AMRAOTI, a town and district of India in Berar, Central Provinces. The district was reconstituted in 1905, when that of Ellichpur was incorporated with it. The town (pop., 46,832 in 1931) is the richest town of Berar, with the most numerous and substantial commercial population. It possesses a branch of the Bank of Bombay, with a famous cotton mart, as well as a large grain market, cotton presses, ginning factories and oil mills.
The district of Amraoti has an area of 4,691sq.m. In 1931 the population was 941,604. The district is an extensive plain, about 800ft. above sea-level, the general flatness being broken only by a small chain of hills, running in a north-westerly direction between Amraoti and Chandor, with an average height from 400 to 5ooft. above the lowlands. The principal towns, besides Amraoti, are Karinja, Kolapur and Badnera.
or `AMR (strictly `AMR L. `As), the Arab conqueror of Egypt, belonged to the tribe of Koreish (Qureish). He had in his youth opposed Mohammed, but he returned to his allegiance and joined the fugitive prophet at Mecca. `Amr was one of the three generals sent by Abu Bekr to invade Syria in 633, but the main direction of the Syrian campaigns lay with Khalid-b. al-Walid, who was sent to Syria when the imperial army advanced. Iri 639 Omar sent him as head of an expedition to Egypt. With an army of only about 4,000 men he took Pelusium (Jan. 640), and, with the aid of a new army of I o,000 men sent by Omar, defeated the imperial troops at Heliopolis (July 640). He then reduced Babylon (near Cairo) and founded the city of Fostat there. By a treaty made with the patriarch Cyrus, Alexandria was surrendered (Sept. 17, 642). `Amr became the first Mohammedan governor of Egypt, but Omar, who perhaps feared the strong personal influence exercised by `Amr, sent `Abdallah ibn Sad ibn 'Abi Sarh to super sede him in Upper Egypt. Othman, Omar's successor, extended `Abdallah's rule to Lower Egypt. But in 645 `Amr had to be recalled to quell a revolt in Alexandria. He retook the city (646) and once more withdrew. The statement that he burnt the great Alexandrian library has no basis except in the allegations of Abul faraj (Bar-Hebraeus), who lived six centuries later. After the reconquest of Alexandria `Amr extended Mohammedan rule to Barca and even to Tripoli.
It was probably the desire to secure the governorship of Egypt for himself that ranged `Amr on the side of Mu `awiya in his war against Ali after the death of Othman. After the battle of Siffin (July 26-7, 6S7), when the dispute between Ali and Mu `awiya was put to arbitration, `Amr represented Mu `awiya in the court held at Adhruh in 658 (see CALIPHATE and ALI). In 658 he reconquered Egypt in Mu `awiya's interest, and governed it till his death on Jan. 6, 664. In a pathetic speech to his children on his death-bed, he bitterly lamented his youthful offence in opposing the prophet, although Mohammed had forgiven him and fre quently affirmed that "there was no Mussulman more sincere and steadfast in the faith than 'Amr." Sir W. Muir, The Caliphate (1891) ; E. Gibbon's Decline and Fall; M. J. de Goeje, Memoire sur la conquete de la Syrie (Leiden, 190o) ; Alfred J. Butler, Arab Conquest of Egypt (1902) ; art. EGYPT, History, Mohammedan period.