Kharj, Al- \ ,al-'karj\ Oasis, east-central Saudi Arabia. It lies southeast of Riyadh and is administered with that city. Situated around a series of deep¬ water pools, it was chosen as the site of a government experimental farm in 1938. Its traditional dairy industry was greatly expanded in 1981 with inauguration of a meat and dairy combine.
Kharkiv \'kar-kof\ City (pop., 2001: 1,470,000), northeastern Ukraine. Founded in 1655 as a military stronghold to protect Russia’s southern borderlands, it became a seat of provincial government in 1732. It served as the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1921-34). The second largest city in Ukraine, it is a heavy industry centre, manufactur¬ ing agricultural machinery and electrical equipment.
Khartoum \kar-'tiim\ City (pop., 2000 est.: 3,949,000), capital of The Sudan. Located just south of the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers, it was originally an Egyptian army camp (1821). The Mahdists besieged and destroyed the town in 1885, killing Charles George Gordon, the British governor-general. Reoccupied by the British in 1898, it served as the seat of the Anglo-Egyptian government until 1956, when it became the capital of the independent republic of The Sudan. A major trade and communications centre, it is the seat of several universities.
khat \'kat\ Slender, straight, East African tree {Catha edulis; family Celastraceae). Reaching a height of 80 ft (25 m), the khat tree has large, oval, finely toothed, bitter-tasting leaves. Its best-known relatives are the ornamentals euonymus and bittersweet. Khat leaves are chewed for the stimulants they contain, and the drug is central to social life in some countries.
Khatami \ka-ta-'me\, Mohammad or Muhammad Khatami
(b. Sept. 29, 1943, Ardakan, Iran) President of Iran (1997-2005). After studying at a traditional madrasah in the holy city of Qom, he began political activities while studying philosophy at Esfahan University. He
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Khayr al-DTn ► Khorasan I 1031
headed the Islamic Centre Hamburg in Germany during the Iranian Revo¬ lution (1979) and returned home to seek election to the Majles (parlia¬ ment) in 1980. He served in government posts during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-90), as cultural adviser to Pres. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and as head of the National Library (1992-97) before winning the presidency on a platform of social and economic reform. He was reelected by an overwhelming margin in 2001.
Khayr al-DTn See Barbarossa Khayyam, Omar See Omar Khayyam
Khazar \k3-'zar\ Any member of a confederation of Turkic-speaking tribes that established a commercial empire in European Russia in the late 6th century. A people of the northern Caucasus region, the Khazars allied with the Byzantines against the Persians in the 7th century and warred with the Arabs until the mid-8th century. Their empire extended west¬ ward along the Black Sea, and they controlled trade routes and exacted tribute from their neighbors. The ruling class adopted Judaism and main¬ tained close relations with the Byzantine emperors. The Khazar empire began to decline in the 10th century and was crushed by Kiev in 965.
Khensu See Khons Khidr See Barbarossa
Khidr Vki-dorV a I- Legendary Islamic figure endowed with immortal¬ ity who became a popular saint, especially among sailors and Sufi mys¬ tics. His legend is based on a narrative from the Qur’an, which tells how a “man of God” helps Musa (Moses) search for a fish and at the same time performs seemingly senseless actions such as sinking a boat and killing a young man. By questioning him, Musa forfeits his patronage. Arab com¬ mentators embellished the story, giving him the name Khidr (“Green”) and claiming that he turned green upon diving into the spring of life. In Pakistan he is identified with a water deity who protects mariners and river travelers. Among Sufis he is associated with the ever-living spiritual function that can guide people on the spiritual path.
Khios See Chios Khitan See Liao dynasty
Khmelnytsky \kmyel-'nit-ske\, Bohdan (Zinoviy Mykhay- lovych) (b. c. 1595, Chigirin, Ukraine—d. Aug. 16, 1657, Chigirin) Ukrainian Cossack leader (1648-57). Although he was educated in Poland and served with the Polish military, he fled to the fortress of the Zapor- ozhian Cossacks in 1648 and organized a rebellion among them. After winning support from dissatisfied Ukrainian peasants and townspeople, he marched against Poland. After years of war, he sought aid from the Russians in 1654, and they subsequently invaded Poland, achieving the transfer of Ukrainian lands from Polish to Russian control. His attempts to secure autonomy for his Cossack followers resulted only in their later subjection to Russian rule.
Khmer \ko-'mer\ or Cambodian or Kampuchean Any member of the ethnolinguistic group that constitutes most of the population of Cambodia. Smaller numbers of Khmer also live in southeastern Thailand and the Mekong River delta of southern Vietnam. Traditional Khmer are a predominantly agricultural people, subsisting on rice and fish and liv¬ ing in villages. Their crafts include weaving, pottery making, and metal¬ working. They follow Theravada Buddhism, which coexists with pre- Buddhist animistic beliefs. Indian culture has historically been a strong influence on Khmer culture.
Khmer language or Cambodian language Mon-Khmer lan¬ guage spoken by more than seven million people in Cambodia (where it is the national language), southern Vietnam, and parts of Thailand. Khmer is written in a distinctive script, which, like the writing systems of Bur¬ mese, Thai, and Lao, is descended from the South Asian Pallava script (see Indic writing systems); the earliest inscription in Old Khmer is from the 7th century. During the Angkor period (9th-15th centuries), Khmer lent many words to Thai, Lao, and other languages of the region (see Tai languages). Khmer itself has borrowed many learned words from Sanskrit and Pali.
Khmer Rouge Vko-'mer-'riizhX French "Red Khmer" Radical com¬ munist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot, opposed the government of the popular Norodom Sihanouk. They gained support after Sihanouk was toppled by Lon Nol (1970) and after U.S. forces bombed the countryside
in the early 1970s. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge ousted Lon Nol. Their extraordinarily brutal regime led to the deaths (from starvation, hardship, and execution) of one to two million people. Overthrown in 1979 by the Vietnamese, they retreated to remote areas and continued their struggle for power in Cambodia. The last Khmer Rouge guerrillas surrendered in
Khnum VkniimN or Khnemu Vkne-mu\ Ancient Egyptian god of fer¬ tility, associated with water and procreation. Worshiped as early as 2800 bc, he was represented as a ram with twisting horns or as a man with a ram’s head. He was believed to have created humankind from clay like a potter. His main temple was at Elephantine, near present-day Aswan, and he formed a triad of deities with the goddesses Satis and Anukis. Khnum also had an important cult at Esna, south of Thebes.
Khoekhoe \ , koi-,koi\ or Khoikhoi formerly Hottentot (pejora¬ tive) Group of peoples, speaking closely related Khoisan languages, who were among the first indigenous southern Africans encountered by Euro¬ peans. The precontact Khoekhoe were pastoralists who tended large herds of cattle and sheep. By 1800 Khoekhoe societies south of the Orange River in Cape Colony had been largely destroyed by disease and warfare, with the remnants either serving as bonded labourers for white farmers or blending into frontier communities of mixed descent, such as the Gri- qua. North of the Orange River in Namibia, the Nama are the largest Khoekhoe ethnic group, numbering about 230,000.