Today is Friday; 7th of the Iranian month of Tir 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 24th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1440 lunar hijri; and June 28, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1229 lunar years ago, on this day in 211 AH, the Sunni Muslim compiler of hadith, Abdur-Razzaq San'ani, passed away in Yemen at the age of 85. He was from San‘a, and traveled to Mecca, Medina, Syria and Iraq for study. It is obvious that he failed to approach the Infallible Imams of Prophet Mohammad's (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt (Blessed Household) for authentic hadith, contenting himself with the narrations handed down from the Sahaba (Prophet’s companions), though he has admitted some of the merits of the Ahl al-Bayt. He went blind in the last years of his life. He was a memorizer of the Holy Qur'an, and his work on hadith is titled "Musannaf Abdur-Razzaq".

1091 solar years ago, on this day in 928 AD, Louis the Blind died in Vienne in his kingdom of Provence in southern France, after a brief 4-year reign as the holy Roman Emperor. Louis who was blinded after a failed bid to invade Italy, inherited the kingdom of Provence in 887, and for almost 39 years, was engaged in wars against the European Muslims, who had established a base at Fraxinet near what is now Saint-Tropez in southern France. The Muslims had arrived from Spain and were called “muwallad”, that is, converts to Islam from Christianity who spoke both Latin and Arabic. The region around Fraxinet was known in Arabic as Jabal al-Qolaal (or mountain of the many peaks), and included St-Tropez, its gulf and hinterland, as well as Ramatuelle and its peninsula. The famous geographer, Ibn Hawqal has recorded that the area was richly cultivated by its Muslim inhabitants, and they have been credited with a number of agricultural and fishing innovations for the region.

921 solar years ago, on this day in 1098 AD, the Seljuqid Atabeg (governor) of Mosul and renowned soldier, Kerbogha the Turk, because of disunity in his army, suffered defeat at the hands of the Crusader invaders at the Syrian city of Antioch, which is currently in Turkey, and returned to Mosul a broken man. When he heard that the Crusaders had besieged Antioch, he gathered his troops and marched to relieve the city. By the time he arrived, around June 5-9, the Crusaders had taken this Muslim city. Kerbogha besieged the Crusaders, but disagreement and infighting broke out among the Emirs of his mighty army made up of soldiers from Iraq, Syria and Iran. When the Christian army launched the offensive, the Muslim Emirs instead of uniting behind Kerbogha decided to humble him by abandoning him at the critical moment. Kerbogha was taken by surprise and finding himself facing a strong army of European invaders, deemed it impossible to fight and decided to withdraw.

900 solar years ago, on this day in 1119 AD, the European Crusader invaders led by Roger of Salerno of the occupied Muslim principality of Antioch in Syria (currently in Turkey), suffered a shattering defeat at the hands of Najm od-Din Ilghazi of Mardin, the Atabeg (governor) of Aleppo, in the Battle of Sarmada, also known as the Battle of Balat or the Battle of the Field of Blood. During the fighting, Roger was slain, while the rest of his 4000-strong army of Christian mercenaries was killed or captured, with only two knights surviving. Ilghazi was the son of Artuq, the Turkmen chieftain who made Aleppo and the surrounding region, independent of the Iran-based Great Seljuqid Empire.

659 solar years ago, on this day in 1360 AD, Mohammad VI declared himself the tenth Nasrid king of the Spanish Muslim emirate of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II (on June 24), whom he had placed on the throne ten months earlier by removing from power the latter’s brother, Mohammad V – who fled across the Strait of Gibraltar and sought asylum in Morocco, before regaining power some three years later. A coarse man in dress and manners, during his reign of less than two years, Mohammad VI aligned himself with the Christian kingdom of Aragon. Meanwhile, Mohammad V returned to Andalusia in 1361 and gradually captured Malaga, Loja, Antequera, Velez and Alhama. As a result, Mohammad VI panicked and fled Granada in March 1362. He was murdered at Tablada, a town near Seville on April 25, 1362, by the order of King Peter I of Castile, while Mohammad V retook the throne of Granada to rule for 29 more years during which he completed the grand “Alhambra” with the Palace of the Lions and the Mexuar, or Cuarto Dorado.

473 solar years ago, on this day in 1546 AD, forces of the Nizam-Shahi sultanate of Ahmadnagar launched an expedition to liberate the Portuguese occupied city of Chaul, 60 km south of Mumbai, on the western coast of India. Dom Francisco de Mascarenhas concluded a treaty to end the attack. In 1570-71, because of breach of the clauses of the treaty by the Portuguese, the Nizam-Shahi forces attacked and almost destroyed Chaul. The Nizam-Shahi sultanate was a Persianate state with close ties to the Safavid Empire, and hosted a large number of Iranians including soldiers, statesmen, poets, artists, traders, and scholars.

385 solar years ago, on this day in 1634 AD, the impregnable Dowlatabad fortress in the Deccan (southern India), after a long siege by Mahabat Khan, was surrendered by its governor Fath Khan to the Moghal forces of Emperor Shah Jahan, and Sultan Hussain Nizam Shah was transferred to Gwalior as prisoner, thus ending the almost century-and-a-half rule of the Nizam-Shahi Dynasty – a Persianate state with close ties to Safavid Iran that had emerged independent along with four other Muslim sultanates on the disintegration of the Bahmani Empire of Iranian stock.

307 solar years ago, on this day in 1712 AD, the French author and thinker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was born in Geneva, Switzerland. He joined social discussions as of the age of 40 and started publishing his viewpoints which later became well-known. His ideological, political, and social works profoundly influenced the French people and some thinkers believe that his views were among the reasons that shaped the French revolution. Among his books, are “The Social Contract”, “Emile”, and “The Confessions”. He died in 1778.

212 solar years ago, on this day in 1807 AD, the 2nd British invasion of the Río de la Plata for seizure of Buenos Aires, the capital of Spanish Argentina, was defeated by the locals. The first invasion was in 1806 when the British captured Buenos Aires but were driven back after 46-days of occupation. The invasions were part of the Napoleonic Wars, when Spain was an ally of France. The British attempted in vain to seize control of the Spanish colonies located around the La Plata Basin in South America (today part of Argentina and Uruguay). After several days of street-fighting against the local militia and the Spanish colonial army, in which half of the British forces were killed or wounded, the invaders were forced to withdraw. The social effects of these invasions, especially the successful resistance by the local people, fostered the desire for self-determination and led to the May Revolution in 1810, as a prelude to the Declaration of Independence of Argentina from Spain in 1816. It should be noted that there were six Anglo-Spanish Wars from 1702 to 1783, most of which lasted for several years since Britain had schemed to take control of the region. In 1780, in the midst of the war with the 13 New England rebellious colonies (the US), Britain approved a plan to take the Americas with attacks from both the Atlantic (from Europe) and the Pacific Oceans (from India). The plan was cancelled due to the independence of the US. In 1796, Britain drew a new plan to take Buenos Aires, then move to Chile and attack from there the Spanish stronghold of El Callao in Peru. In 1800 the Maitland Plan was drawn to seize control of Buenos Aires, move to Mendoza, and prepare a military expedition to cross the Andes and conquer Chile. From there, the British would move from sea to seize Peru and then Quito. After the failure of its second invasion of Buenos Aires, the British realized that the military occupation of South America was not possible.

146 solar years ago, on this day in 1873 AD, French physician, surgeon, and biologist, Alexis Carrel, was born in Paris. He conducted studies on providing nutrients to the muscles and maintaining them alive in vivo. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1913. His important book is “Man, The Unknown”. He died in 1924.

105 solar years ago, on this day in 1914 AD, Austrian crown prince, Franz Ferdinand, along with his spouse, was assassinated by a Serb student during a visit to Sarajevo – in present day Bosnia. It was the incident that sparked World War I, following Austria’s invasion of Serbia in August of 1914 and Germany’s attack on Belgium.

100 solar years ago, on this day in 1919 AD, the Versailles Peace Treaty was signed by the Allied and Axis Powers at the Palace of the same name in Paris to formally end World War I. The treaty reduced the number of German armed forces to not more than 100,000, levied a huge war indemnity to be paid to the Allied powers, and handed over German overseas territories to France and Britain. The Versailles Treaty also led to foundation of The League of Nations.

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1940 AD, controversial Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Muhammad Yunus, was born. As a professor of economics, he developed the concepts of microcredit and microfinance for giving loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. In 2008, he was rated in the list of the 'Top 100 Global Thinkers'. He is a member of the advisory board at Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology. In March 2011, the Bangladesh government fired Yunus from his position at Grameen Bank, which is connected with the US, citing legal violations and an age limit on his position. Yunus and Grameen Bank are appealing the decision.

69 solar years ago, on this day in 1950 AD, during the Korean War started by the US to support its stooges, over a million suspected communist sympathizers, were executed by the American and South Korean forces, following the fall of Seoul to North Korea. Known as Bodo League massacre, it was a war crime committed by South Korea but wrongly blamed on the communists for decades, until the truth recently came to light. Before the start of the Korean War, the first president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, had about 30,000 alleged communists imprisoned; he also had about 300,000 suspected sympathizers or his political opponents enrolled in an official "re-education" movement known as the Bodo League on the pretext of protecting them from execution. Non-communist sympathizers or political opponents of Rhee were also forced into the Bodo League to fill enlistment quotas. Soon the South Korean government accused independence activists of being members of the Bodo League, and subsequently arrested them. On June 27, President Syngman Rhee ordered the execution of people related to either the Bodo League or the South Korean Workers Party, and the first massacre was started in Hoengseong, Gangwon-do on 28 June. South Korean forces and anti-communist groups executed the alleged-communist prisoners, along with many of the Bodo League members. United States official documents show American officers witnessed and photographed the massacre. In one case a US officer is known to have sanctioned the killing of political prisoners so that they would not fall into enemy hands. American witnesses also reported the scene of execution of girls as young as 12 years. There were also British and Australian witnesses, Discoveries in 2008 in Daejon, South Korea (among other sites) of trenches containing executed children, have finally revealed the truth of South Korean history unknown to most South Korean civilians.

62 solar years ago, on this 1957 AD, the Islamic Center of Washington (ICW), US, was inaugurated, housing a cultural section and a spacious mosque with a capacity to accommodate 6,000 worshippers. The center was conceived in 1944 when the Turkish ambassador Munir Ertegun died without a mosque to host his funeral. The Washington diplomatic community played a leading role in its construction. Egypt donated a bronze chandelier and sent specialists who wrote Qur'anic verses to adorn the mosque’s walls and ceiling. Kashi (mosaic) tiles came from Turkey along with the experts to install them. Persian rugs came from Iran. Support for the project also came from the American-Muslim community. The center contains a library and classrooms where courses on Islam and the Arabic language are taught. The center's board of governors is made up of various ambassadors. Around the building are arrayed the flags of the Islamic nations of the world. Unfortunately, ICW is under the indirect control of the White House through the Saudi Embassy, which has divided the Muslim community in the US by expelling in 1983 the Center’s elected Imam (Prayer Leader), Sheikh Mohammad al-Asi, because of his support for the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the Global Islamic Movement. Al-Asi continues to hold the weekly Friday Prayer attended by large gatherings on the sidewalk in front of the ICW.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1965 AD, the first commercial telephone conversation over a satellite took place over Early Bird I between America and Europe. It had capacity for 240 voice circuits or one black and white TV channel. Positioned to serve the Atlantic Ocean region, Early Bird provided commercial communications service between North America and Western Europe. It exceeded its 18 months designed in-orbit life by 2 additional years. (It was later renamed as Intelsat I.) By 1 Jul 1969, three Intelsat satellites in geostationary orbit provided full global coverage. Only 19 days after Intelsat III became operational, Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew made their historic first landing on the moon, watched by 500 million people back on Earth.

52 solar years ago, on this day in 1967 AD, the illegal Zionist entity, announced annexation of the Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas, which it had occupied days earlier in the 6-day war. Today, the usurper state of Israel has settled hundreds of thousands of illegal Jewish migrants in this Islamic city and is systematically Judaizing it, in addition to desecrating Islam’s former qibla, the al-Aqsa Mosque, under which it has drilled a tunnel with the aim of collapsing the sacred structure.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, Chief Justice, Ayatollah Dr. Seyyed Mohammad Husseini Beheshti, along with 72 officials of the Islamic Revolution, including ministers and MPs, was martyred in a terrorist bomb blast by the MKO hypocrites at the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party in Tehran. Ayatollah Dr. Beheshti, as a loyal follower of Imam Khomeini (RA) was considered a pillar of the Islamic Revolution. He played a major role in drafting the constitution of the Islamic Republic, establishing the Islamic Judicial system, foiling plots of anti-revolutionaries, and standing firm against US conspiracies. According to the late Imam, Ayatollah Beheshti was like a nation and his martyrdom revealed the true, ominous nature of the MKO terrorists.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, the Iranian city of Sardasht was chemically attacked by Saddam’s repressive Ba’th minority regime, resulting in the martyrdom of 110 civilians. Saddam’s use of internationally banned chemical weapons supplied to him by the West and his committing of other abominable war crimes, were because of his series of defeats at the warfronts against Iran’s Muslim combatants. Neither the UN nor any international agency condemned these reprehensible crimes.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, the Zionist army savagely attacked the Gaza Strip on the pretext of the death of two Zionist invading soldiers and the capture of a third by Palestinian defenders. In the initial days of the Zionist raid, a number of ministers, and MPs of the Hamas-led elected Palestinian government, were kidnapped, in addition to the death and wounding of hundreds of defenseless people. Today almost 10,000 Palestinians are languishing in Zionist dungeons.

AS/SS