KISHANGARH, or Krishnagarh, a native state in Râjputâna, India, lying between 26° 17' and 26° 59' N. lat., 74° 43' and 75° 13' E. long., with an area of about 724 square miles, and an estimated population of 105,000. It was founded in the reign of the emperor Akbar, by a younger son of the râjâ of Jodhpur. In 1818 Kishangarh first came into direct relations with the British Government, by entering into a treaty together with the other Rajput states, having for its object the suppression of the Pindâri marauders by whom the country was at that time overrun. The estimated revenue in 1875 was £30,000.

KISHINEFF, the Kishlanow of the Moldavians, a town of Russia, capital of the province of Bessarabia, on the right bank of the Byk, a tributary of the Dniester, situated on the railway between Odessa and Jassy in Roumania, 118 miles north-west from the former. At the beginning of this century it was but a poor village, and in 1812, when it was acquired by Russia from Moldavia, it had but 7000 inhabitants; twenty years later its population numbered 35,000, while in 1862 it had, with suburbs, 92,000 inhabitants, and now its population is more than 110,000, composed of the most varied nationalities—Moldavians, Wallachs, Russians, Jews, Bulgarians, Tartars, Germans, andTsigans. The town consists of two parts—the old or lower town, on the banks of the Byk, and the new or high town, situated on high crags, 450 to 500 feet above the level of the river. The wide suburbs are remarkable for their gardens, which occupy about 12,000 acres, and produce great quantities of fruits (especially plums, which are dried and exported), tobacco, and wine. The buildings of the town are, however, very plain, and the streets remain mostly unpaved. Kishineff is the seat of the archbishop of Bessarabia, and has an ecclesiastical seminary with 800 students, a college, and several secondary and primary schools. There are several tallow-melting houses, steam flour-mills, candle and soap works, distilleries, and tobacco factories. The trade is very active and yearly becomes more important, Kishineff being now a centre for the whole Bessarabian trade in grain, wine, tobacco, tallow, wool, and skins, exported to Austria and to Odessa. The fairs, which are held twice a week, are very animated, and their yearly return is estimated at £300,000. The town played an important part in the late war between ...

KISHM, or Tawîlah(i.e. i Long Island), an island at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, separated from the coast of the Persian province of Kirmân by Clarence Strait, which at its narrowest point has a breadth of less than 2 miles. The island has a length of about 55 miles, its main axis running north-east and south-west; and the area is estimated at 640 square miles. A range of hills from 300 to 600 feet in height, and with strongly marked escarpments, runs nearly parallel to the southern coast; they are largely composed, like those of Hormuz and the neighbouring mainland, of rock salt, which is regularly excavated in one or two places, and forms one of the chief products of the island, finding its way first to Muscat and thence to India and Africa. The rest of the island consists of sandstones and marls. In its general aspect it is parched and barren-looking, like the south of Persia, but it contains fertile portions which produce grain, dates, grapes, melons, <fcc. Naphtha springs exist near the village of Saluk on the south coast. Kishm, the largest of the towns, lies at the eastern extremity of the island; Bassidore, the next in importance”, at the western extremity; and Ld,fit (Luft, Leit) about midway along the northern coast. The town of Leit was reduced by a British fleet in 1809. Politically the island belongs to Persia, but the shah has long farmed it to the sultan of Muscat. The inhabitants are reckoned at 5000 or 6000.

Kishm is the ancient Oaracta, or Uorochtha, a name said to survive in a village called Brokt. The old Arabic word is BarkâwAn or Bany-KAwAn. Mas’udy (ch. x.), who mentions its capture by 'Amr ibn el'As, says that it also bore the name of LAfit....

That ancient river, the river Kishon,” falls into the bay of Acre, and has its source in the hills to the east of the plain of Esdraelon, which it intersects. Being enlarged by several small streams, it passes between Mount Carmel and the hills to the north, and then falls into the sea at this point. In the condition we saw it, says Maundrell, its waters were low and inconsiderable; but in passing along the side of the plain, we discerned the tracts of many lesser torrents, falling down into it from the mountains, which must needs make it swell exceedingly upon sudden rains, as doubtless it actually did at the destruction of Sisera’s host.

KÍSH, or Kais (the first form is Persian and the second Arabic), an island in the Persian Gulf, which rose to importance in the 12th and 13th centuries, and flourished on the fall of Sïrâf as a chief station of the Indian trade with the West. Edrisi in the 12th century describes it as the capital of a pirate chief who had acquired great wealth and power, and ravaged the coasts far and wide. He also drew a tribute from the pearl fisheries of the gulf. In the folio wing century Yâküt describes it from personal observation as a beautiful and flourishing island, the seat of the lord of Omân, sovereign of those seas, and the station for ships trading between India and Fârsistân. The lord of Kish was respected even in India for his wealth and maritime power. According to Ibn el Athir he was at constant war with the sovereign of Hormuz, and the rise of the latter port seems to have been fatal to the importance of Kish (Ibn Batuta, i. 244, and note in Paris edition; Kazwini, ed. Wüstenf., il 161). The island is generally identified with the modern Kenn and the Kataia of Arrian. See Vincent, Voyage de Nearque ; Ouseley’s Travels, i. 169 sq.