mono- and di-methyl aniline. These substances are treated in the article Aniline.
The aromatic amine resembling the aliphatic amines is benzylamine, C6H5·CH2·NH2, which may be prepared by reducing benzonitrile in alcoholic solution by means of zinc and acetic acid (O. Mendius, Ann. 1862, 121, p. 144), or by metallic sodium (E. Bamberger, Ber., 1887, 20, p. 1709). It can also be obtained by the action of ammonia on benzyl chloride (S. Cannizzaro, Ann., 1865, 134, p. 128), but di- and tri-benzylamines are simultaneously formed. It is a liquid, which boils at 183° C., and is miscible in all proportions with water, alcohol and ether. It is basic in character, and has a strongly alkaline reaction. Diphenylamine, (C6H5)2NH, is the simplest representative of the true aromatic secondary amines. It is prepared by heating aniline and aniline hydrochloride for some hours to 210–240° C, (Ch. Girard and G. de Laire, Zeit für Chem., 1866, p. 438). It crystallizes in white plates, which melt at 45° C. and boil at 302° C. It is almost insoluble in water, but readily volatilizes in steam. When heated with monobasic saturated acids and zinc chloride it yields acridines.
Aromatic Diamines.—The diamines are prepared by reducing the nitranilines or the dinitrohydrocarbons. They crystallize in plates, and for the most part distil without decomposition. Orthophenylene diamine, C6H4 (NH2)2, crystallizes from water in plates, which melt at 102–103° C. and boil at 256–258° C. When heated with 10% hydrochloric acid to 180° C. it yields pyrocatechin (Jacob Meyer, Ber., 1897, 30, p. 2569). The orthodiamines are characterized by the large number of condensation products they form. (See Imidazoles, Quinoxalines, &c.). Metaphenylene diamine crystallizes in rhombic plates which melt at 63° C. and boil at 287° C. It is easily soluble in water and alcohol. When heated with 10% hydrochloric acid to 180° C. it yields resorcin (J. Meyer). Paraphenylene diamine may be prepared as above, and also by the reduction of amidoazobenzene. It crystallizes in tables which melt at 140° C. and boil at 267° C. When heated with 10% hydrochloric acid to 180° C. it yields hydroquinone (J. Meyer). Manganese dioxide and dilute sulphuric acid oxidize it to quinone. The three classes of diamines may be distinguished by their behaviour towards nitrous acid. The ortho-compounds condense to azimido benzenes, the meta-compounds yield azo-dyestuffs, and the para-compounds yield bis-diazo compounds of the type XN2·C6H4·N2X.
AMIOT, JEAN JOSEPH MARIE (1718–1793), French Jesuit missionary, was born at Toulon in February 1718. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1737 and was sent in 1750 as a missionary to China. He soon won the confidence of the emperor Kien-lung and spent the remainder of his life at Pekin, where he died on the 9th of October 1793. Amiot was eminently fitted to make good use of the advantages which his situation afforded, and his works did more than had ever been done before to make known to the Western world the thought and life of the Far East. His Dictionnaire tatare-mantchou-français (Paris, 1789) was a work of great value, the language having been previously quite unknown in Europe. His other writings are to be found chiefly in the Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences et les arts de Chinois (15 vols., Paris, 1776–1791). The Vie de Confucius, the twelfth volume of that collection, is complete and accurate.
For full bibliography see De Backer and C. Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Cie. de Jésus, i. 294-303; for his works on Chinese music see F. J. Fétis, Biog. univers. des musiciens (Brussels, 1837–1844).
AMIR, or Ameer (an Arabic word meaning “commander,” from the root amr, “commanding”), a title common in the Mahommedan East. The form emir is also commonly employed in English. The word originally signified a military commander, but very early came to be extended to anyone bearing rule, Mahomet himself being styled by the pagan Arabs amir of Mecca. Thus the term gradually came to be applied to any high office-bearer, or to any lord or chief. The caliph has the style of Amir ul Omara, “lord of lords.” The title Amir ul Muminim, or “commander of the faithful,” now borne by the sultan of Turkey, was first assumed by Abu Bekr, and was taken by most of the various dynasties which claimed the caliphate, including the Fatimites, the Spanish Omayyads and the Almohades. The Almoravides and the Merinides assumed the style of Amir ul Muslimin, “commander of the Mussulmans.”
The use of the word is, in fact, closely akin to that of the English “lord,” sometimes connoting office, as in Amir ul-aḥghal (minister of finance) under the Almohades (cf. “lord of the treasury”), sometimes mere dignity, as in the case of the title of honour borne by all descendants of the Prophet, or of the title Mir assumed by men of great rank in the Far East. Sometimes it implies a temporary office of dignity and command—e.g. the Amir ul-haj, “commander of the pilgrimage” (to Mecca). Sometimes again it connotes the meaning of “sovereign lord,” in which sense it was early assumed by the princes of Sind and by the rulers of Afghanistan and Bokhara, the title implying a lesser dignity than that of sultan. Thus too it is very generally applied in the East to the chiefs of independent or semi-independent tribes. In the Lebanon both the Christian clans and the Druses are ruled by hereditary amirs. Finally the word (confused not unnaturally with the particle usually attached to it) was borrowed by the West, and is the origin of the English “admiral.”
AMIS ET AMILES, the title of an old French romance based on a widespread legend of friendship and sacrifice. In its earlier and simpler form it is the story of two friends, one of whom, Amis, was smitten with leprosy because he had committed perjury to save his friend. A vision informed him that he could only be cured by bathing in the blood of Amiles’s children. When Amiles learnt this he killed the children, who were, however, miraculously restored to life after the cure of Amis. The tale was probably of Oriental origin, and introduced to the West by way of Byzantium. It found its way into French literature through the medium of Latin, as the names Amicus and Amelius indicate, and was eventually attached to the Carolingian cycle in the 12th-century chanson de geste of Amis et Amiles. This poem is written in decasyllabic assonanced verse, each stanza being terminated by a short line. It belongs to the heroic period of French epic, containing some passages of great beauty, notably the episode of the slaying of the children, and maintains a high level of poetry throughout. Amis has married Lubias and become count of Blaives (Blaye), while Amiles has become seneschal at the court of Charlemagne, and is seduced by the emperor’s daughter, Bellisant. The lovers are betrayed, and Amiles is unable to find the necessary supporters to enable him to clear himself by the ordeal of single combat, and fears, moreover, to fight in a false cause. He is granted a reprieve, and goes in search of Amis, who engages to personate him in the combat. He thus saves his friend, but in so doing perjures himself. Then follows the leprosy of Amis, and, after a lapse of years, his discovery of Amiles and cure. There are obvious reminiscences in this story of Damon and Pythias, and of the classical instances of sacrifice at the divine command. The legend of Amis and Amiles occurs in many forms with slight variations, the names and positions of the friends being sometimes reversed. The crown of martyrdom was not lacking, for Amis and Amiles were slain by Ogier the Dane at Novara on their way home from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Jourdain de Blaives, a chanson de geste which partly reproduces the story of Apollonius of Tyre, was attached to the geste of Amis by making Jourdain his grandson.
The versions of Amis and Amiles include—(a) numerous Latin recensions in prose and verse, notably that given by Vincent de Beauvais in his Speculum historiale (lib. xxiii. cap. 162-166 and 169); (b) an Anglo-Norman version in short rhymed couplets, which is not attached to the Charlemagne legend and agrees fairly closely with the English Amis and Amiloun (Midland dialect, 13th century); these with the old Norse version are printed by E. Kölbing, Altengl. Bibl. vol. ii. (1889), and the English romance also in H. Weber, Metrical Romances, vol. ii. (1810); (c) the 12th-century French chanson de geste analysed by P. Paris in Hist. litt. de la France (vol. xxii.), and edited by K. Hofmann (Erlangen, 1882) with the addition of Jourdain de Blaives; (d) the Latin Vita Sanct. Amici et Amelii (pr. by Kölbing, op. cit.) and its Old-French translation, Li amitiez de Ami et Amile ed. L. Moland and C. d’Héricault in Nouvelles . . .
