KALAT, the capital of Baluchistan, situated in 29° 2´ N. and 66° 35´ E., about 6780 ft. above sea-level, 88 m. from Quetta. The town gives its name also to a native state with an area, including Makran and Kharan, of 71,593 m. and a population (1901) of 470,336. The word Kalat is derived from _kala_--a fortress; and Kalat is the most picturesque fortress in the Baluch highlands. It crowns a low hill, round the base of which clusters the closely built mass of flat-roofed mud houses which form the insignificant town. A _miri_ or citadel, having an imposing appearance, dominates the town, and contains within its walls the palace of the khan. It was in an upper room of this residence that Mehrab Khan, ruler of Baluchistan, was killed during the storming of the town and citadel by the British troops at the close of the first Afghan War in 1839. In 1901 it had a population of only 2000. The valleys immediately surrounding the fortress are well cultivated and thickly inhabited, in spite of their elevation and the extremes of temperature to which they are exposed. Recent surveys of Baluchistan have determined the position of Hozdar or Khozdar (27° 48´ N., 66° 38´ E.) to be about 50 m. S. of Kalat. Khozdar was the former capital of Baluchistan, and is as directly connected with the southern branches of the Mulla Pass as Kalat is with the northern, the Mulla being the ancient trade route to Gandava (Kandabe) and Sind. In spite of the rugged and barren nature of the mountain districts of the Kalat highlands, the main routes through them (concentrating on Khozdar rather than on Kalat) are comparatively easy. The old "Pathan vat," the trade highway between Kalat and Karachi by the Hab valley, passes through Khozdar. From Khozdar another route strikes a little west of south to Wad, and then passes easily into Las Bela. This is the "Kohan vat." A third route runs to Nal, and leads to the head of the Kolwa valley (meeting with no great physical obstruction), and then strikes into the open high road to Persia. Some of the valleys about Kalat (Mastang, for instance) are wide and fertile, full of thriving villages and strikingly picturesque; and in spite of the great preponderance of mountain wilderness (a wilderness which is, however, in many parts well adapted for the pasturage of sheep) existing in the Sarawan lowlands almost equally with the Jalawan highlands, it is not difficult to understand the importance which the province of Kalat, anciently called Turan (or Tubaran), maintained in the eyes of medieval Arab geographers (see BALUCHISTAN). New light has been thrown on the history of Kalat by the translation of an unpublished manuscript obtained at Tatta by Mr Tate, of the Indian Survey Department, who has added thereto notes from the Tufhat-ul-Kiram, for the use of which he was indebted to Khan Sahib Rasul Baksh, mukhtiardar of Tatta. According to these authorities, the family of the khans of Kalat is of Arabic origin, and not, as is usually stated, of Brahuic extraction. They belong to the Ahmadzai branch of the Mirwari clan, which originally emigrated from Oman to the Kolwa valley of Mekran. The khan of Kalat, Mir Mahmud Khan, who succeeded his father in 1893, is the leading chieftain in the Baluch Confederacy. The revenue of the khan is estimated at nearly £60,000, including subsidies from the British government; and an accrued surplus of £240,000 has been invested in Indian securities. Entry: KALAT
With all this the attack was inferior to the defence. As Professor C.W.C. Oman has pointed out, the mechanical application of the three powers of tension, torsion and counterpoise (in the missile engines) had its limits. If these engines were enlarged they grew too costly and unwieldy. If they were multiplied it was impossible on account of their short range and great bulk to concentrate the fire of enough of them on a single portion of the wall. Entry: A
There is little education, in the European sense of the word, in Arabia. Among the Bedouins there are no schools, and few, even of the most elementary character, in the towns or villages. Where they exist, little beyond the mechanical reading of the Koran, and the equally mechanical learning of it by rote, is taught. On the other hand, Arab male-children, brought up from early years among the grown-up men of the house or tent, learn more from their own parents and at home than is common in other countries; reading and writing are in most instances thus acquired, or rather transmitted; besides such general principles of grammar and eloquence, often of poetry and history, as the elders themselves may be able to impart. To this family schooling too are due the good manners, politeness, and self-restraint that early distinguish Arab children. In the very few instances where a public school of a higher class exists, writing, grammar and rhetoric sum up its teachings. Law and theology, in the narrow sense that both these words have in the Islamitic system, are explained in afternoon lectures given in most mosques; and some verses of the Koran, with one of the accepted commentaries, that of Baidawi for example, form the basis of the instruction. Great attention is paid to accuracy of grammar and purity of diction throughout Arabia; yet something of a dialectic difference may be observed in the various districts. The purest Arabic, that which is as nearly as possible identical in the choice of words and in its inflections with the language of the Koran, is spoken in Nejd, and the best again of that in the province of Suder. Next in purity comes the Arabic of Shammar. Throughout the Hejaz in general, the language, though extremely elegant, is not equally correct; in el-Hasa, Bahrein and Oman it is decidedly influenced by the foreign element called Nabataean. In Yemen, as in other southern districts of the peninsula, Arabic merges insensibly into the Himyaritic or African dialect of Hadramut and Mahra. (See SEMITIC LANGUAGES.) Entry: ARABS
V. der Goltz, _Das Volk in Waffen_ (1883, new ed., 1898, English translation, P.A. Ashworth, _Nation in Arms_, London, 1887, new ed., 1907, French, _Nation armée_, Paris, 1889); Jähns, _Heeresverfassung und Völkerleben_ (Berlin, 1885); Berndt, _Die Zahl im Kriege_ (Vienna, 1895); F.N. Maude, _Evolution of Modern Strategy_ (1903), _Voluntary versus Compulsory Service_ (1897), and _War and the World's Life_ (1907); Pierron, _Méthodes de guerre_, vol. i.; Jähns, _Geschichte der Kriegswissenschaften_ (an exhaustive bibliography, with critical notes); Troschke, _Mil. Litteratur seit den Befreiungskriegen_ (Berlin, 1870); T.A. Dodge, _Great Captains_ (_Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Napoleon_); Bronsart v. Schellendorf (Eng. trans., War Office, 1905) _Duties of the General Staff_; Favé, _Histoire et tactique des trois armes_ (Liége, 1850); Maynert, _Gesch. des Kriegswesens u. der Heeresverfassungen in Europa_ (Vienna, 1869); Jähns, _Handbuch für eine Geschichte des Kriegswesens v. der Urzeit bis zur Renaissance_ (Leipzig, 1880); de la Barre Duparcq, _Histoire de l'art de la guerre avant l'usage de poudre_ (Paris, 1860); Rüstow and Köchly, _Geschichte des griechischen Kriegswesens_ (Aarau, 1852); Köchly and Rüstow, _Griechische Kriegsschriftsteller_ (Leipzig, 1855); Förster, in _Hermes_, xii. (1877); D.G. Hogarth, _Philip and Alexander_ (London, 1897); Macdougall, _Campaigns of Hannibal_ (London, 1858); Rüstow, _Heerwesen, &c., Julius Casars_ (Nordhausen, 1855); _Organ der M. Wissensch. Verein_ of 1877 (Vienna); Polybius literature of the 17th and 18th centuries; supplement to _M.W.B._, 1883; the works of Xenophon, Aelian, Arrian, Vegetius, Polybius, Caesar, &c. (see Köchly and Rüstow: a collection was made in the 15th century, under the title _Veteres de re militari scriptores_, 1487); Oman, _A History of the Art of War: Middle Ages_ (London, 1898); Delpech, _La Tactique au XIII
IBN DURAID [Abu Bakr Mahommed ibn ul-Hasan ibn Duraid ul-Azdi] (837-934), Arabian poet and philologist, was born at Basra of south Arabian stock. At his native place he was trained under various teachers, but fled in 871 to Oman at the time Basra was attacked by the negroes, known as the Zanj, under Muhallabi. After living twelve years in Oman he went to Persia, and, under the protection of the governor, 'Abdallah ibn Mahommed ibn Mikal, and his son, Isma'il, wrote his chief works. In 920 he went to Bagdad, where he received a pension from the caliph Moqtadir. Entry: IBN
_General Features._--In general terms Arabia may be described as a plateau sloping gently from south-west to north-east, and attaining its greatest elevation in the extreme south-west. The western escarpment of the plateau rises steeply from the Red Sea littoral to a height of from 4000 to 8000 ft., leaving a narrow belt of lowland rarely exceeding 30 m. in width between the shore and the foot-hills. On the north-east and east the plateau shelves gradually to the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf; only in the extreme east is this general easterly slope arrested by the lofty range of Jebel Akhdar, which from Ras Musandan to Ras el Had borders the coast of Oman. Entry: GEOGRAPHY
_Population._--The people, according to their own traditions, are derived from two stocks, the pure Arabs, descended from Kahtan or Joktan, fourth in descent from Shem; and the Mustarab or naturalized Arabs, from Ishmael. The former are represented at the present day by the inhabitants of Yemen, Hadramut and Oman, in general a settled agricultural population; the latter by those of Hejaz, Nejd, El Hasa, the Syrian desert and Mesopotamia, consisting of the Bedouin or pastoral tribes (see ARABS and BEDOUINS). This distinction between the characteristics of the two races is only true in a general sense, for a considerable population of true Bedouin origin has settled down to agricultural life in the oases of Hejaz and Nejd, while in southern Arabia the tribes dwelling on the fringe of the great desert have to a certain extent adopted the nomad life. Entry: A
At this stage the crusades, and the consequent opportunities afforded to western engineers of studying the solid fortresses of the Byzantine empire, revolutionized the art of castle-building, which henceforward follows recognized principles. Many castles were built in the Holy Land by the crusaders of the 12th century, and it has been shown (Oman, _Art of War: the Middle Ages_, p. 529) that the designers realized, first, that a second line of defences should be built within the main enceinte, and a third line or keep inside the second line; and secondly, that a wall must be flanked by projecting towers. From the Byzantine engineers, through the crusaders, we derive, therefore, the cardinal principle of the mutual defence of all the parts of a fortress. The _donjon_ of western Europe was regarded as the fortress, the outer walls as accessory defences; in the East each envelope was a fortress in itself, and the keep became merely the last refuge of the garrison, used only when all else had been captured. Indeed the keep, in several crusader castles, is no more than a tower, larger than the rest, built into the enceinte and serving with the rest for its flanking defence, while the fortress was made strongest on the most exposed front. The idea of the flanking towers (which were of a type very different from the slight projections of the shell-keep and rectangular tower) soon penetrated to Europe, and Alnwick Castle (1140-1150) shows the influence of the new system. But the finest of all castles of the middle ages was Richard Coeur de Lion's fortress of Château Gaillard (1197) on the Seine near Les Andelys. Here the innermost ward was protected by an elaborate system of strong appended defences, which included a strong _tête-de-pont_ covering the Seine bridge (see Clark, i. 384, and Oman, p. 533). The castle stood upon high ground and consisted of three distinct enceintes or wards besides the keep, which was in this case merely a strong tower forming part of the innermost ward. The donjon was rarely defended _à outrance_, and it gradually sank in importance as the outer "wards" grew stronger. Round instead of rectangular towers were now becoming usual, the finest examples of their employment as keeps being at Conisborough in England and at Coucy in France. Against the relatively feeble siege artillery of the 13th century a well-built fortress was almost proof, but the mines and the battering ram of the attack were more formidable, and it was realized that corners in the stonework of the fortress were more vulnerable than a uniform curved surface. Château Gaillard fell to Philip Augustus in 1204 after a strenuous defence, and the success of the assailants was largely due to the wise and skilful employment of mines. An angle of the noble keep of Rochester was undermined and brought down by John in 1215. Entry: FIG
His striking successor, Sir Richard Burton, covered nearly the same ground thirty-eight years afterwards. He, too, travelling as a Moslem pilgrim, noted the whole ritual of the pilgrimage with the same keen observation as Burckhardt, and while amplifying somewhat the latter's description of Medina, confirms the accuracy of his work there and at Mecca in almost every detail. Burton's topographical descriptions are fuller, and his march to Mecca from Medina by the eastern route led him over ground not traversed by any other explorer in Hejaz: this route leads at first south-east from Medina, and then south across the lava beds of the Harra, keeping throughout its length on the high plateau which forms the borderland between Hejaz and Nejd. His original intention had been after visiting Mecca to find his way across the peninsula to Oman, but the time at his disposal (as an Indian officer on leave) was insufficient for so extended a journey; and his further contributions to Arabian geography were not made until twenty-five years later, when he was deputed by the Egyptian government to examine the reported gold deposits of Midian. Traces of ancient workings were found in several places, but the ores did not contain gold in paying quantities. Interesting archaeological discoveries were made, and a valuable topographical survey was carried out, covering the whole Midian coast from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to the mouth of the Wadi Hamd, and including both the Tehama range and the Hisma valley behind it; while the importance of the W. Hamd and the extent of the area drained by its tributaries was for the first time brought to light. Entry: C
Kishm is the ancient _Oaracta_, or _Uorochta_, a name said to have survived until recently in a village called Brokt, or Brokht. It was also called the island of the Beni Kavan, from an Arab tribe of that name which came from Oman. (A. H.-S.) Entry: KISHM
In dress much variety prevails. The loose cotton drawers girded at the waist, which in hot climates do duty for trousers, are not often worn, even by the upper classes, in Nejd or Yemama, where a kind of silk dressing-gown is thrown over the long shirt; frequently, too, a brown or black cloak distinguishes the wealthier citizen; his head-dress is a handkerchief fastened round the head by a band. But in Hejaz, Yemen and Oman, turbans are by no means uncommon; the ordinary colour is white; they are worn over one or more skullcaps. Trousers also form part of the dress in the two former of these districts; and a voluminous sash, in which a dagger or an inkstand is stuck, is wrapped round the waist. The poorer folk, however, and the villagers often content themselves with a broad piece of cloth round the loins, and another across the shoulders. In Oman trousers are rare, but over the shirt a long gown, of peculiar and somewhat close-fitting cut, dyed yellow, is often worn. The women in these provinces commonly put on loose drawers and some add veils to their head-dresses; they are over-fond of ornaments (gold and silver); their hair is generally arranged in a long plait hanging down behind. All men allow their beards and moustaches full growth, though this is usually scanty. Most Arabs shave their heads, and indeed all, strictly speaking, ought by Mahommedan custom to do so. An Arab seldom or never dyes his hair. Sandals are worn more often than shoes; none but the very poorest go barefoot. Entry: ARABS
_Climate._--Owing to its low latitude and generally arid surface, Arabia is on the whole one of the hottest regions of the earth; this is especially the case along the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the southern half of the Red Sea, where the moist heat throughout the year is almost intolerable to Europeans. In the interior of northern and central Arabia, however, where the average level of the country exceeds 3000 ft., the fiery heat of the summer days is followed by cool nights, and the winter climate is fresh and invigorating; while in the highlands of Asir and Yemen in the south-west, and of Oman in the east, the summer heat is never excessive, and the winters are, comparatively speaking, cold. Entry: A
The chief contemporary authorities are the _Annales Henrici Quarti_ and T. Walsingham's _Historia Anglicana_ (Rolls Series), Adam of Usk's _Chronicle_ and the various _Chronicles of London_. The life by John Capgrave (_De illustribus Henricis_) is of little value. Some personal matter is contained in _Wardrobe Accounts of Henry, Earl of Derby_ (Camden Soc.). For documents consult T. Rymer's _Foedera_; Sir N. H. Nicolas, _Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council_; Sir H. Ellis, _Original Letters illustrative of English History_ (London, 1825-1846); _Rolls of Parliament_; _Royal and Historical Letters, Henry IV._ (Rolls Series) and the _Calendars of Patent Rolls_. Of modern authorities the foremost is J. H. Wylie's minute and learned _Hist. of England under Henry IV._ (4 vols., London, 1884-1898). See also W. Stubbs, _Constitutional History_; Sir J. Ramsay, _Lancaster and York_ (2 vols., Oxford, 1892), and C. W. C. Oman, _The Political History of England_, vol. iv. (C. L. K.) Entry: HENRY
The third or southern division contains the highland plateaus of Asir and Yemen in the west, and J. Akhdar in the east, which with a temperate climate, due to their great elevation and their proximity to the sea, deserve, if any part of Arabia does, the name of Arabia Felix--the population is settled and agricultural, and the soil, wherever the rainfall is sufficient, is productive. The Batina coast of Oman, irrigated by the mountain streams of J. Akhdar, is perhaps the most fertile district in the peninsula; Hadramut, too, contains many large and prosperous villages, and the torrents from the Yemen highlands fertilize several oases in the Tehama (or Tihama) or lowlands of the western and southern coast. These favourable conditions of soil and climate, however, extend only a comparatively short distance into the interior, by far the larger part of which is covered by the great southern desert, the Dahna, or Ruba el Khali, empty as its name implies, and uninhabitable. Entry: GEOGRAPHY
MAS'UDI (ABU-L HASAN 'ALI IBN HUSAIN IBN 'ALI UL-MAS'UDI) (d. c. 956), Arabian historian, was born at Bagdad towards the close of the 9th century. Much of his life was spent in travel. After he had been in Persia and Kerman, he visited Istakhr in 915, and went in the following year to Multan and Mansura, thence to Cambay, Saimur and Ceylon, to Madagascar and back to Oman. He seems about this time to have been as far as China. After a visit to the shores of the Caspian Sea he visited Tiberias in Palestine, examined the Christian church there, and described its relics. In 943 he was in Antioch, studying the ruins, and two years later in Damascus. The last ten years of his life he spent in Syria and Egypt. His great object in life had been to study with his own eyes the peculiarities of every land and to collect whatever was of interest for archaeology, history and manners. Himself a Mo'tazilite (see MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION: _Sects_), he was singularly free from bigotry, and took his information, when necessary, from Persians, Jews, Indians, and even the chronicle of a Christian bishop. Entry: MAS
The aspect of the city must have been nearly the same as at present; Niebuhr describes the _enceinte_ flanked by towers, the citadel at the foot of J. Nukum which rises 1000 ft. above the valley, the fortress and palace of the imams, now replaced by the Turkish military hospital, the suburb of Bir el Azab with its scattered houses and gardens, the Jews' quarter and the village of Rauda, a few miles to the north in a fertile, irrigated plain which Niebuhr compares to that of Damascus. After a stay of ten days at Sana the mission set out again for Mokha, travelling by what is now the main route from the capital to Hodeda, through the rich coffee-bearing district of J. Haraz, and thence southward to Mokha, where they embarked for India. During the next year three other members of the party died, leaving Niebuhr the sole survivor. Returning to Arabia a year later, he visited Oman and the shores of the Persian Gulf, and travelling from Basra through Syria and Palestine he reached Denmark in 1764 after four years' absence. Entry: GEOGRAPHY
The Shi`ite canon law is dealt with separately, but some mention of two outstanding sects is here in place. The Ibadites (see MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION: _Sects_) have a system of canon law which in essentials is of older codification than that of any of the orthodox schools, going back to Abdallah ibn Ibad himself, of the first century of the Hijra (Hejira). Its basis is above all the Koran, then a sparing use of traditions, natural to their early origin, and finally the agreement of their own learned men, again natural to an extreme dissenting sect, and it still rules the Ibadite communities at Oman, Zanzibar and the Mzab in southern Algeria. At all these places they, the last descendants of the Kharijites, hold severely apart, while the other Moslems shrink from them as heretics of the worst. Not nearly so far from ordinary Islam, but still of an extreme self-conscious Puritanism are the Wahhabis. They are really Hanbalites, but apply the rules of that school with uncompromising, reforming energy. The doctrine of the agreement of the Church of Islam they reject; only that of the immediate companions of Mahomet is valid. The people of Mahomet can err and has erred; each man must, on his own responsibility, draw his doctrine from the Koran and the traditions. Here they follow the Zahirites. Entry: MAHOMMEDAN
HASA, EL (_Ahsa_, _Al Hasa_), a district in the east of Arabia stretching along the shore of the Persian Gulf from Kuwét in 29° 20´ N. to the south point of the Gulf of Bahrein in 25° 10´ N., a length of about 360 m. On the W. it is bounded by Nejd, and on the S.E. by the peninsula of El Katr which forms part of Oman. The coast is low and flat and has no deep-water port along its whole length with the exception of Kuwét; from that place to El Katif the country is barren and without villages or permanent settlements, and is only occupied by nomad tribes, of which the principal are the Bani Hajar, Ajman and Khalid. The interior consists of low stony ridges rising gradually to the inner plateau. The oases of Hofuf and Katif, however, form a strong contrast to the barren wastes that cover the greater part of the district. Here an inexhaustible supply of underground water (to which the province owes its name Hasa) issues in strong springs, marking, according to Arab geographers, the course of a great subterranean river draining the Nejd highlands. Hofuf the capital, a town of 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, with its neighbour Mubariz scarcely less populous, forms the centre of a thriving district 50 m. long by 15 m. in breadth, containing numerous villages each with richly cultivated fields and gardens. The town walls enclose a space of 1½ by 1 m., at the north-west angle of which is a remarkable citadel attributed to the Carmathian princes. Mubariz is celebrated for its hot spring, known as Um Saba or "mother of seven," from the seven channels by which its water is distributed. Beyond the present limits of the oasis much of the country is well supplied with water, and ruined sites and half-obliterated canals show that it has only relapsed into waste in recent times. Cultivation reappears at Katif, a town situated on a small bay some 35 m. north-west of Bahrein. Date groves extend for several miles along the coast, which is low and muddy. The district is fertile but the climate is hot and unhealthy; still, owing to its convenient position, the town has a considerable trade with Bahrein and the gulf ports on one side and the interior of Nejd on the other. The fort is a strongly built enclosure attributed, like that at Hofuf, to the Carmathian prince Abu Tahir. Entry: HASA