Peshawar Nights
Encyclopedia
Peshawar Nights is a Shi'a
book by Sultanu'l-Wa'izin Shirazi
("Prince of Preachers from Shiraz") recounts a public debate between Shi'a Muslim
s and Sunni
Muslims. The debate took place in the city of Peshawar
in the Soba-e-Serhed (North West Frontier) province of Pakistan
beginning on 27 January 1927.
Shi'a Islam
Shia Islam is the second largest denomination of Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'ites or Shias. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Shīʻatu ʻAlī , meaning "followers of Ali", "faction of Ali", or "party of Ali".Like other schools of thought in Islam, Shia Islam is...
book by Sultanu'l-Wa'izin Shirazi
Sultanu'l-Wa'izin Shirazi
Sultanu l-Wa'izin Shirazi is the Shi'a scholar portrayed in the book Peshawar Nights .Sultanu l-Wa'izin Shirazi was born in Tehran on 12 May 1894...
("Prince of Preachers from Shiraz") recounts a public debate between Shi'a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s and Sunni
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
Muslims. The debate took place in the city of Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
in the Soba-e-Serhed (North West Frontier) province of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
beginning on 27 January 1927.
History
According to the preface:- A condition of the dialogue was that only sources acceptable to both sects would be cited. The dialogue was held in PersianPersian languagePersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, commonly understood in the city of Peshawar (Note: Persian is no longer commonly understood in Peshawar). The transcript, made by four reporters and published in the newspapers daily, was published in book form in Teheran and soon became a classic authority in the East. The present work is based on the fourth edition, published in Teheran in 1971, the year in which Sultanu'l-Wa'izin died at the age of 75