Part 24

KONTAGORA, a province in the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria, on the east bank of the Niger to the north of Nupe and opposite Borgu. It is bounded W. by the Niger, S. by the province of Nupe, E. by that of Zaria, and N. by that of Sokoto. It has an area of 14,500 sq. m. and a population estimated at about 80,000. At the time of the British occupation of Northern Nigeria the province formed a Fula emirate. Before the Fula domination, which was established in 1864, the ancient pagan kingdom of Yauri was the most important of the lesser kingdoms which occupied this territory. The Fula conquest was made from Nupe on the south and a tribe of independent and warlike pagans continued to hold the country between Kontagora and Sokoto on the north. The province was brought under British domination in 1901 as the result of a military expedition sent to prevent audacious slave-raiding in British protected territory and of threats directed against the British military station of Jebba on the Niger. The town of Kontagora was taken in January of 1901. The emir Ibrahim fled, and was not captured till early in 1902. The province, after having been held for a time in military occupation, was organized for administration on the same system as the rest of the protectorate. In 1903 Ibrahim, after agreeing to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown and to accept the usual conditions of appointment, which include the abolition of the slave trade within the province, was reinstated as emir and the British garrison was withdrawn. Since then the development of the province has progressed favourably. Roads have been opened and Kontagora connected by telegraph with headquarters at Zungeru. British courts of justice have been established at the British headquarters, and native courts in every district. In 1904 an expedition reduced to submission the hitherto independent tribes in the northern belt, who had up to that time blocked the road to Sokoto. Their arms were confiscated and their country organized as a district of the province under a chief and a British assistant resident.

KOORINGA [BURRA], a town of Burra county, South Australia on Burra Creek, 101 m. by rail N. by E. of Adelaide. Pop. (1901), 1994. It is the centre of a mining and agricultural district in which large areas are devoted to wheat-growing. The famous Burra Burra copper mine, discovered by a shepherd in 1844, is close to the town, while silver and lead ore is also found in the vicinity.

KÖPENICK (CÖPENICK), a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on an island in the Spree, 9 m. S.E. from Berlin by the railway to Fürstenwalde. Pop. (1905), 27,721. It contains a royal residence, which was built on the site of a palace which belonged to the great elector, Frederick William. This is surrounded by gardens and contains a fine banqueting hall and a chapel. Other buildings are a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church and a teachers' seminary. The varied industries embrace the manufacture of glass, linoleum, sealing-wax and ink. In the vicinity is Spindlersfeld, with important dye-works.

Köpenick, which dates from the 12th century, received municipal rights in 1225. Shortly afterwards, it became the bone of contention between Brandenburg and Meissen, but, at the issue of the feud, remained with the former, becoming a favourite residence of the electors of Brandenburg. In the palace the famous court martial was held in 1730, which condemned the crown-prince of Prussia, afterwards Frederick the Great, to death. In 1906 the place derived ephemeral fame from the daring feat of a cobbler, one Wilhelm Voigt, who, attired as a captain in the army, accompanied by soldiers, whom his apparent rank deceived, took the mayor prisoner, on a fictitious charge of having falsified accounts and absconded with a considerable sum of municipal money. The "captain of Köpenick" was arrested, tried, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

See Graf zu Dohna, _Kurfürstliche Schlösser in der Mark Brandenburg_ (Berlin, 1890).

KOPISCH, AUGUST (1799-1853), German poet, was born at Breslau on the 26th of May 1799. In 1815 he began the study of painting at the Prague academy, but an injury to his hand precluded the prospects of any great success in this profession, and he turned to literature. After a residence in Dresden Kopisch proceeded, in 1822, to Italy, where, at Naples, he formed an intimate friendship with the poet August, count of Platen Hallermund. He was an expert swimmer, a quality which enabled him in company with Ernst Fries to discover the blue grotto of Capri. In 1828 he settled at Berlin and was granted a pension by Frederick William IV., who in 1838 conferred upon him the title of professor. He died at Berlin on the 3rd of February 1853. Kopisch produced some very original poetry, light in language and in form. He especially treated legends and popular subjects, and among his _Gedichte_ (Berlin, 1836) are some naïve and humorous little pieces such as _Die Historie von Noah_, _Die Heinzelmännchen_, _Das grüne Tier_ and _Der Scheiderjunge von Krippstedt_, which became widely popular. He also published a translation of Dante's _Divine Comedy_ (Berlin, 1840), and under the title _Agrumi_ (Berlin, 1838) a collection of translations of Italian folk songs.

Kopisch's collected works were published in 5 vols. (Berlin, 1856.)

KOPP, HERMANN FRANZ MORITZ (1817-1892), German chemist, was born on the 30th of October 1817 at Hanau, where his father, Johann Heinrich Kopp (1777-1858), a physician, was professor of chemistry, physics and natural history at the Lyceum.

After attending the gymnasium of his native town, he studied at Marburg and Heidelberg, and then, attracted by the fame of Liebig, went in 1839 to Giessen, where he became a _privatdozent_ in 1841, and professor of chemistry twelve years later. In 1864 he was called to Heidelberg in the same capacity, and he remained there till his death on the 20th of February 1892. Kopp devoted himself especially to physico-chemical inquiries, and in the history of chemical theory his name is associated with several of the most important correlations of the physical properties of substances with their chemical constitution. Much of his work was concerned with specific volumes, the conception of which he set forth in a paper published when he was only twenty-two years of age; and the principles he established have formed the basis of subsequent investigations in that subject, although his results have in some cases undergone modification. Another question to which he gave much attention was the connexion of the boiling-point of compounds, organic ones in

## particular, with their composition. In addition to these and other

laborious researches, Kopp was a prolific writer. In 1843-1847 he published a comprehensive _History of Chemistry_, in four volumes, to which three supplements were added in 1869-1875. The _Development of Chemistry in Recent Times_ appeared in 1871-1874, and in 1886 he published a work in two volumes on _Alchemy in Ancient and Modern Times_. In addition he wrote (1863) on theoretical and physical chemistry for the Graham-Otto _Lehrbuch der Chemie_, and for many years assisted Liebig in editing the _Annalen der Chemie_ and the _Jahresbericht_.

He must not be confused with EMIL KOPP (1817-1875), who, born at Warselnheim, Alsace, became in 1847 professor of toxicology and chemistry at the École supérieure de Pharmacie at Strasburg, in 1849 professor of physics and chemistry at Lausanne, in 1852 chemist to a Turkey-red factory near Manchester, in 1868 professor of technology at Turin, and finally, in 1871, professor of technical chemistry at the Polytechnic of Zürich, where he died in 1875.

KOPRÜLÜ, or KUPRILI (Bulgarian _Valésa_, Greek _Vélissa_), a town of Macedonia, European Turkey, in the vilayet of Salonica, situated 600 ft. above sea-level, on the river Vardar, and on the Salonica-Mitrovitza railway, 25 m. S.E. of Uskub. Pop. (1905), about 22,000. Koprülü has a flourishing trade in silk; maize and mulberries are cultivated in the neighbourhood. The Greek and Bulgarian names of the town may be corrupt forms of the ancient Bylazora, described by Polybius as the chief city of Paeonia.

KORA, or CORA, an ancient town of Northern India, in the Fatehpur district of the United Provinces. Pop. (1901), 2806. As the capital of a Mahommedan province, it gave its name to part of the tract (with Allahabad) granted by Lord Clive to the titular Mogul emperor, Shah Alam, in 1765.

KORAN. The Koran (Kor'án) is the sacred Book of Islam, on which the religion of more than two hundred millions of Mahommedans is founded, being regarded by them as the immediate word of God. And since the use of the Koran in public worship, in schools and otherwise, is much more extensive than, for example, the reading of the Bible in most Christian countries, it has been truly described as the most widely-read book in existence. This circumstance alone is sufficient to give it an urgent claim on our attention, whether it suit our taste and fall in with our religious and philosophical views or not. Besides, it is the work of Mahomet, and as such is fitted to afford a clue to the spiritual development of that most successful of all prophets and religious personalities. It must be owned that the first perusal leaves on a European an impression of chaotic confusion--not that the book is so very extensive, for it is not quite as large as the New Testament. This impression can in some degree be modified only by the application of a critical analysis with the assistance of Arabian tradition.

Mahomet's View of Revelation.

To the faith of the Moslems, as has been said, the Koran is the word of God, and such also is the claim which the book itself advances. For except in sur. i.--which is a prayer for men--and some few passages where Mahomet (vi. 104, 114; xxvii. 93; xlii. 8) or the angels (xix. 65; xxxvii. 164 sqq.) speak in the first person without the intervention of the usual imperative "say" (sing. or pl.), the speaker throughout is God, either in the first person singular or more commonly the plural of majesty "we." The same mode of address is familiar to us from the prophets of the Old Testament; the human personality disappears, in the moment of inspiration, behind the God by whom it is filled. But all the greatest of the Hebrew prophets fall back speedily upon the unassuming human "I"; while in the Koran the divine "I" is the stereotyped form of address. Mahomet, however, really felt himself to be the instrument of God; this consciousness was no doubt brighter at his first appearance than it afterwards became, but it never entirely forsook him. Nevertheless we cannot doubt his good-faith, not even in the cases in which the moral quality of his actions leaves most to be desired. In spite of all, the dominant fact remains, that to the end he was zealous for his God and for the salvation of his people, nay, of the whole of humanity, and that he never lost the unconquerable certainty of his divine mission.

The rationale of revelation is explained in the Koran itself as follows: In heaven is the original text ("the mother of the book," xliii. 3; "a concealed book," lv. 77; "a well-guarded tablet," lxxxv. 22). By the process of "sending down" (_tanzíl_), one piece after another was communicated to the Prophet. The mediator was an angel, who is called sometimes the "Spirit" (xxvi. 193), sometimes the "holy Spirit" (xvi. 104), and at a later time "Gabriel" (only in ii. 91, 92; lxvi. 4). This angel dictates the revelation to the Prophet, who repeats it after him, and afterwards proclaims it to the world (lxxxvii. 6, &c.). It is plain that we have here a somewhat crude attempt of the Prophet to represent to himself the more or less unconscious process by which his ideas arose and gradually took shape in his mind. It is no wonder if in such confused imagery the details are not always self-consistent. When, for example, this heavenly archetype is said to be in the hands of "exalted scribes" (lxxx. 13 sqq.), this seems a transition to a quite different set of ideas, namely, the books of fate, or the record of all human

## actions--conceptions which are actually found in the Koran. It is to be

observed, at all events, that Mahomet's transcendental idea of God, as a Being exalted altogether above the world, excludes the thought of direct intercourse between the Prophet and God.

Component Parts of the Koran.

It is an explicit statement of the Koran that the sacred book was revealed ("sent down") by God, not all at once, but piecemeal and gradually (xxv. 34). This is evident from the actual composition of the book, and is confirmed by Moslem tradition. That is to say, Mahomet issued his revelations in fly-leaves of greater or less extent. A single piece of this kind was called either, like the entire collection, _kor'an_, i.e. "recitation," "reading," or, better still, is the equivalent of Aramaic _geryana_ "lectionary"; or _kitab_, "writing"; or _sura_, which is perhaps the late-Hebrew _shura_, and means literally "series." The last became, in the lifetime of Mahomet, the regular designation of the individual sections as distinguished from the whole collection; and accordingly it is the name given to the separate chapters of the existing Koran. These chapters are of very unequal length. Since many of the shorter ones are undoubtedly complete in themselves, it is natural to assume that the longer, which are sometimes very comprehensive, have arisen from the amalgamation of various originally distinct revelations. This supposition is favoured by the numerous traditions which give us the circumstances under which this or that short piece, now incorporated in a larger section, was revealed; and also by the fact that the connexion of thought in the present suras often seems to be interrupted. And in reality many pieces of the long suras have to be severed out as originally independent; even in the short ones parts are often found which cannot have been there at first. At the same time we must beware of carrying this sifting operation too far,--as Nöldeke now believes himself to have done in his earlier works, and as Sprenger also sometimes seems to do. That some suras were of considerable length from the first is seen, for example, from xii., which contains a short introduction, then the history of Joseph, and then a few concluding observations, and is therefore perfectly homogeneous. In like manner, xx., which is mainly occupied with the history of Moses, forms a complete whole. The same is true of xviii., which at first sight seems to fall into several pieces; the history of the seven sleepers, the grotesque narrative about Moses, and that about Alexander "the Horned," are all connected together, and the same rhyme through the whole sura. Even in the separate narrations we may observe how readily the Koran passes from one subject to another, how little care is taken to express all the transitions of thought, and how frequently clauses are omitted, which are almost indispensable. We are not at liberty, therefore, in every case where the connexion in the Koran is obscure, to say that it is really broken, and set it down as the clumsy patchwork of a later hand. Even in the old Arabic poetry such abrupt transitions are of very frequent occurrence. It is not uncommon for the Koran, after a new subject has been entered on, to return gradually or suddenly to the former theme,--a proof that there at least separation is not to be thought of. In short, however imperfectly the Koran may have been redacted, in the majority of cases the present suras are identical with the originals.

How these revelations actually arose in Mahomet's mind is a question which it is almost as idle to discuss as it would be to analyse the workings of the mind of a poet. In his early career, sometimes perhaps in its later stages also, many revelations must have burst from him in uncontrollable excitement, so that he could not possibly regard them otherwise than as divine inspirations. We must bear in mind that he was no cold systematic thinker, but an Oriental visionary, brought up in crass superstition, and without intellectual discipline; a man whose nervous temperament had been powerfully worked on by ascetic austerities, and who was all the more irritated by the opposition he encountered, because he had little of the heroic in his nature. Filled with his religious ideas and visions, he might well fancy he heard the angel bidding him recite what was said to him. There may have been many a revelation of this kind which no one ever heard but himself, as he repeated it to himself in the silence of the night (lxxiii. 4). Indeed the Koran itself admits that he forgot some revelations (lxxxvii. 7). But by far the greatest part of the book is undoubtedly the result of deliberation, touched more or less with emotion, and animated by a certain rhetorical rather than poetical glow. Many passages are based upon purely intellectual reflection. It is said that Mahomet occasionally uttered such a passage immediately after one of those epileptic fits which not only his followers, but (for a time at least) he himself also, regarded as tokens of intercourse with the higher powers. If that is the case, it is impossible to say whether the trick was in the utterance of the revelation or in the fit itself.

The Koran Written.

How the various pieces of the Koran took literary form is uncertain. Mahomet himself, so far as we can discover, never wrote down anything. The question whether he could read and write has been much debated among Moslems, unfortunately more with dogmatic arguments and spurious traditions than authentic proofs. At present one is inclined to say that he was not altogether ignorant of these arts, but that from want of practice he found it convenient to employ some one else whenever he had anything to write. After the migration to Medina (A.D. 622) we are told that short pieces--chiefly legal decisions--were taken down immediately after they were revealed, by an adherent whom he summoned for the purpose; so that nothing stood in the way of their publication. Hence it is probable that in Mecca, where the art of writing was commoner than in Medina, he had already begun to have his oracles committed to writing. That even long portions of the Koran existed in written form from an early date may be pretty safely inferred from various indications; especially from the fact that in Mecca the Prophet had caused insertions to be made, and pieces to be erased in his previous revelations. For we cannot suppose that he knew the longer suras by heart so perfectly that he was able after a time to lay his finger upon any particular passage. In some instances, indeed, he may have relied too much on his memory. For example, he seems to have occasionally dictated the same sura to different persons in slightly different terms. In such cases, no doubt, he may have partly intended to introduce improvements; and so long as the difference was merely in expression, without affecting the sense, it could occasion no perplexity to his followers. None of them had literary pedantry enough to question the consistency of the divine revelation on that ground. In particular instances, however, the difference of reading was too important to be overlooked. Thus the Koran itself confesses that the unbelievers cast it up as a reproach to the Prophet that God sometimes substituted one verse for another (xvi. 103). On one occasion, when a dispute arose between two of his own followers as to the true reading of a passage which both had received from the Prophet himself, Mahomet is said to have explained that the Koran was revealed in seven forms. In this apparently genuine dictum seven stands, of course, as in many other cases, for an indefinite but limited number. But one may imagine what a world of trouble it has cost the Moslem theologians to explain the saying in accordance with their dogmatic beliefs. A great number of explanations are current, some of which claim the authority of the Prophet himself; as, indeed, fictitious utterances of Mahomet play throughout a conspicuous part in the exegesis of the Koran. One very favourite, but utterly untenable interpretation is that the "seven forms," are seven different Arabic dialects.

Abrogated Readings.

When such discrepancies came to the cognizance of Mahomet it was doubtless his desire that only one of the conflicting texts should be considered authentic; only he never gave himself much trouble to have his wish carried into effect. Although in theory he was an upholder of verbal inspiration, he did not push the doctrine to its extreme consequences; his practical good sense did not take these things so strictly as the theologians of later centuries. Sometimes, however, he did suppress whole sections or verses, enjoining his followers to efface or forget them, and declaring them to be "abrogated." A very remarkable case is that of the two verses in liii., when he had recognized three heathen goddesses as exalted beings, possessing influence with God. This had occurred in a moment of weakness, in order that by such a promise, which yet left Allah in his lofty position, he might gain over his fellow-countrymen. This object he achieved, but soon his conscience smote him, and he declared these words to have been an inspiration of Satan.

Abrogated Laws.

So much for abrogated readings; the case is somewhat different when we come to the abrogation of laws and directions to the Moslems, which often occurs in the Koran. There is nothing in this at variance with Mahomet's idea of God. God is to him an absolute despot, who declares a thing right or wrong from no inherent necessity but by his arbitrary fiat. This God varies his commands at pleasure, prescribes one law for the Christians, another for the Jews, and a third for the Moslems; nay, he even changes his instructions to the Moslems when it pleases him. Thus, for example, the Koran contains very different directions, suited to varying circumstances, as to the treatment which idolaters are to receive at the hands of believers. But Mahomet showed no anxiety to have these superseded enactments destroyed. Believers could be in no uncertainty as to which of two contradictory passages remained in force; and they might still find edification in that which had become obsolete. That later generations might not so easily distinguish the "abrogated" from the "abrogating" did not occur to Mahomet, whose vision, naturally enough, seldom extended to the future of his religious community. Current events were invariably kept in view in the revelations. In Medina it called forth the admiration of the Faithful to observe how often God gave them the answer to a question whose settlement was urgently required at the moment. The same näiveté appears in a remark of the Caliph Othman about a doubtful case: "If the Apostle of God were still alive, methinks there had been a Koran passage revealed on this point." Not unfrequently the divine word was found to coincide with the advice which Mahomet had received from his most intimate disciples. "Omar was many a time of a certain opinion," says one tradition, "and the Koran was then revealed accordingly."

Contents of the Koran.