Today is Sunday; 4th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 17th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1440 lunar hijri; and March 24, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1222 lunar years ago, on this day 218 AH, the 7^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, Abdullah al-Mamoun, died at the age of 48 near Tarsus in what is now southwestern Turkey, during a campaign against the Byzantine Empire, after a 24-year reign, four of which were involved in civil war with his step brother, Amin, the rival caliph in Baghdad whom he eventually ordered killed. Born to the tyrant Haroun's Iranian concubine Marajel, his capital was initially the Khorasani city of Marv (currently in Turkmenistan). He earned lasting damnation for forcing Imam Reza (AS), the Prophet’s 8^th Infallible Heir to come to Marv from Medina, as part of his plot to isolate the Ahl al-Bayt from the ummah. When the Imam's popularity grew among the people during his two-year sojourn in Khorasan, the crafty Mamoun martyred the Prophet's rightful heir in Tous through a fatal dose of poison.

1210 solar years ago, on this day in 809 AD, the tyrant Haroun Rashid, the 5^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, died in the city of Tous in Khorasan, in northeastern Iran, at the age of 45, after a rule of 23 years, during which he killed over 60 descendants of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), especially the 7th Infallible Leader, Imam Musa Kazem (AS), who was the victim of a fatal dose of poison in the prison of Baghdad. Born in Rayy (a suburb of modern Tehran today), to Mahdi al-Abbasi’s Yemeni concubine of dubious character, named Khayzaran, Haroun seized power after the suspicious death of his elder brother Hadi al-Abbasi. He consolidated his rule over the vast realm from North Africa up to the borders of China and India, largely through the administrative abilities of the Iranian Barmakid family, whose head Yahya Barmaki was made prime minister, followed by his sons. The crafty Haroun gradually liquidated the Barmakids and behaved ruthlessly with the followers of the Prophet’s Household and other Muslims who opposed his immoral and illegitimate rule. He died while on his way to suppress a rebellion in Kabul, in what is now Afghanistan. Today there is no sign of his rotten grave, while the sprawling golden-domed mausoleum of Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), in Mashhad, beckons millions of pilgrims from all over the world, as testimony to the triumph of the Ahl al-Bayt over the usurper caliphs.

737 lunar years ago, on this day in 703 AH, renowned Muslim worldwide traveler, Shams od-Din Mohammad bin Abdullah, known as Ibn Battuta, was born in Tangiers in what is now Morocco. As a youth he started his initial journey to perform the Hajj, but after pilgrimage to Mecca, kept on travelling, visiting over a period of thirty years most of the Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands on the three continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. His journeys including trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, and to West Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China, cover a total of 75,000 miles (121,000 km), surpassing by threefold the travels of his near-contemporary Marco Polo of Venice. In Iraq, he visited the holy shrine in Najaf of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), and although a Sunni, he has admitted how people from far and near seek intercession with God through the Prophet’s 1^st Infallible Heir and are cured of their ailments. He then travelled all over Iran, and later after visiting the Byzantine Empire, Europe and Russia, he arrived in India, where he was appointed the Qazi of Delhi by Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq. On his return to his homeland Morocco, he also served as Qazi. He dictated to scribes the details of his travels in his book titled "ar-Rehla", and died at the age of 66.

618 solar years ago, on this day in 1401 AD, the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Timur the Lame, sacked Damascus after defeating the Mamluk Turkic army of Syria-Egypt, massacring thousands of people, plundering their property, and carrying off artisans and craftsmen to his capital Samarqand. Timur, notorious for his brutality, ordered the piling of heads of the slaughtered in a field outside the northeast corner of the walls of Damascus, where a city square still bears the name Burj ar-Ru'ous or Tower of Heads. Even a delegation sent by Sultan Nasir-ad-Din Faraj, from Cairo that included the famous scholar Ibn Khaldoun, failed to dissuade Timur, who had started his war against the Mamluks in 1399, from sacking the city, burning the Omayyad Mosque, and killing the people. Timur's forces had a couple of months earlier sacked Aleppo, massacred many of the inhabitants, and built a tower of 20,000 skulls outside the city. Among those carried off as prisoners to Central Asia, was the twelve-year-old Ahmad ibn Arabshah, who later became a scholar and wrote a biography of Timur.

525 solar years ago, on this day in 1494 AD, Georgius Agricola, German mineralogist and scholar known as “Father of Mineralogy,” was among the first Europeans to found a natural science upon observation and independently from theories of the ancients. Having studied medicine, he became interested in mineralogy through his study of miners' diseases. His contributions to mining geology and metallurgy, mineralogy, structural geology, and paleontology, formed a foundation for further systematic study of the Earth and of its rocks, minerals, and fossils. His most important work “De Re Metallica” (published a year after his death) summarized all the practical knowledge gained by Saxon miners. He may have coined the word petroleum (rock oil). As was the fashion of the day, he Latinized his real name of Georg Bauer (both Bauer in German and Agricola in Latin mean “farmer”). As a matter of fact, during the heyday of the Islamic civilization, Muslim scientists had explored mineralogy and wrote important books and treatises in the field of geology, metallurgy, and mineralogy, which were translated from Arabic into Latin, enabling Europeans to learn new sciences and take credit for themselves in this regard. One of the most famous Islamic scientists in this field was the Iranian polymath, Abu Rayhan Birouni.

416 solar years ago, on this day in 1603 AD, Queen Elizabeth I of England, died at the age of 70 years after a reign of 44 years. She was 5th and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty founded by her grandfather, Henry VII. Although short-tempered and indecisive, with a strain of cruelty, her reign later known as the Elizabethan era, saw the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and for the seafaring prowess of Francis Drake.

416 solar years ago, on this day in 1603 AD, James VI of Scotland became King James I of England on the death of Queen Elizabeth I, who had imprisoned and executed his mother, Mary Queen of Scots. England and Scotland were thus joined together as United Kingdom.

319 lunar years ago, on this day in 1121 AH, prominent Bahraini scholar, Shaikh Sulaiman ibn Shaikh Abdullah al-Bahrani al-Mahuzi, passed away at the age of 46. He is the author of “al-Me’raj”, which is an explanation to the famous bibliographical work “al-Fehrist” of Shaikh at-Ta’efa Tusi, the Iranian Islamic jurisprudent and founder of the Islamic Seminary of holy Najaf. He also authored “al-Balaghah fi’r-Rijal” – a critical biographical work of transmitters, narrators, and scholars of Hadith.

169 lunar years ago, on this day in 1271 AH, prominent Islamic scholar, Seyyed Abu-Torab Khwansari, was born in the central Iranian city of Khwansar. An authority on theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, and exegesis of Holy Qur'an, he wrote many books that prove his profound knowledge. Among his works are “Qasd as-Sabeel”, and “Mesbaah al-Salehin”. He passed away in 1346 AH at the age of 75.

137 solar years ago, on this day in 1882 AD, German physician and researcher, Robert Koch, discovered Koch Bacillus of Tuberculosis. He studied for more than ten years to discover the reason behind contraction of tuberculosis, which was later named after him. He received Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1905.

134 solar years ago, on this day in 1855 AD, the Chinese defeated the French in the Battle of Bang Bo, also known as Battle of Zhennan Pass, on the Tonkin-Guangxi border of Vietnam. The battle set the scene for the French retreat and conclusion of the Sino-French War in early April in circumstances of considerable embarrassment for France.

114 solar years ago, on this day in 1905 AD, the French author, Jules Verne, died at the age of 77. He was born in February 1828. He wrote science fictions such as “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea”, “Around the World in Eighty Days”, “The Mysterious Island”, and “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”. Educational films for the young generation have been made from some of this French author’s books.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, the Iranian literary figure, Amir Hussein Yazdgerdi, passed away at the age of 57. He lectured at the Faculty of Theology of Tehran University. His most important works include editing, researching, and writing precise commentaries on a number of historical books. He has also conducted studies on different literary domains.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, the Jame' Mosque of Baku in the Republic of Azerbaijan was renovated and reopened to worshippers after 70 years. This historical mosque was shut down in 1920 by the communists.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, during the Kosovo War, NATO commenced air bombardment on the rump state of Yugoslavia, marking the first time it attacked a sovereign country. The West’s pretext for military attacks were the war crimes committed by Serbia’s dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, who had perpetrated the massacre of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, Bhutan officially became a democracy, with its first ever general election that ended the power of the monarchy. Bhutan is situated in the Himalayas and shares borders with India and China.

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