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 cotton mart, where an average of 80,593 bojas of cotton are bought and sold annually. It has also a large grain market, cotton presses, ginning factories and oil mills. Amraoti raw cotton is quoted on the Liverpool Exchange.

The district of Amraoti has an area of 4754 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 630,245, showing a decrease of 4% in the decade; on the area as now constituted it was 809,499 The district is an extensive plain, about 800 ft. above sea-level, the general flatness being only broken by a small chain of hills, running in a north-westerly direction between Amraoti and Chandor, with an average height from 400 to 500 ft. above the lowlands. The principal towns, besides Amraoti, are Karinja, Kolapur, and Badnera, which lies on the Great Indian Peninsula railway, the main line of which crosses the district. Severe drought visited Amraoti in 1899–1900. AMRAVATI, or, a ruined city of India in the Guntur district of the Madras presidency, on the south bank of the Kistna river, 62 m. from its mouth. The town is of great interest for the antiquary as one of the chief centres of the Buddhist kingdom of Vengi, and for its stupa (sepulchral monument). Amravati has been identified with Hsiian Tsang’s To-na-kie-tse-kia and with the Rahmi of Arab geographers. Subsequent to the disappearance of Buddhism from this region the town became a centre of the Sivaite faith. When Hsüan Tsang visited Amravati in 639 it had already been deserted for a century, but he speaks in glowing terms of its magnificence and beauty. Very careful and artistic representations of the stupa with its daghoba and interesting rail, pillars and sculptures will be found in Fergusson’s Tree and Serpent Worship, and in his History of Indian Architecture (1876). Its elaborate carvings illustrate the life of Buddha. Some are preserved in the British Museum; others in the museum at Madras.

ʽAMR-IBN-EL-ASS, or (strictly ), one of the most famous of the first race of the Saracen leaders, was of the tribe of Koreish (Qureish). In his youth he was an antagonist of Mahomet. His zeal prompted him to undertake an embassy to the king of Ethiopia, in order to stimulate him against the converts whom he had taken under his protection, but he returned a convert to the Mahommedan faith and joined the fugitive prophet at Medina. When Abu Bekr resolved to invade Syria, he entrusted ʽAmr with a high command. ʽAmr soon perceived that his troops were not sufficient for a serious battle. Reinforced by Khālid b. al-Walīd, whom Abu Bekr sent in all haste from Irak to Syria, he defeated the imperial troops, commanded by Theodorus, the brother of Heraclius, not far from Ramleh in Palestine, on the 31st of July 634. When Omar became caliph he made Khālid chief commander of the Syrian armies, ʽAmr remaining in Palestine to complete the submission of that province. It is not certain that ʽAmr assisted Khālid in the siege of Damascus, but very probable that he took part in the decisive battle of Yarmūk, 20th of August 636. After this battle he laid siege to Jerusalem, in which enterprise he was seconded a year later by Abu Obeida, then chief commander. After the surrender of Jerusalem ʽAmr began the siege of Caesarea, which, however, was brought to a successful end in September or October 640 by Moawiya, ʽAmr having obtained Omar’s sanction for an expedition against Egypt. Towards the end of 639 he led an army of 4000 Arabs into that country. During his march a messenger from Omar arrived with a letter containing directions to return if he should have received it in Syria, but if in Egypt to advance, in which case all needful assistance would be instantly sent to him. The contents of the letter were not made known to his officers until he was assured that the army was on Egyptian soil, so that the expedition might be continued under the sanction of Omar’s orders. Having taken Farama (Pelusium), he advanced to Misr, north of the ancient Memphis, and besieged it and the strong fortress of Babylon for seven months. Although numerous reinforcements arrived, he would have found it very difficult to storm the place previous to the inundation of the Nile but for treachery within the citadel; the Greeks who remained there were either made prisoners or put to the sword. On the same spot ʽAmr built a city named Fostat (“the encampment”), the ruins of which are known by the name of Old Cairo. The mosque which he erected and called by his own name is described in Asiatic Journal (1890), p. 759. ʽAmr pursued the Greeks to Alexandria, but finding that it was impossible to take the place by storm, he contented himself with blockading it with the greater part of his army, and reducing the Delta to submission with the rest. At the end of twelve months Alexandria sued for peace, and a treaty was signed on the 8th of November 641. To ʽAmr acting on Omar’s command has been attributed the burning of the famous Alexandrian library. (See and .) Not only is this act of barbarism inconsistent with the characters of Omar and his general, but the earliest authority for the story is Abulfaragius (Barhebraeus), a Christian writer, who lived six centuries later. After the conquest of Egypt ʽAmr carried his conquests eastward along the North African coast as far as Barca and even Tripolis. His administration of Egypt was moderate and statesmanlike, and under his rule the produce of the Nile Valley was a constant source of supply to the cities of Arabia. He even reopened a canal at least 80 m. long from the Nile to the Red Sea with the object of renewing communication by sea. Removed from his office by Othman in 647, who replaced him by Ibn abi Sarh, he sided with Moawiya in the contest for the caliphate, and was largely responsible for the deposition of (q.v.) and the establishment of the Omayyad dynasty. (See, section B.) In 658 he reconquered Egypt in Moawiya’s interest, and governed it till his death on the 6th of January 664. In a pathetic speech to his children on his deathbed, he bitterly lamented his youthful offence in opposing the prophet, although Mahomet had forgiven him and had frequently affirmed that “there was no Mussulman more sincere and steadfast in the faith than ʽAmr.”

ʽAMR IBN KULTHŪM, Arabian poet, author of one of the Moʽallaḳāt. Little or nothing is known of his life save that he was a member of the tribe of Taghlib and that he is said to have died of excessive wine-drinking. Some stories of him are told in the Book of Songs (see ), vol. ix. pp. 181-185. AMRITSAR, or, a city and district of British India, in the Lahore division of the Punjab. The city has a station on the North Western railway 32 m. E. of Lahore, its position on which has greatly assisted its development. Amritsar is chiefly notable as the centre of the Sikh religion and the site of the Golden Temple, the chief worshipping place of the Sikhs. Ram Das, the fourth guru, laid the foundations of the city upon a site granted by the emperor Akbar. He also excavated the holy tank from which the town derives its name of Amrita Turas, or Pool of Immortality. It is upon a small island in the middle of this tank that the Golden Temple is now situated. About two centuries afterwards, in the course of the struggle between the Sikhs and the Mahommedans, Ahmad Shah Durani routed the Sikhs at the great battle of Panipat, and on his homeward march he destroyed the town of Amritsar, blew up the temple with gunpowder, filled in the sacred tank with mud, and defiled the holy place by the slaughter of cows. But when Ahmad Shah returned to Kabul the Sikhs rose once more and re-established their religion. Finally the city and surrounding district fell under the sway of Ranjit Singh at Lahore, and passed with the rest of the Punjab into the possession of the British after the second Sikh war. The Golden Temple is so called on account of its copper dome, covered with gold foil, which shines brilliantly in the rays of the Indian sun, and is reflected back from the waters of the lake; but the building as a whole is too squat to have much architectural merit apart from its ornamentation. Marble terraces and balustrades surround the tank, and a marble causeway leads across the water to the temple, whose gilded walls, roof, dome and cupolas, with vivid touches of red curtains, are reflected in the still water. The temple was considerably