1S1 



AMAEAL, ANDRES DO. 



AMARI, MICHELE. 



18 J 



Rrahmans against the persons and writings of the Buddhas, which 

 began in the 3rd century, and reached their height during the 5th and 

 6th centuries. 



Like other original Sanskrit vocabularies, that of Amara is in metre 

 to aid the memory. The whole is divided into three books. In the 

 first two, words relating to kindred objects are collected in one or more 

 verses, and placed in chapters. Thus the first book commences with 

 words for heaven ; next follow the names and attributes of the several 

 deities ; then come terms for space, the cardinal points of the compass, 

 &c. The third book is supplementary : it contains epithets, a list of 

 homonymous words (arranged alphabetically like many Arabic diction- 

 aries, according to the final consonants), particles, and adverbs (consi- 

 dered as indeclinable nouns by the Hindoo grammarians), and remarks 

 on the gender of substantive?. The Sanskrit dictionaries or ' Koshas," 

 do not include the verbs of the language, the stems or roots being 

 arranged and explained in separate lists. The ' Amarakosha ' contains 

 only about 10,000 different words. In a language BO copious as the 

 Sanskrit this number appears small ; but in consequence of the great 

 regularity and consistency with which, in this language, compound 

 nouns and derivatives are formed, very few of these require to be 

 inserted and explained in a dictionary. Real deficiencies in the list of 

 Amara are supplied partly by commentaries on it, and partly by more 

 recent dictionaries, one of which, the ' Trikandasesha," by Purushot- 

 tamadeva.is, what ite title implies, purposely compiled as a supplement 

 to the tripartite work of Amara. 



An excellent edition of the ' Amarakosha,' with marginal explana- 

 tions and notes in English , and an alphabetic index, was published by 

 Mr. H. T. Colebrooke at Serampore, 1808, 4to.; reprinted, 1829, 8vo. 

 An edition of the mere Sanskrit text, and table of contents likewise in 

 Sanskrit, appeared at Calcutta in 1813 in a volume with three other 

 original Sanskrit vocabularies. 



(Ariatic Keearc/tei, vii. p. 214, seq. ; Wilson, Sandcrit Dictionary, 

 Preface, p. 5, seq., first edit.) 



AMARAL, ANDRES DO, a Portuguese by birth, and knight of the 

 order of St. John of Jerusalem, of that branch called 'the language of 

 Castile,' at the time that the order was in the possession of the island 

 of Rhodes. In the year 1510 he was sent on an expedition against the 

 fleet of the sultan of E^ypt, then lying in the Gulf of Ajasso, in 

 company with Villiera de 1'Isle Adam, with whom he quarrelled. On 

 the death of Carretta, the forty-second grand master, in 1521, Amaral 

 put himself forward as candidate; but Villiers de 1'Isle Adam was 

 chosen by a large majority. Stung by his failure, Amaral seems to 

 have conceived a deadly hatred not only of his successful rival, but of 

 the whole order. On the day of the election, Jan. 22, 1521, he said in 

 the church of St. John, where it took place, to one of his friends, a 

 knight of Castile, that L'Isle Adam would be the last grand master of 

 Rhodes. Rumours arose of approaching danger to Rhodes from a 

 large armament in preparation by Sultan Solyman L On June 26, 

 1522, alt uncertainty was dissipated by the appearance of the Turkish 

 fleet off the island, consisting of four hundred vessels, and carrying an 

 army of one hundred and fifty thousand men. To oppose this force, 

 L'lele Adam had about five thousand soldiers, including six hundred 

 knights. The Turks landed without opposition, and the siege of the 

 city began ; but after repeated losses, the Turkish commanders were 

 compelled to call for the sultan himself to animate the courage of his 

 troop?, and on the 28th of August, Solyman arrived to assume the 

 command in person. The Turks sustained, nevertheless, a defeat on 

 September 24, and were, it was thought, about to retire from the 

 siege. On October 30, some of the guard having for some days before 

 noticed a servant of Amaral's, named Blag Diez, going frequently to n 

 part of the fortifications called the bulwark of Auvergne at unseason- 

 able hours, with a bow or arblast in his hand, conceived misgivings of 

 bis purposes, and carried information to the grand master, who ordered 

 his immediate arrest and examination. He would confess nothing till 

 he was " put to the Gehenna," and then he revealed a startling tale. 

 Since the election of L'Isle Adam, his master had, he stated, com- 

 menced and kept up a secret correspondence with the Turks : it was 

 he who, by means of a Turkish captive, had apprised the sultan of the 

 weak state of the order, and had invited him to come and conquer 

 Rhodes; who had since informed him of the most secret councils in 

 which lie had taken part KB grand prior of Castile ; had pointed out 

 the weak part* of the fortifications; and finally, since the failure of the 

 assault in September, had exhorted him to persevere, and success was 

 certain. Hia master was in the habit, he stated, of communicating 

 with the Turkish camp by means of letters fastened to arrows and 

 hot from the bulwark of Auvergne. Amaral was instantly arrested, 

 and the grand master ordered him to be examined by two of the grand 

 cross knight*, in conjunction with the magistrates of the town. There 

 was other circumstantial evidence, and both his servant and himself 

 were sentenced to death. Diez was hung on November 4, and on the 

 game day Amaral was solemnly stripped in the church of St. John of 

 his robes of knighthood, and delivered over to tho secular arm : on the 

 next day he was beheaded. 



The evidence seems quite sufficient to prove the crime of Amaral, 

 but in later times his guilt has been doubted. Though the order 

 continued to exist for some centuries, the prediction was verified that 

 L'Isle Ad<un would be the laat grand master of Rhodes. By the 

 advice of hi* council, though against his own opinion, he surrendered 



the place on honourable conditions, and on Christmas-day, 1522, Sultan 

 Solyman took possession of Rhodes. 



(Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge.) 



AMARI, MICHELE, an Italian historian, was born at Palermo, 

 July 7, 1806. He was educated at home till the age of fifteen, his 

 studies b ing guided by Professor Domenico Scina, In his sixteenth 

 year he obtained a situation in a government office. Soon after this, 

 in 1822, liia father was condemned to death for being engaged in a 

 conspiracy for effecting the independence of Sicily. Seven of his com- 

 panions were executed, but the sentence of the elder Amari was coin- 

 muted to thirty years' imprisonment. Michele was not deprived of 

 his office, but the duty of supporting his mother and family of three 

 younger children out of his scanty salary devolved upon him. Rendered 

 reckless by the misfortune which had fallen upon his family, Michele 

 now abandoned study, and devoted his leisure hours to the practice 

 of bodily exercises, with a view to fit himself for a guerilla leader. 

 But from this morbid state he is said to have been aroused by an 

 attachment he formed for au English lady ; and though unsuccessful 

 in his suit, it led him to the ardent study of the English language, of 

 which the first-fruit was a translation of 'Marmion,' published at 

 Palermo in 1832. He now devoted himself to the study of English 

 and French literature, and especially moral philosophy and history ; 

 and an answer which he published to a pamphlet which asserted that 

 Sicily had always been dependent upon Naples, gained so much 

 applause, that he determined to undertake a history of Sicily from 

 the commencement of the Bourbon dynasty. In this work he had 

 made some progress when he abandoned it, in order to investigate 

 thoroughly the subject of the Sicilian Vespers. In 1837 Palermo was 

 ravaged by the cholera, and the populace, excited by political agitators, 

 rose in revolt and expelled the Neapolitan garrison. Tho insurrection 

 was soon suppressed ; but though Amari had been among the most 

 active of the officials in endeavouring to arrest or palliate the disease, 

 and took no part in the political proceedings, he was deprived of his 

 office, and transferred to a different department at Naples. Here he 

 steadily prosecuted his historical labours. Having completed his task, 

 he obtained leave to visit his family at Palermo ; and there, in April 

 1842, published his history under the title of ' La Guerra del Vespro 

 Sicilinno.' The book had received the licence of the censors ; but a few 

 months after its publication it was discovered by the authorities that in 

 describing the French dominion the author had been really discussing 

 that of Naples, and under the mask of Charles of Anjou he had been 

 tracing a likeness of Ferdinand II. The book accordingly was prohi- 

 bited ; the censors who had permitted it to pass were dismissed from 

 their offices ; five journals which had reviewed it were suppressed ; 

 the publisher was banished to the Isle of Ponza, where he soon after 

 died ; and Amari himself was summoned to Naples, but he fortunately 

 succeeded in escaping to France. 



Amari had, there can be little doubt, like many other authors living 

 under a strict censorship, written of the past with a constant though 

 latent reference to the present ; but the great object of his history 

 was to rectify what he believed to be the erroneous view commonly 

 taken of the Sicilian Vespers. For centuries it had been the received 

 opinion that the great massacre so named was the result of a widely- 

 extended conspiracy, the work of John of Procida. Amari, on tho 

 contrary, undertook to prove we quote his own words " that the 

 Vespers were not the result of any conspiracy, but rather an outbreak 

 occasioned by the insolence of the ruling party, and owing its origin 

 and its important results to the social and political condition of a 

 people neither used nor inclined to endure a foreign and tyrannical 

 yoke ; and this view is undoubtedly confirmed by new documents 

 which throw light upon the causes of the revolution the letter of 

 Charles himself, that of the Sicilians, and several inedited papal bulls. 

 It was to her people, not to her nobles, that Sicily owed the revolution 

 which in the 13th century saved her from the extreme of misery and 

 degradation, from servile corruption, and from sinking into insignifi- 

 cance." The ' History of the Sicilian Vespers' at once excited general 

 attention, and its bold denial of the common theory supported as it 

 was by a large body of new documents though much canvassed, 

 gained almost universal acquiescence. In Italy the prohibition ensured 

 for it a wide circle of readers ; it was translated into German by Dr. 

 J. F. Schroder of Hildesheim, and into English under the care of the 

 Earl of Ellesmere. A fourth edition of the original, with a new 

 preface and additional documents, was published at Florence in 1851. 



At Paris Amari applied diligently to the study of Arabic, in order 

 to fit himself for the preparation of a history of Sicily during the 

 Mussulman occupation. He succeeded in mastering tho language, and 

 formed large collections of original materials for his projected history 

 from the libraries of Paris, London, and Oxford. These he was busily 

 employed in collating and digesting when intelligence reached him of 

 the revolution in Sicily, January 1848, and he at once cast aside his 

 books and proceeded to the seat of war. Before he could reach Palermo, 

 however, tho Neapolitans had for the time succumbed. Amari had 

 in his absence been named by the provisional government professor of 

 jurisprudence in the university of Palermo. He was now named a 

 member of the revolutionary committee, and elected a deputy for 

 Palermo to the parliament which at its meeting in April decreed tho 

 deposition of the Bourbon dynasty. He soon after received the office 



