SG Heritage Dictionary

Nisi [Conjunction] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Unless; if not.

Nisi prius Encyclopedia Britannica

NISI PRIUS. For the history and meaning of this term in English law see Assize. As a rule actions only are tried at nisi prius, and a judge is said to sit at nisi ρrius when he sits alone, usually in the Queen’s Bench Division, for the trial of actions. The trial at nisi prius was formerly by jury, unless with consent of the parties, but since the rules of the Supreme Court of 1883 the ordinary trial at nisi prius is without a jury in all but some specially excepted cases, chiefly of torts where the damages are unliquidated. Besides actions, indictments or informations may be tried at nisi prius, but only before a jury, the change in the law above-mentioned not extending to such cases. The indictment or information is generally removed from the ordinary forum by certiorari, and the trial takes place in the Queen’s Bench Division or at assizes before a special or a common jury (see Jury). The removal may be at the instance of the crown, the prosecutor, or the accused. Misdemeanours are removed more often than felonies. The most usual grounds of removal are that difficult questions of law are likely to arise, that local prejudice has been excited, or that the case is quasi-civil, as non-repair of a bridge or obstruction of a highway. It is noticeable that criminal cases tried at nisi prius take their place in the nisi prius list and not with other criminal cases. Where the proceedings are by indictment at assizes, sentence may be passed either at the assizes or in the Queen’s Bench Division; where by information, only the latter course is available....

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 17, p. 515
[435 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]

Nisibis Encyclopedia Britannica

NISIBIS, a once famous city and fortress, situated in 37° N. lat. and 41° 20' 10" E. long., in the north of Mesopotamia, near the point where the Jaghjagha leaves the mountains by a narrow defile. The modern Nasibin consists of some two hundred wretched huts, mainly inhabited by Jews, who pay tribute to the Sham mar Bedouins. The neighbourhood, we are informed by Arab writers, was at one time richly wooded. The locality is at present somewhat marshy and unhealthy. The number of dangerous scorpions is specially noticeable. According to Yâkùt the legend is that Persian scorpions were thrown into the place when it was besieged by Anushirwan. The church of St James, belonging to a small community of Jacobite Christians, and a few pillars and blocks of masonry are the only remains of the former greatness of the town....

The site of Nisibis, on the great military and commercial route between the Tigris and the Mediterranean, and commanding alike the mountain country to the north and the then fertile plain to the south, gave it an importance which began during the Assyrian period and continued under the Seleucidae (see Mesopotamia, vol. xvi. p. 48). From 149 b.c. to 14 a.d. Nisibis was the residence of the kings of Armenia, and it was there that Tigranes had his treasure-houses. The place afterwards figured frequently as a strong frontier fortress in the wars of the Romans and the Parthians, its brick walls being unusually thick and its citadel very strong. Ceded to the Parthians by Hadrian, it became a Roman colony (Septimia Colonia Nisibis) under Septimius Severus. It was heroically defended against Sapor II., who unsuccessfully besieged it thrice. In the peace made by Jovian, however, it passed into the hands of the Persians, who established a strong colony there. Nisibis early became the seat of a Jacobite bishop and of a Nestorian metropolitan, and under the Arabs (when it continued to flourish and became the centre of the district of Diyâr Rebi'a) the population of the town and neighbourhood was still mostly Christian, and included numerous monasteries. According to Ibn Haukal the taxes and dues derived from the town and district of Nisibin in 358 A.H. (969 a.d.) amounted to five million dirhems and 32,000 dinars. Arab geographers and travellers of the Middle Ages speak in high terms of the gardens of Nisibis, and the magnificent returns obtained by the agriculturist. According to Mukaddasi (oδ. 1024), acorns, preserved fruits, and manufactured articles such as carriages, inkstands, &c., were exported. A change for the worse soon afterwards set in. The town was so heavily burdened with taxes by the Hamdanid princes living at Mosul that the Arab tribe of the Bann Habib, although blood relations of the Hamdanids, migrated in a body into Byzantine territory, where they were well received, accepted Christianity, attracted other emigrants from Nisibis, and at last began to avenge themselves by yearly raids upon their old home. Ibn Haukal goes on to say that finally the Hamdanid Nasir ad-Daule took possession of the town, confiscated the estates of those who had emigrated, and compelled those who remained to substitute corn for their profitable fruit crops. This made a final end of the prosperity of Nisibis; the surrounding district, no longer protected against the incursions of nomad tribes, ceased to be cultivated and became the wilderness which it continues to be to this day.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 17, p. 514
[578 words — estimated reading time: 4 minutes]

Nisiprius [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

In law, a writ which lies in cases where the jury being impaneled and returned before the justices of the bench, one of the parties requests to have this writ for the ease of the country, that the cause may be tried before the justices of the same county. The purport of the writ is, that the sheriff is commanded to bring to Westminster the men impanneled at a certain day, before the justices, nisi prius, that is, unless the justices shall first come into the county to take assizes. Hence the courts directed to try matters of fact in the several counties are called courts of Nisi Prius, or Nisi Prius courts. In some of the United States, similar courts are established, with powers defined by statute.