Today is Monday; 5th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 18th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1440 lunar hijri; and March 25, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1433 lunar years ago, on this day in 7 AH, Ibrahim, the infant son of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), passed away at the age of a year and six months. His mother was the virtuous Maria Qibtiyya (Mary the Copt), who was sent to the Prophet by the Byzantine governor of Egypt, Muqawqis, along with other presents, in response to the letter of invitation to Islam. The Prophet wept at his death and personally laid him in the grave in the Baqie Cemetery, addressing the dead child with tearful eyes that this is the Will of God. Earlier in his youth the Prophet had also lost to the cold hands of death his two infant sons by his first and long standing wife, the Mother of all True Believers (Omm al-Momineen), Hazrat Khadija al-Kubra (SA) – Qassim and Abdullah.

1019 solar years ago, on this day in 1000 AD, al-Hakem bi-Amrillah, the 6^th self-styled caliph of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’a Muslim dynasty of Egypt-Syria-North Africa, had his Chief Minister Barjawan the Sicilian eunuch, murdered to assume control of the government. The first Fatemid ruler to be born in Egypt, and named Mansour, he was a boy of eleven years, when he succeeded his father, Nizar al-Aziz-Billah, who had appointed Barjawan as his son’s tutor and guardian. Barjawan had tried to balance the power struggle at the court in Cairo between the powerful Berber and Turkic-Iranian military factions, often playing the one against the other to protect his own position, which at times he lost and regained. On his death, power was strengthened for al-Hakem bi-Amrillah, who is considered an important figure for several Ismaili sects, such as the world's 15 million Nizaris, in addition to the 2 million Druze of the Levant whose eponymous Iranian founder ad-Darazi proclaimed the Fatemid caliph as divine incarnation. Al-Hakem, who disappeared without trace at the age of 36 during one of his nightly walks and only his bloodstained clothes were found, actively promoted Ismaili beliefs as far as Central Asia, even sending an embassy to the Chinese emperor, prompting fears in Baghdad amongst the Abbasids and release of the “Baghdad Manifesto” signed by court mullahs declaring the Fatemids to be of Jewish and Christian origin, rather than direct descendants of the Prophet’s Immaculate Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon her). Al-Hakem also restored in the Azaan or call to prayer the phrase “hayya ala khayril-Amr” (hasten towards good deed), and publicly denounced the first three caliphs as usurpers of the right of political leadership of the Commander of the Faithful, the Prophet’s cousin, son-in-law and divinely-designated heir, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

1014 lunar years ago, on this day in 426 AH, the Spanish Muslim mathematician, astronomer, and physician, Asbagh ibn Mohammad Ibn Samh al-Gharnati, passed away at the age of 56 years. He wrote his "Kitab az-Zij" in astronomy mainly based on the Iranian Islamic scientist, Mohammad ibn Musa Khwarezmi's book "Sindhind". He also wrote a treatise on the construction of the astrolabe and another on its use. He also extensively quotes in his "Kitab al‐Amal" from another Iranian Islamic astronomer, Ahmad ibn Abdullah Habash al‐Haseb al-Mervazi of Merv, Khorasan, which is evident of the profound influence of the Islamic East on Europe.

885 lunar years ago, on this day in 555 AH, Abdullah ibn Yousuf al-Azeed, the last self-styled caliph of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite Muslim dynasty of Egypt, Syria and North Africa, ascended the throne in Cairo at the age of 11. He was a pawn in the hands of his powerful vizier Shawar who frequently changed alliances, ranging from the Zangids of Syria to the Crusader occupiers of Palestine that brought about the doom of the Fatemid state. His eleven-year reign ended with his dethronement by the Kurdish general, Salah od-Din Ayyoubi, whom he had appointed as vizier on the assumption of containing the power of his own courtiers. Salah od-Din, who had entered Egypt as deputy to his uncle, Shirkoh, sent by Noor od-Din Zangi of Aleppo to protect Egypt from the Crusaders, brutally persecuted Shi'ite Muslims, burned entire libraries, and forced the people to become Sunnis, thereby ending over two-and-a-half centuries of Fatemid rule. The Fatemid rulers were buried in the grand mosque of Cairo known as “al Mashhad al Husain” in honour of the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3^rd Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

766 solar years ago, on this day in the year 1253 AD, the prominent Persian poet and chronicler of the Subcontinent, Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, was born in northwestern India. An ethnic Turk who was highly skilled in Iranian and Indian literature and music, he was also familiar with Arabic and Turkish languages. It was, however, in Persian poetry and prose that he excelled. Amir Khosrow was a student of the famous Delhi Gnostic, Nizam od-Din Awliya, and is regarded as the "Father of Qawwali" (a devotional music form of the Sufis in the Subcontinent on chanting praises of God, Prophet Mohammad [SAWA] and Imam Ali [AS]). He is also credited with introducing Persian, Arabic and Turkish elements into Indian classical music and was the originator of the “khayal” and “tarana” styles of music. Amir Khosrow was an expert in many styles of Persian poetry which were developed in medieval Iran, from Khaqani Shirvani’s “qasidas” (panegyrics) to Nizami Ganajavi’s “khamsa” (five long odes). He has written in many verse forms including “ghazal” (lyrics), “mathnavi” (ode), “qata” (fragment), “rubai” (quatrain), “do-baiti” (couplet), and “tarkib-band” (composite-tie). The “Khamsa-e Khosrow” depicts in verse five classical romances: “Hasht-Behesht”, “Matla’ ul-Anwaar”, “Sheerin-Khosrow”, Majnun-Laila and Aaina-Sikandari. Among his prose works is “Tughluq-Namah”, a history of the reign on Tughlaq Dynasty.

220 lunar years ago, on this day in 1220 AH, the prominent Islamic scholar, Hojjat al-Islam Mullah Mohammad Ashrafi, was born in northern Iran. He left for the seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq for higher studies, and soon became an authority on hadith, exegesis of the holy Qur'an, and philosophy. He passed away in 1315 AH. One of his books is "Asrar ash-Shahada" (Secrets of Martyrdom).

198 solar years ago, on this day in 1821 AD, following years of sedition by European Christian powers amongst the Greek-speaking subjects of the declining Ottoman Empire the Province of “Yunanistan” declared itself independent and adopted the ancient name of “Greece” that was no longer in use for over a millennium. The Ottomans immediately suppressed the revolt that sporadically raged in different parts, but was crushed in 1825 by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mohammad Ali Pasha, the Albanian Ottoman governor of Egypt. At this stage Britain, France and Russia, decided to intervene militarily and the defeat of Ibrahim Pasha by the combined British-French-Russian navies, separated the Peloponnese Peninsula from Ottoman rule, resulting in the establishment of the kingdom of Greece in 1830. The Greek Christians immediately launched a general massacre of Greek Muslims, expelled them, destroyed mosques or converted them into churches, in order to remove all influence of Turkish rule. Over the next decades, as the Ottoman Empire became more weak, other Greek-speaking provinces were detached and added to Greece by the chief European powers. It should be noted that the ancient land of Greece was among the cradles of civilizations. Made up of city-states, it was part of the Iranian Achaemenian Empire 2,500 years ago, until its emergence under Alexander of Macedonia as a powerful empire itself. For almost two centuries Greece controlled parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, until it ceased to exist as an independent political entity on the world map in 146 BC with its conquest by the Roman Empire. Some five centuries later the region became centre of the Eastern Roman Empire and after Christianization was called Byzantine. Since the 13^th century, it gradually came under the rule of the Muslim Turks of Anatolia and was incorporated in the rising power of the Ottoman Muslim Empire, which finally ended the existence of Byzantine in 1453 AD. Today, Greece, which is grappling with an acute financial, economic and political crisis, is among the weakest states of Europe. It covers an area of 132,000 sq km and shares borders with Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, and Macedonia.

62 solar years ago, on this day in 1957 AD, the treaty for establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC or the Common Market), was signed in the Italian capital, Rome. The goal was to form a customs union among member states to get rid of tariffs to freely facilitate exchange of goods, labour force, investment and services. In 1992, EEC was renamed the European Union (EU) and expanded to include the former socialist states.

48 solar years ago, on this day in 1971 AD, the Bangladesh Liberation War practically began following the launching of a military attack by the armed forces of West Pakistan on the Bengali-speaking civilians of East Pakistan. Tens of thousands of Bengali Muslims were killed by the Punjabi-Pakhtoun army, resulting in war with India in December that led to dismemberment of Pakistan, and the birth of Bangladesh as an independent Muslim country.

44 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, King Faisal Ibn Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia was shot and killed at point blank range by his US-trained nephew, Faisal Ibn Musaid, at the age of 69 after a 11-year reign, less than two years after he led the oil embargo against the West during the Israeli war, thereby crippling the economy of the West. The CIA was behind the assassination, since the king, in addition to taking the decisive step of oil embargo, was a broad-minded person, aware of the criminal nature of his own father, Abdul-Aziz, who with British help had occupied much of the Arabian Peninsula and named it Saudi Arabia. Faisal thus acknowledged the religious and cultural diversity of the land, including the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim oil-rich region of the east, the Asir in the southwest that along with the Shi’ite Ismaili regions of Najran and Jizan was seized from Yemen, and the old Hashemite Kingdom of the Hejaz, with its capital Mecca. He included non-Wahhabi, cosmopolitan Sunni Hejazis from Mecca and Jeddah in his government, and when the great Shi’ite Muslim Marja’, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsin al-Hakeem, came on Hajj pilgrimage, Faisal allowed him to hold the congregational prayers at the holy Ka’ba in the Masjid al-Haraam. The Wahhabi minority wanted to remove him, and after his assassination, discrimination based on sect, tribe, region and gender became the order of the day and has remained as such until today.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, US troops, which had entered Somalia in December 1992 under the pretext of ending unrests in this African country, were forced to leave. In 1991, Somali opposition groups had toppled Dictator Mohammad Ziad Bareh, but failed to agree on formation of a coalition government and this political deadlock sparked a civil war, thereby providing a pretext for the US to deploy its troops within the framework of UN peacekeeping forces. The Somalis resented foreign intervention and despite suffering hundreds of fatalities, killed over a hundred US occupation forces and finally forced them out.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, Iranian scholar and historian, Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim Bastani Parizi, passed away at the age of 89. Born near Sirjan in Kerman Province, southeastern Iran, he came to Tehran for higher studies and obtained his doctorate in history, after which he joined Tehran University as lecturer. Since youth he took up composing poems and writing essays. An avid researcher, he wrote a great many articles for different Iranian journals, and translated into Persian from Arabic and French. He authored several books such as “History of Kerman”, “Quest for Independence”, and “Zu’l-Qarnain or Cyrus the Great”.

AS/SS