Today is Friday; 9th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 22nd of the Islamic month of Rajab 1440 lunar hijri; and March 29, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1380 lunar years ago, on this day in 60 AH, the Omayyad tyrant, Mu’awiyah, died in Damascus at the age of 80, nineteen years after usurping the caliphate from the Prophet of Islam’s elder grandson, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), whom he martyred through poisoning in 50 AH in violation of the terms of the treaty signed in 41 AH. Of doubtful paternity and born to the lecherous Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan, he grew up to become a staunch opponent of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – having been brought up by two of the most spiteful enemies of Islam. In 8 AH when Mecca surrendered to the Muslims, two-and-a-half-years before the passing away of the Prophet, he reluctantly paid lip service to Islam to escape execution. During the caliphate of Omar ibn Khattab, he was surprisingly appointed as governor of the newly conquered vast province of Shaam (made up of today’s Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and the illegal Zionist entity Israel), a position he held for almost 20 years despite his dismissal by the Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) against whom he came out into open armed rebellion at the War of Siffeen. During the almost 40 years he had entrenched himself in the mostly Christian Levant (Shaam), Mu’awiyah did not spare any effort to distort the teachings of Islam, oppress, torture, and kill Muslims, and indulge in all cardinal sins. On his deathbed, contrary to the terms of the treaty with Imam Hasan (AS), he named as caliph his libertine and openly infidel son, Yazid – born of an adulterous affair with a Christian Bedouin woman – a criminal decision that led to three of the most heinous crimes in history. The Godless Yazid, in the first year of his reign brutally martyred at Karbala the Prophet’s younger grandson, Imam Husain (AS). In the subsequent two years of his evil rule, he desecrated the sanctity of the Prophet’s shrine and mosque in Medina by ordering a general massacre, rape and plunder of Muslims; and next ordered the sacrilegious storming of the holy Ka’ba in Mecca, during the midst of which he died, thereby ending the rule of the house of Mu’awiyah – while another branch of the Omayyads, the Marwanids, continued the evil work of terrorizing the Muslim ummah for some 70 more years before they were thrown into the dustbin of history.

1174 solar years ago, on this day in 845 AD, Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collected a huge ransom for leaving France.

861 lunar years ago, on this day in 479AH, Spanish Muslims led by Yusuf bin Tashfin defeated Spanish Christians under command of Alphonse VI in the glorious battle of "az-Zalaqa". This decisive battle halted for over two-and-a-half centuries the bid by the Christian powers to drive out Spanish Muslim from the Iberian Peninsula.

750 lunar years ago, on this day in 690 AH, Muslims liberated from Crusader occupiers the city of Beirut – the capital of what is now Lebanon. The campaign was led by the Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria, al-Ashraf Khalil Qalawun, a Qipchaq Turk, who went on to liberate the other cities, thus completely ending the 200-year Crusader presence in the Levant.

589 solar years ago, on this day in 1430 AD, the Ottoman Empire under Murad II captured the Byzantine city of Thessalonica, and made it the commercial hub of the Turkish Empire. For almost five centuries the city called Selanik in Turkish was under Ottoman rule, until its occupation by Greece in 1912 during the First Balkan War. The mostly Muslim population of this city was deported to Turkey in 1922 and resettled with Greeks to change its Islamic atmosphere.

446 solar years ago, on this day in 1573 AD, French King Charles IX issued an edict in favour of Protestants, according to which the French Protestants who had beaten Catholics in the 4th War of Religion, gained freedom in observance of their rituals. This 4th War of Religion between Catholics and Protestants, which started as of July 16, 1572, is known as La Rochelle Battle.

343 solar years ago, on this day in 1676 AD, Ottoman Turks defeated Poland and gained control of parts of Ukraine. This battle started in 1671 with the unrest of Poland’s Cossacks and the Ottoman Empire’s support for them.

247 solar years ago, on this day in 1772 AD, Swedish thinker and mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, passed away at the age of 104. He based his philosophy on separation from the materialistic world and observance of the spiritual universe. He believed that whatever exists in the materialistic world is a symbol of the superior spiritual universe. He believed that the more pure and chaste the human being, the better he would be able to understand God. He wrote 50 books on his thoughts.

212 lunar years ago, on this day in 1228 AH, the prominent jurisprudent, Shaikh Ja’far bin Khizr al-Ḥilli an-Najafi, popular as Kashef al-Gheta, an epithet by which his progeny of scholars became well-known, passed away at the age of 73. A student of the famous scholars, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Mahdi Bahr al-Uloum, and Allamah Waheed Behbahani, he campaigned against Akhbaris, writing books and essays to reject their views. He succeeded Bahr al-Uloum as Head of the Najaf Seminary. During the Wahhabi attack on holy Najaf, Kashef al-Gheta defended the city, and was the first Shi’a Muslim scholar who wrote against the heretical Wahhabi cult. He wrote several books and groomed many scholars, including the famous jurisprudent, Shaikh Mohammad Hasan Najafi, the author of “Jawaher al-Kalaam”.

194 lunar years ago, on this day in 1246 AH, the prominent Iranian Islamic scholar Mullah Ali bin Jamshid, known as Akhound Noori, passed away in Isfahan. Born in a village near the town of Noor in Mazandaran, after initial studies in his hometown and later Qazvin, he travelled to Isfahan, where he studied under leading scholars, such as Aqa Mohammad Beedabadi and Mirza Abu’l-Qasim Modarres. He became an expert in Islamic philosophy, and the dean of the seminary of Isfahan, where he groomed almost a thousand students, politely declining in the process an invitation by King Fath-Ali Shah Qajar to come and teach in Tehran at the newly established Marvi seminary. Among his prominent students were Mullah Abdullah Zanouri and Haji Mullah Hadi Sabzevari. Of his numerous works in both Persian and Arabic, mention could be made of “Hojjat al-Islam” (Argumentation of Islam), which is a refutation of the British orientalist and Anglican priest Henry Martyn’s book casting doubts on the faith of Muslims. Another of Mullah Ali Noori’s famous works is “Hawashiy-e Asfaar” on the famous Safavid-era philosopher, Mullah Sadra’s work “al-Asfaar al-Arba”.

170 solar years ago, on this day in 1849 AD, British colonialists formally annexed the Punjab region of the subcontinent after defeating the Sikhs. Punjab is today divided between Pakistan and India.

149 solar years ago, on this day in 1870 AD, Italian-French explorer, Paul-Emile Botta, died at the age of 68. He was assigned as French consul to Mosul in Iraq, where his interest in archaeology led to the discovery in 1843 of the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II (721 to 705 BC) at Dur Sharrukin or modern Khorsabad.

139 solar years ago, on this day in 1885 AD, famous Iranian historian, writer, and poet, Mirza Mohammad Taqi Sepehr Kashani, titled “Lisan ol-Mulk”, passed away at the age of 86. After initial education in his hometown Kashan, he moved to Tehran and on the encouragement of the poet laureate Saba he started writing books. On Saba's death, he returned to Kashan and was appointed deputy to Prince Mahmoud son of Fath Ali Shah. The prince gave him the pen name "Sepehr". He was called to Tehran by Fath Ali Shah and entered government service. During Mohammad Shah’s reign, he was the royal eulogist and secretary of the Finance Department. In 1843, the Shah commissioned him to write a comprehensive history from the creation of Adam. He compiled it in several volumes titled “Nasekh at-Tawarikh” which covers the world history up to 1272 AH (1855 AD) when he was given the title “Lisan ol-Mulk” by Nasser od-Din Shah. He also wrote the books “Aina-e Jahan-Nama” and “Merits of the Infallible Imams”.

117 solar years ago, on this day in 1902 AD, Marcel Ayme, the French novelist, children's writer, humour writer, screenwriter and theatre playwright, was born. After the great success of his novel “La Jument Verte” in 1933, translated into English as "The Green Mare", he concentrated mostly on writing and published children's stories, novels, and collections of stories. He died in 1967.

116 solar years ago, on this day in 1903 AD, regular wireless news service began between New York and London on Marconi’s wireless. On 30 March 1903, The Times in London became the first newspaper to establish an ongoing arrangement with the Marconi Telegraph Company for regular transmission of news between the US and the UK. Shortly thereafter, the New York Times requested that it be part of the arrangement. Despite extensive teething problems the importance of wireless as a cheap form of communication quickly became obvious.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, the Malagasy uprising against French rule in Madagascar started through coordinated attacks by the local people, armed mainly with spears, against military bases and French-owned plantations in the eastern part of the island around Moramanga and Manakara. The nationalist cause was rapidly adopted in the south and spread to the central highlands and the capital of Antananarivo by the following month, with the number of Malagasy fighters estimated at over a million. The French savagely attacked the independence-seekers and engaged in a variety of terror tactics designed to demoralize the population. The French carried out mass executions, torture, rape, torching of entire villages, collective punishment and other atrocities such as throwing live Malagasy prisoners out of airplanes – called death flights. As many as 100,000 Malagasies were killed, while only 550 French soldiers lost their life. By August 1948, the majority of the nationalist leaders were killed or captured, and the Uprising was effectively put down by December 1948. The violent repression of the uprising left deep scars in Malagasy society. A generation of the managerial class was wiped out, creating challenges for the country in 1960 on achieving independence. The Malagasy trace their origin to Borneo in Southeast Asia. Muslims form over 10 percent of the population. The first Muslims to arrive were Arabs and Somalis in the 9th century. The written history of Madagascar began with the Arabs, who established trading posts along the northwest coast by the 10th century and introduced Islam and the Arabic script that was formally used to transcribe the Malagasy language in a form of writing known as “Sorabe”. Today the language is written in the Latin script imposed by the French. The majority of people are Christians – a legacy of European colonial rule. Over 90% of Madagascar’s wildlife is not found anywhere.

46 solar years ago, on this day in 1973 AD, following the humiliating US failure to suppress the aspirations of the Vietnamese people for national unity, despite intense bombing and use of chemical weapons, the last US combat soldiers left the artificial entity South Vietnam, whose capital Saigon fell on 30 April 1975, thereby ending the war that had started in 1955 with unwarranted American intervention.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, the Gnostic, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Marandi, passed away at the age of 97 in his hometown Marand. Born in an impoverished family, he studied at the Tabriz seminary, and on visiting Iraq for pilgrimage on behalf of a philanthropist, decided to enroll at the famous Islamic seminary of holy Najaf, where he stayed for sixteen years and attained the status of Ijtehad. For ten years, he was roommate and close friend of the famous exegete of the holy Qur’an, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabatabaie. He attended the classes of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani, Grand Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hussain Na’ini, Ayatollah Aqa Zia od-Din Iraqi, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Qazi Tabatabaie, and Ayatollah Badkubaei. On return to Iran, he took up teaching at the seminary of Tabriz, but his gnostic spirit shunned the limelight he was acquiring, and he retired to his hometown Marand, to continue his activities amongst the deprived people of the region. He fully supported the grassroots movement of the Iranian people against the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime. When the regime exiled to Turkey, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), he issued statements in support of the Imam, and played a vital role in awakening the people of Marand and its surroundings. He left the transient world with the fundamental testimony of monotheism on his lips: “la ilaha il-Allah” (there is no god but Allah). 

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, Iran’s intelligence personnel carried out an “intricate” cross-border mission to free Iranian diplomat, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, who was kidnapped in 2008 by terrorists in northwestern Pakistan on November 13, 2008, along with his Pakistani bodyguard, while driving over a narrow bridge in Peshawar, when two gunmen blocked way and opened fire.

AS/SS