1882.—"A missionary ... might, on the other hand, be brought to a standstill when asked to explain all the terms used by an amin or valuator who had been sent to fix the judicial rents."—Saty. Rev., Dec. 30, p. 866.
AMEER, s. Ar. Amīr (root amr, 'commanding,' and so) 'a commander, chief, or lord,' and, in Ar. application, any kind of chief from the Amīru' l-mūminīn, 'the Amīr of the Faithful' i.e. the Caliph, downwards. The word in this form perhaps first became familiar as applied to the Princes of Sind, at the time of the conquest of that Province by Sir C. J. Napier. It is the title affected by many Musulman sovereigns of various calibres, as the Amīr of Kābul, the Amīr of Bokhārā, &c. But in sundry other forms the word has, more or less, taken root in European languages since the early Middle Ages. Thus it is the origin of the title 'Admiral,' now confined to generals of the sea service, but applied in varying forms by medieval Christian writers to the Amīrs, or lords, of the court and army of Egypt and other Mohammedan States. The word also came to us again, by a later importation from the Levant, in the French form, Emir or Emer.—See also [Omrah], which is in fact Umarā, the pl. of Amīr. Byzantine writers use Ἀμὲρ, Ἀμηρᾶς, Ἀμυράς, Ἀμηραῖος, &c. (See Ducange, Gloss. Græcit.) It is the opinion of the best scholars that the forms Amiral, Ammiraglio, Admiral &c., originated in the application of a Low Latin termination -alis or -alius, though some doubt may still attach to this question. (See Marcel Devic, s.v. Amiral, and Dozy, Oosterlingen, s.v. Admiraal [and N.E.D. s.v. Admiral].) The d in admiral probably came from a false imagination of connection with admirari.
1250.—"Li grand amiraus des galies m'envoia querre, et me demanda si j'estoie cousins le roy; et je le di que nanin...."—Joinville, p. 178. This passage illustrates the sort of way in which our modern use of the word admiral originated.
c. 1345.—"The Master of the Ship is like a great amīr; when he goes ashore the archers and the blackamoors march before him with javelins and swords, with drums and horns and trumpets."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 93.
Compare with this description of the Commander of a Chinese Junk in the 14th century, A. Hamilton's of an English Captain in Malabar in the end of the 17th:
"Captain Beawes, who commanded the Albemarle, accompanied us also, carrying a Drum and two Trumpets with us, so as to make our Compliment the more solemn."—i. 294.
And this again of an "interloper" skipper at Hooghly, in 1683:
1683.—"Alley went in a splendid Equipage, habitted in scarlet richly laced. Ten Englishmen in Blue Capps and Coats edged with Red, all armed with Blunderbusses, went before his pallankeen, 80 (? 8) Peons before them, and 4 Musicians playing on the Weights with 2 Flaggs, before him, like an Agent...."—Hedges, Oct. 8 (Hak. Soc. i. 123).
1384.—"Il Soldano fu cristiano di Grecia, e fu venduto per schiavo quando era fanciullo a uno ammiraglio, come tu dicessi 'capitano di guerra.'"—Frescobaldi, p. 39.
[1510.—See quotation from Varthema under [XERAFINE].]