Forensic Pluralism and the Dead Body in Early 20th-Century China

2021 ◽  
pp. 192536212110025
Author(s):  
Daniel Asen
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Forensic Medicine ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Forensic Practice ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
Examination Methods ◽  
Death Investigation

Modern forensic medicine was introduced into China during the first decades of the 20th century. The members of China’s first generation of medicolegal experts were soon advocating that medical expertise play a greater role in police and judicial officials’ investigations of suspicious death and homicide cases. While forensic reform in China had parallels with developments in other contemporary societies in which physicians were pushing for a greater role in the law, this process unfolded in China in unique ways, against the backdrop of an older tradition of forensic science that had developed under the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Central to this tradition was the Records on the Washing Away of Wrongs, a handbook of forensic practice that was written in the 13th century and saw numerous editions and expansions over subsequent centuries. Death investigation in early 20th-century China was defined by “forensic pluralism,” a situation in which the different body examination methods and standards of forensic proof associated with the Washing Away of Wrongs and modern forensic medicine were both accepted by officialdom and society. This article untangles the complexities of forensic practice during this period through the rather unexceptional exchange over a case of suspected drowning that occurred between local officials in Hebei province and Lin Ji (1897-1951), director of the Beiping University Medical School Institute of Legal Medicine. This case reveals the different regimes of forensic knowledge and practice that were used in China during this period as well as the sites at which they interacted.

The Ismaili Tradition in Iran: 13th Century to the Present

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Beben
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
Northern Iran ◽  
Minority Community ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
To Receive

The Ismailis are a minority community of Shiʿi Muslims that first emerged in the 8th century. Iran has hosted one of the largest Ismaili communities since the earliest years of the movement and from 1095 to 1841 it served as the home of the Nizārī Ismaili imams. In 1256 the Ismaili headquarters at the fortress of Alamūt in northern Iran was captured by the Mongols and the Imam Rukn al-Dīn Khūrshāh was arrested and executed, opening a perilous new chapter in the history of the Ismailis in Iran. Generations of observers believed that the Ismailis had perished entirely in the course of the Mongol conquests. Beginning in the 19th century, research on the Ismailis began to slowly reveal the myriad ways in which they survived and even flourished in Iran and elsewhere into the post-Mongol era. However, scholarship on the Iranian Ismailis down to the early 20th century remained almost entirely dependent on non-Ismaili sources that were generally quite hostile toward their subject. The discovery of many previously unknown Ismaili texts beginning in the early 20th century offered prospects for a richer and more complete understanding of the tradition’s historical development. Yet despite this, the Ismaili tradition in the post-Mongol era continues to receive only a fraction of the scholarly attention given to earlier periods, and a number of sources produced by Ismaili communities in this period remain unexplored, offering valuable opportunities for future research.

Chicago's "Archaic Mark" (MS 2427): a Reintroduction to Its Enigmas and a Fresh Collation of Its Readings

2006 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Duncan ◽  
Margaret Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University

AbstractThis article announces the public release via the Internet of a full set of interactive digital images of the University of Chicago's "Archaic Mark" (Gregory-Aland ms 2427; University of Chicago ms 972), an enigmatic miniature manuscript of the Gospel according to Mark. To foster further research into this curious illuminated hand-codex, we provide a history of research and critical appraisal of the complex questions involved in its dating—which has been placed as early as the 13th century, and as late as the early 20th century—and a fresh collation of its text, which supplements and corrects the readings heretofore available only in the Nestle-Aland 27th edition.

A Short Modern History of Studying Sacrobosco’s De sphaera

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 23-33
Author(s):  
Alin Constantin Corfu
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Modern History ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
University Of Paris ◽  
The University

"A Short Modern History of Studying Sacrobosco’s De sphaera. The treatise generally known as De sphaera offered at the beginning of the 13th century a general image of the structure of the cosmos. In this paper I’m first trying to present a triple stake with which this treaty of Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195 - c. 1256). This effort is intended to draw a context upon the treaty on which I will present in the second part of this paper namely, a short modern history of studying this treaty starting from the beginning of the 20th century up to this day. The first stake consists in the well-known episode of translation of the XI-XII centuries in the Latin milieu of the Greek and Arabic treaties. The treatise De sphaera taking over, assimilating and comparing some of the new translations of the texts dedicated to astronomy. The second Consists in the fact that Sacrobosco`s work can be considered a response to a need of renewal of the curriculum dedicated to astronomy at the University of Paris. And the third consists in the novelty and the need to use the De sphaera treatise in the Parisian University’s curriculum of the 13th century. Keywords: astronomy, translation, university, 13th Century, Sacrobosco, Paris, curriculum"

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document