Today is Wednesday; 25th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 9th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1440 lunar hijri; and May 15, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1020 solar years ago, on this day in 999 AD, following dethroning and blinding of the Iranian Samanid king of Central Asia, Mansur II, by his rebellious governor, Fayeq-e-Khasah and Turkic slave general, Bektuzun, the two entered into an agreement with the rising power of Sultan Mahmud the Turkic king of Ghazna, to divide the land of Khorasan between them, by retaining control of Merv and Naishapour, while ceding Herat and Balkh to Mahmoud. The Samanids, who ruled for 180 years from their capital Bukhara (presently in Uzbekistan) are credited with the emergence of the modern Persian language written in the Arabic script, which was once the lingua franca of the Islamic east, spread from Central Asia to Anatolia and the Subcontinent, and is now the official language of Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The Ghaznavids further promoted this trend, resulting in the composing of the poetical masterpiece, the Shahnameh of Abu’l-Qassem Ferdowsi.

845 solar years ago, on this day in 1174 AD, Nour od-Din Zangi, the powerful ruler of the Turkic dynasty of Syria, northern Iraq and southeastern Anatolia, founded by his father Atabeg Emad od-Din, after breaking away from the Iran-based Seljuqid Empire, died while preparing to invade Egypt to bring under control his rebellious Kurdish general, Salah od-Din, who had seized the Land of the Nile for himself from the Ismaili Shi’ite Fatemid Dynasty. Nour od-Din Zangi was a thorn in the side of the European Crusader occupiers of Palestine, but despite his claim to serve the cause of Islam, he was an enemy of the followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, whom he repressed and expelled in thousands from the city of Aleppo and adjoining areas. A few years after his death, Salah od-Din destroyed the Zangid Dynasty, married Nour od-Din’s widow, and continued the same policy of repression of the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt, although he is credited with the liberation of Bayt al-Moqaddas after 88 years of occupation by the illegal Latin Kingdom of Palestine, set up by the Crusader invaders.

622 solar years ago, on this day in 1397 AD, the 4^th king of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, who was posthumously called Sejong the Great, was born in an era when the Islamic calendar served as a basis for calendar reform owing to its superior accuracy over the Chinese-based calendars. The Joseon Dynasty used a Korean translation of the Huihui Lifa, which itself was a Chinese translation of the Islamic astronomy works of the Iranian Muslim scholar of Bukhara, Jamal od-Din Mohammad ibn Ṭaher ibn Mohammad az‐Zaydi al‐Bukhari (known in Chinese as Zhamaluding). Sejong, who ruled from 1418 to 1450, was against Chinese influences in language, culture and religion, and introduced “Hangul”, the native phonetic 28-alphabet system for the Korean language. He suffered from severe diabetes that eventually cost him his eyesight. He fell under the influence of inefficient persons, and in 1427 took the unwise decision of imposing a ban on the Huihui Korean Muslim community that had special status and stipends since the Yuan dynasty. The Huihui Korean Muslims were forced to abandon their headgear, to close down their Mosque. The tradition of Chinese-Islamic astronomy, however, continued to survive in Korea up until the early 19th century.  

587 lunar years ago, on this day in 853 AH, the prominent astronomer-king of the Timurid dynasty, Mirza Mohammad Taraghay Ulugh Beg, was killed by his rebellious son, Abdul-Latif "Pidarkush" (killer of his own father), while on his way to Mecca for pilgrimage after being deposed. Born in Soltaniyeh near Zanjan in northwestern Iran, his father was Amir Shahroukh, the son and successor of the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur, while his mother was the cultured and religious Iranian lady, Gowharshad, the builder of the famous mosque in Mashhad adjacent to the shrine of Prophet Mohammad’s 8th Infallible Successor, Imam Reza (AS). His seat of government was Samarqand (currently in Uzbekistan), where he built the great Observatory with the assistance of the famous Iranian astronomer, Ghiyas od-Din Jamshid Kashani. He also built the Ulugh Beg Madrasahs in Samarqand and Bukhara, transforming the cities into cultural centres of learning. He ruled for almost half-a-century the present-day countries of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the southern parts of Kazakhstan – and for a while parts of Khorasan. Ulugh Beg determined the length of the sidereal year as 365.2570370, making it more accurate than Copernicus' estimate. He also determined the Earth's axial tilt as 23.52 degrees, which remained the most accurate measurement for hundreds of years. In mathematics, he wrote accurate trigonometric tables of sine and tangent values correct to at least eight decimal places. The crater “Ulugh Beg”, on the Moon, is named after him.

377 solar years ago, on this day in 1642 AD, Shah Abbas II was crowned the 7^th Safavid Emperor of Iran at the age of 10 years in Kashan, three days after the death of his father Shah Safi. Born in Qazvin, he was tutored by Rajab Ali Tabrizi, and learned how to maintain order over the vast empire and other state affairs by two other nobles named Mohammad-Ali Beg and Jani Khan Shamlu. A year after coronation, he moved his court to the Safavid capital of Isfahan. Unlike his father, he took an active interest in government and military matters; and like his great-grandfather Shah Abbas I, he was famous for the construction of many buildings, such as the famous Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan. On the western front his rule was relatively peaceful and was free of any Ottoman attack. In 1648 he managed to liberate Qandahar in what is now Afghanistan from occupation of the Mughal Empire of the Subcontinent. The Mughal ruler Shah Jahan sent his son Aurangzeb with an army of 50,000 soldiers but was unable to reoccupy Qandahar. In 1651, in the North Caucasus, Safavid troops came into conflict with Russia in the region of Sunzha, culminating into the Russo-Persian War of 1651–53. The Safavid influence prior to the war extended to the feudal tenure of the Kumyks in Daghestan. After two successful years, the Iranian plans were to capture the city of Terek and to move all the way to Astrakhan on the northern side of the Caspian Sea, trouble on the eastern front with Mughal India distracted attention. The Russian government sent an embassy, led by Prince Ivan Lobanov-Rostovsky and Ivan Komynin, to Isfahan for peaceful settlement of the conflict, to which the Shah II agreed. The war ended with the Safavids managing to increase their influence in the North Caucasus even more. He was a capable ruler and during his 24-year reign, the country was relatively peaceful and free of any Ottoman attack. Shah Abbas’ sudden death in Khusrauabad near Damghan on the night of 25–26 October 1666, at the age of 34 was a great blow to Iran. He was buried beside his father in holy Qom.

371 solar years ago, on this day in 1648 AD, the first of the treaties of the Peace of Westphalia was signed between Prussia, Austria, France, and Sweden in Munster and Osnabruck, thereby ending the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands. The last of these treaties was signed on October 24. Though these treaties ended the centuries' long bloody sectarian battles between the Catholic and Protestant sects of Christianity, they did not restore peace throughout Europe. France and Spain remained at war for the next eleven years, making peace only in the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659. Among the outcomes of the Peace of Westphalia was reduction of the power of the Pope and the Church and emergence of nation states.

243 solar years ago, on this day in 1776 AD, the first steam boat was built. Seventy years following the discovery of steam power by a French engineer, Denis Papin, a steam boat was built by Marquis Claude de Jouffroy d’Abbans. The usage of steam power in ships marked a major development in the navigation industry.

215 lunar years ago, on this day in 1225 AH, Wahhabi heretics of Najd in Arabia raided Iraq and attacked the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, massacring hundreds of fasting Muslims in Ramadhan and looting the holy shrines of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) and the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS). An eyewitness account of this blasphemous crime has been given by the scholar Seyyed Mohammad Jawad al-Amili, the author of the jurisprudential work “Miftah al-Karamah”, who survived the attack. He has written that the Godless Wahhabis besieged the cities, blocked the roads, looted houses and shrines, and massacred pilgrims.

169 solar years ago, on this day in 1850 AD, the Bloody Island Massacre took place in Lake County, California, in which over a hundred women, children, and elderly of the Pomo Amerindians were slaughtered by a regiment of the United States Cavalry, led by Nathaniel Lyon, while all able bodied men were on a hunting trip. One of the Pomo survivors of the massacre was a 6-year-old girl named Ni'ka, later renamed Lucy Moore. She hid underwater and breathed through a reed. Her descendants formed the Lucy Moore Foundation. The US has a bleak and bloody history of genocide of the native Amerindians, who have almost been exterminated, while the remnants survive in camps without any birthrights.

160 solar years ago, on this day in 1859 AD, French scientist and physicist, Pierre Curie, was born in Paris. His talent in mathematics and physics made him conduct extensive research in these fields. In the year 1898, he managed to discover Radium with the assistance of his wife, Madame Curie. Pierre Curie died in the year 1906.

100 solar years ago, on this day in 1919 AD, the coastal city of Izmir was liberated from Greek occupation by Turkish forces led by Mustafa Kamal Pasha, who later emerged as a dictator and under western influence tried to eradicate the Islamic culture and religion of the Turkish Muslims.

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1940 AD, the German army, after a five-day offensive, occupied Netherlands during World War 2. The German forces started their attacks on France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg, west of Germany, as of May 10, 1940, and after a while occupied all four countries.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, the UN General Assembly designated May 15 as “International Day of Families” to emphasize the importance to the family unit. The Day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.

Ordibehesht 25 is commemorated every year in the Islamic Republic of Iran as Ferdowsi National Day, in honour of the great Iranian poet, Abu’l-Qasim Hassan Firdowsi, whose “Shahnamah” remains to this day as the finest example of Persian epic poetry.

AS/SS