Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — Unanswerable. [ARTICLE]

Unanswerable.

Sometimes a debate may be won by avtildihg it, and in cases where ar-; gumente promise to be long and In- 1 rrlcate, 6iich' R.method Is worth trying. M.t de KhataikofU In an account of a visit to Persia, relates a, story of a Mussulman controversy; He called on a. ( molloh, a leghned member of the Persian olorffy,' and 'fbfind him an affable, unaffebfed persome of the Persian priests whose lips l were always moving, as if they were mentally reolting prayers, or .the ninety-nine names of the prophots. “My host assured me of tho perfection of the doctrine of the Shiites, his own belief, and related this incident," writes M. de Khanikof. A quarrel arose at Bagdad between tho two sects, the Shiites and the Sunnites. The dispute disturbed 1 the public peace, and the ealiph summoned the doctors of the two sects before him for a decisive debate. The representative of the Shiites entered the audi-ence-room carrying his sandals in his hand, instead of leaving them at the door, as was customary. The caliph Inquired why he did this, and the Shiite replied: “I always do so when I attend a reunion of learned Sunnites. Is it not written that in the time of the prophet a Haneflte doctor stolo the sandals of a Shiite doctor?” The representative of the Haneflte division of the Sunnites hastened to protest that this could not be true, since there were no Banefltes in the time of Mohammed, The Shiite apologized for his blunder. "Possibly,” he remarked, “the theft was committed by a Malekite." The Malekite representative of Sunnism promptly asserted that his sect did not exist in the t time of the prophet, and the Shiite doctor then In succession attributed the misdeed to a Hambalite .doctor, and then' to a Chafelte doctor. But the Hambalites and Chafeites present protested their innocence as the other Bunnites had done. Thereupon she Shiite rose and addressed the caliph: “These Sunnite doctors,” said he, "have themselves stated that in the time of the prophet there were no Hanefites, no Malekites, no Hambalites, and no Chafeites; then Sunnism did not exist; and all good Mussulmans, including the prophet, were Shiites.” t The debate was ended. Youth's Companion.