Today is Thursday; 16th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 29th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1440 lunar hijri; and March 7, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2341 solar years ago, on this day in 322 BC, Greek philosopher Aristotle died. His writings include treatises on logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics, rhetoric and natural sciences. He described language in terms of subject and predicate as well as parts of speech. A student of Plato he was teacher of Alexander of Macedonia. Aristotelian logic is based on a small number of unambiguous constructs, such as, "if A, then B": the truth of one implies the truth of another. The constructs also included A=A, representing that every entity is equal to itself. He defined politics as the science of the sciences that looks after well-being. His writings included “De Generatione Animalum” and "Historia Animalium". Aristotle and his works were revived by Muslim philosophers and scientists after he was forgotten by Greeks and Europeans.

1858 solar years ago, on this day 161 AD, Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius died at the age of 75 after a 23-year reign, and is considered one of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty and the Aurelii. He had succeeded his adoptive father Hadrian to the throne and was succeeded in turn by his adoptive sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Pius could not succeed against the growing might of Iran led by the Parthian Emperor, Balaash, known to the Romans as Vologases IV. 

1698 solar years ago, on this day in 321 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine I issued a decree imposing upon the empire – in Europe, Asia Minor, Levant, Egypt and North Africa – the day of the pagan god, Solis Invicti (Unconquered Sun), as the weekly day of rest. His decree read: “On the venerable day of the Sun (Sunday) let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.” The pagan practice of Sunday as a weekend holiday was adopted by the Christian World and continues in countries following the ways of their former European colonial masters, although this day has no link with Prophet Jesus (PuH). The Sun was worshipped as one of the gods and as a patron of soldiers in the Roman Empire. Constantine, even after conversion to Christianity – not the monotheistic message of Jesus, but the weird concept of Trinity coined by Paul the Hellenized Jew – had the symbols of the Sun engraved on his coinage. Thus, when the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, the 25^th of December, which was the date of a festival of the Sun god, was renamed Christmas to give the impression that Prophet Jesus (PuH) was born on this pagan holiday.

1404 lunar years ago, on this day in 36 AH, according to some historians such as al-Mas’oudi, the Battle of Jamal took place near Basra in southern Iraq in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, with a decisive victory for the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), the First Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Other historians have given the 10^th of Jamadi al-Awwal as the date of this crucial battle against a large army of rebels led by a wife of the Prophet named Ayesha, who along with her brother-in-law Zubayr ibn Awam and his close friend Talha ibn Obaidollah, broke the pledge of allegiance to the caliphate of Imam Ali (AS). The seditionists refused to heed the voice of reason for reconciliation, on the pretext of avenging the blood of the 3rd caliph, Osman ibn Affan, although it was Ayesha herself who used to call for the murder of Osman by branding him an apostate. The Imam had no choice but to confront the seditionists, especially after they ordered 600 Muslims beheaded, including 40 in the grand mosque of Basra, in addition to looting the treasury. Before the battle, Imam Ali (AS) made a fervent appeal to avoid the shedding of Muslim blood, and although Zubayr heeded the advice and disengaged from the combat, after recalling the Prophet’s famous hadith on the righteousness of Imam Ali (AS), he was killed under suspicious circumstances, since his son Abdullah who instigated his aunt to enter the battlefield – seated on a camel (Jamal) – was a sworn enemy of the Prophet's Household. After victory over the seditionists, the Imam magnanimously treated his vanquished enemies by sending Ayesha back to Medina under escort of her brother, Mohammad bin Abu Bakr, who was a loyal follower of Imam Ali (AS).

1314 lunar years ago, on this day in 126 AH, the Godless Waleed II, the 11^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad dynasty, was killed in al-Aghdaf in what is now Jordan, after a reign of a year, two months and ten days, during which he committed many abominable sins, including the cruel martyrdom in Jowzajan in Khorasan, of Yahya ibn Zayd, the grandson of the Prophet’s great-grandson, Imam Zayn al-Abedin (AS). On succeeding his uncle, the tyrant Hesham bin Abdul Malik, he continued his debauched life. He built in his palace a fountain of wine in which he used to take dips. On one occasion he threw the holy Qur’an and riddled it with a volley of arrows. Once, in the state of intoxication and in the act of cohabiting with a drunken concubine, on hearing the call for the Fajr Prayer, he promptly asked the ritually unclean woman to put on his clothes, enter the mosque, and lead the Morning Prayer. Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) had foretold in a famous hadith about this ungodly ruler by name, and called him the Pharaoh of the ummah.

1241 lunar years ago, on this day in 199 AH, Mohammed Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Ismail, popular as Ibn Tabataba, defeated the Abbasid governor of Kufa, and established his short-lived Islamic state in Iraq. A great-great-grandson of Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), he died soon afterwards and the forces of Mamoun the self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, re-occupied Kufa and its surroundings. Ibn Tabataba’s movement, however, continued after his death, especially in Yemen, where many members of the Tabatabai branch of the Prophet’s descendants ruled and rose to become scholars and jurisprudents.

1188 lunar years ago, on this day in 252 AH, Seyyed Mohammad, the eldest son of Imam Ali an-Naqi al-Hadi (AS), the 10^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred through poisoning by agents of the usurper Abbasid regime. He was laid to rest in the town of Balad, where his holy shrine is a site of pilgrimage, famous for its miraculous powers and granting of boons. Balad is 80 km north of Baghdad and 50 km south of Samarra. Born in Sarya village near the holy city of Medina around 228 AH, Seyyed Mohammad was on his way to Mecca from Samarra for pilgrimage to the holy Ka’ba, when he was poisoned in Dujail, and after several days of intolerable pain, achieved martyrdom. He was laid to rest by his aggrieved father, Imam Hadi (AS), and grieving younger, the future Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS). Over a century later, the first mausoleum over his tomb was built by Adhod od-Dowla Daylami, the ruler of the Iranian Buwaiyhid Dynasty of Iraq-Iran. It underwent reconstruction in the subsequent centuries and in 10^th century AH, after the conquest of Baghdad by Shah Ismail Safavi, the Iranian Emperor, the mausoleum was expanded to its present size. Currently, despite bomb blasts and threats by the US-Saudi backed Takfiri terrorists, massive renovation of the holy mausoleum is underway, complete with security points and apparatus. Seyyed Mohammad had several sons, of whom some are buried in Khoy and Salmas in Iran. His progeny continued through two of his sons, Ahmad and Ali.

940 solar years ago, on this day in 1079 AD, the famous Iranian astronomer, Omar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyam Neishapouri, completed the Jalali solar hijri calendar, dating it like the lunar one from the migration of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) from Mecca to Medina in Rabi al-Awwal – the 1^st month of spring. This calendar was formally adopted on 15 March the same year by the Seljuq Sultan, Jalal ad-Din Malik Shah, in whose honour it was named. The team led by Khayyam, working at the imperial observatory in the Seljuq capital Isfahan, computed the length of a solar year as 365.25 days, more perfect than the Gregorian calendar used by the Christian world.

745 solar years ago, on this day in 1274 AD, Italian philosopher and theologian, Thomas Aquinas, who wrote commentaries on the works of the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, died in Naples at the age of 51. Following Aristotle's definition of science as knowledge obtained from demonstrations, Aquinas defined science as the knowledge of things from their causes. In his work “Summa Theologica”, he distinguished between demonstrated truth (science) and revealed truth (faith). This belief and his faith in the originality of wisdom, as opposed to the Christian Church’s irrationality, assisted in the promotion of sciences.

254 solar years ago, on this day in the year 1765 AD, the French chemist and one of the founders of photography, Nicephore Niepce, was born. By 1813, he had taken up lithography, which led to his invention of photography. In a letter in May 1816, he spoke of an apparatus that produced a (negative) image using a paper coated with silver chloride fixed with nitric acid. After further experimentation, by 1826, he achieved the first fixed positive image. In 1829, he signed an agreement with Daguerre to develop photography. He died in 1833.

220 solar years ago, on this day in 1799 AD, French general, Napoleon Bonaparte captured Jaffa in Palestine and proceeded to kill more than 2,000 Albanian Muslim captives. The French were driven out from Palestine by the Ottomans.

133 lunar years ago, on this day in 1307 AH, Persian newssheet “Qanoun” (Law), was published in London during his exile from Iran by Mirza Malkam Khan, an Iranian Armenian who claimed to have converted to Islam. It was banned in Iran since it attacked the Qajarid dynasty and called for modernization on West European patterns. Malkam, who set up in Iran societies similar to the Freemasons, was a controversial person. He was exiled several times until he was appointed ambassador to Italy by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah with the title of Nezam od-Dowlah.

83 solar years ago, on this day in 1936 AD, as prelude to World War II, German Nazi troops of Adolf Hitler violated the Treaties of Versailles and Locarno, to occupy the region of Rhineland.

68 solar years ago, on this day in 1951 AD, British agent, Ali Razmara, whom the British-installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had appointed prime minister for his anti-Islamic views, was executed in a revolutionary manner by Khalil Tahmasebi, a carpenter by profession and member of the Fedaeen-e Islam organization. Tahmasebi was arrested by the regime and sentenced to death, but the parliament, during the premiership of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, quashed the verdict and ordered his release as a “soldier of Islam”. Following the overthrow of Prime Minister Mosaddeq in 1953 through a British-US coup, Tahmasebi was re-arrested, tried by a kangaroo court and sentenced to death. He attained martyrdom in 1955 on execution by a firing squad.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2010, Iran announced that it has started a new production line of highly accurate, short range cruise missiles, which adds a new element to the country's already imposing defence arsenal.

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