Today is Tuesday; 28th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 14th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1440 lunar hijri; and June 18, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1401 solar years ago, on this day in 618 AD, Li Yuan became Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China.

1356 lunar years ago, on this day in 84 AH, the 5^th caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan, died in Damascus at the age of 61 after a reign of 20 tyrannical years during which among a spate of crimes against Islam and humanity, he ordered his Godless general, Hajjaj bin Yusuf, to defile the sanctity of the holy Ka’ba with fire and brimstone in order to kill the rival caliph, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr. Born in Mecca to the despicable Marwan, who along with his pagan father Hakam, was expelled by the Prophet for ridiculing Islam, he grew up in Medina, where his father as the cousin and son-in-law of caliph Othman Ibn Affan manipulated all state affairs and was the actual cause of the latter’s murder. When Mu’awiyyah Ibn Abu Sufyan seized the caliphate from Imam Hasan Mujtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), Marwan was appointed governor of Medina, and years later in 63 AH, along with his son Abdul-Malik, was lucky to be allowed to go alive to Syria on the seizure of Arabia by Abdullah ibn Zubayr. In 64 AH he found himself propelled to the truncated caliphate in those tumultuous years following the death of the tyrant Yazid, abdication of the latter’s son Mu’awiyyah II, and his own father Marwan’s surprising rise as caliph and death in the harem nine months later. Abdul-Malik cast aside the holy Qur’an with the words “It is now separation between me and you”. He faced an uncertain future with the Omayyad caliphate shrunken to Damascus and its environs as Mokhtar Ibn Abu Obaidah, the Avenger of the Martyrs of Karbala, was all set to wipe out the Omayyads with his string of victories against the killers of the Prophet’s younger grandson, Imam Husain (AS). At this crucial juncture, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr blundered by refusing to join forces with Mokhtar and instead sent his brother to attack and kill the latter, thereby giving breathing space to Abdul-Malik and in fact allowing him to regroup and attack the divided armies of Iraq and Hijaz. What followed was revival of Omayyad supremacy and suppression of true Muslims, especially the Prophet’s progeny and their followers, while boundaries of the realm continued to rapidly expand in both the east and the west – in Central Asia and North Africa. Abdul-Malik initiated brazenly racist and chauvinistic policies against the letter and spirit of Islam that made Arabs (especially Omayyad supporters) the dominant class of the empire, hand-in-hand with rabid Arabization that deprived Syrians, Egyptians, and North Africans of their native languages and rich cultural heritage. In the eastern parts of the empire, however, these apartheid policies failed to erode the Persian language and culture of the Iranians and other Muslim peoples, who in accordance with the message of the holy Qur'an, mastered Arabic language, literature and grammar, as well as hadith and Islamic sciences, while preserving for posterity the positive aspects of the legacies of the past.

1278 solar years ago, on this day in 741 AD, Byzantine emperor, Leo III the Isaurian, died at the age of 56 after a reign of 24 years, having seized the throne treacherously in 1717, by deceitfully orchestrating the defeat of the Omayyad siege of Constantinople. As part of his plan to rise up against Emperor Theodosios III, he had tricked the Muslims to send a huge armada of ships, and then betrayed them after seizing the throne for himself, resulting in the disorderly retreat of 1,800 ships sent by the Omayyad regime. The year-long siege marked the culmination of twenty years of attacks and progressive Arab occupation of Byzantine borderlands. Leo, whose original name was Konon, having secured the near extinction of the Empire, invited Slavic settlers into the depopulated districts and when a decade or two later, the Omayyads renewed their invasions in 726 and 739, as part of the campaigns of the tyrant, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, they were decisively beaten, particularly at the Battle of Akroinon in 740 in western Anatolia in what is now Turkey. Leo’s military efforts were supplemented by his alliances with the Khazars and the Georgians to keep the Muslims in check. His most striking legislative reforms dealt with religious matters, especially iconoclasm (Icon-breaking). After a successful attempt to enforce the baptism of all Jews and Montanists in the empire (722), he issued a series of edicts against the worship of images (726–729).

867 lunar years ago, on this day in 573 AH, the well-known Iranian Imami theologian, jurisprudent, hadith scholar, and exegete of the Holy Qur’an, Qotb od-Din Rawandi, passed away and was laid to rest in Qom in the courtyard of the holy mausoleum of Hazrat Ma’souma (SA), the daughter of Imam Musa Kazem (AS), the 7^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He was from Rawand near Kashan and spent several years acquiring knowledge under the prominent Islamic scholars of his day. He has left behind 80 compilations, including an exegesis of the Holy Qur'an, and exegesis of the “Nahj al-Balagha” and several other books including “Risalat al-Fuqaha”, and “Ayaat al-Ahkaam”.

728 solar years ago, on this day 1291 AD, Alfonso III of Aragon died at the age of 26 years. He was hostile to the Muslims of Spain and during his 6-year reign occupied the Muslim state of Manurqa in the Balearic group of islands in the Mediterranean Sea – known today as Minorca

207 solar years ago, on this day in 1812 AD, the US Congress declared war on Britain and Canada. The war lasted two years and eight months. Although no boundary changes occurred, its outcome resolved many issues which remained from the rebellion of the 13 New England colonies that declared themselves the United States of America and fought the 8-year war (1775-1783) to force the British to grant independence. The US declared war for several reasons, including trade restrictions brought about by Britain's continuing war with France, the impressments of American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy, British support of American Indian tribes against US expansion, and American plan in annexing British North American territory (part of modern-day Canada). The war was fought in three principal theatres. Firstly, at sea, where each side attacked the other's merchant ships, while the British blockaded the Atlantic coast of the US and mounted large-scale raids in the later stages of the war. Secondly, both land and naval battles were fought on the US-Canadian frontier, which ran along the Great Lakes. Thirdly, the Gulf of Mexico Coast also saw major land battles in which the American forces defeated Britain's Amerindian allies and a British invasion force at New Orleans. The British took control of eastern Maine, along with parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, and held it with their Amerindian allies for the duration of the war. In the southwest, The British victory at the Battle of Bladensburg in August 1814 allowed them to capture and burn the US capital, Washington. In Canada, victories over invading US armies became iconic and promoted the development of a distinct Canadian identity with strong loyalty to Britain. Canada and the US continue to commemorate this war, while it is scarcely remembered in Britain, since it was fought far off in the Americas and regarded as a sideshow to the much larger Napoleonic Wars raging in Europe. At the end of the war, Britain and the US signed the Treaty of Ghent and all parties returned occupied land to its pre-war owner.

204 solar years ago, on this day in 1815 AD, the decisive Battle of Waterloo marked the end of the power and conquests of French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. Fought near the village of Waterloo in Belgium, the British and the Prussian armies led by Duke of Wellington and Von Blucher, sealed the fate of Napoleon, who was subsequently captured by the British and sent to exile to Saint Helena Island, where he died a few years later.

119 solar years ago, on this day in 1900 AD, Empress Dowager Longyu of China ordered all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families.

91 solar years ago, on this day in 1928 AD, Norwegian polar explorer, Roald Engelbregt Amundsen, disappeared along with five crew in the Arctic at the age 55 and was given up as dead after a search of several months. The bodies were never found. In his twenties, he interrupted his studies in medicine to join the first winter expedition to the Antarctic, sailing in 1897 as first mate on the Belgica, a Belgian expedition. On his next voyage during 1903-06 he established the Northwest Passage. In 1904 he located the site of the North Magnetic pole. When he turned his attention to the Antarctic, he achieved his quest to be the first to reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911. After three unsuccessful attempts, he was among the first to cross the Arctic by air in 1926 when he made a flight by dirigible from Spitsbergen, across the North Pole, to Alaska.

83 solar years ago, on this day in 1936 AD, the famous Russian author and political activist, Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, known by his penname Maxim Gorky (“bitter advice” in Russian), died at the age of 68. It is believed that he was killed by agents of Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin. Born in Nizhny Novgorod, the abysmal poverty of his family, forced him to work during his studies. He started writing stories very soon and while working at railway workshop at Tbilisi, Georgia, his first story was published in the local newspaper. His stories brought him money and fame. He focused on the miserable life of the Russian people and sought solutions to social problems. The brutal shooting of workers marching to the Tsar with a petition for reform on 9 January 1905 (known as the "Bloody Sunday"), which set in motion the abortive Revolution of 1905, made Gorky closely associated with Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov's Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He wrote the play “Children of the Sun”, nominally set during an 1862 cholera epidemic, but universally understood to relate to contemporary events. He next wrote the famous book “Mother”, in admiration of the struggles of Russian workers and as a result had to leave Russia in 1906. He lived in exile, mostly on the Italian island of Capri until an amnesty granted in 1913 on the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty allowed him to return to Russia, where he continued his social criticism. During World War I and the revolutionary period of 1917, his apartment turned into Bolshevik staff headquarters. These relations became strained, however, after his newspaper “Novaya Zhizn” was subjected to Bolshevik censorship during the ensuing civil war. Gorky published a collection of essays critical of the Bolsheviks called “Untimely Thoughts” in 1918. The essays call Lenin a tyrant for his senseless arrests and repression of free discourse, and an anarchist for his conspiratorial tactics. Gorky compared Lenin to the Tsar. He termed Lenin "a cold-blooded trickster who spares neither the honor nor the life of the proletariat." He was exiled and spent the period from 1921 to 1928 living abroad, mostly in Sorrento, Italy, where he wrote several successful books. On the personal invitation of Stalin, he returned definitively to the Soviet Union in 1932, and for a while was officially feted by the dictator for propaganda purposes. With the increase of Stalinist repression, especially after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in December 1934, Gorky was placed under house arrest. Two years later after the sudden death of his son, he also suspiciously died.

66 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, Egypt became a republic, ending the 150-year rule of the Khedive Dynasty founded by Mohammad Ali Pasha, the Albanian general of the Ottoman Sultan. Egypt’s failure in its confrontation with the illegal Zionist entity in 1948 war led to resentment among Egyptians toward King Farouq, leading to formation of a secret organization in the army, known as the Free Officers Movement, opposed to British domination. In 1952 a coup led by Major General Mohammad Najib and Colonel Jamal Abdun-Nasser, forced the king to abdicate in favour of his young son Ahmad Fouad, who was subsequently deposed this day on announcement of the republic and declaration of Najib as president. A year later Najib was ousted by Nasser, who espoused the Pan Arab policy for revolutions in different Arab states.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the prominent jurisprudent Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khosrowshahi, passed away in his hometown Tabriz, four months after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, for the success of which he had openly announced support for Imam Khomeini (RA) at the start of the Khordad 15 uprising (June 5, 1963), braving imprisonment from the regime. In fact, right since his youthful years as a religious student he was a fierce opponent of the anti-Islamic policies of the British-installed Pahlavi potentate, Reza Khan, who exiled him to Semnan and later Mashhad, where he benefitted from the classes of the leading ulema. Later when the political atmosphere of Iran became a bit relaxed, he shifted to holy Qom where he attained the status of Ijtehad, and embarked on teaching.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, Turkish premier, Najm od-Din Erbakan, was undemocratically removed from office by the laic military generals because of his attempts to restore to the Muslim masses of Turkey their denied rights and lost identity. Born in the northern city of Sinop, he studied Mechanical Engineering at Istanbul University, on the completion of which he left for Germany to obtain a PhD at Aachen University. On return to Turkey, he was appointed a university professor in 1967. He entered politics in 1969, and was soon elected MP. He founded several Islamic-oriented parties, which the military authorities forcibly dissolved. He became leader of the Welfare Islamic Party in 1987, and in 1996 was democratically elected as Prime Minister. His Islamic policies were unbearable for the Kemalist military, the Zionist entity called Israel, and the US. He was ousted a year later, his party was outlawed, and he was banned from political activities for five years. Erbakan died in 2011 at the age of 84.

AS/SS