Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/569

AMPYX. head-shield. The thoracic portion of the body is short, consisting of five or six segments, and the tail-shield is triangular and unarmed. For illustration, see.

AM'RAPHEL. In Genesis xiv: 1. a king of Shiuar, who by this name is mentioned as invading Palestine, together with Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, Arioch, King of Ellasar, and Tidal, King of Goiim. There is no account of this expedition in Babylonian literature, and none of the names has been identified with, certainty. The chapter, as a whole, is generally regarded by the school of modern Bible critics as a very late midrash, and not wholly historical. But it is not impossible that the account of such an expedition has been drawn from Babylonian sources. The names of the four kings inspire confidence; and the expedition against the westland by Kudur Mabuk furnishes a parallel. Schrader may therefore be right in identifying Amraphel with Hammurabi (Amru), the sixth king of the first Babylonian dynasty. A recently published cuneiform letter, in which this king's name is apparently given as Kimta-rap-ashtu, removes a part of the difficulty, since rapashtu is but the softened pronunciation of rapaltu. The expedition would, in that case, have taken place about 2250 B.C. As the connection with the Hebrew patriarch is likely to be a late development, no light is thrown by this identification on the historic character or date of Abraham. See.

AMR, IBN AL-ASI, Um'r 'b'n ul a's« (died 663 A.D.). An Arabian general. He was one of Mohammed's disciples, though before conversion a furious opponent. Chiefly to him were the Prophet's successors indebted for the conquest of Syria. In 639 he led 40,000 men into Egypt, and within three years effected the subjugation of the country. In 641, after a siege of fourteen months, he took Alexandria, losing 23,000 men. In the struggle between Ali and Moawiyah for the caliphate, Amr sided with the latter, and to him was due the triumph of the Ommiads over the Alids. From 661 to his death he was Emir of Egypt, and by his wise administration facilitated the conversion of the country to Islam. He is credited with projecting a canal to unite the Mediterranean and Red seas, and Is charged with causing the destruction of the famous library at Alexandria; but the charge may well be dismissed, as it was not advanced until six centuries after his death. Consult Sir William Muir, The Caliphate (London, 1891).

AMRITSAR, um-rit'sar (Umritsar). A city of the Punjab, India, in lat. 31° 40' N. and long. 74° 45' E., on the Sindh, Punjab and Delhi Rail- way (Map: India, B 2). It is the capital of a district of 1574 square miles, with a population of about 000,000, and of a division with an area of 5354 square miles and a population of about 2,750,000, both of the same name. Amritsar is, next to Delhi, the richest and most prosperous city in northern India, being connected with Lahore, the capital of the Punjab, distant 36 miles to the west, by a canal, and possessing con- siderable manufactures of cotton, silks, shawls, etc., and carrying on considerable trade. It is the religious metropolis of the Sikhs, a distinc- tion which, along with its name, it owes to its "pool of immortality," on an islet of which stands the marble Darbar Sahib, the chief temple of the Sikh faith, maintaining an establishment of over 500 priests, and founded in 1574 by the minor apostle Guru Ram Das. Amritsar is a favorite pilgiim re-sort; and it was the place where, perhaps to bind the Sikhs more firmly, was signed the treaty of 1846, providing for the cession to the British of the territory between the Beas and the Sutlej. The huge Govindgarh, or fortress, built in 1809, is the most prominent feature of Amritsar. The town has a good water supply in connection with the Bari Doab Canal. It is a municipality of the first class, with a pop- ulation of 136,766 in 1891, which increased to 162,548 in 1901.

AMEU-EL-KAIS, iirn'roo-el-kis' (written also AntRrLCALS, and Amru'l-Kais). By many esteemed the greatest of Arabian poets. He has been by some authorities assigned to the begin- ning of the sixth century, but by others is described as contemporary with Mohammed. The accounts of his life are equally diverse, generally unreliable, and not infrequently legendary. He was the author of the first of the Moallakut, a collection of seven Arabic poems, which from their collective title ("Suspended") were once believed to have been hung in the Kaaba, at Mecca, but are now thought to have been so called as an indication of special excellence. His MoaUakat was rendered into English by Sir William Jones (1782).

AMRUM, iiin'room, or AMROM, am'rom. One of the North Friesian Islands, on the west coast of Schleswig, Germany, south of the Sylt, an island of the same group (Map: Denmark, B 4). The island is about 6 miles long and has an area of about 8 square miles. On the west side are high sand-dunes. The island is unproductive, but contains monuments of former prosperity. The fishing and oyster gathering were formerly considerable, but have dwindled away; but of late Amrum has gained some importance as a watering-place.

AMSDORF, ara.s'dorf, (1483-1565). A German Protestant reformer, an early and determined supporter of Luther. He was born at Torgau, December 3, 1483, educated at Leipzig, and was among the very first students of the university at Wittenberg (1502), where he afterward taught philosophy and theology. He was with Luther at the Leipzig disputation (1519), and the Diet of Worms (1521), and in the privacy of his Wartburg seclusion. He assisted the first efforts at reformation in Magdeburg, Goslar, and Einbeck. He was active in the Smalkald debates, and spoke strongly against the bigamy of the Landgrave of Hesse. Amsdorf was made Bishop of Naumburg in 1542, was driven away in 1547 by the Imperial party during the Smalkaldic War, and took part in founding the University of Jena. In 1552 he became superintendent at Eisenach, where he died unmarried, May 14, 1565. He superintended the publication of Luther's works, and opposed Melanchthon on the separation of the High-Lutheran party. He is the author of the familiar dictum, "good works are prejudicial to salvation," by which he meant those works which man thinks in themselves certain to save his soul. For his biography, consult: T. Pressel ( Elberfeld, 1862); E. Meier, Leben der Altväter der Lutherischen Kirche, Volume III. (Leipzig, 1863).

AMSLER, iims'ler, (1791-1849). An eminent German engraver. He was born at