Today is Friday; 14th of the Iranian month of Tir 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 2nd of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa’dah 1440 lunar hijri; and July 5, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1129 lunar years ago, on this day in 311 AH, the Iranian Sunni Muslim compiler of hadith, Mohammad ibn Ishaq Ibn Khuzaymah Naishapuri, passed away at the age of 88. After basic studies in his homeland he travelled to Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, collecting hadith from different sources before returning to Iran, where he took up residence in Gorgan. He is the compiler of the book "Mukhtasar al-Mukhtasar min al-Musnad as-Sahih", which is known as "Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah". Though not included in the "Sihah as-Sitta" or the Six Canonical Hadith Compendiums of the Ahl as-Sunnah, it is considered by many prominent Sunni figures, such as the medieval Egyptian scholar, Jalal od-Din Suyuti, as next only to "Sahih Bukhari" and "Sahih Muslim". Like all other compilers of Sunni hadith – all of whom were Iranians and are held in high esteem by modern day Arab Salafis – Ibn Khuzaymah failed to have any direct contact with the Infallible Imams or their disciples for determination of authentic hadith, though he has mentioned some of the unsurpassed merits of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt. He also authored the book "Kitab at-Towheed wa Ithbat Sifat ar-Rabb".

1117 lunar years ago, on this day in 323 AH, the imposter and apostate, Mohammad ibn Ali ash-Shalmaghani, who falsely claimed to be an emissary and gateway to Imam Mahdi (AS), was executed and hanged in Baghdad by Caliph Raadhi-Billah, when he failed to serve the evil designs of the usurper Abbasid regime in undermining the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt during the “Ghaybat-as-Sughra” (Minor Occultation) of the 12^th and Last Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – may Allah hasten his reappearance to cleanse the earth of all vestiges of oppression and corruption, and to establish the global government of peace, prosperity and justice. Shalmaghani, after a good beginning as a scholar, fell prey to the satanic temptations of greed and jealousy, because of his personal enmity with the 12^th Imam’s 3^rd Deputy, Hussain Ibn Rouh Nowbakhti, and finally went completely astray, to the extent that the Imam had to personally issue a denunciation with his sacred seal so as to caution the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt against believing in his false claims.

990 solar years ago, on this day in 1029 AD, Abu Tamim Ma'ad al-Mustanṣir-Billah, the 8^th self-styled caliph of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite Dynasty of Egypt-North-Africa-Syria-Hijaz, was born in Cairo. As a 7-year old he succeeded his father, Abu'l-Hassan Ali az-Zaher, and ruled for 58 years until his death at the age of 65. During his early years, his mother administered state affairs. The Iranian philosopher-poet, Hibatullah ibn Musa Mu'ayyad fi'd-Din ash-Shirazi, served him as the "Da‘i" (chief missionary), eventually attaining the highest rank of "Bab al-Abwaab" (Gate of Gateways). Son of Musa Ibn Dawoud, the chief Ismaili missionary in the Fars region of Iran, he was the main ideologue and was also in charge of the "Dar al-Ilm" (House of Knowledge) in Cairo, where missionaries from both inside and outside the Fatemid Empire were trained. In the last twenty years of his reign, following the death of Mu'ayyad Shirazi in 1078, the caliph's Grand Vizier and head of the armed forces, the Armenian Muslim, Badr al-Jamali, became the supreme temporal authority in the realm, and succeeded in taming the turbulent Turkic Mamluks, who through constant infighting, had drained the treasury and destroyed the famous library of the Fatemids, scattering precious books and even using them to light fires. Many Iranians served in various capacities in the Fatemid court in Cairo, including the Arabic Grammarian Ibn Babshaad.

818 solar years ago, on this day in 1201 AD, a series of earthquakes and aftershocks started in Upper Egypt and the adjoining Syrian region southern parts of Palestine, resulting in the death of some 1.1 million people over a period of several months.

557 lunar years ago, on this day in 883 AH, the Treaty of Istanbul was signed by the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, officially ending the 15-year war between the two sides as a result of the advance of the Turks under Sultan Mohammad Fateh (conqueror of Constantinople) to the outskirts of Venice. The Venetians ceded Shkodra and other territories on the Dalmatian coastline, as well as the Greek islands of Negroponte and Lemnos. They also agreed to pay a tribute of around 10,000 ducats per year for trading privileges in the Black Sea.

537 lunar years ago, on this day in 903 AH, the prominent Iranian historian, Seyyed Mohammad Ibn Khwandshah Ibn Maḥmoud, popular as Mir-Khwand, passed away in the Khorasani city of Herat (presently in Afghanistan) at the age of 67. Born in Balkh, he belonged to a noble family of Bukhara (presently in Uzbekistan) that traced its descent from Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He lived most of his life in Herat at the Timurid court of Sultan Hussain Bayqarah, and authored the famous universal history “Rawzat as-Safa” (Garden of Purity). He was a friend of the scholarly minister, Ali Shir Navaei. Mir-Khwand’s grandson (daughter’s son) was the famous Persian historian, Ghiyas od-Din Khwandamir, the author of “Habeeb as-Siyar” and “Qanoun-e Humayuni”, who also flourished at the court of Herat, and moved to India in the waning years of his life to the court of another branch of the Timurids, the Mughals, founded by Zaheer od-Din Babar.

249 solar years ago, on this day in 1770 AD, the naval Battle of Chesma took place in the bay of the same name, in the area between the western tip of Anatolia and the island of Chios, between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire. It was the greatest naval defeat suffered by the Ottomans, who until then were masters of the seas. The victory inspired great confidence in the Russian fleet and allowed the Russians to control the Aegean Sea for some time. The defeat of the Ottoman fleet also sped up rebellions by minority groups in the Empire, especially the Orthodox Christian nations in the Balkan Peninsula, who helped the Russian army in defeating the Turkish Muslims.

244 solar years ago, on this day in 1775 AD, the Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Continental Congress and professed the attachment of the American people to Britain’s King George III. It expressed hope for the restoration of harmony and begged the king to prevent further hostile actions against the 13 New England colonies – later the United States of America (USA). The following day, Congress passed a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, which rejected independence but asserted that American colonists were ready to die rather than be enslaved. King George refused to receive the Olive Branch Petition, and on August 23 proclaimed the New England colonies to be in open rebellion, resulting in deterioration of relations with the colonists, declaration of independence a year later and the subsequent 7-year war that saw the birth of the USA.

208 solar years ago, on this day in 1811 AD, Venezuela gained independence from three centuries of Spanish rule, during which the European colonialists wiped out almost the entire native population of the land in addition to plundering its natural resources. The Venezuelan people started their struggle under the leadership of Francisco de Miranda in 1806, and finally under the famous South American freedom fighter, Simon Bolivar, they vanquished the Spanish in 1811. Venezuela covers an area of 91,2050 sq km and shares borders with Colombia, Brazil, and Guyana.

186 solar years ago, on this day in 1833 AD, French inventor, Joseph-Nicephore Niepce, who was the first to make a permanent photographic image, died at the age 68. In 1807, with his brother Claude, he invented the pyreolophore, an internal combustion engine fueled by lycopodium powder. Although never practical, the engine was able to move a 2-m model boat upstream. By 1813, Niepce had taken up lithography, which led to his invention of photography. By letter, in May 1816, he told Claude of an apparatus that produced a (negative) image using a paper coated with silver chloride fixed with nitric acid. After further experimentation, by 1826, he achieved the first fixed positive image. Approaching bankruptcy, in 1829, he signed an agreement of cooperation with Daguerre.

125 solar years ago, on this day in 1894 AD, British archaeologist and politician, Austen Henry Layard, whose excavations in Mesopotamia (Iraq) revealed the palaces of the great Assyrian kings, Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal, yielding much evidence of both the antiquity and the cultural achievement of the ancient civilizations, died in London at the age of 77. After wondering for many months, mostly in Iran, he began excavations at Nimrud in 1845, making detailed drawing of his discoveries. In Niniveh, near Mosul, he uncovered in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal. “The Planiform” he found at Nineveh – likely a 700 BC copy of the astronomer's notes – described in cuneiform the crashing of an asteroid, with the words: "white stone bowl approaching" that "vigorously swept along." The asteroid probably crashed into the Austrian Alps, leaving a swath of cataclysmic damage such as, for example, the Genesis destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Levant. The artifacts Layard uncovered included huge winged bulls, hawk-winged lions with human heads, many other statuary reliefs, and alabaster slabs with cuneiform inscriptions. He shipped immense sculptures and other finds back to England – although a cultural loot of a foreign nation that unintentionally saved these unique relics of the past from the vandalism of Takfiri outfits which are currently destroying museums, libraries, mosques and shrines in Iraq and Syria. Later in life, Layard abandoned archaeology and turned to politics.

88 solar years ago, on this day in 1931 AD, Ismail Mohammad, Chief Justice of South Africa as well as of Namibia, was born in Pretoria into a Muslim family of Indian merchants. Educated at the Indian School, he became a qualified lawyer, but was refused admission to the Pretoria Bar Association as it was reserved for white lawyers during the apartheid era. Later he succeeded in joining the Johannesburg Bar Association. In the 1960s he served as a lawyer in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. In 1974 he became the first non-white in South African history and co-authored the constitution of Namibia. In 1984, he was made an English Barrister. In 1991 he became Chair of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, and the country's first non-white judge of the Supreme Court. He became a judge of the Constitutional Court in 1995. In 1996 he was made Chief Justice of South Africa by President Nelson Mandela. Ismail Mohammad passed away in 2000 at the age of 69.

57 solar years ago, on this day in 1962 AD, Algeria gained independence following years of struggle against the French occupiers and the martyrdom of over a million Algerian Muslims. On the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, the French set foot in Algeria in 1830, which led to intense struggle with Amir Seyyed Abdul-Qader al-Hassani, who resisted for 17 years, before his surrender. In early 20^th Century, all of Algeria was dominated by France and the city of Algiers was capital of the French interim government during World War II, after which the Algerian people started their struggle for complete independence, under Ahmad bin Bella, who became the first president. Algeria covers an area of 2.38 million square km and shares borders with Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara.

43 solar years ago, on this day in 1976 AD, Iran’s master calligrapher, Mirza Taher Khoshnevis Tabrizi, passed away at the age of 88. Born in Tabriz, he studied jurisprudence and Arabic grammar before embarking on mastering his skills in calligraphy under the experts of his days. He was famous for his beautiful hand-writing and during his fruitful life, besides several copies of the holy Qur’an, he made unique copies of such books as “Nahj al-Balagha”, “Sahifat-as-Sajjadiyyah”, “Mafatih al-Jinan”, and “Montahi al-Aamaal”.

42 solar years ago, on this day in 1977 AD, General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq staged a bloody coup to topple the elected government of Prime Minister Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto and seize power. Two years later he executed Bhutto and a number of his opponents, after closing the parliament and prohibiting the activities of parties and the press. In 1985, Zia orchestrated elections and elected himself as president with US blessings. In 1988, he once again dissolved the national and state assemblies, dismissing the premier with vague promises of another election. On August 17, 1988, Zia ul-Haq was killed, along with several Pakistani army commanders and the US ambassador, when a military plane they were travelling exploded in midair. The present state of anarchy and rampant terrorism in Pakistan is because of General Zia’s dubious policies and his unholy alliance with the US and Saudi Arabia to tarnish the image of Islam.

AS/SS