Amir ‘Ali, Sayyid; 1849-1928), Indian jurist and author of Islamic modernist apologia. Syed Ameer Ali was born in Chinsura,Bengal into a Shi’i family with a history of service to Persian and Mughal rulers and to the nawabs of Awadh, as well as to the British East India Company. He was educated at Hooghly Collegeoutside Calcutta,