Today is Thursday; 12th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 26th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1440 lunar hijri; and May 2, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

685 lunar years ago, on this day in 755 AH, the Hanafi jurist and Arabic poet, Abu Taleb Fakhr od-Din Ahmad bin Ali Hamdani, popular as Ibn Fasih, passed away in Damascus at the age of 75. Born in Kufa, he studied and taught in Baghdad, before moving to Syria. He versified several works of jurisprudents, which is indicative of his mastery over the Arabic language.

659 solar years ago, on this day in 1360 AD, Yongle Emperor, the 3^rd ruler of the Ming Dynasty who unified China during his 22-year long reign (1402-1424), and patronized Muslims, was born as Zhu Di. At the age of 10 he was made Prince of Yan with his capital at Beiping (modern Beijing), by his father, the Hongwu Emperor. Later, as per the will of his deceased father, he acknowledged the rule of his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor, but when the latter started demoting and executing his uncles, Zhu Di found pretext to rebel. After sacking Nanjing in 1402, he declared himself the new emperor, calling his era “Yongle” or the time of "Perpetual Happiness". His even handed approach helped him win the people’s support and unify China. His love for Chinese culture sparked a hatred for Mongolian culture, which he deemed rotten and forbade the use of Mongolian names, habits, language, and clothing. Yongle ordered construction and repair of Islamic mosques during his reign. Two mosques were built by him, one in Nanjing and the other in Xi'an and they still stand today. Repairs were encouraged and mosques were not allowed to be converted to any other use. Among his favourties was the Muslim general of Iranian origin, Zheng He – great-great-great-grandson of Seyyed Ajjal Shams ol-Din – who undertook voyages of exploration into the South Pacific and Indian Oceans.

500 solar years ago, on this day in 1519 AD, Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer, Leonardo Da Vinci, died at the age of 67. He was a genius who designed buildings, bridges, canals, forts and war machines. He kept notebooks sketching his ideas that show his fascination with birds and flying, including such fantastic designs as flying machines, which Islamic scientists in Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba (in Islamic Spain), had experimented centuries before him. He is also best known for the paintings “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper.”

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1941 AD, Britain again invaded Iraq to oust the nationalist government of Prime Minister Rashid Aali al-Gilani, who had staged a coup to end British influence by removing from power Abdullah bin Ali, the regent of the 6-year old king, Faisal II, whose grandfather Faisal I of Hijaz was installed as king in 1921 after crushing the wishes of the Iraqi people by the British who a year earlier had crushed the popular uprising of 1920 led by Ayatollah Shaikh Kashef al-Gheta and Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Taqi Shirazi. London feared that Gilani might take control of the oil industry in view of his links to Germany and the Axis powers. The war ended on May 29 when Gilani fled to Iran and an armistice was signed on May 31. Gilani, a Sunni Muslim and descendant of Baghdad’s prominent Sufi of Iranian origin, Sheikh Abdul-Qader Gilani, could not stay long in Iran and fled to Germany when the British dethroned their agent Reza Khan Pahlavi for his pro-German views and exiled him to Mauritius – replacing him with his son Mohammad Reza. After German defeat in World War 2, Gilani sought asylum in Saudi Arabia before returning to Iraq in 1958 on overthrow of the British-installed monarchy by Gen. Abdul-Karim Qassim. He was implicated in a plot to seize power, was sentenced to death, but pardoned and exiled. He died in Lebanon in 1965.

74 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, during World War II, the German capital Berlin was captured by the Soviet Union which hoisted the red flag over the Reichstag.

62 solar years ago, on this day in 1957 AD, controversial US Senator, Joseph McCarthy, died. During the early years of Cold War, he led an Inquisition-like Senate Committee, which on the pretext of countering communist activities in the US, suppressed critics of the American political and social system by jailing authors, journalists, and even artists. This era is known as McCarthyism in US history. The term McCarthyism, coined in 1950, was applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used more generally in reference to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character and/or patriotism of political opponents.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the great contemporary Iranian Islamic thinker, Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, was martyred at the age of 60 by the Forqan terrorist outfit. He was born in Fariman in Khorasan, northeastern Iran, and at the age of 12 years, enrolled at the Islamic seminary in holy Mashhad. Later he left for holy Qom for higher studies. Here he attended the classes of such prominent ulema, as Grand Ayatollah Boroujerdi, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabatabai, and the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). Along with his studies he became an activist of the Islamic Revolution Movement, as one of the close allies of Imam Khomeini. As of the year 1955, Ayatollah Motahhari started lecturing at the Faculty of Theology of Tehran University for 23 years and groomed numerous students. He had a profound understanding of the social, political, and cultural topics of importance of the contemporary era. This brilliant Islamic thinker changed thoughts and attitudes by focusing on the dynamism of Islam for salvage of mankind in accordance with the progress in scientific and other fields. His speeches, articles, and books in different domains elaborate on Islamic topics and have been translated into different languages.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, during the Falklands War in the British-occupied Malvinas Islands of Argentina, a British submarine sank the Argentine cruiser “General Belgrano”, resulting in the death of 600 sailors. British commander Terence Thornton Lewin, had persuaded Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to order the sinking.

19 lunar years ago, on this day in 1421 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahdi Rouhani passed away at the age of 78 in his hometown Qom and was laid to rest in the holy shrine of Hazrat Ma’soumah (SA). At the age of 20 he had left for Iraq for higher studies at the famous Islamic seminary of holy Najaf, and on return to Iran, attended the classes of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi, before becoming an accomplished teacher on higher levels of Islamic sciences. He focused on the commonalities in the previously revealed heavenly scriptures like the Torah and Evangel, with the Holy Qur’an – God’s final and universal revelation for all mankind. He became the first scholar to start discussions at the Qom seminary on a critique of Marxism and dialectical principles. When Imam Khomeini (RA) launched the people’s grassroots movement, he joined the masses, and on the victory of the Islamic Revolution and establishment of the Islamic Republic, he served for three terms as the elected representative of the people of Qom at the Assembly of Experts.

15 solar years ago, on this day in 2004 AD, the infamous Yelwa massacre occurred in Nigeria when the Christians brutally massacred over 630 Muslim nomads including women, children and old men. The Christians surrounded Yelwa town, and according to Human Rights Watch, over the next two days 660 Muslims were massacred, including the patients in the al-Amin clinic. Twelve mosques and 300 houses went up in flames. Young girls were marched to a nearby Christian town and forced to eat pork and drink alcohol. Many were raped, and 50 were brutally killed.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2008, cyclone Nargis struck Burma, killing over 138,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, leader of the CIA-created al-Qa’eda terrorist outfit, Saudi national Osama bin Laden, was killed by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, ending an almost decade-long manhunt for him. Osama, a multimillionaire, was used by Washington in the 1980s to supply arms to the mujahideen during the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. He again proved handy to American interests in the 1990s, in creating the Taleban to take over Afghanistan and tarnish the image of Islam with brutalities resembling medieval European laws. When he fell out with his backers, he was dumped and framed for the highly suspicious 9/11/2001 incidents in New York, as a pretext for the US invasion and occupation of that country. Osama’s body was thrown into the sea by the Americans in order to erase any trace of him after his death.

6 lunar years ago, on this day in 1434 AH, Egypt’s prominent religious scholar, Sheikh Hassan Shehata, was brutally martyred by a gang of Takfiri terrorists in Abu Mussalam village in Giza Province, in the morning hours after holding night prayers and supplications on the auspicious eve of 15^th Sha’ban, the birth anniversary of the Lord of the Age, Imam Mahdi (AS), the 12^th and Last Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Takfiris, who are avowed enemies of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, burst into the house and dragged Shehata and four other Muslims, beating them violently until they died. Unfortunately, Egypt’s first ever democratically elected president, Mohammad Morsi, despite his claims of Islamic unity, turned a blind eye to this horrible act of terrorism, and was overthrown in a US-Saudi backed military coup ten days later.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, Iranian classical musician, Mohammad-Reza Lotfi, renowned for his mastery of the “Tar” and “Setar”, died at the age of 87.

AS/SS