KISFALUDY SANDOR [ALEXANDER] (1772-1844) Hungarian poet, elder brother of the preceding, was born at Zala on the 27th of September 1772, educated at Raab, and graduated in philo sophy and jurisprudence at Pressburg. He entered the Life Guards (1793) and plunged into the gay life of Vienna. In he was transferred to the army in Italy for being concerned with other officers in certain irregularities. When Milan was captured by Napoleon Kisfaludy was sent a prisoner of war to Vaucluse, where he studied Petrarch with enthusiasm and fell violently in love with Caroline D'Esclapon, a kindred spirit to whom he addressed his melancholy Himfy Lays. He left the army in September 1799, and married his old love Roza Szegedy at the beginning of i800. The first five happy years of their life were passed at Kam in Vas county, but in 1805 they removed to Siimeg where Kisfaludy gave himself up entirely to literature.
He had published a volume of erotic poetry which made him famous, and his reputation was still further increased by his Regek or Tales. In 182o the Marczebanya Institute crowned his Tales. In 1822 he started the Aurora with his younger brother Karoly (see above). He died on Oct. 28, 1844. Alexander Kisfaludy's art was self-taught, solitary and absolutely inde pendent. If he imitated any one it was Petrarch; indeed his famous Himfy szerelmei ("The Loves of Himfy"), as his col lected sonnets are called, have won for him the title of "The Hungarian Petrarch." Of his plays Hunyddi Jdnos (1816) need alone be mentioned.
The best critical edition of Sandor Kisfaludy's works is the fourth complete edition, by David Angyal, in eight volumes (Budapest, 1893). See Tamas Szana, The Two Kisfaludys (Hung.) (Budapest, 1876) ; Imre Sa.ndor, The Influence of the Italian on the Hungarian Literature (Hung.) (Budapest, 1878) ; KalmAn Siimegi, Kisfaludy and his Tales (Hung.) (Budapest, 1877). (R. N. B.) KISH, an island in the Persian gulf. (See Qms.) KISH (modern Tal al-Uhaimer), one of the most ancient and important cities of Sumer and Akkad, lies in a direct line about 8 miles from Babil, and io from Hillaa, in 32° 30' N. 45° E. The site is a very extensive one and is in the course of excavation by a joint expedition of the University of Oxford (Weld) and the Field Museum of Chicago. The city lies on either side of the old bed of the Euphrates, and for descriptive purposes may be divided into eastern and western Kish, in relation to the river.
There was also a great canal running through the eastern city. The ruins are extremely extensive. The western flank of the city is guarded by two mounds, probably the fortress of the city, the later mound to the south being known to-day as Tal Khuzna, "the hill of treasure." The fortress consists of a large buttressed rampart, containing large chambers; some pottery of the Ham murabi period has been found here. The two hills stand up about forty feet above the plain, and from them (near the south-west corner of extensive city ruins) runs a massive wall and moat terminating in a low mound, no doubt a fort on the western bank of the old river channel. The city ruins which cover a wide area east of the twin western forts consist of a series of low mounds, which on their northern aspect extend as far as the ziggurat. These mounds have been extensively pillaged by illicit diggers and are probably the site from which many contracts have come. They terminate to the north-east in the great stage which rises 90 ft. above the plain and has received its modern name of Tal al-Uhaimer, the "little red mound," from the great mass of baked bricks of the period of Samsu-iluna which stands out very prominently across the plain and has protected the rest of the tower from erosion. East of the ziggurat is a series of low mounds, identified by Langdon as the ruins of Emete-ursag. These ruins cover a wide area and Langdon believes that they are the remains of one of the most extensive temples of Sumer and Akkad. South of the ziggurat and between it and the southern wall there is a wide space which seems originally to have been a city park. In addition to these extensive ruins in western Kish there are also chains of mounds which lead to the new bed of the Euphrates. These can with certainty be identified with the outer defences which Nebuchadrezzar claims to have made. Their great extent is probably responsible for the large dimensions attributed by Herodotus and other ancient authorities to the walls of Babylon (see BABYLON) . Western Kish must therefore have formed in later times, long after the river changed its course, if not an important city, at least an important element in the outer defences of its successor, the town of Babylon.