enriched by the spoils taken by Ranjit Singh in his conquests. The population of Amritsar in 1901 was 162,429. A Sikh college for university education was opened in 1897. The other public buildings include two churches, a town hall and a hospital. Amritsar is famous for its carpet-weaving industry. It was the first mission station of the church of England in the Punjab.
The district is bounded on the N.W. by the river Ravi, on the S.E. by the river Beas, on the N.E. by the district of Gurdaspur, and on the S.W. by the district of Lahore. Amritsar district is a nearly level plain, with a very slight slope from east to west. The banks of the Beas are high, and on this side of the district well-water is not found except at 50 ft. below the surface; while towards the Ravi wells are less than 20 ft. in depth. The only stream passing through the district is the Kirni or Saki, which takes its rise in a marsh in the Gurdaspur district, and after traversing part of the district empties itself into the Ravi. Numerous canals intersect the district, affording ample means of irrigation. The Sind, Punjab and Delhi railway (North Western) and Grand Trunk road, which runs parallel with it, afford the principal means of land communication and traffic. The area of the district is 1601 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 1,023,828, showing an increase of 3% on the previous decade. It is the headquarters of the Sikh religion, containing 264,329 Sikhs as against 280,985 Hindus and 474,976 Mahommedans. The principal crops are wheat, pulse, maize, millet, with some cotton and sugar-cane. There are factories for ginning and pressing cotton.
AMROHA, a town of British India, in the Moradabad district of the United Provinces. It contains the tomb of a Mahommedan saint, Shaikh Saddu, and has been for many centuries a Mahommedan centre. Pop. (1901) 40,077.
AMRUM, or Amrom, a German island in the North Sea, off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein to the south of Sylt. Pop. (1900) 900. It is 6 m. long and 3 m. broad, with an area of 1012 sq. m., and is reached from the mainland by a regular steamboat service to Wittdün, a favourite sea-bathing resort; or at low water by carriage from Föhr. The larger part of Amrum consists of a treeless sandy expanse, but a fringe of rich marshes affords good pasture-land. The principal place is Nebel, connected by a light railway with Wittdiin. (See also Frisian Islands.)
AMRU’-UL-QAIS, or Imru’-ul Qais, IBN HUJR, Arabian poet of the 6th century, the author of one of the Moʽallaķăt (q.v.), was regarded by Mahomet and others as the most distinguished poet of pre-Islamic times. He was of the kingly family of Kinda, and his mother was of the tribe of Taghlib. While he was still young, his father was killed by the Bani Asad. After this his life was devoted to the attempt to avenge his father's death. He wandered from tribe to tribe to gain assistance, but his attempts were always foiled by the persistent following of the messengers of Mundhir of Hira (Ḥīra). At last he went to the Jewish Arabian prince, Samu‛āl, left his daughter and treasure with him, and by means of Hārith of Ghassan procured an introduction to the Byzantine emperor Justinian. After a long stay in Constantinople he was named phylarch of Palestine, and received a body of troops from Justin II. With these he started on his way to Arabia. It is said that a man of Asad, who had followed him to Constantinople, charged him before the emperor with the seduction of a princess, and that Justin sent him a poisoned cloak, which caused his death at Ancyra.
His poems are contained in W. Ahlwardt’s The Divans of the six ancient Arabic Poets (London, 1870). and have been published separately in M‘G. de Slane’s Le Diwan d’Amro’lkais (Paris, 1837); a German version with life and notes in F. Rückert’s Amrilkais der Dichter und König (Stuttgart, 1843). Many stories of his life are told in the Kitāb ul-Aghāni, vol. viii. pp. 62-77. (G. W. T.)
AMSDORF, NICOLAUS VON (1483–1565), German Protestant
reformer, was born on the 3rd of December 1483 at Torgau, on
the Elbe. He was educated at Leipzig, and then at Wittenberg, where he was one of the first who matriculated (1502) in the recently founded university. He soon obtained various academical honours, and became professor of theology in 1511. Like Andreas Carlstadt, he was at first a leading exponent of the older type of scholastic theology, but under the influence of Luther abandoned his Aristotelian positions for a theology based on the
Augustinian doctrine of grace. Throughout his life he remained one of Luther’s most determined supporters; was with him at the Leipzig conference (1519), and the diet of Worms (1521); and was in the secret of his Wartburg seclusion. He assisted the first efforts of the Reformation at Magdeburg (1524), at Goslar (1531) and at Einbeck (1534); took an active part in the debates at Schmalkalden (1537), where he defended the use of the sacrament by the unbelieving; and (1539) spoke out strongly against the bigamy of the landgrave of Hesse. After the death of the count palatine, bishop of Naumburg-Zeitz, he was installed
there (January 20, 1542), though in opposition to the chapter, by the elector of Saxony and Luther. His position was a painful one, and he longed to get back to Magdeburg, but was persuaded by Luther to stay. After Luther’s death (1546) and the battle of Mühlberg (1547) he had to yield to his rival, Julius von Pflug, and retire to the protection of the young duke of Weimar. Here he took part in founding Jena University (1548); opposed the “Augsburg Interim” (1548); superintended the publication of
the Jena edition of Luther’s works; and debated on the freedom of the will, original sin, and, more noticeably, on the Christian value of good works, in regard to which he held that they were not only useless, but prejudicial. He urged the separation of the High Lutheran party from Melanchthon (1557), got the Saxon dukes to oppose the Frankfort Recess (1558) and continued to fight for the purity of Lutheran doctrine. He died at Eisenach on
the 14th of May 1565, and was buried in the church of St George
there, where his effigy shows a well-knit frame and sharp-cut
features. He was a man of strong will, of great aptitude for
controversy, and considerable learning, and thus exercised a
decided influence on the Reformation. Many letters and other
short productions of his pen are extant in MS., especially five
thick volumes of Amsdorfiana, in the Weimar library. They are
a valuable source for our knowledge of Luther. A small sect,
which adopted his opinion on good works, was called after him;
but it is now of mere historical interest.
Bibliography.—Life, in Th. Pressel, Leben u. ausgewählte Schrift. der Väter der luth. Kirche, vol. viii. (published separately Elberfeld, 1862, 8vo); J. Meier in Das Leben der Altväter der luth. Kirche, vol. iii. ed. M. Meurer (1863); art. by G. Kawerau in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk. für prot. Theologie (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1896).
AMSLER, SAMUEL (1791–1849), Swiss engraver, was born at Schinznach, in the canton of Aargau. He studied his art under Johan Heinrich Lips (1758–1817) and Karl Ernst Hess, at Munich, and from 1816 pursued it in Italy, and chiefly at Rome, till in 1829 he succeeded his former master Hess as professor of copper engraving in the Munich academy. The works he designed and engraved are remarkable for the grace of the figures, and for the wonderful skill with which he retains and expresses the characteristics of the original paintings and statues. He was a passionate admirer of Raphael, and had great success in reproducing his works. Amsler’s principal engravings are: “The Triumphal March of Alexander the Great,” and a full-length “Christ,” after the sculptures of Thorwaldsen and Dannecker; the “Entombment of Christ,” and two “Madonnas” after Raphael; and the “Union between Religion and the Arts,” after Overbeck, his last work, on which he spent six years.
AMSTERDAM, the chief city of Holland, in the province of North Holland, on the south side of the Y or Ij, an arm of the Zuider Zee, in 52° 22′ N. and 4° 53′ E. Pop. (1900) 523,557. It has communication by railway and canal in every direction; steam-tramways connect it with Edam, Purmerend, Alkmaar and Hilversum, and electric railways with Haarlem and the seaside resort of Zandvoort. Amsterdam, the “dam or dyke of the Amstel,” is so called from the Amstel, the canalized river which passes through the city to the Y. Towards the land the city is surrounded by a semicircular fosse or canal, and was at one time regularly fortified; but the ramparts have been demolished and are replaced by fine gardens and houses, and only one gateway, the Muiderpoort, is still standing. Within the city are four similar canals (grachten) with their ends resting on the Y, extending in the form of polygonal crescents nearly parallel to each
