Today is Saturday; 19th of the Iranian month of Mordad 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 8th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah 1440 lunar hijri; and August 10, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2631 solar years ago, on this day in 612 BC, with the killing of King Sin-shar-ishkun during the Battle of Ninevah by an allied army of Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Scythians and Cimmerians, the city of Ninevah – the then largest in the world – was sacked and the neo-Assyrian Empire ended after three centuries of domination over West Asia. The city of Babylon now became the imperial centre of Mesopotamia for the first time in over a thousand years, leading to the emergence of the neo-Babylonian Empire under King Nabopolassar, who had formed a successful alliance with King Cyaxares or Hvakhshathra of the Medes, and other Iranic tribes. In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great of the Persian Achaemenid Empire ended the neo-Babylonian Empire.

1380 lunar years ago, on this day in 60 AH, Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3rd Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), left Mecca via the plain of Arafaat for Iraq, since he was loathe to see this inviolable land desecrated by bloodshed, as the tyrant Yazid had sent assassins disguised in pilgrim garb to attack him. Four months earlier, the Imam had left his hometown, Medina, to take up residence in Mecca along with family members after refusing to acknowledge the illegitimate rule of Yazid as caliph. Here in Mecca, the Imam informed people of the corrupt and oppressive nature of the Godless Omayyads. The reason he left for Iraq was the repeated invitation of the people of Kufa to come and resolve their affairs. A month later, Imam Husain (AS), along with almost all male members of his family and loyal companions was cruelly martyred in Karbala on the 10th of Moharram by the ungodly Omayyad forces. During his stay in Mecca, the Imam had apprised the people of the critical situation of the Muslim world, while his departure without completing the Hajj, made the Muslims further aware of the anti-Islamic policies of Yazid.

1232 solar years ago, on this day in 787 AD, prominent Iranian-Islamic astronomer, philosopher and hadith scholar, Abu Mash’ar Ja'far ibn Mohammad al-Balkhi, was born in the Khorasani city of Balkh (currently in Afghanistan).  Latinized by medieval Europe as Albumasar, Albusar, or Albuxar, he flourished at the Abbasid court in Baghdad as the greatest astronomer of the era and passed away in Waset, Iraq, at the ripe old age of 102. He wrote several practical manuals on astrology that profoundly influenced Muslim intellectual history, and through Latin translations of his works, deeply impacted Western Europe and Byzantium. He was well versed in Persian, Arabic, Greek and Sanskrit languages. Abu Ma'shar wrote several books including "Kitab al-Mudkhal al-Kabir ila Ilm Ahkaam an-Nujjum", "Kitāb al‐Milal wa’l-Duwal" and "Kitāb Taḥawil Sinin al‐Mawālīd” (Book of the Revolutions of the Years of Nativities). These and other works were translated into Latin and Greek and had profound effect on western philosophers and scientists such as Albert, Roger Bacon, Pierre d'Ailly, and Pico Della Mirandola.

1172 solar years ago, on this day in 847 AD, al-Watheq-Billah, the 9^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, died under suspicious circumstances in his capital Samarra in Iraq at the age of 31 after a 5-year reign, and was succeeded the same day by his half-brother, the Godless tyrant Mutawakkil, who immediately launched several days of festivities, while his predecessor’s unburied corpse lay rotting, with mice eating away the eyes. Born to Qaratis, a Greek concubine of Mu’tasim, he became caliph on the latter’s death and immediately launched a wave of persecutions. During Watheq’s reign, several revolts broke out, the largest ones in Syria and Palestine. These revolts were the result of an increasingly large gap between Arab populations and the armies of Turkic slave-soldiers imported en masse from Central Asia by Mu’tasim – himself the son of Marida, a Turkic concubine of the tyrant Haroun Rashid. The revolts were put down, but antagonism between the two groups continued to widen, with the Turkic forces gaining more power. Twice in his brief reign Watheq dispatched the Turkic commander Bugha al-Kabir to Arabia to brutally suppress the tribes of Yamama and other regions.

1123 lunar years ago, on this day in 317 AH, Abu Taher al-Jannabi, the chief of the Ismaili sub-sect called “Qarameta”, in an attack on the holy city of Mecca during the Hajj, massacred pilgrims, desecrated the Well of Zamzam by throwing corpses into it, sacrilegiously ripped apart the Hajar al-Aswad (Sacred Black Stone) from the holy Ka'ba, and took it to his base in the eastern parts of Arabia. The Islamic world was shocked. Some 22 years later, the Hajar al-Aswad was returned to the holy Ka'ba by paying a heavy ransom through the mediation of the Ismaili Fatemid caliph of North Africa.

500 solar years ago, on this day in 1519 AD, the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan's 5-ship Spanish expedition set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the Earth. The Basque second in command Juan Sebastian Elcano was to complete the expedition after Magellan's death in the Philippines and return to Spain on 5 September 1522.

339 solar years ago, on this day in 1680 AD, the Pueblo Revolt was launched by Pueblo Amerindians against the Spanish in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. From 1540 to 1600 the Pueblo Indians of present-day New Mexico were subjected to seven successive waves of soldiers, missionaries, and settlers. These encounters, referred to as the Entradas, were characterized by violent confrontations between Spanish colonists and Pueblo peoples. The Tiguex War, fought in the winter of 1540-41 by the expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado against the twelve or thirteen pueblos of Tiwa Indians, was particularly destructive to Pueblo and Spanish relations. The Pueblo Revolt killed 400 Spanish and drove the remaining 2,000 occupiers out of the province. Twelve years later the Spanish returned and were able to reoccupy New Mexico.

227 solar years ago, on this day in 1792 AD during the French Revolution, the storming of the Tuileries Palace led to the arrest of King Louis XVI and the massacre of his Swiss Guards by the Parisian mob. He and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette were later executed by the guillotine

226 solar years ago, on this day in 1793 AD, Louvre, which today is the world's largest museum, was opened in Paris, the capital of France, with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. The collection was increased under Napoleon Bonaparte, and after his abdication many works seized by his armies for the museum were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X. During the Second French Empire it gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since then. Today nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square meters.   The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings. The Louvre is the world's second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China, and in 2014 received more than 9.26 million visitors.

99 solar years ago, on this day in 1920 AD, the Treaty of Sevres was forced upon the decaying Ottoman Empire by Britain and France, stripping it of 80% of its territory. The remaining European parts of the Empire were handed over to Greece, while Italy got several islands, forcing hundreds of thousands of Muslims to leave their ancestral homes and cross into the Asian parts. At the same time, Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine were placed under British mandate, and Syria and Lebanon under French mandate, while Hijaz with its holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the resort of Ta’ef and the Red Sea ports of Jeddah and Yanbu, declared an independent kingdom under the British agent, Sharif Hussain. Armenia also got a share of Turkish territory while a part of Asia Minor was given to Greece as Ionia. Istanbul and its surroundings were declared demilitarized, while the ancient Seljuq capital of Konya was placed under Italy’s zone of influence. The plan was to separate the Kurdish areas as well, but was deferred. This harsh and humiliating treatment led to the uprising of the Turkish people, and the Turkish army soon drove away the Greek occupiers from Asia Minor and the surroundings of Istanbul on the European side. This forced the western powers to draft a new treaty in 1923, which fixed the present boundaries of modern Turkey. In 1937, the French illegally handed over to Turkey the Syrian territories of Iskenderun and Antakya (Antioch), which Turkey calls Hatay Province, but whose sovereignty Damascus has never recognized, calling it part of Syria. Meanwhile, in 1925, the Kingdom of Hijaz was occupied by Wahhabi brigands from the Nejd with the blessings of the British who in 1932 formally installed their agent, Abdul-Aziz Aal-Saud as king of the pseudo country called Saudi Arabia. Abdel-Aziz consequently seized parts of Yemen and occupied the Shi’ite Muslim sheikhdoms of the eastern parts of the Arabian Peninsula on the oil-rich Persian Gulf coast.

82 solar years ago, on this day in 1937 AD, a two-year war broke out between China and Japan over some important regions of Chinese soil including Canton which fell to the Japanese on April 25, 1939. With the outbreak of World War II Japan occupied large regions of eastern China, which it was forced to evacuate following its defeat.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, Pakistan’s former president, General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, died at the age of 63. In 1969, he was handed power by his predecessor President Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan and was the chief executive until the defeat in the war against India and separation of East Pakistan as Bangladesh on December 16, 1971. On December 20, he formally handed over power to the civilian politician Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. During World War 2, he had served with distinction in the North African, West Asian, and Mediterranean theatres as an officer of the British Indian army. He was of Iranian origin, having been born into an ethnic Qizilbash family in Chakwal, Punjab. In Afghanistan and the Subcontinent the Qizilbash (literally Red-Heads from the special caps they used to wear during the Safavid Empire), are descendants of the soldiers of Iran’s Nader Shah Afshar who stayed behind after his invasion of India. 

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, more than 127 Muslims were massacred in northeastern Sri Lanka by paramilitary troops. Throughout the civil war between the Sinhali dominated Buddhist government and the Hindu Tamil militants, the Muslims of Sri Lanka were unfortunately targeted by both sides.

14 solar years ago, on this day in 2005 AD, Iran, under supervision of UN experts, exercised its right to remove the final seals from equipment at a uranium conversion plant, paving the way for mastering of the nuclear fuel cycle by Iranian scientists. The West, led by the US, resorted to lawlessness by uttering threats and imposing illegal sanctions on Iran, and later it teamed up with the Zionists to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. When all these measures proved futile, the 5+1 group, after over a decade of intransigence, acknowledged Iran’s right to enable uranium for peaceful use of nuclear energy, as per the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action). This year in May, the US breached its commitments and illegally withdrew from this international accord. 

AS/SS