Hostility and Hospitality: Muhammad Qazvini's Critique of Louis Massignon

In his magnum opus The Passion of al-Hallaj, the famous French scholar of mysticism, Louis Massignon (1883–1962), studied the life of the tenth-century religious figure and martyr Mansur al-Hallaj. While this earned Massignon high accolades, most famously from Edward Said in Orientalism, his contemporaries disputed the value of his contributions. In particular, this article will closely examine the writings of Muhammad Qazvini (1877–1949), an Iranian philologist who wrote a private letter to a colleague referring to Massignon's ‘Orientalist charlatanism’. Through Qazvini's private reflections we are able to explore the critical undercurrents of French Oriental studies, particularly in Qazvini's assessment of Massignon's concept of hospitality.     

Ecstasy (MDMA) deaths in New York City: a case series and review of the literature

MDMA ("ecstasy") has gained renewed popularity as a drug of abuse. To access the epidemiology and causes of death of MDMA-positive fatalities, all deaths investigated by the OCME that tested positive for MDMA (22 deaths) between January 1997 and June 2000 were reviewed. There were three deaths in each 1997 and 1998, eleven in 1999, and five in the first part of 2000. Of these 22 deaths, 13 were due to acute drug intoxications, 7 due to mechanical injury (blunt trauma, gunshot wounds), and 2 due to a combination of natural disease and acute drug intoxication. Evidence of recent opiate and/or cocaine use was found in 7 of the acute intoxication deaths and in none of the traumatic or combination natural/intoxication deaths. The race of all decedents was White between the ages of 17-41 years, and 18 of 22 were men.     

The Struggle for Local Government: Indian Democracy's New Phase

The 73^rd Constitutional Amendment of 1993 giving local governmenta constitutional status introduced new institutions into theworking of Indian democracy through several significant innovations,such as reservations of seats for marginal groups, women, Dalits,and Adivasis; creation of a decentralized planning mechanism;establishment of state election commissions to oversee localelections and state finance commissions to prepare a blueprintfor sharing of state revenues; and institutionalization of thevillage assembly (gram sabha). This article examines the implicationsof these innovations for local government and vulnerable groupsin the context of Indian democracy. It does so within the largerdebate on the capability of political institutions to produceoutcomes and so a new political culture.