Today is Tuesday; 21st of the Iranian month of Esfand 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 5th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1440 lunar hijri; and March 12, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1348 lunar years ago, on this day in 92 AH, Tareq bin Ziyad, crossed the Mediterranean from the northwestern African coast and landed on the island known ever since in his memory as "Jabal at-Tareq" (Rock or Mount of Tareq, Latinized as Gibraltar). He was governor of Tangiers under Musa bin Nusayr, the conqueror and Emir of the Province of Ifriqiya (present day western Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco). The Muslims under Tareq swept through Spain and soon conquered the whole Iberian Peninsula. Later, they crossed the Pyrenees into southern France and conquered it. Tareq was made governor of Islamic Spain but was eventually called back to Damascus by the jealous Omayyad caliph, Walid I, who also relieved Musa bin Nusayr of the overall charge of northwest Africa, Spain and the islands off the coast of France. There are three different accounts of the origins of Tareq given by Arab historians – he was a Persian from Hamedan; he was an Arab of the Sadf tribe; he was a Berber from North Africa. Musa bin Nusayr is also said to be the son of an Iranian Christian, according to the historian Tabari; while others say he belonged to the Lakhmid Arab clan who were clients of the Sassanid Dynasty.

1196 lunar years ago, on this day in 244 AH, the prominent Islamic scientist and lexicographer, Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq, popularly known as “Ibn Sikkit” was brutally martyred by the cruel Abbasid caliph, Mutawakkil, who ordered the pulling out of his tongue through the nape for speaking the truth. Born in Khuzestan, southwestern Iran, he studied in Baghdad under prominent scholars, and his fame led Mutawakkil to invite him to Samarra where he was appointed as tutor to two of the caliph’s sons. Mutawakkil, who is notorious for his sacrilegious destruction of the shrine of the Martyr of Karbala and his forcing of the Prophet's 10^th Infallible Successor, Imam Hadi (AS) to come to Samarra, once asked Ibn Sikkit whether his sons were superior to the Prophet’s two grandsons, Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS). The scholar boldly replied that even Qanbar, the black slave of Imam Ali (AS), was better than the caliph's sons. The enraged caliph ordered his execution. Here is one of his poems worth pondering upon.

"By Allah, if the Omayyads had killed the (grand)son of the Prophet unjustly,

His cousins (the Abbasids) did the same;

Here (in Karbala) is his tomb destroyed!

They felt sorry that they did not participate in killing him,

So they chased him in the grave."

In addition to his poems, Ibn Sikkit has left behind at least twenty books, including “Islah al-Manteq” on lexicography.

853 lunar years ago, on this day in 587 AH, the Iranian mystical philosopher, Shahab od-Din Sohrewardi, was martyred in Aleppo, Syria, by the Kurdish ruler, Malik az-Zaher, the son of Salah od-Din Ayyoubi. Born in Sohreward, near the northwestern city of Zanjan, he went to Iraq and Syria to develop his knowledge. During his short life of less than forty years he wrote valuable works that established him as founder of a new school of philosophy, called "Hikmat al-Ishraq" (Illuminationist Philosophy). He is thus known as "Shaikh-e Ishraq". His views angered his opponents, who had him arrested or charges of heresy and subsequently martyred. Sohrewardi has left behind some 50 works in Persian and Arabic.

810 solar years ago, on this day in 1209 AD, Iranian poet, Jamal od-Din Ilyas ibn Yusuf ibn Zaki, known as “Nizami Ganjavi”, passed away at the age of 68 in his hometown, the Iranian city of Ganja – currently in the Republic of Azerbaijan. He is considered the greatest panegyric poet of Persian language who brought a realistic style to the Persian epic. His heritage is widely shared by Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Subcontinent. Often referred to as “Hakeem” or "the Sage", Nizami’s poems show that not only he was fully acquainted with Arabic and Persian literatures and with the oral and written popular and local traditions, but was also familiar with such diverse fields as mathematics, astronomy, astrology, alchemy, medicine, botany, Qur'anic exegesis, Islamic law, Iranian myths, history, ethics, philosophy, music, and the visual arts. Nizami is best known for his five long “Mathnavis” (narrative poems), which are in double-rhymed verses. Known as “Panj Ganj” (Five Treasures) or “Khamsa-e Nizami”, the first one is “Makhzan al-Asrar” (Storehouse of Mysteries), which was influenced by Sana’i of Ghazna's monumental “Hadiqat al-Haqiqa” (Garden of Truth). The other four are romances, like “Khosrow va Shirin”, “Layla va Majnoun”, “Haft-Paykar” or “Bahram-e Gur”, and “Iskhandar-Nameh” (on Alexander the Macedonian)”. The “Khamsa” was a popular subject for lavish manuscripts illustrated with painted miniatures at the Persian and Moghal courts in later centuries. Examples include the “Khamsa” of Nizami created for India's Moghal Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar in the 1590s. The legacy of Nizami is widely felt in the Islamic world, and besides Persian, his poetry has influenced the development of Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish and Urdu poetry amongst many other languages. Amongst the many notable Persian poets who have taken the “Khamsa” of Nizami as their model, mention may be made of Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, Khajui Kermani, Abdur-Rahman Jami of Herat, Mir Mohammad Amin “Rouh al-Amin” Shahristani of the Safavid and Qutbshahi courts, and Abdul Qader Bidel Dehlavi.

469 solar years ago, on this day in 1550 AD, Spanish invaders, armed with swords and firearms and mounted on horses, massacred over 4,000 Mapuche Amerindian natives in the Battle of Penco during the Arauco War in what is now Chile. The Spanish went on to destroy seven flourishing cities of the natives. The Arauco War sporadically continued for two centuries during which the Mapuche safeguarded their independence in the mountainous areas with the Bio Bio River being the border between them and the European settlers. In 1883, the Araucanía independent region was occupied by the government of Chile.

408 solar years ago, on this day in 1611 AD, Emperor Noor od-Din Jahangir of Hindustan (northern Subcontinent) granted a “farman” or royal order permitting the English to establish factories at Surat, Gogha, Ahmadabad, and Cambay in Gujarat on the western coast. Surat thus became the first established settlement in India of the crafty English, who with the weakening of the Mughal Empire in the second half of the 18th century gradually extended their control over the whole of the Subcontinent.

210 solar years ago, on this day in 1809 AD, Britain signed a treaty with Iran forcing the French out of the country. Franco-Iranian relations had cautiously grown over the past two centuries, following the Safavid Emperor Shah Abbas the Great’s sending of a trade delegation to Paris. France’s reaction was slow because of its excellent ties with the Ottoman Empire. After the French Revolution and rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and his invasion of Ottoman-ruled Egypt and Syria, Franco-Iranian ties were formally established as a counterweight to their common enemy, Czarist Russia. Napoleon’s main intention was a passage to India for French troops to join Fath Ali Khan Tipu Sultan of Mysore to drive out the British from the Subcontinent. However, once Napoleon cultivated friendly ties with Russia, and Tipu Sultan was overthrown by the British, he gave cold shoulder to the agreement with Iran during the Czarist encroachments in the Caucasus. Frustrated by France's empty promises, Fath Ali Shah Qajar invited the British and a treaty was signed that stipulated expulsion of the French from Iran. Now it was the turn of the British to double-cross the Shah. The treaty required Iran to renounce any previous treaties with any European power and to prevent the army of any European power from marching through its territory to India, while Britain promised military aid and subsidies if Iran was attacked by any European power. Iran was once more betrayed. When Iran invoked the provision requiring the British to provide aid in the event of an attack, during the Russian invasion in 1826, Britain refused to honour it.

165 solar years ago, on this day in 1854 AD, the Treaty of Constantinople was concluded between France, Britain, and the Ottoman Empire in the Turkish capital, Istanbul. The three powers formed a coalition against Russian expansion, and defeated the Czarist armies in the Crimean War in what is now Ukraine.

98 solar years ago, on this day in 1921 AD, the crafty British government held a conference in Cairo, the capital of its client state of Egypt, presided by its Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, in order to strengthen London’s hold on the Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire it had acquired as a result of its victory in World War One. During the 18-day controversial conference that lasted till March 30, lines were drawn on the regional map to create artificial states for Britain’s Arab stooges as well as a future Zionist entity in Palestine for European Jews, in line with the Sykes-Picot Accord of 1916 between Britain and France, and the scandalous Balfour Declaration of 1917. Lebanon was detached from Syria and both lands were formally placed under French control. Britain declared its old agent, Sharif Hussain of Mecca, as Sultan of Hijaz, and then created for two of his sons, Faisal and Abdullah respectively, the new kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan. At the same time the desert brigand Abdul Aziz ibn Saud was announced king of Najd and continued to receive monthly salary from Britain. In 1925, Abdul-Aziz was given green signal by London to attack and occupy Hijaz after perpetrating bloodbaths in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the port city of Jeddah and the mountain resort of Ta’ef. He later seized control of the eastern potentially oil-rich eastern part of Arabia from its local Shi’a Muslim rulers, and then occupied Najran, Jizan, and Asir from Yemen. The British in 1932 declared him king of a new state named Saudi Arabia. Winston Churchill wanted to keep an air corridor to Iraq, where the Royal Air Force was dropping poison gas on what he called the Shi’a Muslim Arab tribes as “rebel”.

89 solar years ago, on this day in 1930 AD, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi of India led the civil disobedience movement against British colonial rule, by walking over three hundred kilometers in protest against increasing taxes on salt. He and his thousands of followers went to the sea coast in Gujarat to prepare salt themselves. This measure by Gandhi turned into the symbol of his passive resistance, which finally forced Britain to retreat. Gandhi used to say that his inspiration against injustice was the movement of the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

61 lunar years ago, on this day in 1379 AH, the prominent religious scholar, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Yathrebi-Kashani passed away at the age of 68 in Kashan and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of Imamzadeh Habib ibn Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS). Born in the holy city of Karbala, at the age of 5 he returned to his ancestral town Kashan, along with his scholarly father, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Reza Yathrebi-Kashani. He was initially taught by his father and other scholars of the Kashan Seminary, before travelling to Iraq for higher religious studies at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, where during his 7-year stay, his teachers included Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi, Grand Ayatollah Sheikh osh-Shari’ah Isfahani, Grand Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hussain Na’ini, and Ayatollah Aqa Ziya od-Din Iraqi. In 1339 AH, he returned to Kashan on request of his father, and two years later, on the invitation of Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri he became an instructor at the seminary in holy Qom, where his students included Ayatollah Seyyed Shahab od-Din Mar’ashi, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Baqer Mohaqqiq Damad, Ayatollah Mirza Hashem Amoli, and the future Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). Seven years later, on his father’s death, he returned to Kashan to take up the latter’s responsibilities at the local seminary, which he ably discharged for over three decades. 

51 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, the island state of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa gained independence from British colonial rule. Britain had seized Mauritius from France in 1814 on Napoleon's defeat. The Republic of Mauritius covers an area of almost 2,000 sq km and its population stands at over a million people. It has a 20-percent plus Muslim population.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, following victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran withdrew from CENTO (Central Treaty Organization), which was practically dissolved. It was formed as a military organization in 1954 by the British as the Baghdad Pact that included Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Pakistan, with the US holding observer status. Following overthrow of the British-installed Iraqi regime in 1958 and Baghdad's withdrawal, the organization was named CENTO, to link the chain around the Soviet Union from Europe to Southeast Asia between NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Europe), and SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organization). Earlier, Pakistan had left CENTO in protest to the lack of support during its war with India, and with the ouster of the Shah’s regime, CENTO practically ceased to function. Prior to it, SEATO had dissolved following the US debacle in Vietnam.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, Ayatollah Mahmoud Ansari Qomi passed away at the age of 63. Born in holy Qom, he completed his higher religious studies at the famous seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, and on return to Iran, was active in the 5 June 1963 uprising launched by the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). He strove to resolve people’s problems, both before the revolution and after the overthrow of the Shah. He wrote several books.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, several bombs exploded in Mumbai, India, resulting in the death of about 300 people and injuring hundreds more.

12 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Australia's Muslims announced plans to form a political party to fight the growing Islamophobia in that country.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, tens of thousands of peaceful protesters marched on a palace of the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime in Manama, the capital of the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, after clashes with police.

AS/SS