The majority of the inhabitants are Bhatti Rajputs, who take their name from an ancestor named Bhatti, renowned as a warrior when the tribe were located in the Punjab. Shortly after this the clan was driven southwards, and found a refuge in the Indian desert, which was thenceforth its home. Deorāj, a famous prince of the Bhatti family, is esteemed the real founder of the present Jaisalmer dynasty, and with him the title of rāwal commenced. In 1156 Jāisal, the sixth in succession from Deorāj, founded the fort and city of Jaisalmer, and made it his capital. In 1294 the Bhattis so enraged the emperor Alā-ud-din that his army captured and sacked the fort and city of Jaisalmer, so that for some time it was quite deserted. After this there is nothing to record till the time of Rāwal Sabal Singh, whose reign marks an epoch in Bhatti history in that he acknowledged the supremacy of the Mogul emperor Shāh Jahān. The Jaisalmer princes had now arrived at the height of their power, but from this time till the accession of Rāwal Mulrāj in 1762 the fortunes of the state rapidly declined, and most of its outlying provinces were lost. In 1818 Mulrāj entered into political relations with the British. Maharawal Salivahan, born in 1887, succeeded to the chief ship in 1891.
JAJCE (pronounced Yaïtse), a town of Bosnia, situated on the Pliva and Vrbas rivers, and at the terminus of a branch railway from Serajevo, 62 m. S.E. Pop. (1895), about 4000. Jajce occupies a conical hill, overlooking one of the finest waterfalls in Europe, where the Pliva rushes down into the Vrbas, 100 ft. below. The 14th century citadel which crowns this hill is said to have been built for Hrvoje, duke of Spalato, on the model of the Castel del’ Uovo at Naples; but the resemblance is very slight, and although both jajce and uovo signify “an egg,” the town probably derives its name from the shape of the hill. The ruined church of St Luke, said by legend to be the Evangelist’s burial place, has a fine Italian belfry, and dates from the 15th century. Jezero, 5 m. W. of Jajce, contains the Turkish fort of Djöl-Hissar, or “the Lake-Fort.” In this neighbourhood a line of waterfalls and meres, formed by the Pliva, stretches for several miles, enclosed by steep rocks and forest-clad mountains. The power supplied by the main fall, at Jajce, is used for industrial purposes, but the beauty of the town remains unimpaired.
From 1463 to 1528 Jajce was the principal outwork of eastern Christendom against the Turks. Venice contributed money for its defence, and Hungary provided armies; while the pope entreated all Christian monarchs to avert its fall. In 1463 Mahomet II. had seized more than 75 Bosnian fortresses, including Jajce itself; and the last independent king of Bosnia, Stephen Tomašević, had been beheaded, or, according to one tradition, flayed alive, before the walls of Jajce, on a spot still called Kraljeva Polje, the “King’s Field.” His coffin and skeleton are still displayed in St Luke’s Church. The Hungarians, under King Matthias I., came to the rescue, and reconquered the greater part of Bosnia during the same year; and, although Mahomet returned in 1464, he was again defeated at Jajce, and compelled to flee before another Hungarian advance. In 1467 Hungarian bans, or military governors, were appointed to rule in north-west Bosnia, and in 1472 Matthias appointed Nicolaus Ujlaki king of the country, with Jajce for his capital. This kingdom lasted, in fact, for 59 years; but, after the death of Ujlaki, in 1492, its rulers only bore the title of ban, and of vojvod. In 1500 the Turks, under Bajazet II., were crushed at Jajce by the Hungarians under John Corvinus; and several other attacks were repelled between 1520 and 1526. But in 1526 the Hungarian power was destroyed at Mohács; and in 1528 Jajce was forced to surrender.
See Bräss, “Jajce, die alte Königstadt Bosniens,” in Deutsche geog. Blätter, pp. 71-85 (Bremen, 1899).
JĀJPUR, or Jajpore, a town of British India, in Cuttack district, Bengal, situated on the right bank of the Baitarani river. Pop. (1901), 12,111. It was the capital of Orissa under the Kesari dynasty until the 11th century, when it was superseded by Cuttack. In Jājpur are numerous ruins of temples, sculptures, &c., and a large and beautiful sun pillar.
JAKOB, LUDWIG HEINRICH VON (1759-1827), German economist, was born at Wettin on the 26th of February 1759. In 1777 he entered the university of Halle. In 1780 he was appointed teacher at the gymnasium, and in 1791 professor of philosophy at the university. The suppression of the university of Halle having been decreed by Napoleon, Jakob betook himself to Russia, where in 1807 he was appointed professor of political economy at Kharkoff, and in 1809 a member of the government commission to inquire into the finances of the empire. In the following year he became president of the commission for the revision of criminal law, and he at the same time obtained an important office in the finance department, with the rank of counsellor of state; but in 1816 he returned to Halle to occupy the chair of political economy. He died at Lauchstädt on the 22nd of July 1827.
Shortly after his first appointment to a professorship in Halle Jakob had begun to turn his attention rather to the practical than the speculative side of philosophy, and in 1805 he published at Halle Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie, in which he was the first to advocate in Germany the necessity of a distinct science dealing specially with the subject of national wealth. His principal other works are Grundriss der allgemeinen Logik (Halle, 1788); Grundsätze der Polizeigesetzgebung und Polizeianstalten (Leipzig, 1809); Einleitung in das Studium der Staatswissenschaften (Halle, 1819); Entwurf eines Criminalgesetzbuchs für das russische Reich (Halle, 1818) and Staatsfinanzwissenschaft (2 vols., Halle, 1821).