Today is Monday; 15th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 8th of the Islamic month of Safar 1441 lunar hijri; and October 7, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1406 lunar years ago, on this day in 35 AH, the loyal Iranian disciple of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), Salman Farsi, or the Persian, passed away in Mada’en in Iraq, where his mausoleum still stands today, with the Prophet’s famous hadith inscribed in bold letters on its walls, reading “Salman minna Ahl al-Bayt” (Salman is from us the People of the Blessed Household), an honour that was not bestowed on any Arab companion of the Prophet. Salman, whose name was Rouzbeh, fed up with the weird rites of the Zoroastrians, left his hometown Shiraz in search of the true religion after becoming acquainted with Nestorian Christians. He travelled widely and learned the tenets of monotheism from several hermits in Syria, who had retreated into isolated desert monasteries in order to preserve the monotheist teachings of Prophet Jesus (PBUH), after Paul the Hellenized Jew had distorted the Gospels to coin the absurd belief of trinity. When death approached the last such hermit, he advised Salman to travel to Arabia and await the advent of the Last and Greatest of Prophets. On arrival in Arabia, he was kidnapped by Jews and sold into slavery. For long years he toiled in cultivating date-palms, until one day he encountered enlightened visages speaking of monotheism and divine justice. A spark lit Salman’s heart, and in order to test the visitors, he offered them some dates as "sadaqa" (charity), since he had read in the scriptures that alms and charity are forbidden for the Last Prophet and his progeny. The Prophet gave the charity dates to his companions to eat, while he himself, along with his cousin and son-in-law, Imam Ali (AS), politely declined the offer. Salman beamed with joy at finding the ultimate goal of his quest, and this time took some dates and offered the Prophet and the Imam as gifts, which they accepted. Salman immediately recited the two-fold testimony of faith: "ash-hado an la ilaha il-Allah; wa ash-hado anna Muhammadan Rasoul-Allah” (I testify there is no god but Allah; and I testify Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah), thus becoming a Muslim. The Prophet paid a big amount of money and met other conditions of the miserly Jew to procure the release of Salman, who thereafter loyally served the cause of Islam. It was on the advice of this faithful Iranian Sahabi that the Muslims dug the “khandaq” (trench) around the most vulnerable part of Medina, when a 10,000 plus force of pagan Arabs and Israelites tried to attack the Prophet and obliterate Islam. After the Prophet’s passing away, Salman was among the few Muslims who were loyal and steadfast to Islam and the divinely-decreed right of Imam Ali (AS). In his last days he served as governor of Mada’en (Ctesiphon, the former Sassanid capital).

448 solar years ago, on this day in 1571 AD, the decisive Battle of Lepanto took place on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off the western coast of the Turkish province of Yunanistan (now known as Greece), when a fleet of southern European Catholic maritime states, backed by the Church in Rome, managed to defeat the Ottoman navy in five hours of fighting. According to historians classifying strategic battles, a Turkish victory could have led to Western Europe being overrun by the Muslims, as was the fate of the Byzantine Empire a little more than a century earlier. Lepanto was the last major naval battle in the Mediterranean fought entirely between galleys. The Christian powers calling themselves the Holy League were made up of Spain, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, the Kingdom of Naples, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy, the Papacy of Rome, the Knights Hospitallers, and special forces from Germany, all under the command of Don John of Austria. The death during battle, of the Turkish admiral (Kapudan-e Darya), Ali Pasha, and the mounting of his severed head on the mast of the Christian fleet broke the morale of the Ottoman navy, which retreated, conceding victory to the Christian powers.

282 solar years ago, on this day in 1737 AD, 40 foot waves sank 20,000 small craft and killed 300,000 people in Bengal, India.

256 solar years ago, on this day in 1763 AD, King George III of Britain issued a parliamentary degree closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlements. Some 15 years later the revolt of the colonists in what were then the 13 New England states, annulled the British king’s decree, and led to the genocide of the Amerindians by the White settlers from Europe who now spread in all directions to the detriment of the so-called Red Indians.

223 solar years ago, on this day in 1796 AD, Scottish mathematician and philosopher, Thomas Reid, died at the age of 86. He was the founder of the School of Common Sense and believed that common sense should be at the foundation of all philosophical inquiry. He advocated direct realism, or common sense realism, and argued strongly against the Theory of Ideas advocated by John Locke, and Rene Descartes.

213 solar years ago, on this day in 1806 AD, Englishman Ralph Wedgwood secured the first patent for carbon paper, which he described as an “apparatus for producing duplicates of writings.” In his process, thin paper was saturated with printer's ink, and then dried between sheets of blotting paper. His idea for the carbon paper was a byproduct of his invention of a machine to help blind people write, and the “black paper” was really just a substitute for ink. In its original form, Wedgwood's “Stylographic Writer” employed a metal stylus instead of a quill for writing, with the carbon paper placed between two sheets of paper in order to transfer a copy onto the bottom sheet.

159 solar years ago, on this 1860 AD, during the 2nd Opium War against China, British troops on the outskirts of Beijing began to plunder the beautiful gardens of Yuanmingyuan (the garden of perfection and light), and the imperial summer palace built by the Qing emperor Qianlong in 1709. Lord Elgin’s cavalry soon set fire and let the gardens burn for 3 days and nights.

112 solar years ago, on this day in 1907 AD, Iran’s first parliament (Majlis) was set up after due ratification by Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar, following triumph of the Constitutional Revolution. The constitution was drafted a year earlier and signed by the previous king, Muzaffar od-Din Shah Qajar. It was the result of the struggle of all sections of the Iranian people for their civil liberties and birthrights, led by the ulema and intellectuals. Ayatollah Shaikh Fazollah Noori inserted a clause in the constitution stating that the laws should be supervised by a panel of five leading ulema to ensure that they are not against the Shari’a. This section of the Supplementary Fundamental Laws of October 7, 1907 began by stating: “The powers of the realm are all derived from the people; and the Fundamental Law regulates the employment of those powers.”  Article 1 and 2 of the laws approved this day, established Islam as the official religion of Iran, and specified that all laws of the nation must be approved by a committee of ulema. Later, these two articles were ignored by the ungodly Pahlavis, which resulted in anger and uprising of the ulema and masses, and finally overthrow of the British-installed regime and its replacement by the popular Islamic Republic System based on a new and more comprehensive constitution.

91 solar years ago, on this day in 1928 AD, Iranian poet and painter, Sohrab Sepehri, was born in the central city of Kashan. He published his first collection of poems "Marg-e Rang" (Death of Color) in 1951, and soon another collection titled: "Hasht Kitab" (Eight Books). Among his other poetical works mention can be made of "Mosafer" (Traveler). He holds a special status in Iran's contemporary poetry, given his novel and simple language and usage of delicate and new terms in his poems. He passed away in 1980 and was laid to rest in his hometown, Kashan.

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1940 AD, during World War II, Romania was occupied by German Nazi troops, thus paving the way for Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.

69 solar years ago, on this day in 1950 AD, a year after establishment of the communist system, China seized Tibet, and nine years later crushed the uprising of the Tibetan people, forcing the Dalai Lama or the Buddhist religious-political to seek refuge in India, where he is still based. Tibet covers an area of almost 1.2 million sq km, and is administered as an autonomous region in China. Muslims have been living in Tibet since as early as the 8th or 9th century. In Tibetan cities, there are small communities of Muslims, known as Kachee (Kache), who trace their origin to immigrants from three main regions: Kashmir (Kachee Yul in ancient Tibetan), Ladakh and the Central Asian countries. Islamic influence in Tibet also came from Iran. After 1959 a group of Tibetan Muslims made a case for Indian nationality based on their historic roots to Kashmir and the Indian government declared all Tibetan Muslims Indian citizens later that year. Other Muslim ethnic groups who have long inhabited Tibet include Hui, Salar, Dongxiang and Bonan. There is also a well-established Chinese Muslim community (gya kachee), which traces its ancestry back to the Hui ethnic group of China.

28 lunar years ago, on this day in 1413 AH, the Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abul-Qasem Musavi Khoyi, passed away at the age of 96 in Kufa, a year and some five months after the brutally crushed popular uprising of the Iraqi people against the repressive Ba’th minority regime, during which he was forcibly taken to Baghdad and made to appear on TV with the bloodthirsty dictator, Saddam. It is believed the regime martyred him through poisoning. Born in the northwestern Iranian city of Khoy, after preliminary studies in Tabriz, he left for holy Najaf in Iraq at the age of 13 years to continue his studies. Here, his piety and knowledge attracted the attention of the Indian-based Iranian religious scholar, Mirza Ahmad Najafi-Tabrizi, who gave his daughter in marriage to him and lodged him in his own house. Mirza Ahmad used to frequent the semi-independent state of Banganapalle in south India, ruled by a Seyyed family of Iranian origin, who were patrons of scholars and learning. Soon Ayatollah Khoyi mastered various sciences such as logic, rhetoric, theology, jurisprudence and philosophy, and in the process attained the status of Ijtehad. In 1971, he succeeded Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsin al-Hakim as the leading Marja’ of the Islamic world and thereafter groomed a large number of scholars from Iran, Iraq, the Subcontinent, Bahrain and Lebanon. Among his valuable books, mention can be made of “Lectures in the Principles of Jurisprudence”, in 10 volumes, “Islamic Law” in 18 volumes, and "Mu'jam Rijal al-Hadith" in 24 volumes. The last named is an authoritative work on evaluation of narrators of hadith. He was also politically conscious of the issues of the World of Islam, and in regard to the Palestinian cause, he issued a fatwa, emphasizing the need to defend Palestine and to liberate Holy Qods. During the 8-year war imposed on Iran in the 1980s by the US through Saddam, he refused to yield to the Ba’thist regime’s pressures to denounce the Islamic Republic, even though his house was frequently subjected to water and electricity cuts on Saddam’s orders.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, the jurisprudent Ayatollah Hussain Mohammadi La’eeni, passed away at the age of 69. Born in Behshahr in Mazandaran on the Caspian Sea in northern Iran, after preliminary studies he left for Iraq for higher religious studies and attained the status of Ijtehad during the twelve years he spent at the famous seminary of holy Najaf. His teachers included such celebrated ulema as Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Shahroudi, and Ayatollah Mirza Hashem Amoli. On return to Iran he engaged himself in teaching and was also politically active against the despotism of the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime. Following the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, he was elected to the first Assembly of Experts as representative of the people of Mazandaran.

18 solar years ago, on this day in 2001 AD, the US invaded Afghanistan and occupied it after ousting its agents the Taleban militia by accusing it of collaboration with the al-Qa'eda outfit – also created by the CIA to spread terrorism. The US wrongly accused the Afghan-based groups of being involved in the implosion of New York's 110-storey-high Twin-Towers. The US, which along with its NATO accomplices has killed hundreds of thousands of Afghan civilians and destroyed the country, is still in occupation of Afghanistan. Over the past 12 years, the US-NATO troops have killed well over a hundred thousand Afghan civilians and destroyed the country.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2015 AD, Major-General Hussain Hamedani, one of the senior leaders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), attained martyrdom in Aleppo at the age of 64, while defending the sanctity of the shrines of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt in Syria. An activist against the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime, following the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the US plot to cause sedition in Iran, he served as a volunteer in Kurdistan province, and played a key role in helping defeat the communist rebellion. When the US imposed the 8-year was on Iran through Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, he marched to the warfronts as an IRGC member and ably discharged his duties during several operations, including the liberation of the port city of Khorramshahr. In 2005 Hussain Hamedani became the IRGC Deputy Chief and in 2009 he was made Head of the IRGC’s Rasoulollah Corps. When Syria was invaded by US-Zionist backed Takfiri terrorists infiltrating from Turkey with massive funds from Saudi Arabia, he was sent to Damascus as military advisor in the framework of the Syria-Iran Security Cooperation Accord signed several years earlier. Hussain Hamedani authored at least three books, such as “Moonlight of Khayyen” regarding events of the Islamic Revolution, the communist insurrection in Kurdistan and the Iraqi war. His another book is on the Liberation of Khorramshahr.

AS/SS