Amalickiah

In the Book of Mormon, Amalickiah (/əˌmælɪˈkaɪ.ə/) was a Nephite dissenter. His first appearance in the text is as a political dissident with aspirations to re-establish a monarchy. Later, after seizing the Lamanite throne, Amalickiah led a war to enslave the Nephites. After his death he was succeeded by his brother Ammoron. The story appears in the latter half of the Book of Alma.

Amalickiah has been appraised by some theologians as a narrative mirror to Ammon and as an inversion of other heroes within the Book of Mormon, notably Captain Moroni.

Following Helaman's ascension to the station of high priest, Amalickiah leads a group of Nephite elites (referred to as Amalickiahites) in a bid to install himself as king over the Nephites. This angers Moroni, the commander of the Nephite armies, who in response lays out the values of the Nephite establishment in the Title of Liberty. After Moroni raises an army to halt the attempted coup, Amalickiah escapes to the land of Nephi, located in Lamanite territory, with a significantly reduced group of supporters.

Upon their arrival in the land of Nephi, the Amalickiahites agitate the Lamanites to war against the Nephites. The king of the Lamanites sides with the Nephite dissidents, against the objections of the bulk of his subjects. The Lamanites who do not wish to invade Nephite territory flee to Onidah, where they appoint a new king and leader named Lehonti.

Amalickiah stations his followers in a valley at the base of a mountain where Lehonti and his partisans are encamped. Lehonti spurns three of Amalickiah's attempts at diplomacy, finally acquiescing the fourth time when told to bring his guards and meet Amalickiah, who had ascended almost the entire mountain alone. As they meet, Amalickiah proposes that the two armies combine, with Lehonti in charge and Amalickiah as his second. Amalickiah then arranges to quietly poison Lehonti, seizing control of the unified army. After solidifying his command of the Lamanite military, he marches to the king, who remained in the land of Nephi.

The Lamanite king leaves the city to greet the victorious army, and is promptly killed by Amalickiah's advance party. Before the king's guards can react, Amalickiah's men announce that the king has been murdered by his own guards, who flee under hot pursuit by the Lamanite army. Amalickiah then seduces the Lamanite queen under the pretense of being a war hero and ally of her deceased husband and crowns himself king over the Lamanites.

After an extensive propaganda campaign, Amalickiah orders an invasion with the stated goal of subjugating the Nephites. The expeditionary force is repulsed by Moroni's innovations in fortifications and defensive tactics. Frustrated, Amalickiah makes an oath to drink Moroni's blood in retaliation and assumes personal command of his army. Under his direction, Lamanite troops occupy seven coastal Nephite cities. Teancum, a Nephite commander, intercepts Amalickiah's army as it attempts a deeper penetration of Nephite territory. After a day long battle, "the two armies [rest] by the sea". Teancum and an unnamed aide then infiltrate the Lamanite camp and Teancum kills Amalickiah in his sleep. This leads to a Lamanite withdrawal and retrenchment, pausing the invasion.

In the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, the first two iteration of Amalickiah are spelled as such, but throughout the remainder of the text Oliver Cowdery, scribing for Joseph Smith's dictation of the Book of Mormon, frequently misspelled the name by replacing the second or third vowels (or both) with the letter e, as in Ameleckiah. This suggests Smith pronounced the name by placing emphasis on the first syllable (rather than the second, as contemporary readers tend).