Syed Ameer Ali Order of the Star of India[5] (6 April 1849 – 3 August 1928) was an Indian jurist, a prominent political leader, and an author of a number of influential books on Muslim history and the modern development of Islam.

[4][7] He played a key role in securing separate electorates for the Muslims in British India and promoting the cause of the Khilafat Movement.

[8][4] He was born on 6 April 1849, toward the end of Mughal empire in India, at Cuttack in Odisha as the fourth of five sons of Syed Saadat Ali (d. 1856) from Mohan in Unnao of Oudh State.

[4][6] The Shiite family traced its descent to Muhammad through his daughter Fatima from Imam Ali al-Rida, his great-grandfather having moved to India from Khorasan during Nadir Shah's Indian campaign in 1739.

[3] His father settled in Cuttack after Ameer Ali's grandfather (who worked in the service of Asaf-ud-Daulah - the Nawab of Awadh) died in 1820, there he married the daughter of Shamsuddin Khan, one of the nobles of Sambalpur.

He received his initial education at Hooghly Mohsin College and with the assistance of his British teachers and supported by several competitive scholarships, he achieved outstanding examination results, graduating from Calcutta University in 1867, and gaining an MA degree with Honours in history in 1868.

The year after, he was elected as a Fellow of Calcutta University as well as being appointed as a lecturer in Islamic Law at the Presidency College, Kolkata.

Syed Amir Ali became the second Indian to hold the post of law member of the government of India, assuming the position after Satyendra P. Sinha resigned in November 1910.

In 1908, he was an advisory member to the Muhammadan Art and Life in Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Morocco and India exhibition held at the Whitechapel Gallery.

[8][4] He retired from Calcutta High Court in 1904 and decided to settle down, with his English wife (Isabelle Ida Konstam) in England where he was somewhat isolated from the main current of Muslim political life.