Today is Tuesday; 14th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 25th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1437 lunar hijri; and May 3, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

3391 solar years ago, on this day in 1375 BC, the oldest recorded eclipse occurred, according to one plausible interpretation of a date inscribed on a clay tablet retrieved from the ancient city of Ugarit, Syria.

1254 lunar years ago, on this day in 183 AH, Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), attained martyrdom at the age of 55 in the prison of Haroun Rashid in Baghdad because of a fatal dose of poison given by the caliph. His period of Imamate was 35 years, during which, as the son and successor of Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS), he guided the seekers of truth in those days of Abbasid tyranny. He groomed a large number of scholars who spread the teachings of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt in different lands, before passing the mantle of divinely-decreed leadership to his son and successor, Imam Reza (AS). We extend our heartfelt condolences to all listeners on this doleful day, and later in our programme will present you a special feature on the life and times of the 7th Imam, the "Bab al-Hawa'ej" or the Gateway of Needs, whose sprawling shrine in Kazemain, north of Baghdad attracts pilgrims from all over the world.

1176 lunar years ago, on this day in 261 AH, the Iranian Sunni scholar and compiler of hadith, Abul-Hussain Muslim ibn Hajjaj al-Qushayri Naishapuri, the author of “Sahih Muslim”, passed away at the age of 55 years in his hometown Naishapur in Khorasan, northeastern Iran. He was a student of the other famous Iranian Sunni Muslim hadith compiler, Mohammad bin Ismael Bukhari, and among his students was the third famous Iranian Sunni Muslim compiler of hadith, Mohammad bin Eisa Tirmizi. After travelling throughout Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Iraq and Syria, he settled down in his hometown Nayshapour where he first met Bukhari, with whom he would have a lifelong friendship. Of the thousands of hadith he has collected in his "Sahih", 2000 are common with Bukhari's "Sahih". There are many hadith in “Sahih Muslim” on the merits of the Ahl al-Bayt including the unrivalled position of Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) compared to the companions of the Prophet. He has mentioned that the term Ahl al-Bayt as referred to by God Almighty in ayah 33 of Surah Ahazab exclusively pertains to Imam Ali, Hazrat Fatema, Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) and does not include the Prophet’s wives.

958 lunar years ago, on this day in 479 AH, Sultan Mo'iz od-Din Ahmad Sanjar, the last great ruler of the Iran-based Seljuqid Empire that included Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and parts of Turkey and Central Asia, was born. As son of Malik Shah I, he ruled for 36 years, initially as sultan of Khorasan until he gained the rest of the territory upon the death of his brother Mohammad I. His capital was Naishapur, and in addition to internal revolts, he faced external invasions from beyond the River Jaxartes in Central Asia, especially from the Sultan of Kashghar in what is now China, and the Qara Khitai Turks against whom he suffered a devastating defeat near Samarqand and lost all territory east of the Jaxartes. Oghuz Turks from Khuttal and Tukharistan captured Sanjar and held him prisoner for three years. A year after release he died in Merv which is presently in Turkmenistan and was buried there.

587 solar years ago, on this day in 1429 AD, the French national heroine, Jeanne d’Arc, known to the English as Joan of Arc or Maid of Orleans, started her uprising for the liberation of parts of French territory from the occupation of England. She led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, transferred to the English in exchange for money, put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais for charges of insubordination and heterodoxy, and burned at the stake as a heretic in 1431 when she was only 19 years old.

555 lunar years ago, on this day 892 AH, Shah Ismael I, the Founder of the Safavid dynasty, was born in Ardabil, northwestern Iran. His father Haidar was head of the Safaviyya Sufi order established by his venerable ancestor Safi od-Din Ardebeli. His mother, Martha, was the daughter of the Aq Qoyonlu king, Uzun Hasan by his Greek wife Theodora, better known as Despina Khatoun, the daughter of King John IV of Trebizond. Ismail was only one year old when his father was martyred in what is now Daghestan, and at the age of 7 he succeeded his elder brother Sultan Ali, who was also martyred. He went into hiding along with his loyal followers before emerging at the age of 12 to set up rule in Azarbaijan. Soon he was joined by thousands of devotees of the Safavid order and gradually took control of all of today's Iran, as well as Iraq, the Caucasus, parts of Anatolia, Central Asia, and western Afghanistan. He declared the School of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt as the state religion of the Safavid Empire, and to Shah Ismail and his successors, who ruled for 235 years, goes the credit of giving Iran its present religious, cultural, lingual and national identity and unity.

547 solar years ago, on this day in 1469 AD, the Italian historian and philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, was born in Florence. Regarded as a founder of modern (unprincipled) political science, he was a diplomat, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic, serving as secretary to the Second Chancery from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici family were out of power. He wrote his political theory titled “The Prince” after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility. He believed that there is no harm in acquiring power and maintain it through any means possible including deceit and oppression, without regard for ethical principles or moral and religious values. Machiavelli died in 1527.

535 solar years ago, on this day in 1481 AD, the largest of three earthquakes struck the small island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea (off the coast of Turkey) causing an estimated 30,000 casualties. It was then part of the Ottoman Empire.

535 solar years ago, on this day in 1481 AD, the 7th Ottoman Sultan, Mohammad II (known as al-Fateh or the Conqueror), died, after a reign of 32 years and was succeeded by his son, Bayezid II. He transformed the Ottoman state into an empire by conquering Constantinople and ending Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire. He set out to revitalize the city, renamed it Islambol (today’s Istanbul) and made it the capital of his empire. The first decree issued by him was security and freedom of the residents who were almost all Christians. Hours later, he rode to the Hagia Sofia to proclaim the Islamic creed, converting the grand cathedral into an imperial mosque. When he stepped into the ruins of the Boukoleon, the Palace of the Caesars, built over a thousand years before by Theodosius II, he recited the famous Persian couplet of the Iranian poet, Shaikh Sa’di:

"The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars;

The owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiab."

He began to build the Grand Bazaar, and also constructed during this period was Topkapı Palace, which served as the official residence of the Ottoman sultans for the next four hundred years. The city, built by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine I, on the coastlines of Bosphorus Strait was thus transformed from a bastion of Christianity to a symbol of Islamic culture. Sultan Mohammad II extended Muslim rule as far as the borders of Italy and his death probably saved Rome from possible subjugation. He initiated administrative reforms and was fluent in several languages, including Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He invited famous scholars to his court, including the Iranian polymath, Ala od-Din Ali ibn Mohammad Qushji, who as a disciple of the famous astronomer-king Ulugh Beg, was an astronomer, mathematician and physicist from Samarqand.

501 solar years ago, on this day in 1515 AD, the Portuguese fleet occupied the Iranian Island of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. In the next few years they seized more Iranian islands including Bahrain in 1521. The brutality of the Portuguese occupation forces enraged the people of Iran. Finally, upon establishment of a strong Iranian navy by the Safavid Dynasty, Shah Abbas the Great liberated Bahrain in 1602 and Hormuz in 1622.

77 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, the All India Forward Bloc was formed in Calcutta by Subhash Chandra Bose, who had resigned from the presidency of the Indian National Congress on April 29 after being outmaneuvered by Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi. The goal was to liberate India from British rule through armed struggle, if possible. In August the same year Bose began publishing a newspaper titled Forward Bloc. On July 2, 1940 he was arrested and in January 1941 escaped from house arrest, and clandestinely went into exile, making his way to Germany, where he met Adolf Hitler and set up the Free India Centre in Berlin. In August 1942 the British banned the Forward Bloc. Today the party still functions in India, but in name only.

48 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, the French student movement started in Paris. Soon French workers, dissatisfied with their negligible wages, joined the protesting students. The uprising later became political and spread to several European countries and the US. The protesters demanded social reforms in favor of low-income strata, and end to US interference in Europe. The student movement fizzled out because of police brutality coupled with the deceit of politicians.

47 solar years ago, on this day in 1969 AD, Zakir Hussain, the 3rd President of India, died in office at the age of 72. He was born in Hyderabad Deccan into an Afridi-Pashtun family and was the first Muslim president of India. He was also a former Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1983 AD, Algerian foreign minister, Mohammed Seddiq bin Yahya, was killed at the age of 50 during a diplomatic mission to try to end the war imposed by the US on the Islamic Republic of Iran through Saddam, when his plane was shot down by the Ba’thist regime near the Turkey-Iran borders. He was a veteran of the Algerian independence struggle against France, and had a distinguished record of serving his country as Minister of Information (1967–1971), Minister of Higher Education (1971–1977), Minister of Finance (1977–1979), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1979-1982).

33 solar years ago, on this day in 1983 AD, the Toudeh Party was disbanded following fresh disclosures about its treacherous role in collaboration with the Soviet Union to stage a coup against the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The vigilance of devout and revolutionary army personnel and security forces foiled this plot. Set up in 1941 with a communist policy, Toudeh had turned into the Soviet Union’s 5th column in Iran and betrayed the nationalization of Iran’s oil industry by openly calling for the handing over of northern Iran’s oil sources to Moscow. The Toudeh Party leaders, in their confessions, admitted to collaboration with the Soviet Union against Islamic Iran.

23 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, the United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991. UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day by conferring the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on a deserving individual, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, Ayatollah Seyyed Amir Mohammad Kazemi Qazvini passed away at the age of 77 and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Hazrat Ma’souma (SA) in Qom. Born in Kuwait in a scholarly family of Iranian origin, at the age of 7 he moved to Basra in Iraq, and at the age of 18 enrolled at the famous seminary of holy Najaf. On attaining ijtehad, he settled in Basra and embarked on teaching, preaching and writing books. This alarmed the repressive Ba’th minority regime, which intended to burn his house. Ayatollah Seyyed Amir Mohammad Kazemi Qazvini was forced to relocate to Kuwait in 1971. He wrote some 40 valuable books on different Islamic topics.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, the so-called justice minister of Bahrain’s repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, said 24 doctors and 23 paramedics, who treated injured protesters demanding their birthrights, have been charged with acts against the state and will be tried in a military court. Their prosecution began on June 6. Bahrain is in the grip of a popular uprising which has been brutally quelled by the regime with the help of the invading Saudi Arabian forces – destroying mosques and hussainiyahs, and desecrating copies of the holy Qur’an.

AS/ME