AMSTERDAM, UNIVERSITY OF. A Dutch university founded by the city in 1032 as the Atheneum Illustre. After a checkered existence it was reorganized in 1867. and in 1877 was raised to the dignity of a royal university, rank ing with Leyden, Groningen, and Utrecht. it has an income of 372,000 florins, and about 1000 students. Its faculties include law, medicine, mathematics and science, arts, and theology. Its administration is in the hands of a "Curatorium" of five members and a secretary, chosen by the crown. The professors form the Senate, with a Rector Magnificus as their head, and a Secretary of the Senate. The library is large, and includes a number of special collections, particularly in Hebrew and in medicine.
AMU, ft-m77/, or AMU DARYA, 11-moo' (ancient Oxus). A large river of Central Asia, which has its source in the Pamirs be tween India and Bokhara, flowing thence north west into the Aral Sea. in its course through the mountains it is joined by the Surkhab from the region of the Alai and Trans-Alai Mountains, by the Kafirnahan and Surkhan from the Hazrot Sultan chain, and by numerous smaller streams, but after emerging from the outer slopes it re ceives no important tributaries. The Zerafshan
on the north and the Murghab on the south, which formerly drained into the Amu, now lose their waters in the desert regions at some dis tance from its bed. It is navigable by light draught boats for nearly one-half of its .total length of about 1600 miles, but its chief im portance is as a reservoir for irrigation, rather than as a commercial highway. A remarkable feature of the Anm is that its course has been frequently changed within historic times. At the beginning of the present era it flowed into the Caspian Sea. and records show that since that time the course has been changed twice to the Aral Sea. As late as the first half of the sixteenth century, it was a feeder of the Caspian Sea. Consult, Sir H. C. Rawlinson, "The Road to Merv," in the Proceedings of the Royal Geo graphical Roeiety, new series 1. 161 (London, 1879) ; Krapotkin, "The Old Beds of the Amu Dania," Geographical Journal, Volume XII. (London, 1808).