AMIR or AMEER, a title common in the Mohammedan east (from an Arabic word meaning "commander," from the root amr, "commanding") . The form emir is also employed in English. The word originally signified a naval or military commander, but very early came to be applied to any high office-bearer, lord or chief. The caliph had the style of Amir ul Omara, "lord of lords." Amir ul Muminim, or "commander of the faithful," the title of the sultans of Turkey, was first assumed by Abu Bekr, and was taken by most of the various dynasties which claimed the caliphate.
The use of the word is akin to that of the English "lord," sometimes connoting office, as in Amir ulahghal (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. Sometimes it connotes the meaning of "sovereign lord," in which sense it was assumed by the rulers of Afghanistan and Bukhara, the title implying a lesser dignity than that of sultan. The word (confused not unnat urally with the particle usually attached to it) is the origin of the English "admiral."