Urology in forensic medicine registries in Ottoman court registry books

Objective: Efforts to determine crimes and culprits were carried out in the Ottoman Empire as in every society. Until the second half of the 19th century, when forensic medicine was institutionalized, the records belonging to these applications were held by the institution of “Qadi” in court registry books. In this study, based on these Shariah court records, we aimed to reveal Ottoman period forensic science procedures and urology’s place in them.

Material and methods: Literature searches were made with certain keywords in Ottoman medical sources. Ottoman archive documents and relevant literature were examined in terms of forensic practices and urology, especially in Shariah court records belonging to several cities.

Results: Signing Ottoman consent documents before medical interventions, the judgment of physicians due to fraud and mistakes, the consultation of physicians in injuries, infectious diseases, and on-site exploration of deaths were identified as the main forensic medicine applications. Extensive information about urologic diseases and forensic urology of the period in the consent documents was uncovered.

Conclusion: Shariah court records provided information, through consent documents, about forensic medicine procedures, urogenital diseases, and urologic forensic cases of the period. Informed consent documents, which were introduced in Europe in the 19th century, were used in the Ottoman Empire since the 15th century, showing the Ottomans’ medical ethics in terms of physician and patient rights.

Cite this article as: Güner E. Urology in forensic medicine registries in Ottoman court registry books. Turk J Urol 2020; 46(1): 80-6.