KAIN  , the name of a sub-

province and of a town of Khorasan, Persia . The sub-province extends about 300 M . N. to S., from Khaf to Seistan, and about 150 M . W. to E., from the hills of Tun to the Afghan frontier, comprising the whole of south-western Khorasan . It is very hilly, but contains many wide plains and fertile villages at a mean elevation of 4000 ft . It has a population of about 150,000, rears great numbers of camels and produces much grain, saffron, wool, silk and opium . The chief manufactures are felts and other woollen fabrics, principally carpets, which have a world-wide reputation . The best Kaini carpets are made at . Darakhsh, a village in the Zirkuh district and 50 M . N.E. of Birjend . It is divided into eleven administrative divisions: Shahabad (with the capital Birjend), Naharjan, Alghur, Tabas sunni Khaneh, Zirkuh Shakhan, Kain, Nimbulak, Nehbandan, Khasi, Arab Khaneh or Momenabad . The town of Kain, the capital of the sub-province until 1740, when it was supplanted by Birjend, is situated 65 m .

N. of Birjend on the eastern

side of a broad valley, stretching from N. to S., at the base of the mountain Abuzar, in 33° 42' N. and 59° 8' E., and at an elevation of 4500 ft . Its population is barely 5o00 . It is surrounded by a mud wall and bastions, and near it, on a hill rising 5oo ft. above the plain, are the ruins of an ancient castle which, together with the old town, was destroyed either by Shah Rukh (1404-1447), a son, or by Baysunkur (d . 1433), a grandson of Timur (Tamerlane), who afterwards built a new town . After a time the Uzbegs took possession and held the town until Shah Abbas I . (1587-1629) expelled them . In the 18th century it fell under the sway of the Afghans and remained a dependency of Herat until 1851 . A large number of windmills are at work outside the town . The great mosque, now in a ruinous state, was built A.H . 796 (A.D . 1394) by Karen b..Jamshid and repaired by Yusof Dowlatyar .