Today is Monday; 22nd of the Iranian month of Bahman 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 5th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1440 lunar hijri; and February 11, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2679 solar years ago, on this day in 660 BC, a certain Jimmu was supposedly crowned as Japan's first emperor. However, no historically firm dates can be assigned to his life nor his reign and neither to the reigns of his early successors. Most historians dismiss this entire period as pre-history that cannot be confirmed. The reign of Kimmei (509–571 AD), believed to be the 29th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession is the first for which historiography is able to assign verifiable dates. Today, the Japanese emperor holds a ceremonial post while the main power is wielded by the elected prime minister. The Japanese mark the anniversary of the so-called first day of monarchic system as a national festivity ever year.

1775 solar years ago, on this day in 244 AD, Roman Emperor, Gordian III, was killed by Iranian soldiers in the Battle of Misikhe near present day Fallujah in Iraq, resulting in a major victory for Sassanid Emperor, Shapur I, who has recorded this victory in the stone inscription at Naqsh-e Rustam near Shiraz: “When at first we had become established in the (Sassanid) empire, Gordian Caesar raised in all of the Roman Empire a force from the Goth and German realms and marched on Babylonia against the Empire of Iran and against us. On the border of Babylonia at Misikhe, a great frontal battle occurred. Gordian Caesar was killed and the Roman force was destroyed. And the Romans made Philip (the Arab) Caesar. Then Philip Caesar came to us for terms, and to ransom their lives, gave us 500,000 dinars, and became tributary to us. And for this reason we have renamed Misikhe Peroz-Shapur.”

1378 solar years ago, on this day in 641 AD, Emperor Heraclius of Byzantium or the Eastern Roman Empire, died at the age of 67, after suffering a string of defeats at the hands of the newly emergent Muslims and losing Syria and Egypt to the forces of Islam. Born into an Armenian family, he was the son of Heraclius the Elder, who had served as governor of North Africa. In 610, on landing in Constantinople he overthrew Emperor Phocas and declared himself emperor in the midst of the war against Iran's Sassanid Empire which had inflicted a series of defeats on the Romans in Syria, Anatolia, and Egypt. Although his first battles ended in defeat as the Iranian army advanced on the Bosporus and besieged the capital Constantinople, Heraclius started rebuilding the military and twelve years later in 622 managed to push back the Persians out of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). In 624, he advanced into northern Media, where he destroyed the great fire-temple of Ganzhak. Two years later in 626, he captured Colchis in Georgia in the Caucasus from Iran, and then in 627 he penetrated Iraq, defeating the Iranians in the Battle of Nineveh. Soon the Sassanid Emperor, Khosrow II, was assassinated and peace was restored to the two empires. But shortly after his victory, Heraclius, who some years earlier had received a letter of invitation to Islam from Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), faced Muslim armies in Syria, where he was defeated and withdrew, as the Arabs swept across the Levant. In order to check the Muslim advance, Heraclius entered into an alliance with the Iranian Emperor, Yazdegird III, and sent a massive army of Slavs, Greeks, Franks, Georgians, Armenians and Arab Christians. The Muslim tactic of sending a separate force to Iraq thwarted this alliance. Thus the total defeat of the numerically superior Roman army at Yarmouk (636) by lightly armed Muslims saw the fall of Damascus as well, and a year later led to the liberation of Bayt al-Moqaddas without bloodshed. As Muslim armies swept across Armenia and Egypt, the crestfallen Heraclius died.

1036 lunar years ago, on this day in 404 AH, Baha od-Dowla Daylami, the Iranian Buwaiyhid ruler of Iraq and parts of Iran and Oman, died in Arrajan near Behbahan in southwestern Iran after a reign of 24 years and was succeeded by his son Sultan od-Dowla. He was the third son of the greatest ruler of the dynasty, Adhud od-Dowla, and assumed power on the death of his eldest brother, Sharaf od-Dowla. Another brother, Samsam od-Dowla, prevented him from gaining all of the eldest brother's possessions by taking control of Fars, Kerman and Khuzestan. The brothers, when threatened by their granduncle Fakhr od-Dowla, the ruler of northern Iran, who invaded Khuzestan, made peace, and Samsam od-Dowla recognizing Baha od-Dowla as the ruler of Iraq and Khuzestan, himself kept Arrajan, Fars and Kerman. Both took the title of "king". A couple of years later Baha od-Dowla assumed the title of Shahanshah or emperor and invaded his brother's territory but was defeated by the latter who regained Khuzestan and took control of the Buwaiyhid territories in Oman across the Persian Gulf, by recognizing granduncle Fakhr od-Dowla as the senior Amir. Six years later, Fakhr od-Dowla died and the next year Samsam od-Dowla was killed. Baha od-Dowla now took the opportunity to assert his authority in Fars and after taking Shiraz he did not return to Baghdad but spent the rest of his life in Iran, during which he gained indirect control over northern Iran as well. His last years saw the beginning of the decline of the dynasty, with the Ziyarids of Gorgan and Tabaristan permanently asserting their independence while the Ghaznavid Turks kept putting pressure on Khorasan. The Buwaiyhid confederation, after 110 years of valuable service to Islam and Muslims by patronizing religious scholars and scientists; building public places like hospitals, schools, libraries, bridges, and dams; and renovating the shrines of the Infallible Imams in Najaf, Karbala, Kazemayn and Samarra; was overthrown by Turkic Seljuq invaders from Central Asia, who restored the Abbasid caliphate.

1012 lunar years ago, on this day in 428 AH, the poet and scholar, Abu'l-Hassan Mahyar Daylami Ibn Marzawaiyh, passed away. A descendant of the pre-Islamic Sassanid Emperor, Anoushirvan, he was born as a Zoroastrian, who under the guidance of the great scholar, Seyyed Razi, embraced the truth of Islam. Mahyar Daylami avidly learned religious sciences and techniques of poetry under Seyyed Razi, the compiler of the famous book “Nahj al-Balagha” – the collection of the sermons, letters, and aphorisms of Imam Ali (AS). He soon became a prominent Arabic poet. He looked at the world through the prism of an ascetic and in his poetry he has expressed gratitude to the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), for guiding him towards Islam. He also expresses devotion to Imam Ali (AS) for transforming the sensibilities of the Iranian people. He has lamented the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS) and castigated the enemies of the Ahl al-Bayt. Among his books, mention could be made of a 4-volume Diwan.

820 lunar years ago, on this day in 620 AH, the Hanbali juriconsult, Abdullah Ibn Ahmad Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi, died in Damascus at the age of 78. Born in Jammain in Palestine, he received the first phase of his education in Damascus where he studied the Qur'an and hadith. He then travelled to Baghdad to study under the Iranian Hanbali mystic Sheikh Abdul-Qadir Gilani, who initiated him into the Sufi order. Another of his teachers in Iraq was the Iranian Sunni scholar Abu’l-Fazl Tousi. He authored many treatises including one of the most celebrated encyclopaedic books on Hanbali jurisprudence titled “al-Mughni”. Ibn Qudamah had accompanied the Kurdish general, Salah od-Din Ayyoubi, in his expedition to liberate the Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas from the Crusaders of Europe.

793 lunar years ago, on this day in 647 AH, the prominent religious scholar and poet, Taqi od-Din Ḥassan bin Ali bin Dawoud al-Hilli was born in the city of Hilla in Iraq. He studied under such great scholars as Muhaqqiq Hilli, Seyyed Jamal od-din Ahmad ibn Tawous al-Hilli, and the latter’s son, Seyyed Abdul-Karim bin Ahmad ibn Tawous. He mastered Arabic literature, jurisprudence, hadith and ‘rijal’ or critical evaluation of biographical accounts. He was also an accomplished poet. In turn, he was the teacher such great scholars as the Iranian polymath Khwajah Naseer od-Din Tusi, Yahya bin Sa’eed al-Hilli, and Yusuf bin Mutahhar al-Hilli – father of the famous Allamah Hilli. He wrote several books and composed many poems. His best-known work is “Kitab ar-Rijal”. Among his poetical works is “Manhaj al-Qawim fi Taslim at-Taqdim”, which narrates in verse the debates in Baghdad among scholars of different sects concerning the most competent caliph after Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Ibn Dawoud was known as "Sultan al-Ulama wa’l-Bulagha"(King of Scholars and Orators) as well as "Taj al-Muhaddithin wa’l-Fuqaha" (Crown of Scholars of Hadiths and Jurisprudence).

768 lunar years ago, on this day in 672 AH, the renowned Persian mystical poet, Mowlana Jalal od-Din Mohammad Balkhi, known as Mowlavi and Roumi, passed away at the age of 67 in Konya, in what is now Turkey. He was born in Balkh in eastern Khorasan, which part is now in present day Afghanistan. The Mongol invasion forced his father to migrate to Baghdad in Iraq, from where Mowlavi went to Damascus in Syria, before settling in Konya in Anatolia, which was once part of the Eastern Roman Empire, hence his epithet of Roumi. He became an acclaimed religious scholar. In 642 AH, a meeting with the wandering Iranian Dervish or mystic, Shams-e Tabrizi, completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, he was transformed into an ascetic. He started a spiritual purification and created his eternal works, the masterpiece of Persian mystical poetry, known “Mathnawi Ma'nawi”, which contains over 150,000 rhymed verses. He also compiled his spiritual teacher's poems in what is known as Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi that contains some 35,000 Persian couplets and 2000 quatrains, in addition to 90 Ghazals or lyrics in Persians and 19 quatrains in Arabic, as well as a couple of dozen couplets in mixed Persian and Turkic and 14 couplets in mixed Greek and Persian. The Mathnawi has been translated into English and other major world languages. The translation in English verse was done by Reynold Nicholson, along with explanations, in 8 volumes.

661 solar years ago, on this day in 1358 AD, Hassan Gangu Zafar Khan, who was elected as the first king of the Bahmani Dynasty of Iranian origin of the Deccan (southern India) with the title Ala od-Din Bahman Shah, passed away after a 11-year reign in his capital Gulbarga. In 1345, he and other nobles had joined together to declare the Deccan independent from the tyrannical rule of Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq of Hindustan (northern subcontinent) by placing Naseer od-Din Ismail as the Shah at Daulatabad. Two years later Naseer od-Din Ismail resigned in favour of Ala od-Din Bahman Shah, who claimed descent from the legendry Iranian king, Bahman son of Isfandiyar. He shifted his capital further south to Gulbarga, and expanded his kingdom in all directions. The dynasty he founded ruled for over 170 years – first from Gulbarga and then from Bidar – promoting Islam and Persian language, culture and architecture in southern India, by virtue of its direct sea-route contact with Iran, from where poets, scholars, artists, statesmen, traders and soldiers of fortune flocked to the Bahmani court. The Bahmanis respected Sufi saints and greatly revered Shah Ne’matollah Wali of Kerman for his devotion to the school of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Bahmani Empire – that stretched from the western to the eastern coasts of Peninsular India – split into five independent Persianate kingdoms that ensured the independence of the Deccan from Hindustan for another 170 more years until the conquest by Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor. Of the five, the three powerful dynasties (Nizamshahis of Ahmadnagar, Adelshahis of Bijapur and Qutbshahis of Golkandah-Haiderabad) followed the Shi’a Muslim creed and regarded the Safavid rulers of Iran as their emperor.

454 lunar years ago, on this day in 986 AH, the Ottoman Turks seized from Safavid Iran, Tiflis or modern Tbilisi, which is the capital of the present day republic of Georgia in the Caucasus, following the death of the long peaceful reign of Shah Tahmasp I. Several years later, Iran under Shah Abbas the Great, succeeded in liberating most of Georgia by defeating the Ottomans.

441 solar years ago, on this day in 1578 AD, Sultan Mohammad Khodabanda was proclaimed 4th Shah of Iran’s Safavid Empire on the sudden death of his fratricidal younger brother, Ismail II, who a year earlier had seized the throne after executing several of his brothers, following the long 52-year reign of their father, Shah Tahmasp I. Of weak eyesight as well as weak-willed, the mild-mannered Khodabanda ruled for 9 years, mostly with the help of his wife, Khayr on-Nisa Begum, until replaced by his teenaged energetic son, Shah Abbas the Great. Sultan Khodabanda's reign was marked by court intrigues and factionalism amongst the powerful Qizilbash tribes that allowed encroachments on Iranian territories, by the Ottomans in the northwest and Caucasus, and by the Uzbeks in Khorasan. He was a poet and wrote under the penname "Fahmi". He died in Qazvin in 1596, nine years after being deposed.

369 solar years ago, on this day in 1650 AD, French philosopher and mathematician, Rene Descartes, known as “father of modern western philosophy” died at the age of 53. His work "La Geometrie" includes his application of algebra to geometry that led to emergence of Cartesian geometry. During 1620-28, Descartes travelled through Europe, before settling in Holland. Soon after, he began work on his first major treatise on physics. This work was near completion when news reached him that the Italian scientist Galileo was condemned to house arrest by the Christian Church because of divulging scientific facts about the earth and the planets, based on the study of works of the early Islamic scholars. Descartes decided not to publish that work during his lifetime. Later, he turned to philosophy, and his most famous quote is “I think, therefore I am.”

234 solar years ago, on this day in 1785 AD, Ali Murad Khan, the 6th ruler of Iran’s Zand dynasty, after a 4-year tyrannical reign, was defeated and executed, by Ja’far Khan Zand, who thus avenged the murder of his father, Sadeq Khan Zand the 5th ruler. After the death of the founder of the Zand Dynasty, the benevolent Karim Khan, who never took the title of Shah despite restoring stability to Iran following the killing of Nader Shah Afshar, the country again became fragmented. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar who was a hostage — in order to prevent an outbreak of war between the Qajar tribes in northern Iran and the Zands — escaped and reached Mazandaran. Subsequently he took command of his tribe in Astrabad, and declared independence from the Zand Shah. Karim Khan’s brother Zaki dispatched an army under the command of his nephew, Ali Murad Khan against the Qajar chief, but the latter betrayed Karim Khan’s son and successor, Abul-Fath Khan, and left him defenseless in the capital to die under suspicious circumstances. Ali Murad then captured Isfahan. He levied high taxes on the people, and tortured and slew whoever refused. Finally on March 14, 1781 he captured Shiraz, and slew Karim Khan’s brother Sadeq Khan and sat on the throne, until he was overthrown by the latter’s son Ja’far, who became the next ruler and defeated Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar in several battles. The fratricide amongst the Zands brought about their own downfall and led to establishment of the Qajar dynasty under Agha Mohammad Khan in 1794.

190 solar years ago, on this day in 1829 AD, the Russian ambassador in Tehran, Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov, had to pay with his life and that of several staff members, when angry Iranians stormed the embassy, for his mischievous role in the imposing of the Treaty of Gulistan (1813) and Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), which forced the Qajar Dynasty to cede Iran’s northern territories comprising Transcaucasia and parts of the North Caucasus, including what is now Armenia, eastern Georgia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Chechnya, and Daghestan. The inefficient Iranian ruler, Fath Ali Shah, instead of supporting the Muslim masses demanding return of Iran’s occupied territories, panicked over the prospects of another war, and in a move to compensate Russia for the attack and the death of its ambassador, sent his grandson Khosrow Mirza to St. Petersburg to the court of Tsar Nicholas I with gift of the priceless Shah Diamond – excavated from the famed mines of Golkandah-Haiderabad in Deccan or southern India.

179 lunar years ago, on this day in 1261 AH, French forces burned to death the Algerian Muslim tribe of Awlad Rabah along with their animals.

172 solar years ago, on this day in 1847 AD, US inventor, Thomas Alva Edison was born. He held a world record 1,093 patents (including those held jointly) and created the world's first industrial research laboratory. He showed an early curiosity for explanations of how everything worked and was especially interested in chemistry. He began selling newspapers on the railroad at age 12, and learned how to operate a telegraph. In 1868, his first invention was an electric vote-recording machine. He invented phonograph in 1877 and the first prototype of a commercially practical incandescent electric light bulb in 1879. Other inventions included storage batteries, a dictaphone and a mimeograph. By the late 1880s he made motion pictures, and by 1912 was experimenting with talking pictures.

90 solar years ago, on this day in 1929 AD, with the signing of the Latran Treaty, Vatican, the seat of the Catholic sect of Christianity, was recognized by Italy as an independent enclave. Following Italy’s unification in 1870 as a country, the government had seized the territories of the Catholic Church, which in the middle ages used to wield extensive powers not just in Italy but in France and other parts of Europe, crowning and dethroning kings. The Popes who had their capital in Rome even declared themselves emperors before the birth of nation states in Europe and the end of their power. Vatican is considered the smallest and least populated country in the world. It covers an area of less than half a square kilometer; and its population stands at around 1,000 people.

42 solar years ago, on this day in 1977 AD, Fakhr od-Din Ali Ahmed, the 5th president of India, died at the age of 72, after three years in office. He was the second Muslim to serve in the country's topmost post. Born in Delhi to Colonel Zu'n-Nour Ali of Assam, his mother was a daughter of the Nawab of Loharu in Punjab. After higher studies at Cambridge University, he qualified as a barrister from the Inner Temple of London. He returned to India to begin legal practice at the Lahore High Court in 1928. He joined the Congress Party and actively participated in the freedom movement against the British, suffering arrest and imprisonment as a result. After Independence he served as elected representative, both at the state level in Assam and in the national parliament. He joined the cabinet of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as minister holding such portfolios as Food and Agriculture, Cooperation, Education, Industrial Development and Company Laws, before becoming president.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the Islamic Revolution triumphed in Iran under the leadership of Imam Khomeini (RA). It is the day that totally transformed the history of Iran, and with the heart-soothing cries of Allah-o Akbar threw into the dustbin of history the despotic monarchial regime of the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi potentate. It is the day that every year marks culmination of the 10-Day Dawn celebrations. On this day the unarmed Muslim masses of Iran, including men, women and children, took to the streets of Tehran and other cities, in defiance of the Shah's military which tried to block their way with tanks and armored cars. During the clashes many senior officers of the military lost their lives and the revolutionary people quickly took over the important military bases. The army surrendered, while the fugitive Shah's premier, Shapour Bakhtiar and his cabinet fled the country, moments later Iran's Radio and TV stations announced the downfall of the regime and victory of the Islamic Revolution. The announcer said: "Attention please! Attention please! This is the Voice of the Revolution". The whole nation was filled with joy and Iran emerged as a truly independent Islamic State which serves as a model for the aspirations of freedom and justice of not just the Muslim countries but all the oppressed people of the world. Every year on this day, tens of millions of peoples hold rallies to renew their allegiance to the ideals of the Late Imam Khomeini and the goals of the Islamic Republic system of Iran.

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, Leader of the anti-racist struggles of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was released after 22 years in prison. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1963 for his struggles against the White minority Apartheid Regime. Upon release he was accorded a very warm welcome by the black people of South Africa. In 1991, an agreement was reached between Mandela and the minority regime for ending the Apartheid System, and in 1994, after holding of the first multiracial elections Mandela was elected as the first black president of South Africa. Mandela died on 5 December 2013.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s US-supported tyrannical president, was toppled by the popular uprising after 30 years in power. He had taken over the presidency in October on the revolutionary execution of President Anwar Sadaat by Khalid Islamboli during a parade, for signing of the scandalous Camp David Accord with the illegal Zionist entity. A client of the usurper state of Israel and an enemy of the Muslim people of Egypt, Mubarak ruled by clamping a state of emergency and denying participation to Islamic groups in the state-managed elections. He ruined Egypt’s economy, before finally falling victim to the wave of Islamic Awakening sweeping North Africa that had erupted in Tunisia. Egyptian people made history by assembling in millions in Cairo’s Tahrir Square where the revolutionaries stayed day and night for 18 days despite the threats and attacks of the regime’s forces. On this day, Mubarak yielded to popular demands and ceded power to a council of generals, who a few months later were forced to try him and his corrupt sons in a bid to calm down the Egyptian nation. Unfortunately the military, with the backing of the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, staged a coup in 2013 to seize power from the first-ever popularly elected government of Egypt.

AS/SS