Today is Saturday; 4th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 17th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1440 lunar hijri; and February 23, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1020 lunar years ago, on this day in 420 AH, the 8^th self-styled caliph of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’ite Dynasty of Egypt, Syria and North Africa, Mohammad Ibn az-Zahir al-Mustansir, was born in Cairo and eight months afterwards was declared to succeed his father. He ascended the throne on 15^th Sha’ban, 427 AH at the age of 7 years. His rule lasted 60 years and four months, the longest of all the so-called caliphs, either in Egypt or anywhere else. The Fatemid rulers, who first established themselves in Mahdia in Tunisia, claimed descent from Ismail, the son of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) 6^th Infallible Successor, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS). They soon shifted their seat of power to Egypt and established the city of Cairo, where they built the famous Islamic academy, al-Azhar, as a derivative of “az-Zahra” (the Radiant), the epithet of the Prophet’s Immaculate Daughter, Hazrat Fatema (SA). During their rule, they publicly revived in the “Azan” the original phrases of the daily call to prayer: “Ash-hado anna Amir al-Momineen Aliyan Wali-Allah” (I testify that the Commander of the Faithful, Ali, is the Friend of God), and “hayya ala khayr-il-amal” (hasten towards the best of deed). The Fatemid caliphate lasted for 270 years, and at its height, in addition to Egypt, it included varying areas of the Maghreb (North Africa), Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz.

916 lunar years ago, on this day in 524 AH, the acclaimed Arabic literary figure and poet, Hussain bin Mohammad Baar’e al-Baghdadi, passed away at the age of 81. He is considered an authority on grammar and lexicography, and later in life went blind. He has left behind his Diwan of poetry.

612 solar years ago, on this day in 1407 AD, the Timurid ruler, Pir Mohammad was murdered by his ambitious vizier, Pir Ali Taz, near Balkh some six months after his second defeat by his cousin, Khalil Sultan (son of Miran Shah), the other claimant to the throne of Samarqand. He had declared himself king two years earlier on the death of his grandfather, the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur. He was the son of Jahangir Mirza who was the actual successor to the throne but had died before his father. Next in line was Omar Shaikh Mirza but he too died. That left Shahrukh Mirza, whom Timur considered too meek to rule and Miran Shah who suffered from mental trauma. Timur felt that none of his sons were capable of ruling so he named as successor, his grandson, Pir Mohammad, who was governor of Qandahar since 1392 and controlled territories from the lands west of the Hindu Kush Mountains to the Indus River. In the fall of 1397 he had led the first wave of Timurids into India, and was invested with the rule of Multan as well. Unfortunately for Pir Muhammad, none of his relatives supported him following Timur's death. He was unable to assume command in the capital Samarqand, but was allowed to retain his territories after defeats at the hands of Khalil Sultan, who in turn was defeated in 1409 by his uncle Shahrukh Mirza and sent to Rayy (near Tehran) as governor. The Timurids were Persianized Turks, and patronized Persian poetry and literature. 

607 lunar years ago, on this day in 833 AH (1430 AD), the 6^th Ottoman Sultan, Murad II, conquered the city and district of Thessalonica in Macedonia from the Byzantine Empire. Thessalonica and its adjoining districts were lost by the Turks almost five centuries later during the First Balkans War in 1330 AH (1912 AD) to the new state called Greece (set up on the Ottoman Province of Yunanistan), while the rest of Macedonia, which had a sizeable Muslim population, was split up between Greece and Serbia (the former Ottoman Province of Servistan). The Greek Christians, who destroyed mosques and other sites of the centuries-old Islamic heritage, continue to suppress the Muslims of Thessalonica and treat them as second class citizens.

507 solar years ago, on this day in 1512 AD, Italian astronomer, navigator and cartographer, Amerigo Vespucci, whose name the Europeans gave to the new landmass discovered for Spain by Christopher Columbus as “America”, died. He first served the Portuguese and was then hired by the Spanish. He demonstrated that Brazil and the so-called West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to the Europeans – although the Muslims had known this great landmass and travelled to it.

505 solar years ago, on this day in 1514 AD, Shah Tahmasp I, was born in Isfahan to the Founder of the Safavid Empire of Iran, Shah Ismail I. He ascended the throne at the age of 10 on the death of his father, His reign of 52 years is the longest of any Muslim king of Iran, and was marked by foreign threats, primarily from the Ottomans in the west and the Uzbeks in the northeast. Upon adulthood, he was able to reassert his power and consolidate the dynasty against internal and external enemies. Although he lost Iraq and parts of Anatolia to the Ottoman invaders, his pious nature made him avoid unnecessary shedding of Muslim blood. As a result, after thwarting Ottoman designs in the Caucasus, Shah Tahmasp concluded the Treaty of Amasya, with Sultan Sulaiman, resulting in a peace that lasted 30 years and led to the development of Iran. He continued his father’s policy of enlightening the people with the teachings of the Blessed Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA), and assembled at his court in Qazvin leading ulema from all over Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Lebanon. As a descendant of the Prophet and head of the Safavid spiritual order tracing to Safi od-Din Ardebili, he was acknowledged as suzerain by the Shi’a Muslim sultanates of the Deccan (Southern India). Shah Tahmasp is also known for the reception he gave to the fugitive Mughal Emperor Naseer od-Din Humayun of Hindustan (Northern Subcontinent) when the latter was ousted from power and provided him military aid to recover his kingdom. Shah Tahmasp was an enthusiastic patron of arts with a particular interest in Persian miniature, especially book illustration. The most famous example of such work is the “Shahnama-e Shah Tahmaspi”, containing 250 miniatures by the leading court artists of the era. Shah Tahmasp's another more lasting achievements was his encouragement of the Persian carpet industry on a national scale in response to the economic effects of the interruption of the Silk Road carrying trade during the Ottoman wars.

464 solar years ago, on this day in 1555 AD, the 2nd Mughal Emperor, Naseer od-Din Humayun  re-conquered with Iranian help eastern Afghanistan and the northern subcontinent, fifteen years after losing the throne of Delhi to the Pashtun adventurer, Sher Shah Suri. Born in 1508 in Kabul, where his father, the Timurid prince Zaheer od-Din Babar had established himself with the assistance of Shah Ismail I the founder of the Safavid Dynasty of Iran, he succeeded to the throne of Delhi in 1530, while his step-brother Kamran Mirza obtained the sovereignty of Kabul and Lahore. His peaceful personality, in addition to his addiction to opium, cost him the kingdom ten years later, forcing him to seek refuge in Iran, where he was cordially received by Shah Tahmasp I, who provided financial aid and 14,000 troops to regain his Empire. Humayun, along with his trusted general, Bairam Khan, crossed the Indus River and in February of 1554, he occupied the Punjab, including Lahore, without any serious opposition. To check the Moghul-Persian advance, Sikandar Shah of Delhi sent a huge army of Afghans and Rajputs that was defeated. On restoration of Mughal, thousands of Iranians continued to migrate every year to Hindustan and were given high civil and military positions. This signaled an important change in Mughal court culture, as the Central Asian origins of the dynasty were largely overshadowed by the influences of Persian art, architecture, language and literature. Humayun's most noted achievement was in the sphere of painting. His devotion to the early Safavid School, developed during his stay in Iran, led him to recruit Persian painters of merit to accompany him back to India. These artists laid the foundation of the Mughal style. Even Humayun's tomb was built in the Iranian style by his widow, Hamida Bano Begum (daughter of Shaikh Ali Akbar Jami, an Iranian Shi'ite Muslim descended from the mystic Shaikh Ahmad Jami of Torbat-e Jam in Khorasan). It is said Humayun had embraced the school of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt while in Qazvin at the court of Shah Tahmasp.

287 solar years ago, on this day in 1732 AD, George Washington, who led the New England rebels against the British and became the first president of the 13 rebellious colonies that had banded together as the United States of America (USA), was born in an English family in Virginia. In his youth he mastered geometry and trigonometry, and started career as a surveyor, proficient at drafting, mapmaking, and designing tables of data. He enlisted in the British colonial army and was involved in the wars against the Amerindian tribes, as well as against the French, before siding with the revolutionaries to defeat the British armies.

231 solar years ago, on this day in 1788 AD, German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, was born. He arrived at many of the same conclusions of Eastern philosophy, and would say: "Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control.”

196 solar years ago, on this day in 1823 AD, the Greeks during their rebellion against the Ottoman Turks massacred 12,000 Muslims in the city of Tripolitsa, with the help of Britain, France, Russia, and Austria.

61 solar years ago, on this day in 1958 AD, Indian scholar and statesman, Abul-Kalaam Azad died at the age of 70. He was active in the struggle for independence of India from British rule. As a member of the ruling Congress Party, he was elected to the parliament after India gained independence in 1947, and was later made Minister of Education. As a scholar of Urdu, Arabic, Persian and English languages he wrote many valuable books, including an exegesis of the holy Qur'an, titled, "Tarjuman al-Qur’an". He was greatly influenced by the famous 19th century pan-Islamic Iranian thinker, Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi, especially concerning the importance of Ijtehad in awakening the Muslim societies. Among his other works are: “War from the Islamic Point of View” and "Shahid-e Azam" (Great Martyr) which is a book on the Prophet's grandson, Imam Husain (AS).

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, following drafting of the Islamic Republic constitution and setting up of the Majlis (or parliament), as per the decree of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Husseini Beheshti was elected as the first Chief Justice of Islamic Iran. Ayatollah Beheshti was martyred in a terrorist bomb blast in Tehran by the notorious US-backed MKO terrorist outfit in July 1981 along with 72 senior Iranian officials, including cabinet ministers and parliament members.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, the famous Urdu poet of the Subcontinent, Shabbir Hassan Khan “Joosh” passed away in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan at the age of 88. Born in a Pashtun family in Malihabad, northern India, after mastering Urdu and English, he studied Arabic and Persian, and in 1925 began to supervise translation work at the famous Osmania University in the semi-independent state of Haiderabad-Deccan. After ten years he returned to his hometown and founded the magazine “Kaleem” in which he openly wrote articles in favour of independence from Britain. As his reputation spread, he came to be called “Sha’er-e Inqelab” (Poet of the Revolution), and developed personal friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru, who was to become prime minister on India’s independence in 1947. Over a decade later in 1958, disillusioned with the declining status of Muslims and Urdu language in India, he migrated to Pakistan and settled in Karachi, where he joined Anjuman-e Tarraqi-e-Urdu for promotion of the Urdu language. Joosh Malihabadi has left behind valuable works in poetry and prose, including lengthy odes in praise of the Ahl al-Bayt, especially Imam Ali (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) – regarded as masterpieces of Urdu poetry.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, terrorists backed by the US shocked the civilized world and hurt Islamic sentiments by blasphemously blowing the magnificent golden dome of the holy shrine in Samarra, which houses the venerated tombs of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) 10th and 11th Infallible Heirs - Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS) and Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS). The sacred shrine is being rebuilt, thanks to the devotional efforts of Iraqi and Iranian Muslims.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, Abdul-Malek Rigi, ringleader of an anti-Iranian US-backed terrorist outfit, was captured by Iranian security personnel in a well-planned operation. Rigi, whose satanic outfit which wrongly styles itself as Jundullah or soldiers of God, was based in Pakistani Balouchistan and had committed several acts of terrorism, killing scores of innocent men women, and children, including Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. On learning that he had boarded a plane in Dubai for Kyrgyzstan in order to meet senior American officials for planning more acts of terrorism against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Iranian air force waited till the airplane carrying him was in Iranian airspace, before sending its jet fighters to intercept the commercial flight and force it to land at Bandar Abbas airport. Rigi was nabbed, jailed, and tried in a court where he admitted his murderous acts of terrorism that in addition to bomb blasts including kidnapping and cold-blooded killing of his victims. He also confessed to his connections with the US, the illegal Zionist entity Israel, and certain Arab and western regimes, thus belying Washington's claim to fight terrorism. Rigi was executed by hanging on June 20, 2010.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, two Iranian warships entered Egypt's Suez Canal heading for Syria, the first time in three decades that Iran sent military vessels through the strategic waterway to the Mediterranean Sea.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, as part of the popular uprising in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain against the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, tens of thousands of people marched in protest on learning of the martyrdom of seven victims killed by police and the army forces during previous peaceful protests. Bahraini is in the grip of a popular revolution for overthrowing the US-backed hereditary rule.

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