384 A M A 
/ 
Amain, in the fea-language, a term importing to lower 
fomething at once. Tims, to Jlrike amain, is to lower or 
let fall the top-fails; to wave amain, is to make a lignal, 
by waving a drawn fvvord, or the like, as a demand that 
the enemy (trike their top-fails. 
AMAK', a frnall ifland in the Baltic fea, near Copen¬ 
hagen, from which it is feparated by a canal, over which 
there is a draw-bridge. Amak is about four miles long 
and two broad; and is chiefly peopled by the dcfcendants 
of a colony from Eaft Friefland, to whom the ifland was 
conflgned by Chriftian II. at tire requeft of his wife Eli¬ 
zabeth, filter of Charles V. for the purpofe of (applying 
her with vegetables, cheefe, and butter. From the inter¬ 
marriages of thefe colonies with the Danes, the prefent 
inhabitants are chiefly defcended ; but, as they wear their 
own drefs, and enjoy peculiar privileges, they appear a 
diftinft race from the natives. The ifland contains about 
fix villages, and between 3000 and 4000 fouls. It has two 
churches, in which the minifters preach occafionally in 
Dutch and Danilh. The inhabitants have their own in¬ 
ferior tribunals; but in capital offences are amenable to 
the king’s court of juftice at Copenhagen. The ifland is 
laid out in gardens and paftures ; and (till, according to 
the original defign, fupplies Copenhagen with milk, but¬ 
ter, a’ftd vegetables. Lat. 55. 20. N. Ion. 12. 10. E. 
AMAL', a town of Sweden, in the province of Daland, 
feated on the river Wefer. It has a good harbour, and 
carries on a great trade, efpecially in timber, deals, and tar. 
Lat.38.50.N. Ion. 12.40.E. 
AMALA'GO, /. in botany. See Piper. 
AMALASEN'TA, daughter of Theodoric king of the 
Oflrogoths, and mother of Athalaric, whom (lie caufed to 
be educated after the manner of the Romans, which gave 
great offence to the Goths. This woman, who was qua¬ 
lified to have reigned over a polifhed people, had every 
quality necelfary to form a great princefs. Poflefled of 
genius and courage, (he maintained her country in peace, 
caufed the arts and fciences to flourifh, and drew learned 
men about her, and preferved the Romans from the bar¬ 
barity of the Goths. She was acquainted with the lan¬ 
guages of the various nations who gained poffeffion of the 
■empire, and treated with them without an interpreter. 
After the death of her fon, in 534, (he placed her coulin 
Theodatus on the throne, who had the barbarity to caufe 
her to be (trangled in a bath, under pretence of adultery. 
It is faid that Theodatus put her to death at the mitiga¬ 
tion of the emprefs Theodora, who was (lung with jea- 
loufy, on account of the attachment Juftinian had for her. 
That emperor, being informed of this cruel perfidy, de¬ 
clared war againft the murderer, and chaftifed him by his 
general, the great Belifarius. 
AM'ALEK, [pScjf, Heb. i. e. is a licking or fuckling 
people, of cy, a people, and ppS, licking as a dog with 
his tongue.} The fon of Eliphaz, by Timna his con¬ 
cubine, and the grandfon of Efau. Gen. xxxvi. 12. and 
j Chr. i. 36. Amalek fucceeded Gatarn in the govern¬ 
ment of Edom. Pie was the father of the Amalekites ; 
a powerful people who dwelt in Arabia Petrfea, between 
the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, or between Havila and 
Shur. 1 Sam. xv. 7. It does not appear that they had ci¬ 
ties; for there is no mention of any but one in the Scrip¬ 
tures; they lived generally in hamlets, caves, orients. 
The Ifraelites had fcarcely palled the Red Sea on their 
way to the wildernefs, before the Amalekites came to at¬ 
tack them in the defects of Rephidim, Ex. xvii. 8, &c. 
and put thofe cruelly to the fword who were obliged, either 
through fatigue or weaknefs, to remain behind. Mofes, 
by divine command, direfted Jofhua to fall upon this 
people ; to record the aft of inhumanity which they had 
committed in a book, in order to have it always before his 
eyes ; and to revenge it in the mod remarkable manner. 
Jofhua therefore fell upon the Amalekites and defeated 
them while Mofes was upon the mountain, with Aaron 
and Hur in company. Mofes, during the time of the en¬ 
gagement, held up his hands, to w'hich the fuccefs of the 
A M A 
battle was owing; for, as often as he let them clown, 
Amalek prevailed. But, Mofes’s hands being tired, Aaron 
and Hur fupported his arms, and held them extended, 
while the battle lafted, which was from morning till the 
approach of night, when the Amalekites were cut in 
pieces. This happened in the year of the world 2313, 
before Chrift 1491. 
The ground of the enmity of the Amalekites againft the 
Ifraelites is generally fuppofed to have been an innate ha¬ 
tred from the remembrance of Jacob’s depriving their 
progenitor both of his birth-right and blelflng. Their 
falling upon them, however, and that without any provo¬ 
cation, when they faw them reduced to fo low a condi¬ 
tion by the fatigue of their march, and the exceflive 
drought they laboured under, was an inhuman aftion, and 
juftly deferved the defeat which Jofliua gave them. Un¬ 
der the Judges, v.3. we fee the .Amalekites united with 
the Midianites and Moabites, in a defign to opprefs Ifrael; 
but Elrud delivered the Ifraelites from Eglon king of the 
Moabites, Judges iii. and Gideon, chap. viii. delivered 
them from the Midianites and Amalekites. About the 
year of the world 2930, Saul marched againft the Ama¬ 
lekites, advanced as far as their capital, and put all the 
people of the country to the fword ; but fpared the bed 
of all the cattle and moveables, contrary to a divine com¬ 
mand ; which aft of difobedience was the caufe of Saul’s 
future misfortunes. 
After this war, the Amalekites fcarcely appear any more 
in hiftory. However, about the year of the world 2949, 
a troop of Amalekites came and pillaged Ziklag, w hich 
belonged to David, 1 Sam. xxx. where he had left his two 
wives, Ahinoam and Abigail; bi\t he, returning from an 
expedition which he had made in the company of Achilh 
into the valley of Jezreel, purfued them, overtook and 
difperfed them, and recovered all the booty which they 
had carried off from Ziklag. 
The Arabians maintain Amalek to have been tire fon of 
Ham, and grandfon of Noah; that he was the father of 
Ad, and grandfather of Schedad. Calmet think that this 
opinion is by no means to be rejefted ; as it is not very 
probable that Amalek, the fon of Eliphaz, and grandfon 
of Efau, fliould be the father of a people fo powerful and 
numerous as the Amalekites were when the Ifraelites de¬ 
parted out of Egypt. Mofes, Gen.xiv. 7. relates, that 
in Abraham’s time, long before the birth of Amalek the 
fon of Eliphaz, the five confederate kings carried the war 
into Amalek’s country, about Kadefti; and into that of 
the Amorites, about Hazezontamar. Mofes alfo relates. 
Numb. xxiv. 20. that the diviner Balaam, obfervingat 
a diftance the land of Amalek, faid, in his prophetic ftyle, 
“ Amalek is the firft, the head, the original of the na¬ 
tions ; but his latter end (hall be, that he perifli for ever.” 
Calmet obferves, that this epithet of the firft of nations 
cannot certainly agree with the Amalekites defcended from 
tire fon of Eliphaz, becaufe the generation then living was 
but the third from Amalek. Befides, Mofes never re¬ 
proaches the Amalekites with attacking their brethren the 
Ifraelites; an aggravating circumftance, which he would 
not have omitted were the Amalekites defcended from 
Efau; in which cafe they had been the brethren of the 
Ifraelites. Laftly, we fee the Amalekites almoft always 
joined in the Scripture with the Canaanites and Philiftines, 
and never with the Edomites; and when Saul made war 
upon the Amalekites, and almoft utterly deftroyed them, 
we do not find that the Edomites made the leaft motion » 
towards their afliftance, nor to revenge them afterwards. 
Thence it is thought probable, that the Amalekites who 
are fo often mentioned in Scripture were a free people, de¬ 
fcended from Canaan, and devoted to the curfe as well as' 
the other Amorites, and very different from the defeend- 
ants of Amalek, the grandfon of Efau. 
AMAL'Fl, an ancient city of Italy, fituated in lat. 40. 
33. N. Ion. 15. 20. E. It is faid to have derived its ori¬ 
gin from a number of Roman families, who, about the 
middle of the fourth century, had left Rome, and era- 
2 barked 
