Today is Saturday; 30th of the Iranian month of Shahrivar 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 21st of the Islamic month of Muharram 1441 lunar hijri; and September 21, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2038 solar years ago, on this day in 19 BC; the famous poet of ancient Rome, Publius Vergilius Maro, popular as "Virgil", died at the age of 51. His masterpiece is the epic Latin poem "Aeniad" that tells the legend of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. The first six of the poem's twelve books tell the story of Aeneas's wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem's second half tells of the Trojans' ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed.

1011 lunar years ago, on this day in 430 AH, the Iranian Shafei hadith scholar and historian, Ahmad Ibn Abdullah, known as Hafez Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani, passed away in his hometown Isfahan. Initially taught by his scholarly grandfather and father, he later studied under leading scholars, including the famous hadith authority of Syria, at-Tabarani, who had settled in Isfahan. Abu Nu’aym Isfahani travelled widely, as far as Islamic Spain. He authored scores of books and treatises including “Dala’el an-Nubuwwa” (Proofs of Prophethood), “The History of Isfahan”, and the 10-volume work “Hilyat al-Awliya”, which is a biography of 650 pious figures, including six of the 12 Infallible Imams of the Prophet’s Household. Abu Nu’aym Isfahani was the ancestor of the famous Imami scholar, Allamah Majlisi, who says his forbear was a devout follower of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt and because of the repressive atmosphere of the times, he lived in a state of dissimulation (taqiyya).

715 lunar years ago, on this day in 726 AH, the renowned theologian Hassan Ibn Yousuf Ibn Ali Ibn Mutahhar al-Hilli, passed away at the age of 78 in his hometown Hilla and was laid to rest in Najaf in the holy mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS). Renowned as "Allamah Hilli", he was a child prodigy, and after initial education under his qualified father, and acquiring of fiqh from his famous maternal uncle "Muhaqqiq Hilli", he proceeded to study from other masters of his era, including the celebrated scholars of Iraq, Seyyed Ali bin Tawus and Seyyed Ahmad bin Tawus, as well as Maytham al-Bahrani of Bahrain and the Iranian Islamic genius, Khwaja Naseer od­Din Tusi, who taught him philosophy and logic. Later, he held debates with scholars of the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence – Hanbali, Hanafi, Maleki, and Shafei. During one such debate in the Ilkhanid court, his rationality convinced the Buddhist-born and Christian-baptized Mongol Emperor of Iran-Iraq, Oljeitu Khodabanda, to become a Muslim and a staunch follower of the Ahl al-Bayt. Allamah Hilli's works include at least a hundred books and treatises on various subjects such as jurisprudence, theology, logic, philosophy, hadith, exegesis of the holy Qur'an and Rijal or evaluation of hadith narrators. Each book of this great mujtahid is enough to portray his precocity and genius. Among his works are "Ma'arej al-Fahm", "Qawa'ed al-Ahkaam", "Tadhkirat ul-Fuqaha" and "Tabsirat ul-Mutallimeen", the last being studied by seminary students till this day. He also wrote on proofs from the holy Qur'an, the hadith, and the intellect, on the right to caliphate of Imam Ali (AS) after the passing away of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). This famous book is titled "Nahj al-Haq wa Kashf as-Sidq". Allama Hilli was succeeded by his worthy son, Mohammad, who is acclaimed as “Fakhr al­Muhaqqiqeen” (Pride of Researchers).

582 solar years ago, on this day in 1437 AD, Sultan Nasser Khan Farouqi of the Khandesh Muslim kingdom of Central India, died heartbroken three days after his humiliating defeat at the Battle of Lalling and the sack of his capital, Burhanpur, by the forces of Sultan Ala od-Din Ahmad Shah Bahmani of the Deccan. During his 38-year rule, Nasser Khan had built a strong realm which he had inherited from his father, but after him, under his weak and divided successors, the kingdom deteriorated and was finally absorbed by the expanding Mughal Empire.

443 solar years ago, on this day in 1576 AD, Gerolamo Cardano, Italian physician, mathematician, astrologer, and philosopher, died at the age of 75. Having widely studied the works of Muslim scientists from whom he borrowed extensively, he became known in Europe as the earliest founder of probability and the establisher of the binomial coefficients and the binomial theorem, which he mentions in his book “Opus Novum de Proportionibus”. He wrote some 200 works on medicine, music, mathematics, physics, philosophy, and religion. He is known for his achievements in algebra – corruption of the Arabic term “al-Jabr wa’l-Muqabela” invented by Muslim mathematicians. Among Europeans, he made the first systematic use of negative numbers, published with attribution the solutions of other mathematicians for cubic and quartic equations, and acknowledged the existence of imaginary numbers.

439 lunar years ago, on this day in 1002 AH, ambassadors of the sultanates of the Deccan (southern India) conveyed the refusal of the Nizamshahi, Adelshahi and Qotbshahi sultans to acknowledge Jalal od-Din Akbar Shah, the Mughal Emperor of Hindustan (northern subcontinent), as their overlord. Akbar was furious and sent armies to attack them, but did not succeed in subjugating the three Persianate sultanates which followed the creed of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, and considered the Safavid emperor of Iran as their overlord, reciting his name in the Friday sermons in their respective capitals – Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golkandah-Haiderabad.

361 solar years ago, on this day in 1658 AD, the controversial religious reformer of the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian Archipelago, Noor od-Din Mohammad Ibn Ali Ibn Hassan ar-Raniri, passed away in India. Born in the port city of Rander in Gujarat, India, in the late 1500s to a father of a mixed Yemeni-Indian ancestry and a Malay mother, he studied in the Hijaz, was a follower of the Shafe’i school of jurisprudence, and a member of the Rifa'iyya Sufi order. In 1637, he arrived in Acheh, North Sumatra, whose ruler, Sultan Iskandar Thani, appointed him to the highest religious office. He accused the followers of the sufi, Hamzah Fansuri, of heresy and had their books burned. He left Acheh in 1644 for Pahang in the Malay Peninsula, and after serving for several years, returned to India, where he died. During his years in Southeast Asia he wrote numerous works, including “as-Sirat al-Mustaqim” (The Straight Path) that led to the Islamization of Kedah. Raniri's longest work, the encyclopedic “Bustan al-Salatin fi Dhikr al-Awwalin wa-l-Akherin” (Garden of Kings Concerning Beginning and Ending), has received the most widespread attention. It is something of a "Mirror for Princes." It is divided into seven parts: (1) creation; (2) prophets and rulers; (3) just kings and wise ministers; (4) ascetic rulers and pious saints; (5) unjust rulers and oppressive ministers; (6) noble and generous people and brave men; and (7) intelligence, science, and the like.

261 solar years ago, on this day in 1758 AD, French linguist and orientalist, Antoine Isaac, titled Baron Silvestre de Sacy, was born in Paris. Having studied Semitic languages, he turned his attention to Iranology, and from 1787 to 1791 worked on the Pahlavi inscriptions of the Sassanid kings. In 1795 he became professor of Arabic in the School of Living Eastern languages (Eecole Speciale des Langues Orientales Vivantes). He studied the Druze religion, the subject of his last and unfinished work, the “Expose de la Religion des Druzes” (2 vols. 1838). He published the following Arabic textbooks: “Grammaire Arabe” (2 vols. 1810), “Chrestomathie Arabe” (3 vols. 1806) and   “Anthologie Grammaticale” (1829). In 1806 he added the duties of Persian professor to his old chair. Among his other works are his edition of “Maqamaat Hariri” (1822), with a selected Arabic commentary, and of the “Alfiya” (1833), as well as the “Kalila wa Dimna” (1816) – the Arabic version of the Sanskrit “Panchatantra”. Other works include a version of “Abd-el-Latif, Relation Arabe sur l'Egypte”, essays on the “History of the Law of Property in Egypt since the Arab Conquest” (1805–1818), and “The Book of Wandering Stars”, a translation of a history of the Ottoman Empire and its rule of Egypt. To biblical criticism he contributed a memoir on the “Samaritan Arabic Pentateuch”, and editions of the Arabic and Syriac New Testaments for the British and Foreign Bible Society.

243 solar years ago, on this day in 1776 AD, part of New York City was burned shortly after British forces captured it during the rebellion of the 13 New England colonies – later called the American War of Independence. The west side at the southern end of the island of Manhattan saw the greatest damage, with the fire, believed to be an act of arson by the rebels, destroying 25 percent of the city. The British withdrew in 1783.

227 solar years ago, on this day in 1792 AD, three years after the victory of the French revolution, the monarchic system was formally replaced with a republic and a constitutional assembly called the National Convention took charge of the administration. In January 1793, the deposed King Louis XVI was executed along with many of his family members. The republic barely lasted 12 years, as Napoleon Bonaparte revived the monarchy and styled himself emperor.

209 solar years ago, on this day in 1810 AD, the famous Urdu and Persian poet of India, Mir Mohammad Taqi Mir, passed away at the age of 87. Born in Agra in a religious family descended from the Infallible Imams of the Prophet's Household, he was one of the pioneers who gave shape to Urdu language, and is considered the principal poet of the Delhi School. He later migrated to Lucknow at a time when Urdu language and poetry was in its formative stage. Mir's instinctive aesthetic sense helped him strike a balance between the indigenous expression and new enrichment coming in from Persian imagery and idiom. A prolific author in both Urdu and Persian, he wrote his autobiography titled "Zikr-e Mir" in Persian. In addition to his "Kulliyat-e Farsi" or Persian language collection of poems, he composed six divans in Urdu.

187 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, Walter Scott, Scottish author, poet, and playwright, died at the age of 61. His novels and poetry are based on historical accounts, and remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include “Ivanhoe”, “Rob Roy”, “Old Mortality”, “The Lady of the Lake”, “Waverley”, “The Heart of Midlothian”, “Kenilworth”, “The Talisman”, and “The Bride of Lammermoor”.

159 solar years ago, on this day in 1860 AD, during the Second Opium War, an Anglo-French force defeated Chinese troops at the Battle of Palikao (literally The Eight-Mile Bridge). It allowed Western forces to defeat the Qing Empire and take control of the capital Beijing on October 11.

159 solar years ago, on this day in 1860 AD, Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher and author, died at the age of 72. Known for his pessimism, at age 25 he published his doctoral dissertation, “On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason,” which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal world. He arrived at many of the same conclusions of Eastern philosophy, and would say: "Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control.”

153 solar years ago, on this day in 1866 AD, English author and historian, Herbert George Wells, was born. He catapulted to fame with his science-fiction novels. Among his works are "The Time Machine", "The Island of Doctor Moreau", "The War of the Worlds", and "A Modern Utopia". He died in 1946.

110 solar years ago, on this day in 1909 AD, Ghanaian politician and independence leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was born. In the first general election in Ghana in 1951, he led the Convention People's Party and was chosen premier. In 1957 Ghana gained independence from British rule. Thereafter, Nkrumah was the target of numerous plots, assassination attempts and coups. In 1966, while he was on a visit to China, General Joseph Ankrah staged a coup and seized power. Nkrumah, who died in Romania in 1972, played a pivotal role in establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Organization of African Unity.

100 solar years ago, on this day in 1919 AD, the well-known Islamic scholar of Pakistan, Fazl ur-Rahman Malik, was born in the Hazara area of British India (now in Pakistan). He studied Arabic at Punjab University, and went on to Oxford University in Britain, where he wrote a dissertation on the famous Iranian Islamic philosopher-physician, Abu Ali Ibn Sina. Afterwards, he began a teaching career, first at Durham University where he taught Persian language and Islamic philosophy, and then at McGill University where he taught Islamic studies until 1961, when he returned to Pakistan to head up the Central Institute of Islamic Research. Because of hindrances, he resigned from the post and returned to teaching, moving to the United States and teaching at UCLA as a visiting professor for a few years. He moved to the University of Chicago in 1969 and established himself there becoming the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Thought. At Chicago he was instrumental for building a strong Near Eastern Studies program that continues to be among the best in the world. He died in 1988. In his memory, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago named its common area after him, due to his many years of service. His books include: "Prophecy in Islam: Philosophy and Orthodoxy", "Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition", "Major Themes of the Qur'an", "Islamic Methodology in History", and "Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition".

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, the island state of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea gained independence from British rule. Once part of the Roman Empire, it became an Islamic island for over three-and-a-half centuries until its occupation by the Crusaders in the medieval era. Several times it was raided by the Ottoman Turks, and in 1798 was occupied by France, before falling to the British. Malta covers an area of 316 sq km. The official language is Maltese which is heavily influenced by Arabic, and is actually a variant of the now extinct Sicilian Arabic dialect, written today in the Latin alphabet.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, Belize in Central America, gained independence from British rule. Formerly known as British Honduras, it covers an area of almost 22965 sq km, and shares borders with Mexico and Guatemala.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, the US intruding forces in the Persian Gulf, in a blatant act of state terrorism in support of Saddam during the imposed war, used helicopter gunships to attack the Iranian merchant vessel “Iran Ajr” and scuttled it. Four Iranian crewmen were martyred and 26 wounded.

12 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Iranian air force pilots made successful test flights in two of Iran's new domestically manufactured fighter jet. The “Saeqeh” jet is a new generation of the “Azarakhsh” class of fighter planes. Azarakhsh and Saeqeh mean lightening in Persian and Arabic respectively.

AS/SS