Today is Saturday; 1st of the Iranian month of Tir 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 18th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1440 lunar hijri; and June 22, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2236 solar years ago, on this day in 217 BC, the seesaw Battle of Raphia took place in what is now Gaza, Palestine, in which Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt defeated Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid Empire that spanned Iraq, Iran and parts of Turkey. It was fought near modern Rafah as one of the largest battles between the two Hellenistic kingdoms, the successor states of Alexander of Macedon’s short-lived empire, for control of Syria, and hence known as the Syrian Wars of the ancient world. Ptolemy had 70,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 73 African war elephants, while Antiochus had 62,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and 102 Asian war elephants. This is the only known battle in which African and Asian elephants were used against each other, and Ptolemy's elephants which were from what is now Eritrea could not bear the smell, sound and view of their Indian counterparts as well as their greater size and strength and caused panic in their own ranks, before the Egyptian cavalry moved in to defeat the Seleucids. Ptolemy's victory secured Syria for Egypt, but it was only a respite, since at the Battle of Panium in 198 BC Antiochus defeated the army of Ptolemy's young son, Ptolemy V Epiphanes and recaptured Syria and Judea.

1103 solar years ago, on this day in 916 AD, Amir Saif od-Dowla, the Hamdanid ruler of Aleppo and most of Syria, was born. Named Ali, he was the son of Abu'l-Hayja Abdullah bin Hamdan, and was a staunch follower of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt. He was the younger brother of Nasser od-Dowla the Amir of Mosul. He distinguished himself in battles against the Byzantines and could be called the Warden of the Marches of the Islamic frontier of those days by checking the bid by the Christians to plunder Syria. Saif od-Dowla was a man of letters and surrounded himself with prominent intellectual figures, notably the great Arabic poets, al-Mutanabbi and Abu Firas Hamdani, as well as the noted Iranian Islamic philosopher Abu Nasr Farabi. Saif od-Dowla himself was a poet; his delicate short poem on the rainbow shows high artistic ability.

1072 lunar years ago, on this day in 368 AH, the pleasure-seeking Ezz od-Dowla Daylami, son of Moiz od-Dowla the Buwaihid conqueror of Baghdad, was killed in battle with his cousin, Adhud od-Dowla, the son of Rukn od-Dowla, near the River Tigris after rebelling against the central authority of the then Shiraz-based Buwaihid confederacy. Adhud od-Dowla, a few years later after the passing away of his father, became the senior-most Buwaihid Amir of Iraq and Fars, at a time when Baghdad was wracked by violence and instability. He restored peace and patronized scholars such as the celebrated Shaikh Mufid, besides renovating the holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala. In addition, he is credited with sponsoring several scientific projects. An observatory was built by him in Isfahan, and the dam known till this day as “Band-e Amir” was built on his orders between Shiraz and Istakhr to irrigate some 300 villages in Fars Province. Among his other constructions was the digging of the Haffar Canal joining the Karun River to the Arvand Roud at the confluence of the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The port of Khorramshahr is built on the Haffar, at its joining point with the Arvand Roud. He embellished Baghdad with numerous public buildings including the famous public hospital known as “Bimaristan-e Adhudi”, where the great Iranian physician Zakariyya Razi used to practice. It is worth noting that the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), had centuries earlier prophesied the coming to power of the Iranian Buwaihid Dynasty and the death of one cousin at the hands of the other with the words: “The licentious son of the one-handed will be killed by his cousin, beside the Tigris.” The reference one-handed is to Moiz od-Dowla who had lost one of his hands in a battle.

842 lunar years ago, on this day in 598 AH, the prominent theologian, Mohammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Hilli, passed away at the age of 55. Born in the Iraqi city of Hillah, he was a child prodigy and became a prominent theologian at a fairly young age. He believed that selecting the right path is the duty of every sane and grown up person, and anyone who does not make use of this blessing of the intellect has committed a self-destructive blunder. Among the valuable books written by this great Islamic scholar is "as-Sara’er".

590 solar years ago, on this day in 1429 AD, the eminent Iranian astronomer and mathematician, Ghiyas od-Din Jamshid Kashani, died under suspicious circumstances in Samarqand at the age of around 50. He was born in Kashan and went to Samarqand at the invitation of the Timurid scientist-ruler, Ologh Beg, to set up the famous observatory. He produced a Zij entitled the “Khaqani Zij”, which was based on Khwaja Naseer od-Din Tusi's “Zij-e Ilkhani”. He also produced tables on transformations between coordinate systems on the celestial sphere, such as the transformation from the ecliptic coordinate system to the equatorial coordinate system. He wrote the book “Sullam as-Sama” on the resolution of difficulties met by predecessors in the determination of distances and sizes of heavenly bodies such as the Earth, the Moon, the Sun and the Stars. He also invented a mechanical planetary computer which he called the Plate of Zones, which could graphically solve a number of planetary problems, including the prediction of the true positions in longitude of the Sun and Moon, and the planets in terms of elliptical orbits; the latitudes of the Sun, Moon, and planets; and the ecliptic of the Sun. In one of his numerical approximations of "P" (pronounced pie), he correctly computed 2 P to 9 sexagesimal digits. This approximation of 2 P is equivalent to 16 decimal places of accuracy. This was far more accurate than the estimates earlier given in Greek mathematics of 3 decimal places by Archimedes, Chinese mathematics of 7 decimal places by Zu Chongzhi and Indian mathematics of 11 decimal places by Madhava of Sangamagrama. The accuracy of Jamshid Kashani's estimate was not surpassed until Ludolph van Ceulen computed 20 decimal places of "P" nearly 200 years later.

492 solar years ago, on this day in 1527 AD, Fathollah, the Muslim general of the Sultan of Demak drove away the Portuguese occupation forces from Sunda Kelapa, and renamed the town Jayakarta, which now known as Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia. Fathollah is a national hero in Indonesia.

426 solar years ago, on this day in 1593 AD, the Battle of Sisak or Kulpa Bozgunu in Turkish, was fought in Croatia on the confluence of the Rivers Sava and Kupa between Ottoman regional forces of Hasan Pasha Predojevic, a notable commander of the Eyalet of Bosnia, and a combined Christian army from the Habsburg lands, mainly the kingdom of Croatia and Austria. Earlier in 1591 and 1592 the Ottomans had two failed attempts of capturing the Sisak fortress, sieging forces on 22 June. The ensuing battle resulted in a defeat for the regional Turkish forces, triggering the Long War between the Ottoman and the Hapsburg Empires that lasted for 13 years.

386 solar years ago, on this day in 1633 AD, Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist, Galileo Galilei, was forced to renounce his scientific remarks and beliefs before the Church officials. Influenced by the Latin translations of the Arabic works of Islamic scientists, such as Iran’s Abu Rayhan Berouni, he wrote a book in the year 1632 in rejection of Ptolemy’s beliefs on the solar system, supporting the fact that the Earth orbits around the Sun. A year later, the Pope summoned him to Rome and termed his writings as blasphemous, and gave him the option of denying what he said or death.

214 solar years ago, on this day in 1805 AD, Giuseppe Mazzini, Italian politician and activist for the unification of Italy, was born. His efforts helped bring about an independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers that existed until the 19^th century.

186 lunar years ago, on this day in 1254 AH, the well-known Islamic scholar and theologian, Mohaddith Mirza Hussain Noori, was born in the northern Iranian city of Nour in Mazandaran. Following the completion of his preliminary studies, he strove to scrutinize the vast hadith literature and became an authority in this regard. He is the author of several valuable books, including "an-Najm ath-Thaqeb” on the Imam of the Age, and the encyclopedic work in over twenty volumes titled, “Mustadrik Wasa’el ash-Shi’a”. He was the teacher of Shaikh Abbas Qomi, the compiler of the prayer-supplication manual, “Mafatih al-Jenan” or Keys to Paradise.

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1940 AD, France formally surrendered to Nazi German leader, Adolf Hitler, by signing a treaty, according to which Marshal Henri Petain was instated as the premier of France with Germany’s support. But, General Charles de Gaulle, with the support of French troops overseas, formed the French government in exile to continue the struggle for liberation of France.

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1941 AD, during World War II, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, after occupying several east European countries. German troops advanced till the outskirts of Moscow, but were bogged down with the arrival of the winter. The Soviets also resolutely resisted and gradually forced the German troops to retreat.

74 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, the World War II battle for Okinawa officially ended. It was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War Theater resulting in the death of 12,520 Americans and 90,000 Japanese soldiers, plus 130,000 civilians killed in the 81-day campaign.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), formally dismissed Abol-Hassan Bani Sadr from the president’s post, a day after the Majlis (parliament) impeached him for his political incompetency and dalliance with anti-revolutionary groups, with 177 affirmative votes, 12 abstentions, and 1 negative vote. Earlier on June 10, the Imam had relieved him of the post of Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces because of his failure to check the advance of the Ba’thist forces. The Iranian nation hailed the move. Upon Bani Sadr’s deposal, his friends, the MKO terrorists, stepped up subversive activities, including the terrorist explosions of 27 June that led to the martyrdom of Chief Justice Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hussaini Beheshti and 72 officials. On July 29, Bani Sadr, with his mustache shaved off and disguised as a chador-wearing woman, fled the country for France, along with MKO terrorist ringleader, Masoud Rajavi, aboard an aircraft piloted by an anti-revolutionary.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, on the instructions of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), the Islamic Propagation Organisation was established for enlightening people at home and abroad with the dynamism of Islam, through preaching, publishing of books, holding of seminars, and related ideological and cultural work to strengthen the beliefs of the people.

AS/SS