Today is Saturday; 31st of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 14th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1440 lunar hijri; and April 20, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1117 solar years ago, on this day in 902 AD, Amr ibn Layth, the second ruler of the Saffarid Dynasty of Iran, was executed in Baghdad after a reign of 22 years, by the self-styled caliph, Mu’tamid, on falling victim to the Abbasid bait to militarily confront the powerful fellow Iranian Samanid Dynasty of Central Asia and suffering defeat, capture, and handover to the caliph. He started life as a mule-driver and a mason, and when his elder brother, the coppersmith Ya’qoub ibn Layth, embarked on a military career, he fought alongside him. In 875 he became governor of the Khorasani city of Herat (currently in Afghanistan). When Ya’qoub died in Fars in 879 after his abortive invasion of Iraq, Amr managed to become the next Saffarid ruler and immediately made peace with the Abbasids. In 898, he was deceitfully declared as governor of Transoxiana, which was ruled by the Samanids. Mu’tamid enticed Amr to confront the Samanids, but was crushingly defeated and captured. The Samanid ruler, Isma’il ibn Ahmad, sent him in chains to Baghdad, where he was executed in 902.

801 lunar years ago, on this day in 639 AH, Shafe'i theologian and scientist, Kamal od-Din Ibn Younus, passed away in his hometown Mosul. A product of the famous Nizamiyya Academy of Baghdad founded by the Iranian vizier of the Seljuqid Dynasty, Nizam ol-Molk Tusi, he had studied mathematics and geometry under the Iranian scientist, Sharaf od-Din Tusi. He was also an astronomer and physician, and among his books is “al-Asrar as-Sultaniyyah” on astronomy.

622 solar years ago, on this day in 1397 AD, Mahmud I, the 5^th king of the Bahmani kingdom of Iranian origin of the Deccan (southern India) died in his capital Gulbarga after a reign of 19 years. His son Ghiyas od-Din succeeded him, but was blinded and imprisoned by the Turkish slave Lalchin Khan, who placed the younger brother, Shams od-Din on the throne. Five months later, Lalchin and his puppet were deposed by Mahmoud Shah’s cousin Taj od-Din Firouz Shah, the greatest ruler of the dynasty who reigned for 25 years. The Bahmanis patronized and promoted Persian language and poetry, as well as Iranian art, culture, and architecture in the Deccan 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 the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt in the Bahmani kingdom.

598 lunar years ago, on this day in 842 AH, North African Maliki jurisprudent and literary figure, Mohammad ibn Ahmad Ibn Marzouq al-Hafeed, passed away. He performed the Hajj pilgrimage twice at a young age, and travelled over most of North Africa, Egypt, Syria and Constantinople. He belonged to the famous Ibn Marzouq Family of Tilmisan that produced theologians, literary figures, and politicians who influenced the Islamic culture of the people of what is now Algeria and Morocco. He has left behind several books, including a book in verse on the science of hadith, titled “al-Hadiqah”.

267 solar years ago, on this day in 1752 AD, started the Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War, a new phase in the Burmese Civil War (1740–57). It was fought between the Konbaung Dynasty and the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom of Burma (Myanmar) from 1752 to 1757. The war was the last of several wars between the Burmese-speaking north and the Mon-speaking south that ended the Mon people's centuries-long dominance of the south. The fall of the 16-year-old southern kingdom soon followed in May 1757 when its capital Pegu (Bago) was sacked.

250 solar years ago, on this day in 1769 AD, the Amerindian chief of Ottawa, Obwandiyag or Pontiac, as he was called by the British, against whom he resisted, was assassinated. He struggle against British military occupation of the Great Lakes region began in the May 1763 when Pontiac and followers attempted to take Fort Detroit. In July 1763, he defeated a British detachment at the Battle of Bloody Run, but was unable to capture Detroit. In October he lifted the siege and withdrew to the Illinois Country. The British resorted to diplomacy and as the talks prolonged his influence grew, until he was treacherously killed.

211 solar years ago, on this day in 1808 AD, Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later President Louis Napoleon of the First French Republic and then Napoleon III of the Second French Empire, was born in Paris to Louis Bonaparte – younger brother of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and king of Holland from 1805-to-1810. On Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1814 and exile to St. Helena, the family moved to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and later to Britain. In between, after brief visits to Paris where his presence was not liked by Emperor Louis-Philippe because of the popular appeal the name Bonaparte carried for the French masses, Charles Napoleon visited Brazil and the US, and led two attempts to seize power in France – the Strasbourg coup of 1936 and the Bolougne adventure of 1940 during which he was captured and imprisoned for life. While in prison, he wrote poems, political essays and articles on diverse topics; contributing articles to newspapers and magazines and becoming quite well known as a writer. His most famous book was “L'extinction du Pauperism” in 1844 – a study of the causes of poverty in the French industrial working class, and proposals to eliminate it. After his dramatic escape from prison in 1846 and fleeing to Britain, he intensified his plans of return to France. The opportunity came with the French Revolution of 1848 and the abdication of Emperor Louis-Philippe that made him set out for Paris where he found the Second Republic declared under a Provisional Government with several factions competing for power. Back in London in March 1848, he watched the unfolding events in Paris, where in the September elections for the National Assembly, he polled the highest number of votes and returned in triumph to Paris to take his place in the National Assembly. The new constitution called for a strong executive and he announced his candidature and went on to win the December polls with a record 74 percent of votes, thereby becoming the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. In 1851, when he was blocked by the constitution and parliament from running for a second term, President Louis Napoleon organized a coup d’etat to seize absolute power and on 2^nd December 1852, the 48^th anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s coronation, he crowned himself as Napoleon III. One of his first priorities was modernization of the French economy. During his 18-year rule, he initiated an energetic foreign policy which aimed to remove the limitations imposed on France since 1815, and succeeded in reasserting French influence in Europe and France’s colonial empire. He led allied action against Russia in the Crimean War and secured the Papal States against annexation by Italy by defeating the Italians at Mentana. In Southeast Asia, he established French rule in what is now Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, as well as New Caledonia. French interests in China were upheld in the Second Opium War; an abortive campaign against Korea was launched in 1866 while a military mission to Japan ended in failure. French intervention in Mexico was also unsuccessful, and ended in 1867 due to local resistance and US diplomatic pressure. Eventually, the French Empire was overthrown three days after his defeat 1870 in the Battle of Sedan by the Prussian (German) Empire that resulted in his capture, imprisonment and exile to London where he died in 1871 at the age of 65. In France, Napoleon III's reign saw an era of prosperity and industrialization. He rebuilt Paris, built new aqueducts, rebuilt the sewers, created new boulevards and avenues and laid parks.

194 lunar years ago, on this day in 1246 AH, famous Arabic poet, Seyyed Haidar ibn Seyyed Sulaiman al-Hilli, was born in Iraq. He was a master of elegies on the tragic martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3^rd Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

139 lunar years ago, on this day in 1301 AH, the Iranian author and poet, Mirza Morteza Khan, who wrote under the penname “Farhang”, was born in Tehran. As a teenager he joined the freedom fighters during the Constitutional Movement, and started work as a journalist. As part of his political activities, he published three papers, namely “Farhang”, “Khavarestan”, and “Pa-e Takht”. For a period he was in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and lived for some years in Europe in the cities of Vienna, Paris, and Switzerland, studying and promoting Islamic sciences and teachings.

130 solar years ago, on this day in 1889 AD, Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, was born in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire. His father was the illegitimate son of a Jew. He joined the German army in World War I and after the war, resentful of the humiliating defeat, founded the Nazi Party by blending his socialist and radical nationalistic views. He was imprisoned for eight months in 1923 for attempts to stage a coup, during which he wrote his book “Mein Kemp” (My Struggle), to introduce his political beliefs. Shortly after release he became German chancellor and a year later the German president. Thereafter, through the dreaded Gestapo, he suppressed his opponents and heavily militarized Germany as part of his plan to avenge the defeat in World War 1. In 1939 he started World War 2 with the goal of conquering all of Europe and if possible the world, by forging alliances with Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. After initial victories all over Europe, the German Nazi forces were pushed back and finally defeated in 1945. Hitler committed suicide in a bunker in the German capital, Berlin, when the Allied forces converged from all sides for the final assault upon him to end World War 2.

75 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hassan Najafi Qochani, Khorasan, passed away in his hometown Qochan at the age of 67. After initial studies in Isfahan, he left for the famous seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq for higher studies under the prominent ulema of his time. After attaining the status of Ijtehad he returned to Iran, and spent the rest of his life in Qochan, grooming student and writing books. Among his prominent works is “Journey to the Unseen World Man”, in which he dwells on the human being’s instinctive desires to have an understanding of afterlife, or the life after death and the state of the Barzakh – the interval between death and Resurrection.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, the Iranian Islamic scholar and exegete of the Holy Qur'an, Mohammad Taqi Shariati, passed away at the age of 80. He studied Islamic sciences in the holy city of Mashhad, and published several books after setting up the Association for Publication of Islamic Facts. He was the father of the sociologist Ali Shariati, who was martyred by the Shah's dreaded security force, SAVAK, in London.

9 solar years ago, on this day in the year 2010 AD, an explosion in the Deepwater Horizon oil platform of the British Petroleum Company, led to leakage of oil in the Gulf of Mexico off the US coast on a huge scale. The blast killed 11 workers and the huge volume of the oil which gushed out of this oil platform amounted to more than four million barrels, damaging the fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico and killing a large number of aquatics. After five months, the well could be capped. British Petroleum was ordered by the court to compensate the damages and forced to pay almost $20bn.

AS/SS