ABSTRACT
Calcutta and studied law in England where he was called to the bar. Although from a Shī'ite family, Amīr 'Alī worked within a framework of Sunnī thought. He was part of the modernist Islamic movement in India which had been inaugurated there by Sayyid Ahmad Khan and was continued by others like Iqbāl (q.v.). Amīr 'Alī wished to interpret Islam to the West and to this end he wrote his most famous work whose final tide was The Spirit of Islam. Amīr 'Alī believed, furthermore, that in the ancient Islamic juristic principle of ijmā' (q.v.) lay the foundations of democracy. His writings have gained a favourable reception in both the East and the West. (See Khan, Sayyid Ahmad.) Amīr al-Mu'minīn (Ar.) A title which has been variously translated as 'Commander of the Faithful', 'Prince of the Believers' and 'Prince of the Faithful', among others. The phrase should really be translated in the light of the historical period under discussion: it acquired greater strength with the passage of time rather like the title khalīfa (q.v.) itself. At first Amir alMu'minīn meant someone given military leadership. The tide was then assumed by the 2nd khalifa 'Umar b. al-Khattāb (q.v.) but with few connotations of real power. From his time onwards, however, it became a title reserved for a caliph alone. It was sometimes used by the sultans in the early period of the Ottomans (q.v.). By contrast, the Almoravids (q.v.) preferred to use the tide Amīr al-Muslimīn which meant 'Leader (or Prince) of the Muslims'.
