Today is Friday; 10th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 21st of the Islamic month of Rajab 1437 lunar hijri; and April 29, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1305 solar years ago, on this day in 711 AD, the Muslim conquest of Spain formally started with the landing of a well-organized Berber-Arab army under command of Tareq ibn Ziyad on the rocky island known till this day in his memory as Gibraltar – a corruption of the Arabic “Jabal at-Tareq”. Since the 680s Muslims from North Africa had been raiding the coastal towns of the Iberian Peninsula across the Mediterranean but this was the first full-fledged expedition that led to the conquest of what are now Spain and Portugal, and which became the Province of al-Andalus. Tareq was governor of Tangiers in what is now Morocco under Musa ibn Nusayr, the conqueror and overall governor of the Province of Ifriqiya (made up of present day western Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco). 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 ibn 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 Hamadan; he was an Arab of the Sadf tribe; he was a Berber from North Africa. Musa is also said to be the son of an Iranian Christian, according to the historian Tabari; while others say he was from the Lakhmid Arab clan who were clients of the Sassanid Dynasty.

1189 lunar years ago, on this day in 248 AH, the scholar Abu Hatem Sahl ibn Mohammad Sijistani passed away. An expert in Qur’anic sciences, hadith, literary techniques and poetry, he was also involved in social affairs as well. Books authored by him include “Akhlaq al-Insan”, and “E’raab al-Qur’an”.

925 solar years ago, on this day in 1091 AD, at the Battle of Levounion in the Balkans, the Pechenegs Turks, while invading the Byzantine Empire from their homeland north of the Black Sea, were decisively defeated by Emperor Alexius I, who was afraid that a possible alliance between these non-Muslim Turks and the Muslim Turks of the Iran-based Seljuq Empire could spell the end of the Eastern Roman Empire.

802 lunar years ago, on this day in 635AH, Sultan Abul-Ma'ali Mohammad al-Ayyubi, known as al-Malik al-Kamel, the 5th ruler of the Ayyubid Kurdish dynasty of Egypt, died after twenty years of rule. Son and successor Salah od-Din Ayyubi’s brother, Sultan al-Adel, he defeated two invasions by the European Crusaders – the 5th and 6th Crusades. His most ignominious act was handing over of the Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas, Bethlehem and some other parts of Palestine to Fredrick Barbarossa of Germany, an act that infuriated the Muslims.

727 solar years ago, on this day in 1289 AD, the principality of Tripoli, in what is now Lebanon, was freed from180 years of European Christian occupation by Sultan Qalawun of Egypt, heralding the end of the last few remaining “pocket-states” of the Crusaders in Syria. The liberation of Tripoli was preceded by that of Margat (in 1285) and Lattakhiya (in 1287), and was followed by the liberation of Acre (in 1291). The Crusaders of Tripoli had brought upon themselves the wrath of the Muslims by their alliance with the Buddhists and active participation in Hulagu Khan’s sack of Baghdad in 1258 and the Mongol invasions of Syria in 1260. The Mamluk sultan razed Tripoli to the ground and ordered the building of a new city a few km inland.

638 lunar years ago, on this day in 799 AH, Mahmud I, the 5th king of the Bahmani kingdom of Iranian origin of the Deccan (or southern India) died in his capital Gulbarga after a reign of 19 years. His 17-year old son Ghiyas od-Din succeeded him as Tahmatan Shah, but two months later was blinded and imprisoned by the Turkish slave Tughalchin Khan, who placed the younger brother, Shams od-Din on the Turquoise Throne. Five months later, Tughalchin and his puppet were deposed by Mahmud Shah’s cousin Taj od-Din Firouz Shah, the greatest ruler of the dynasty who reigned for 25 years, assisted by the able Iranian vizier, Mir Fazlollah Inju of Shiraz. The Bahmanis patronized and promoted Persian language and poetry, as well as Iranian art, culture, and architecture by inviting from Iran thousands of qualified persons in various fields. The famous Iranian poet Hafez Shirazi was also invited, but changed his mind midway through the journey, sending an excellent piece of poetry to the Bahmani court. The famous Gnostic of Kerman, Shah Ne’matollah Wali, was also requested to come to the Deccan, and instead sent his grandson – and later son – who preached in the Bahmani kingdom the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt or Blessed Household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

617 solar years ago, on this day in 1399 AD, Malik Ahmad Raja Faruqi, the founder of the Khandesh Sultanate in Central India – that lasted from 1382-to-1601 – died after a reign of 17 years as independent ruler, and was succeeded by his son, Nasser Khan. Son of Khan-e Jahan Faruqi, a minister in the court of Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq in Delhi, on separation of the Deccan in 1347, he cast his lot with Ala od-Din Hassan Bahman Shah (of Iranian origin), but in 1365 turned against his son, Mohammad Shah Bahmani, by joining the abortive rebellion of the governor of Daulatabad, Bahram Khan Mazandarani. As a result, he fled the Deccan and settled in Thalner, which later, along with Karanda, was conferred upon him as fiefdom by Sultan Ferouz Shah Tughlaq of Delhi. He soon defeated the Raja of Baglana and subdued the neighbouring chieftains, prompting Ferouz Shah to raise him to the rank of Sipah-Salar. Within a few years he mustered a force of twelve thousand cavalry, and by 1382 virtually became virtually independent. His son Nasser Khan ruled for 38 years that saw fluctuating fortunes for the kingdom because of constant warfare with Gujarat and the Bahmani Kingdom. Khandesh, with its capital, Burhanpur, was annexed by the Mughal Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar in 1601. The Sultanate was a Persianate society, with its rich contribution to Persian literature, art and architecture. Islam was also promoted through peaceful means, as is evident today by the large number of Tadvi Bhils, and Raj Gonds, who are Muslims.

162 solar years ago, on this day in 1854 AD, the French mathematician and biologist, Henri Poincare, was born. He conducted extensive studies, and his analysis on light, electricity, algebra, geometry, and possibilities calculus are important till this day. He was an authority on philosophy as well. His Poincare Conjecture holds that if any loop in a given three-dimensional space can be shrunk to a point, the space is equivalent to a sphere. It remained an unsolved problem until Grigori Perelman proved a complete proof in 2003. He wrote books in different scientific fields and died in 1912.

138 lunar years ago, on this day in 1299 AH, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadr od-Din Sadr was born in holy Kazemayn in Iraq. Son of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ismail Sadr and grandson of Grand Ayatollah Sadr od-Din bin Saleh after whom the Sadr Family of well-known scholars is named, at the age of 29 he enrolled at the famous seminary of holy Najaf to complete higher religious studies under such prominent ulema as Akhound Khorasani, Ayatollah Seyyed Kazem Yazdi, and Ayatollah Mirza Hussain Na’ini. He then moved to holy Mashhad in Iran where he married the daughter of Grand Ayatollah Hussain Qomi and stayed for 6 years, before settling in holy Qom at the invitation of Ayatollah Shaikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri, the Reviver of the Qom Seminary. He later became Head of the Qom Seminary, and among his books mention could be made of “Khulasat al-Fosoul” and Annotation (Hashiya) on the “al-Kifaya”. His son was the renowned scholar Imam Musa Sadr who uplifted the social, economic and political conditions of the Shi’a Muslims of Lebanon, before being treacherously martyred by Libya’s military dictator Mo’ammar Qadhafi at whose official invitation he was visiting Tripoli. The Sadr family, whose ancestor had migrated to Iran from the Jabal Amel region, has produced numerous Islamic scholars in Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq, including Martyr Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Baqer Sadr of Najaf. Grand Ayatollah Sadr od-Din Sadr passed away in Qom at the age of 74 years.

100 solar years ago, on this day in 1916 AD, during World War I: The British Indian Army – 6th Poona Division numbering 13,000 – under Major-General Charles Townshend surrendered to Ottoman Forces at the end of the 147-day Siege of Kut in southern Iraq, during which attempts by other British battalions to break the siege ended in losses in the Battles of Shaikh Sa’d, Wadi and Hanna. It was one of the largest surrenders of British forces. The survivors of the siege were marched to imprisonment at Aleppo in Syria.

88 solar years ago, on this day in 1928 AD, at the behest of West European powers, Turkey’s dictator, Mustafa Kamal, forced the Turkish Muslim people to change their centuries-old writing of the Turkish language from the Arabic-Persian alphabet to the Latin script. The goal was to deprive Turkey and the Turks of their Islamic identity and make them culturally subordinate to Europe. Mustafa Kamal, who styled himself as Ataturk (or Father of Turks), was an avowed opponent of Islam, and in addition to forcibly replacing the traditional dress of the Turkish people with the European style of dressing, he banned the recitation of the Azan or the Call to Prayer from the mosques. Although these laic measures harmed the Turkish Muslims and for several decades made them subservience to the West, they failed to undermine their strong faith in Islam.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, following a string of defeats, the almost 1-million strong Nazi German army in Italy, unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Powers. This major setback, along with the Soviet forces’ pounding of Berlin, completely unnerved Adolf Hitler.

65 solar years ago, on this day in 1951 AD, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq was formally appointed Prime Minister of Iran following his nomination by the elected Majlis (parliament) by a vote of 79 in favour and 12 against. He launched a wide range of social reforms: unemployment compensation was introduced, factory owners were ordered to pay benefits to sick and injured workers, and peasants were freed from forced labor in their landlords' estates. Twenty percent of the money landlords received in rent was placed in a fund to pay for development projects such as public baths, rural housing, and pest control. On May 1, Mosaddeq nationalized AIOC or the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, cancelling its oil concession and expropriating its assets. The Majlis approved the bill to severe British hands from the Iranian oil industry. Britain filed a case against Iran at the International Court of Justice in Hague, but lost it. As a result, the British and the American regimes ganged up together to overthrow Mosaddeq and his cabinet in 1953 by plotting the August 17 coup that restored the fugitive Shah to power, and re-established foreign control over Iran’s oil industry.

46 solar years ago, on this day in 1970 AD, the Iranian poet, author, and painter, Ismail Ashtiani, passed away. After completing his studies at Tehran’s Dar ol-Fonoun Academy, he learned painting under the acclaimed Iranian painter, Kamal ol-Mulk. Later he became a teacher at Dar al-Fonoun and in 1928 its principal. He soon established the academy’s library and introduced new courses such as history of arts and mathematics in the curriculum. He has left behind numerous paintings. Among his literary works, mention can be made of his Diwan of poetry, and European Travelogue. Given his relentless and untiring efforts in teaching, Ismail Ashtiani was awarded an honorary PhD in 1946.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, the Bayt al-Moqaddas operations were launched by Iran’s Muslim combatants in the southwestern war zone to drive out the Ba’this occupation forces from Iran’s soil. Twenty-five days later, Iran liberated the whole areas including the port city of Khorramshahr, resulting in the death of 16,000 enemy troops, the capture of 19,000 others, and the downing of scores of warplanes.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, a deadly cyclone struck the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 miles or 249 km per hour, killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless.

Ordibehesht 10: is marked every year as Persian Gulf National Day to highlight the age-old historical term of this strategic waterway that separates the Iranian Plateau from the Arabian Peninsula, and has always been under Iran’s domination. Some 40 percent of the world’s crude oil supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. Following the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Americans, along with their client regimes in the Arab World, have been trying to create a rift between the Muslims of the region by coining the spurious name “Arab Gulf”, which is rejected by scholars, academicians, historians, geographers, and international bodies.

AS/ME