Kilwa Kisiwani, 18 m. to the south of the modern town, possesses a deep harbour sheltered from all winds by projecting coral reefs. The island on which it is built is separated from the mainland by a shallow and narrow channel. The ruins of the city include massive walls and bastions, remains of a palace and of two large mosques, of which the domed roofs are in fair preservation, besides several Arab forts. The new quarter contains a customs house and a few Arab buildings. Pop. about 600. On the island of Songa Manara, at the southern end of Kilwa Bay, hidden in dense vegetation, are the ruins of another city, unknown to history. Fragments of palaces and mosques in carved limestone exist, and on the beach are the remains of a lighthouse. Chinese coins and pieces of porcelain have been found on the sea-shore, washed up from the reefs.
The sultanate of Kilwa is reputed to have been founded about A.D. 975 by Ali ibn Ḥasan, a Persian prince from Shiraz, upon the site of the ancient Greek colony of Rhapta. The new state, at first confined to the town of Kilwa, extended its influence along the coast from Zanzibar to Sofala, and the city came to be regarded as the capital of the Zenj “empire” (see [Zanzibar]: “Sultanate”). An Arab chronicle gives a list of over forty sovereigns who reigned at Kilwa in a period of five hundred years (cf. A. M. H. J. Stokvis, Manuel d’histoire, Leiden, 1888, i. 558). Pedro Alvares Cabral, the Portuguese navigator, was the first European to visit it. His fleet, on its way to India, anchored in Kilwa Bay in 1500. Kilwa was then a large and wealthy city, possessing, it is stated, three hundred mosques. In 1502 Kilwa submitted to Vasco da Gama, but the sultan neglecting to pay the tribute imposed upon him, the city in 1505 was occupied by the Portuguese. They built a fort there; the first erected by them on the east coast of Africa. Fighting ensued between the Arabs and the Portuguese, the city was destroyed; and in 1512 the Portuguese, whose ranks had been decimated by fever, temporarily abandoned the place. Subsequently Kilwa became one of the chief centres of the slave trade. Towards the end of the 17th century it fell under the dominion of the imams of Muscat, and on the separation in 1856 of their Arabian and African possessions became subject to the sultan of Zanzibar. With the rest of the southern part of the sultan’s continental dominions Kilwa was acquired by Germany in 1890 (see [Africa], § 5; and [German East Africa]).
KILWARDBY, ROBERT (d. 1279), archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal, studied at the university of Paris, where he soon became famous as a teacher of grammar and logic. Afterwards joining the order of St Dominic and turning his attention to theology, he was chosen provincial prior of his order in England in 1261, and in October 1272 Pope Gregory X. terminated a dispute over the vacant archbishopric of Canterbury by appointing Kilwardby. Although the new archbishop crowned Edward I. and his queen Eleanor in August 1274, he took little part in business of state, but was energetic in discharging the spiritual duties of his office. He was charitable to the poor, and showed liberality to the Dominicans. In 1278 Pope Nicholas III. made him cardinal-bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina; he resigned his archbishopric and left England, carrying with him the registers and other valuable property belonging to the see of Canterbury. He died in Italy on the 11th of September 1279. Kilwardby was the first member of a mendicant order to attain a high position in the English Church. Among his numerous writings, which became very popular among students, are De ortu scientiarum, De tempore, De Universali, and some commentaries on Aristotle.
See N. Trevet, Annales sex regum Angliae, edited by T. Hog (London, 1845); W. F. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. iii. (London, 1860-1876); J. Quétif and J. Échard, Scriptores ordinis Predicatorum (Paris, 1719-1721).
KILWINNING, a municipal and police burgh of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the right bank of the Garnock, 24 m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Caledonian railway, and 26¾ m. by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 4440. The chief buildings include the public library, the Masonic hall and the district hospital. The centre of interest, however, is the ruined abbey, originally one of the richest in Scotland. Founded about 1140 by Hugh de Morville, lord of Cunninghame, for Tyronensian monks of the Benedictine order, it was dedicated to St Winnin, who lived on the spot in the 8th century and has given his name to the town. This beautiful specimen of Early English architecture was partly destroyed in 1561, and its lands were granted to the earl of Eglinton and others. Kilwinning is the traditional birthplace of Scottish freemasonry, the lodge, believed to have been founded by the foreign architects and masons who came to build the abbey, being regarded as the mother lodge in Scotland. The royal company of archers of Kilwinning—dating, it is said, as far back as 1488—meet every July to shoot at the popinjay. The industry in weaving shawls and lighter fabrics has died out; and the large iron, coal and fire-clay works at Eglinton, and worsted spinning, employ most of the inhabitants. About a mile from Kilwinning is Eglinton Castle, the seat of the earls of Eglinton, built in 1798 in the English castellated style.
KIMBERLEY, JOHN WODEHOUSE, 1st Earl of (1826-1902), English statesman, was born on the 7th of January 1826, being the eldest son of the Hon. Henry Wodehouse and grandson of the 2nd Baron Wodehouse (the barony dating from 1797), whom he succeeded in 1846. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a first-class degree in classics in 1847; in the same year married Lady Florence Fitzgibbon (d. 1895), daughter of the last earl of Clare. He was by inheritance a Liberal in politics, and in 1852-1856 and 1859-1861 he was under secretary of state for foreign affairs in Lord Aberdeen’s and Lord Palmerston’s ministries. In the interval (1856-1858) he had been envoy-extraordinary to Russia; and in 1863 he was sent on a special mission to Copenhagen on the forlorn hope of finding a peaceful solution of the Schleswig-Holstein question. The mission was a failure, but probably nothing else was possible. In 1864 he became under secretary for India, but towards the end of the year was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In that capacity he had to grapple with the first manifestations of Fenianism, and in recognition of his vigour and success he was created (1866) earl of Kimberley. In July 1866 he vacated his office with the fall of Lord Russell’s ministry, but in 1868 he became Lord Privy Seal in Mr Gladstone’s cabinet, and in July 1870 was transferred from that post to be secretary of state for the colonies. It was the moment of the great diamond discoveries in South Africa, and the new town of Kimberley was named after the colonial secretary of the day. After an interval of opposition from 1874 to 1880, Lord Kimberley returned to the Colonial Office in Mr Gladstone’s next ministry; but at the end of 1882 he exchanged this office first for that of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and then for the secretaryship of state for India, a post he retained during the remainder of Mr Gladstone’s tenure of power (1882-1886, 1892-1894), though in 1892-1894 he combined with it that of the lord presidency of the council. In Lord Rosebery’s cabinet (1894-1895) he was foreign secretary. Lord Kimberley was an admirable departmental chief, but it is difficult to associate his own personality with any ministerial act during his occupation of all these posts. He was at the colonial office when responsible government was granted to Cape Colony, when British Columbia was added to the Dominion of Canada, and during the Boer War of 1880-81, with its conclusion at Majuba; and he was foreign secretary when the misunderstanding arose with Germany over the proposed lease of territory from the Congo Free State for the Cape to Cairo route. He was essentially a loyal Gladstonian party man. His moderation, common sense, and patriotism had their influence, nevertheless, on his colleagues. As leader of the Liberal party in the House of Lords he acted with undeviating dignity; and in opposition he was a courteous antagonist and a critic of weight and experience. He took considerable interest in education, and after being for many years a member of the senate of London University, he became its chancellor in 1899. He died in London on the 8th of April 1902, being succeeded in the earldom by his eldest and only surviving son, Lord Wodehouse (b. 1848).