times in history this fact has been more or less recognized by the Muslim world. As recently as 1959, for

example, Sheikh Mahmud Shaltut, late Rector of Al-Azhar University in Cairo and Grand Mufti of the

Sunni Sect, decreed that in addition to the four Sunni schools of Muslim canon law, Hanafite, Hanbalite,

Malakite, and Shafi'ite, the Ja'farite or Shia school of law was equally acceptable to Muslims. A brief

account of how this came about at the instigation of Imam Mohamad Chirri, Director of the Islamic

Center of North American in Detroit, Michigan, may be found in Chirri's book "The Shiites Under

Attack," published by the Center.

* * *

The present work is based on the transcript of a dialogue between several Sunni divines and a 31 yearold

Shi'ite scholar, al-`Abd al-Fani Muhammad al-Musawi Sultanu'l-Wa'izin, of Shiraz, Iran, held over a

period of ten nights in Peshawar, India, beginning on 27 January 1927. The dialogues were a model of

mutual respect, and in spite of the seriousness of the subject and the presence of an audience of some

200, there was no breach of decorum. The author refers to himself throughout the book as "Da'i," that is,

one who prays for or invokes a blessing upon someone, translated here as "Well-Wisher." His success is

indicated by the fact that at the end of the dialogue one of his Sunni opponents and five other dignitaries

in the audience publicly acknowledged their conversion to the Shia sect.

A condition of the dialogue was that only sources acceptable to both sects would be cited. The dialogue

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