Today is Friday; 27th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 11th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1440 lunar hijri; and May 17, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1073 solar years ago, on this day in 946 AD, al-Qa’em-be-Amrillah, the second self-styled caliph of the Fatemid Shi’a Muslim dynasty of Ifriqiya or what are now Tunisia, Algeria and Libya in northern Africa, died at the age 51 in Mahdiya in present day Tunisia after a 12-year reign, and was succeeded by his son, Ismail al-Mansur. Born in Salamiyah in Syria and named Abdur-Rahman by his father Abdullah who in 910 seized power in Ifriqiya and styled himself al-Mahdi-Billah in order to deceive the unsuspecting Berber Muslims, he led several unsuccessful campaigns into Abbasid Egypt from 914-to-921 that ended in heavy casualties. In 934, on the death of his father he became caliph after which he never again left the royal residence at Mahdia. In his reign, the Fatemid realm became an important power in the Mediterranean. After conquering Sicily, he carried out successful campaigns in the Byzantine province of Calabria and the southern coasts of Italy and France. But from 944 to 947 the realm was plunged into crisis by the revolt of the Kharejite or renegade from Abu Yazid, who led Berber tribes of the Aures Mountains of eastern Algeria. The Fatemids, who eventually conquered Egypt, founded the city of al-Qahera or Cairo, and occupied Syria and Hijaz, during their ruler of over two-and-a-half centuries, claimed descent from Ismail, the predeceased son of Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), the 6^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

587 lunar years ago, on this day in 853 AH, the Shafei jurisprudent and historian, Burhan od-Din Abu Ishaq ibn Musa, popular as Ibrahim Karki, passed away in Cairo, Egypt at the age of 77. Born in Kark in what is now Jordan, he studied in Syria and later at Cairo’s al-Azhar academy, mastering Qur’anic sciences, Hadith, Arabic grammar, literature, and history. He lived in al-Khalil and Bayt al-Moqaddas for a long time before settling in Egypt. He wrote several books on different topics, including Qur’anic sciences, and for a period served as a judge in Egypt.

479 solar years ago, on this day in 1540 AD, the Battle of Bilgram near the town of the same name in northern India led to the resounding defeat of Mughal Emperor, Naseer od-Din Humayun, by the Afghan warlord Sher Khan Suri, who now became the master of Delhi and Agra and assumed the title of Sher Shah. Humayun, who could not use his artillery during the surprise attack because of heavy rains, barely escaped with his life and became a fugitive, finally fleeing to Iran to the court of Shah Tahmasp Safavi. Later, with Iranian military help, he returned to the Subcontinent and on the death of Sher Shah reclaimed the throne of Delhi.   

270 solar years ago, on this day in 1749 AD, English physician and surgeon, Edward Jenner, who discovered vaccination for smallpox, was born. There was a common story among farmers that if a person contracted a relatively mild and harmless disease of cattle called cowpox, immunity to smallpox would result. On 14 May 1796, he removed the fluid of cowpox from dairymaid Sarah Nelmes and inoculated James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy, who soon came down with cowpox. Six weeks later, he inoculated the boy with smallpox. The boy remained healthy, proving the theory. He called his method vaccination, using the Latin words “vacca”, meaning cow, and “vaccinia”, meaning cowpox. Jenner also introduced into English the word “virus”.

214 solar years ago, on this day in 1805 AD, Albanian general, Mohammad Ali Pasha, who was dispatched to Egypt by the Ottoman Sultan, following the withdrawal of Napoleon Bonaparte and his occupying French forces in 1801, proclaimed himself the “Khedive” (Persian for Viceroy or Ruler) of Egypt and Sudan by eliminating all rivals. During his almost half-a-century rule he transformed Egypt into a regional power which he saw as the natural successor to the decaying Ottoman Empire. He initiated wide ranging reforms and established for the first time a professional bureaucracy. In the 1820s, he sent the first educational mission of Egyptian students to Europe. This contact resulted in the birth of literature that is considered the dawn of the Arabic literary renaissance, known as the “an-Nahdha”. To support the modernization of the industry and the military, Mohammad Ali set up a number of schools in various fields where French texts were studied. Rifa'a at-Tahtawi supervised translations from French to Arabic on topics ranging from sociology and history to military technology. In 1835, Mohammad Ali Pasha founded the first indigenous press in the Arab World, the Bulaq Press, which published the official gazette of the government. Bulaq also published rare old Arabic books, as well as Persian and Turkish. He pursued military campaigns initially on behalf of the Ottoman Sultan, Mahmoud II, in Arabia and Greece (capturing Athens in 1827 before the combined attack of the British-French forced him to retreat). Later he came into open conflict with the Ottoman Empire, because of his personal ambitions, which brought Syria under his control for ten years and made him advance as far as Konya in 1832. He launched the expedition into the Hijaz to liberate the holy cities of Mecca and Medina from desert brigands of the Najd led by Abdullah ibn Saud, who followed the heretical Wahhabi cult and had desecrated the holy shrines. After purging Hijaz of the Wahhabis, he sent his son, Ibrahim Pasha, in 1812, to completely destroy and rout out the Aal-e Saud from Najd itself. After a two-year campaign, the Aal-e Saud clan was crushed and most of them captured. The leader, Abdullah ibn Saud, was sent to Istanbul, and executed for having desecrated the holy shrine of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala, before his sacrilegious attack on the Hijaz. In short, Mohammad Ali Pasha established the dynasty that lasted till the military coup of 1952 and the ouster of King Farouq by General Mohammad Najib and Colonel Jamal Abd an-Nasser.

154 solar years ago, on this day in 1865 AD, in the presence of representatives of twenty countries in Paris and following the conclusion of first international contract in the domain of communications, the International Telegraph Union was founded and its international bylaw was prepared and approved. This day is thus named as International Communications Day. In 1932, according to decisions of the Madrid Conference, the International Telegraph Union was renamed International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and all its bylaws were reviewed. In 1947, ITU became a UN affiliate.

110 solar years ago, on this day in 1909 AD, Dutch orientalist, Michael Jan de Goeje, died at the age of 73 after half-a-century of research and publication of several valuable Arabic works of Islamic geographers and historiographers, such as Seyyed Mohammad al-Hasani al-Idrisi of Sicily, and the Iranians Abu’l-Qasim Ibn Khordadbeh and Abu Ja’far Tabari. Born in Dronrijp, Friesland, he devoted himself at an early age to the study of oriental languages and became especially proficient in Arabic. From 1860 to his death in 1909 he devoted himself to the edition – alone or in collaboration – of twenty Arabic texts, all with extensive indexes and Arabic-Latin glossaries. He also contributed to the work of other orientalists by careful proofreading and by revising books like William Wright’s “Grammar of the Arabic Language” and his edition of the “Reḥla” or “Travels of Ibn Jobayr”. At the age of seventy-one, de Goeje accepted the editorship of the first edition of The Encyclopaedia of Islam but was soon forced to resign owing to ill health; he did not live to see the first volume in print.

80 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, the British occupation authorities of Palestine released a so-called White Paper on the threshold of World War II for illegally settling 100,000 more European Zionists, as a prelude to the planting of the usurper state of Israel. The Palestinians rejected the plan, which they sensed was a prelude for complete occupation of their homeland. In 1942, in a conference held in the US, European Zionists formally called for the establishment of a usurper Jewish state in Palestine called Israel.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1987, during the 8-year war imposed by the US on Islamic Iran through Saddam, Iraqi jetfighters fired missiles at the US Warship “Stark” killing 37 American soldiers and wounding scores of others. The Ba'th minority regime of Baghdad immediately offered apology to the US, and Washington which was in league with Saddam against Iran, quickly responded by calling the attack and the death of its soldiers as a case of mistaken identity. Experts believe Iraq’s missile attack on the USS Stark and the death of US personnel was preplanned by both Washington and Baghdad to portray the Persian Gulf region as unsafe so as to enable the US send more warships for intimidating the Islamic Republic of Iran.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, the prominent Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Bahjat Foumani, passed away in Holy Qom at the age of 94 years. He was born in the city of Fouman, Gilan Province, in northern Iran, and completed his preliminary studies in his hometown. After learning Arabic, he left for the seminary of Holy Najaf in Iraq in 1929 for higher studies. He returned to Iran in 1945, and settled in Qom, lecturing on jurisprudence and theology, and grooming numerous students. His most important characteristic was his spotless piety that influenced every one. He was a highly knowledgeable Islamic scholar, and it is said he had been gifted by God with the vision for the unseen. He has left behind a large number of valuable compilations, including “Kitab-e Salaat” and “Jama'e al-Masa’el”.

AS/SS