Today is Sunday; 19th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 3rd of the Islamic month of Rajab 1440 lunar hijri; and March 10, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2260 solar years ago, on this day in 241 BC, the Battle of the Aegates Island, off the coast of Sicily, was won by the Romans who sank the Carthaginian fleet to bring the First Punic War to its end after 23 years of seesaw fighting, mainly on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters and also to a lesser extent in North Africa. Carthage, located in what is now Tunisia, was the dominant Western Mediterranean power at the beginning of the conflicts, controlling an empire extending from the coasts of what is now Libya to Morocco, as well as southeastern parts of Spain and the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, and the Balearic Archipelago .The series of wars between the two powers vying for supremacy were known to the Romans as the "Punic Wars" because of the Latin name for Carthaginians: “Punici”, derived from Phoenicia, in what is now Lebanon, to which the  Semitic-speaking peoples of Carthage in North Africa traced their origins.

1186 lunar years ago, on this day in 254 AH, Imam Ali an-Naqi al-Hadi (AS), the 10^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred in Samarra at the age of 42, as a result of a fatal dose of poisoning administered by Mo’taz, the 13^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. His period of Imamate was 34 years during which he groomed a large number of scholars in various branches of knowledge, and institutionalized the system “Wikala” (representation), which would efficiently serve the followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt during the “Ghaybat as-Sughra” or Minor Occultation of his grandson, the 12^th Imam, who will reappear in the end times as “Qa’em al-Mahdi” to establish the global government of peace, prosperity and justice by weeding out oppression.

1052 lunar years ago, on this day in 388 AH, the Islamic-Iranian mathematician and astronomer, Abu'l-Wafa Mohammad ibn Mohammad ibn Yahya al-Bouzjani, passed away in Baghdad at the age of 60. Born in the northeastern Iranian town of Bouzhgan (present day Torbat-e Jam) in Khorasan, at the age of 19 he moved to Baghdad and remained there for forty years. He made important innovations in spherical trigonometry, and his work on arithmetic for businessmen contains the first instance of using negative numbers in an Islamic text. He was the first to build a wall quadrant to observe the sky. Bouzjani participated in an experiment to determine the difference in local time between his location in Baghdad and that of his famous contemporary, Abu Rayhan al-Berouni in Kath, Khwarezm, which is now part of the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan. The result was very close to present-day calculations, showing a difference of approximately 1 hour between the two longitudes. The 3^rd Lunar Inequality (the variation) was first discovered by Bouzjani, a fact admitted by European scientist, Tycho Brahe, who often quotes this Iranian Islamic scientist's work. His "Kitab al-Majisti" (Almajest) covers numerous topics in the fields of plane and spherical trigonometry, planetary theory, and solutions to determine the direction of Qibla – the focal point of the daily ritual prayers for Muslims worldwide. The crater “Abu'l-Wafa” on the Moon is named after him. Bouzjani wrote several books that have not survived, including “Tarikh-e Ilm al-Hesab” (The History of Calculus).

971 lunar years ago, on this day in 469 AH, the Arabic grammarian of Fatemid Egypt, Abu’l-Hassan Taher Ibn Ahmad Ibn Babshad, passed away. He was of Iranian origin and was born in Basra, Iraq, in a family of pearl-dealers who migrated to Cairo. In his youth he came to Baghdad to learn sciences, and eventually returned to Egypt. He wrote several books, and was a rich businessman but later in life, donated to charity all his possessions, and became a hermit.

728 solar years ago, on this day in 1291 AD, Arghun Khan, the 4^th ruler of the Mongol Ilkhanid Dynasty of Iran, Iraq, and parts of Syria and Anatolia, died after a reign of seven years during which he sent delegations, at least four times, to the Pope in Rome and to major European powers for forging a Buddhist-Christian alliance in a bid to exterminate Islam and Muslims. The plan never materialized because of the growing power and resolve of the Turkic Mamluk rulers of Egypt-Syria in defeating both the Buddhist Mongols and the European Crusaders. Arghun was son of Abaqa Khan and his Christian wife, Haimash Khatun, and the grandson of the destroyer of Baghdad, Hulagu Khan. He had seized the throne from his uncle Tekuder ‘Ahmad’ Khan and executed him for having become Muslim. He also martyred the Iranian vizier, Shams od-Din Mohammad ibn Baha od-Din Juwaini, who had served efficiently for 22 years under three Ilkhans – Hulagu, Abaqa and Ahmad Tekuder. He then appointed as vizier the Jewish Sa’d od-Dowla Ebheri, who openly hurt the sentiments of Iranian Muslims. Arghun baptized his sons, Ghazaan and Oljeitu as Christians, but the two brothers who eventually rose to the throne as the 7th and 8th Ilkhans, after the brief reigns of their uncle (Geikhatu) and father’s cousin (Baydu), became Muslims – along with over 100,000 other Mongols. They transformed the Ilkhanid Dynasty into a bastion of Islam with promotion of Persian culture and language and adherence to the path of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt.

545 lunar years ago, on this day in 895 AH, Ahmad Nizam ul-Mulk Bahri defeated Sultan Mahmud Shah II of the Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan in south-central India, to establish the Nizam-Shahi kingdom of Ahmadnagar and took the title of Ahmad Nizam Shah. He was son of Hassan Nizam ul-Mulk Bahri, a Kanarese Brahmin who embraced the truth of Islam and was appointed governor of the northern parts of the Bahmani kingdom of Iranian origin. Two years later Ahmad Nizam Shah died, but the dynasty he founded continued to rule with fluctuating fortunes for over 125 years, until its annexation by the Mughal Empire of the northern Subcontinent. The second king, Burhan Nizam Shah, became a follower of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), due to the influence of the Iranian migrant religious scholar, Seyyed Shah Taher Hussaini. The Nizam-Shahis, like the other two Shi’ite Muslim sultanates of the Deccan, the Adil-Shahis of Bijapur and the Qutb-Shahis of Golkandah-Haiderabad, maintained cordial relations with Iran’s Safavid Emperors, exchanging ambassadors, hosting Iranians of various walks of life, and patronizing Persian literature, art, and architecture.

284 solar years ago, on this day in 1735 AD, an accord between Nader Shah Afshar of Iran and Czarist Russia was signed near Ganja in what is now the Azerbaijan Republic, according to which Russian troops were withdrawn from Baku. Russia also ended occupation of Daghestan when Nader Shah threatened to march upon Moscow.

215 solar years ago, on this day in 1804 AD, a ceremony was conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States. This area like the rest of the southern and western states of the US was under Spain’s jurisdiction. On 30^th November 1803 AD, Spanish representatives had transferred the Louisiana Territory in North America to a French representative, and just 20 days later, France sold the same land to the United States in a deal known as the Louisiana Purchase.

158 solar years ago, on this day in 1861 AD, Umar Ta’l seized the important West African city of Segou in Mali, after a series of victories that ended the animist Bambara kingdom, thereby preventing it from serving as a base for penetration of the region by the French colonialists. He thus founded a brief Islamic empire, encompassing much of Senegal, Mali and Guinea. Born in Futa Tooro, Senegal, he was a political leader, Islamic scholar, and military commander, who in his youth, after performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, had stayed for six years in Damascus to acquire higher Islamic studies. In Syria, he was highly impressed by the trends and tactics of the Ottoman Turkish governor, Ibrahim Pasha, whom he befriended. On returning to West Africa, he assumed leadership of the Tijaniyya Sufi brotherhood in the Sudan. Umar Ta’l remains a legendary figure in Senegal, Guinea, and Mali, and is remembered as a hero of the anti-French resistance.

158 solar years ago, on this day in 1861 AD, Canadian Poetess, Pauline Johnson, was born. She was from the Mohawk Red Indian Tribe, which was forced to emigrate from the US to Canada. She left behind four collections of poems. She died in 1913.

143 solar years ago, on this day in 1876 AD, Scottish-American inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, after years of experiments and designs of various apparatuses by different scientists, spoke the famous sentence "Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you" into the liquid transmitter he had invented, while Watson, listening at the receiving end in an adjoining room, heard the words clearly. This was in effect the first telephone call. The conversation between Bell and his assistant, Thomas Watson, happened in Boston. The same day, an ebullient Bell wrote his father of his "great success" and speculated that "the day is coming when telegraph [phone] wires will be laid on to houses just like water and gas - and friends converse with each other without leaving home." Bell received the first telephone patent three days before. Later that year, Bell succeeded in making a phone call over outdoor lines

123 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, Italian troops during their invasion of Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia), were crushed in Adowa region. Italian forces intended to occupy Abyssinia and to establish a link between two of their colonies in the Horn of Africa – Eritrea and Somaliland. Despite the modern military equipment of the Italian army, the Abyssinian forces triumphed and inflicted major fatalities and financial losses on the aggressors. Italy, under Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, occupied Ethiopia from 1936 until its defeat in 1941 during World War 2.

51 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, during the Vietnam War, the Battle of Lima Site 85, resulted in the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members during the American aggression.

44 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, during the Vietnam War, the Ho Chi Minh Campaign was launched by North Vietnamese troops on Ban Mê Thuột, South Vietnam, as a prelude to the capture of Saigon on the final push for victory over the US-supported secessionist state of South Vietnam.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, Iranian astronomer and mathematician, Dr. Abbas Riazi Kermani, passed away at the age of 72. Following completion of his academic studies, he left for France. In Paris, he continued his studies in mathematics and astronomy and got a PhD in Astronomy from Sorbonne University. After returning to Iran, he started lecturing at Tehran University and other higher education institutes. In 1966, he prepared Iran’s official calendar. He wrote several books, including: “Moqadama bar Nujoum-e Aali” (An Introductory to Astronomy).

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, Pakistani poet, Dr. Abdul-Hamid Irfani, passed away at the age of 80. He played a leading role in reviving the Islamic culture and countering the West’s cultural invasion, as one of the prominent students of the acclaimed philosopher-poet of the subcontinent, Allamah Iqbal Lahori. Dr. Irfani compiled more than 40 books in different fields; several of which have been published in Iran. In 1945, two years before the birth of Pakistan, he was sent to Iran as an English lecturer by the British Indian government. After independence in 1947, he stayed in Iran as the cultural and press attache at the embassy of Pakistan in Tehran. On returning to Pakistan, Dr, Irfani lectured at Lahore’s Punjab University.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime attacked with firearms and tear gas, thousands of peaceful protestors in Manama, capital of the Persian Gulf Island state of Bahrain, demanding restoration of their birthrights and release of prisoners. Over a dozen people were injured.

AS/SS