ibarra’s new province of Nueva Viscaya, which included Durango and Chihuahua, and continued as such down to their separation in 1823.
DURANI, or Durrani, the dominant race of Afghans, to which the ruling family at Kabul belongs. The Duranis number 100,000 fighting men, and have two branches, the Zirak and the Panjpai. To the former section belong the Popalzai, Alikozai, Barakzai and Achakzai; and to the latter the Nurzai, Alizai, Isakzai, Khokani and Maku tribes. The Saddozai clan of the Popalzai Duranis furnished the first independent shahs of the Durani dynasty (A.D. 1747), the Barakzais furnishing the amirs. The line of the shahs was overthrown in the third generation (A.D. 1834), after a protracted period of anarchy and dissension, which broke out on the death in A.D. 1773 of Ahmad Shah Durani, the founder of Afghan national independence.
Bar Durani is a name sometimes applied to the independent Pathan tribes who inhabit the hill districts south of the Hindu Kush, parts of the Indus valley, the Salt Range, and the range of Suliman, which were first conceded to them by Ahmad Shah. Bar Durani includes the Yusafzai, Utman Khel, Tarkanis, Mohmands, Afridis, Orakzais and Shinwaris, as well as the Pathan tribes of the plains of Peshawar and those of Bangash and Khattak, although the derivation of some of these tribes from the true Durani stock is doubtful.