Today is Wednesday; 8th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 23rd of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1440 lunar hijri; and May 29, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

Nearly a millennium-and-a-half lunar years ago, on the eve of this day, God Almighty sent down the Holy Qur’an on the heart of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) from the Preserved Tablet or the “Lowh al-Mahfouz”, as the final heavenly scripture for all mankind with the universal message of Islam, as is evident by the ayah: “Indeed, We sent it down on the Grand Night (Laylat-al-Qadr).” This was the first stage of the revelation, although over the next 23 years of the Prophet’s mission, the entire text of the Holy Qur’an was gradually revealed to mankind.

1646 solar year ago, on this day in 363 AD, the Battle of Ctesiphon occurred between the armies of the Sassanid King Shapur II and the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate (who renounced Christianity and reverted to paganism). It was fought outside the walls of the Persian capital Ctesiphon (Mada’en, near Baghdad), and was an unsuccessful European attempt to seize Iraq for possible infiltration into the Iranian Plateau and domination of the east – like Alexander of Macedonia. The battle was a Roman tactical victory, although Julian, who failed to take Ctesiphon and fled when the Iranian army regrouped for counterattack (equipped with war elephants from the Indian satrapies), was killed in the subsequent Battle of Samarra on June 26. The treaty that followed, forced his successor Jovian, to cede five provinces to the Iranians and make a pledge against interfering in the affairs of Armenia. The great success for Shapur II – known as Dhu’l-Aktaaf or Broad-Shouldered to the Arabs for his conquest years earlier of Yamama in central Najd in the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula – is represented in the rock-carving in Bishapur near Kazeroun in Fars Province, where under the hooves of the Persian king's horse lies the body of a Roman enemy (i.e. Emperor Julian), as a supplicant Roman (Emperor Jovian), begs for peace.

1220 lunar years ago, on this day in 220 AH, founder of the short-lived Tulunid Dynasty of Egypt and later Syria, Ahmad Ibn Tulun, was born in Baghdad. His father, Tulun, was a Turkic slave, sent as part of tribute from the governor of Bukhara to the Abbasid caliph, Ma'mun. The Abbasids used to recruit Turkic slaves to serve as military officers. Ahmad Ibn Tulun received his military training in Samarra, the new Abbasid capital, where he was appointed commander of the special forces of the tyrannical caliph, Mutawakkil. After serving in military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire in Tarsus, he gained the favour of the caliph, Musta'in, and in the reign of the next caliph, Mu'taz, he was sent as governor to Egypt. Since, the existing capital of Egypt, al-Fustat, was too small to accommodate his armies, he founded a new city nearby called Madinat-al-Qatta'i (or Quartered City), to serve as his capital. It was laid out in the style of grand cities of Iran, including a large public square, a palace, and a large ceremonial mosque, which was named after Ibn Tulun. This city was razed in 905 AD on the fall of the Tulunid Dynasty, and only the mosque has survived. Ibn Tulun soon asserted his independence from the Baghdad caliphate by minting coins in his name and seizing control of large parts of Syria. He defeated an Abbasid army sent against him. He died after 17 years in power, but two decades later, the inefficient rule of his son and grandsons brought about the collapse of the dynasty and re-imposition of Abbasid rule on Egypt.

911 solar years ago, on this day in 1108 AD, the Battle of Ucles was fought in Spain resulting in the resounding victory of the al-Moravid troops under the command of Tamim ibn Yusuf over an alliance of Christians of the kingdom of Castile and Leon under the command of Prince Sancho Alfonsez. A great number of Christians were killed including Alfonsez.

566 solar years ago, on this day in 1453 AD Constantinople was taken after a 53-day siege by the Ottoman Sultan, Mohammad II (known as al-Fateh or the Conqueror), thus ending Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire. He set out to revitalize the city, renamed it Islambol (today’s Istanbul), and made it the capital of his empire. The first decree issued by him was security and freedom of the residents who were almost all Christians. Hours later, he rode to the Hagia Sofia to proclaim the Islamic creed, converting the grand cathedral into an imperial mosque. When he stepped into the ruins of the Boukoleon, the Palace of the Caesars, built over a thousand years before by Theodosius II, he recited the famous Persian couplet of the Iranian poet, Shaikh Sa’di:

"The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars;

 "The owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiyab."  

He began to build the Grand Bazaar, and also constructed during this period was Topkapı Palace, which served as the official residence of the Ottoman sultans for the next four hundred years. The city, built by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine I, on the coastlines of Bosporus Strait was thus transformed from a bastion of Christianity to a symbol of Islamic culture.

566 solar years ago, on this day in 1453 AD, the brave young Ottoman commander, Hassan of Ulubatlı, who was instrumental in hoisting the Muslim flag on the ramparts of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, achieved martyrdom in the process. Born in the small village of Ulubath (near Karacabey) in the province of Bursa, the 25-year old Hassan, after performing the Fajr Prayer on the last day of the 53-day siege, was the first to climb the wall of the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, as the Ottoman military band started to play an Islamic song. Armed with only a scimitar, and carrying a shield and Ottoman flag, Hassan was closely followed by thirty of his friends, scaling the wall under showers of arrows, stones, and spears of the Greek defenders. He reached the top and placed the flag, which he defended until his 12 remaining friends arrived. After that he collapsed with 27 arrows still in his body. On seeing the Ottoman flag on the ramparts, the Muslim troops surged ahead with renewed vigor, while the Christian defenders lost heart, until Sultan Mohammad conquered the city.

190 solar years ago, on this day in 1829 AD, the English chemist and physicist, Humphrey Davy, died at the age of 51. His research led him to separate sodium, potassium, calcium, barium, and magnesium from other elements, and this was considered a major achievement in Europe, although Islamic scientists had already accomplished this a thousand years earlier. He also founded the science of electrochemistry.

186 lunar years ago, on this day in 1254 AH, the jurisprudential encyclopedia, “Jawaher al-Kalaam”, was completed in 44 volumes after 27 years of research by the prominent scholar Shaikh Mohammad Hassan an-Najafi in holy Najaf Iraq in the early morning hours of the Grand Night of Qadr. It is a comprehensive and discursive work on Imamiyya fiqh, and is an extended exposition of “Shara'e al-Islam” written centuries earlier by Muhaqqiq al-Hilli. It is taught till this day at seminaries in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, etc.

112 solar years ago, on this day in 1907 AD, the Persian newsletter “Sour-e Israfeel” started publication in Tehran. The owner was Mirza Jahangir Khan, titled “Sour-e Israfeel”, and its chief-editor Ali Akbar Dehkhoda. It was launched to promote the Constitutional Movement and to highlight the problems of the lower strata of the society. It started as a weekly newsletter and became a daily, but after only 32 editions ceased publication because of government pressures.

85 solar years ago, on this day in 1934 AD, the Majlis or parliament of Iran passed a resolution for establishing Tehran University made up of several colleges.

66 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, Mount Everest, the highest pinnacle of the world, was scaled by Edmund Hillary of Britain and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal. The altitude of Mount Everest is 8848 meters and it is situated in Nepal in the massive Himalayan Mountain Range.

48 lunar years ago, on this day in 1392 AH, the famous exegesis of the holy Qur’an titled “Tafsir al-Mizan” was completed in the dawn hours of the Grand Night of Qadr by Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabatabaie of Iran in Arabic in 20 volumes, after 18 years of research and scholastic study. This unique exegesis focuses on various topics such as philosophical, academic, historical, social and ethical – wherever the need arises in explaining the meanings of God’s Revealed Words in the light of authentic sayings from Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams of his household.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, the Iranian Islamic scholar, Ayatollah Mir Seyyed Ali Fani Isfahani, passed away at the age of 74. He studied in his hometown Isfahan, where after attaining the status of Ijtehad; he left for holy Najaf in Iraq, where he stayed for 30 years lecturing on theology, jurisprudence, exegesis of Holy Qur’an, and ethics. He returned to Iran in 1973 and until his death 16 years later, he used to lecture in the seminary of holy Qom. He has left behind more than 80 books, on various topics, including “Exegesis of Surah Fateha”, and “Arb’ain Hadith”.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, in Indonesia a boiling mud flow began from a volcano in Sidoarjo, east Java. By 2007 it covered 1.6 square miles destroying 4 villages and 25 factories and forced 16,000 people to leave their homes. The mud flow was triggered by the drilling operations for gas of Lapindo Brantas, an energy company whose major shareholder was the family-owned Bakrie Group, which called it a natural disaster and tried to sell Lapindo to obscure offshore buyers. In February 2007 engineers began dropping large cement balls into the crater in an attempt to stem the flow. In 2008 international scientists said they are almost certain that the mud volcano was caused by faulty drilling of a gas exploration well. 

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, in Syria Takfiri terrorist outfits which mischievously style themselves as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), kidnapped some 153 schoolchildren. They were on their way back to Ain al-Arab from taking year-end school exams in the northern city of Aleppo.

AS/SS