See [Nile]; also Speke’s Discovery of the Source of the Nile (Edinburgh, 1863); R. Kandt’s Caput Nili (Berlin, 1904); and map by P. Sprigade and M. Moisel in Grosser deutscher Kolonialatlas, No. 16 (Berlin, 1906).
KAHLUR, or Bilaspur, a native state of India, within the Punjab. It is one of the hill states that came under British protection after the first Sikh war in 1846. The Gurkhas had overrun the country in the early part of the 19th century, and expelled the raja, who was, however, reinstated by the British in 1815. The state occupies part of the basin of the Sutlej amid the lower slopes of the Himalaya. Area, 448 sq. m. Pop. (1901), 90,873; estimated gross revenue, £10,000; tribute, £530. The chief, whose title is raja, is a Chandel Rajput. The town of Bilaspur is situated on the left bank of the Sutlej, 1465 ft. above sea-level; pop. (1901), 3192.
KAHN, GUSTAVE (1859- ), French poet, was born at Metz on the 21st of December 1859. He was educated in Paris at the École des Chartes and the École des langues orientales, and began to contribute to obscure Parisian reviews. After four years spent in Africa he returned to Paris in 1885, and founded in 1886 a weekly review, La Vogue, in which many of his early poems appeared. In the autumn of the same year he founded, with Jean Moréas and Paul Adam, a short-lived periodical, Le Symboliste, in which they preached the nebulous poetic doctrine of Stéphane Mallarmé; and in 1888 he became one of the editors of the Revue indépendante. He contributed poetry and criticism to the French and Belgian reviews favourable to the extreme symbolists, and, with Catulle Mendès, he founded at the Odéon, the Théâtre Antoine and the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, matinées for the production of the plays of the younger poets. He claimed to be the earliest writer of the vers libre, and explained his methods and the history of the movement in a preface to his Premiers poèmes (1897). Later books are Le Livre d’images (1897); Les Fleurs de la passion (1900); some novels; and a valuable contribution to the history of modern French verse in Symbolistes et décadents (1902).
KAHNIS, KARL FRIEDRICH AUGUST (1814-1888), German Lutheran theologian, was born at Greiz on the 22nd of December 1814. He studied at Halle, and in 1850 was appointed professor ordinarius at Leipzig. Ten years later he was made canon of Meissen. He retired in 1886, and died on the 20th of June 1888 at Leipzig. Kahnis was at first a neo-Lutheran, blessed by E. W. Hengstenberg and his pietistic friends. He then attached himself to the Old Lutheran party, interpreting Lutheranism in a broad and liberal spirit and showing some appreciation of rationalism. His Lutherische Dogmatik, historisch-genetisch dargestellt (3 vols., 1861-1868; 2nd ed. in 2 vols., 1874-1875), by making concessions to modern criticism, by spiritualizing and adapting the old dogmas, by attacking the idea of an infallible canon of Scripture and the conventional theory of inspiration, by laying stress on the human side of Scripture and insisting on the progressive character of revelation, brought him into conflict with his former friends. A. W. Diekhoff, Franz Delitzsch (Für und wider Kahnis, 1863) and Hengstenberg (Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 1862) protested loudly against the heresy, and Kahnis replied to Hengstenberg in a vigorous pamphlet, Zeugniss für die Grundwahrheiten des Protestantismus gegen Dr Hengstenberg (1862).
Other works by Kahnis are Lehre vom Abendmahl (1851), Der innere Gang des deutschen Protestantismus seit Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts (1854; 3rd ed. in 2 vols., 1874; Eng. trans., 1856); Christentum und Luthertum (1871); Geschichte der deutschen Reformation, vol. i. (1872); Der Gang der Kirche in Lebensbildern (1881, &c.); and Über das Verhältnis der alten Philosophie zum Christentum (1884).
K’AI-FÊNG FU, the capital of the province of Honan, China. It is situated in 34° 52′ N., 114° 33′ E., on a branch line of the Peking-Hankow railway, and forms also the district city of Siang-fu. A city on the present site was first built by Duke Chwang (774-700 B.C.) to mark off (k’ai) the boundary of his fief (fêng); hence its name. It has, however, passed under several aliases in Chinese history. During the Chow, Suy and T’ang dynasties (557-907) it was known as P’ien-chow. During the Wu-tai, or five dynasties (907-960), it was the Tung-king, or eastern capital. Under the Sung and Kin dynasties (960-1260) it was called P’ien-king. By the Yuan or Mongol dynasty (1260-1368) its name was again changed to P’ien-liang, and on the return of the Chinese to power with the establishment of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), its original name was restored. The city is situated at the point where the last spur of the Kuen-lun mountain system merges in the eastern plain, and a few miles south of the Hwang-ho. Its position, therefore, lays it Open to the destructive influences of this river. In 1642 it was totally destroyed by a flood caused by the dikes bursting, and on several prior and subsequent occasions it has suffered injury from the same cause. The city is large and imposing, with broad streets and handsome buildings, the most notable of which are a twelve-storeyed pagoda 600 ft. high, and a watch tower from which, at a height of 200 ft., the inhabitants are able to observe the approach of the yellow waters of the river in times of flood. The city wall forms a substantial protection and is pierced by five gates. The whole neighbourhood, which is the site of one of the earliest settlements of the Chinese in China, is full of historical associations, and it was in this city that the Jews who entered China in A.D. 1163 first established a colony. For many centuries these people held themselves aloof from the natives, and practised the rites of their religion in a temple built and supported by themselves. At last, however, they fell upon evil times, and in 1851, out of the seventy families which constituted the original colony, only seven remained. For fifty years no rabbi had ministered to the wants of this remnant. In 1853 the city was attacked by the T’ai-p’ing rebels, and, though at the first assault its defenders successfully resisted the enemy, it was subsequently taken. The captors looted and partially destroyed the town. It has now little commerce, but contains several schools on Western lines—including a government college opened in 1902, and a military school near the railway station. A mint was established in 1905, and there is a district branch of the imperial post. The population—largely Mahommedan—was estimated (1908) at 200,000. Jews numbered about 400.