Today is Wednesday; 17th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 10th of the Islamic month of Safar 1441 lunar hijri; and October 9, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1352 lunar years ago, on this day in 99 AH, Sulayman ibn Abdul-Malik, the 7^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, died at the age of 43 after a reign of 2 years and nine months in Qenshirin, near Aleppo on his way to invade the Byzantine Empire, following the unsuccessful siege of Constantinople by his brother, Maslamah. He was gluttonous with insatiable appetite for large quantities of food, in addition to being a womanizer. An intensely jealous person, he publicly disgraced Musa Ibn Nusayr, the governor-general of North Africa and Spain for not delaying the triumphal entry into Damascus of the rich spoils of Spain until he could take over the caliphate from his ailing brother, Waleed I. He subsequently had two of Ibn Nusayr’s sons executed and sadistically presented the head of one of them to the wretched father. He also had the governor of Khorasan and Transoxiana, Qutayba Ibn Muslim, killed in battle for advising Waleed to exclude Sulayman from the list of succession. He used to openly praise the founder of the Omayyad usurper regime, Mu'awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, saying he had never come across anyone so unabashed in cruelty, crime and oppression

1127 solar years ago, on this day in 892 AD, the renowned Iranian Sunni Muslim authority on hadith, Mohammad ibn Eisa Tirmizi, passed away. He was born and died in Bagh, near Tirmiz in Greater Khorasan (now in Uzbekistan). At the age of twenty, he travelled to Kufa, Basra and the Hijaz, in pursuit of knowledge. His teachers included Mohammad al-Bukhari, Muslim Naishaburi and Abu Dawoud Sijistani – all three of whom were renowned Iranian Sunni Muslim compilers of hadith.  Tirmizi, who became blind in the last two years of his life, is the author of the "al-Jame' as-Sahih", popularly called "Sunan at-Tirmizi", one of the six canonical hadith compilations of Sunni Muslims. He has included in his compendium authentic narrations on the unrivalled merits of the blessed household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He has said the term Ahl al-Bayt as used by God in the holy Qur'an and by the Prophet in several hadith, is exclusive for Imam Ali (AS), Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS), and does not include the Prophet's wives, as some allege. Tirmizi's grave is in Sherobad, 60 km north of Tirmiz, where he is called Tirmiz Baba.

1112 lunar years ago, on this day in 329 AH, the Iranian statesman and historian, Abu Ali Mohammad Amirak Bal’ami, passed away. Born in Lashjerd near the Khorasani city of Marv (presently in Turkmenistan), he was the son of Abu’l-Fazl Bal’ami (also called Bal’am-e Buzurg or the Elder), and was appointed vizier of the Iranian Samanid Empire during the reign of Amir Abdul-Malik I. He kept holding the office under the next ruler, Mansour I. His most famous work is “Tarikh-e Bal’ami”, which is a Persian translation of the famous Iranian historian Abu Ja’far Mohammad bin Jarir Tabari’s monumental Arabic work “Tarikh ar-Rusol wa’l-Mulook” (History of Prophets and Kings). It contains supplementary material, some of which is found nowhere else. It is the oldest Persian prose work after the Shahnamah of Daqiqi.

745 solar years ago, on this day in 1264 AD, the Spanish Muslim Ta’efa of Jerez (Sheresh in Arabic) in southern Spain, along with its capital of the same name, was occupied by Christian mercenaries of the kingdom of Castile after over five-and-a-half centuries of Muslim rule. In the 12th and 13th centuries Jerez underwent a period of great development, building its defense system and setting the current street layout of the old town.

438 lunar years ago, on this day in 1003 AH, the famous Persian poet and scholar of India, Shaikh Abu’l-Faiz, known by his penname “Faizi”, died from asthma at the age of 49. He was the “Malik-ush-Shu'ara” (Poet Laureate) of the court of the Moghal Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar Shah, and was elder brother of the equally famous court historian Abu’l-Fazl. He composed significant poetic works in Persian and his Divan comprising “qasida” (eulogy), “ghazal” (lyric), “ruba’i” (quatrain), and “marthia” (elegy), is entitled “Tabashir as-Subh”. In pursuance of the literary practice then in vogue, he produced “Panj Ganj” (Five Treasures) in the “khamsa” style of poetry in imitation of the celebrated Iranian poet Nizami Ganjavi. He thus wrote “Nal va Daman”, “Markaz ul-Advaar”, “Sulaiman va Bilqis”, “Haft Kishvar” and “Akbarnamah”. These are respectively answers to Nizami's “Layla va Majnoun”, “Makhzan ul-Asraar” “Khosraw va Shirin”, “Haft Paykar” and “Iskandarnamah”. Faizi also wrote a series of reports on political and cultural conditions of the sultanates of the Deccan (southern India), as well as on the Safavid Empire of Iran. Among his other works is an exegesis of the Holy Qur’an, and translation from Sanskrit into Persian of the famous mathematical work “Lilavati”.

425 solar years ago, on this 1594 AD, a 20,000-strong army of the Portuguese Empire was annihilated by the Kingdom of Kandy in Sri Lanka, bringing an end to the Campaign of Danture, and marking a turning point in the indigenous resistance to Portuguese colonialism. The Portuguese, led by Pedro Lopes de Sousa, invaded Kandy on 5 July 1594, and after three months, severely depleted by guerilla warfare, the Portuguese army was completely annihilated by the forces of King Vimaladharmasuriya. With this victory, the Kingdom of Kandy emerged as a major military power; it was to retain its independence until 1815, against Portuguese, Dutch, and British armies.

311 solar years ago, on this day in 1708 AD, Sweden was decisively defeated by Peter the Great at the Battle of Lesnaya in Belarus when it attacked Russia. Given the freezing weather and shortage of food, over half of the Swedish soldiers lost their lives.

279 solar years ago, on this day in 1740 AD, Dutch colonists and various slave-trading groups began massacring ethnic Chinese in Batavia, eventually killing 10,000 and leading to a two-year-long war throughout Java.

259 solar years ago, on this day in 1760 AD, Austrian and Russian troops entered Berlin and began burning structures and looting during the “7-Year War” that involved most of the big powers of the time and affected Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines. The two major opponents were Britain and France. In the historiography of some countries, the war is named after combatants in its respective theatres: “The French and Indian War” in the United States. In French-speaking Canada, it is known as the “War of the Conquest”, while it is called the “Seven Years' War” in English-speaking Canada, the “Pomeranian War” (with Sweden and Prussia, 1757–1762), “Third Carnatic War” (in the Subcontinent, 1757–1763), and “Third Silesian War” (with Prussia and Austria, 1756–1763). “The Seven Years' War” is retrospectively regarded as one of the first true world wars, having taken place almost 160 years before what is commonly known as World War I.

178 lunar years ago, on this day in 1263 AH, prominent Iranian author, Mullah Ja’far Shariatmadar Astarabadi passed away in Tehran at the age of 66 and his body was taken to holy Najaf in Iraq for burial. He was a product of the famous Najaf Islamic seminary. He left for Iran during the siege of the holy city of Karbala by the Ottoman General Davoud Pasha. He was an expert on Arabic literature and an accomplished poet. Among his books is "al-Masabih" on principles of Islamic Jurisprudence.

59 lunar years ago, on this day in 1382 AH, Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abdul-Hadi Shirazi, passed away at the age of 77 in Kufa and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). Born in holy Samarra to the scholar Seyyed Ismail Shirazi, he completed his higher religious studies in the famous Najaf Seminary where his teachers included Ayatollah Mohammad Kazem Akhound Khorasani and Ayatollah Shaikh ash-Shari’ah Isfahani. He attained ijtehad and issued a famous fatwa against communism, which was spreading in Iraq. He was teacher to such famous students as Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Ja’fari, Ayatollah Hussain Wahid Khorasani and Ayatollah Mohammad Reza al-Muzaffar. He wrote several books, including “Dar al-Islam”.

57 solar years ago, on this day in 1962 AD, Uganda gained independence after 74 years of British rule. Over 15 percent of the population of Uganda is Muslim. Situated in East Africa, the Republic of Uganda covers an area of almost 235,880 sq km and shares borders with Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its capital is Kampala.

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, prominent Iranian researcher, writer and translator, Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim Ayati, passed away at the age of 50 in what was described as a road accident. Born near Birjand in Khorasan, he studied in holy Mashhad under prominent scholars, such as Adib Naishapuri, Shaikh Hashem Qazvini, and Shaikh Mojtaba Qazvini, and for a decade taught and preached in his hometown. He then enrolled at Tehran University, obtained PhD in philosophy and for years taught at the same university. As a conscious religious scholar, aware of the political conditions of the time, he became a close assistant of two of the prominent ulema of the era – Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Taleqani, and Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Motahhari. Dr. Ayati, who played a key role in the monthly journal “Goftar”, has left behind valuable works, such as “A Probe into the History of Ashura”, and “History of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA)”. He also edited the exegesis of the holy Qur’an written by Sharif Lahiji, in addition to translating several books into Persian.   

53 solar years ago, on this day in 1966 AD, South Korean forces, operating under US command in South Vietnam, massacred hundreds of Vietnamese men, women and children, in two separate incidents in the regions of Dien Nien and Phuoc Binh. In Dien Nien, the massacre lasted two days and as many as 280 unarmed civilians were killed in cold blood in Tinh Son village of Quang Ngai Province. In Phuoc Binh hamlet, the victims of the massacre were mostly 180 children and elderly women who were butchered in a schoolyard. The South Koreans acted upon the orders of the US.

52 solar years ago, on this day in 1967 AD, prominent Latin American revolutionary, physician, author, and military theorist Ernesto Che Guevara of Argentina, was executed by the US-installed regime of Bolivia, along with many of his comrades at the age of 39. Born of mixed Basque and Irish descent in a well-to-do household, he learned chess from his father and began participating in local tournaments by age 12. During adolescence and throughout his life he was passionate about poetry, especially that of Pablo Neruda, John Keats, Antonio Machado, Federico Garcia Lorca, Gabriela Mistral, Cesar Vallejo, and Walt Whitman. He could also recite Rudyard Kipling's works and Jose Hernandez's from memory. The Guevara home contained more than 3,000 books, which made him a voracious reader interested in the works of Karl Marx, William Faulkner, Andre Gide, Emilio Salgari and Jules Verne. He also read the works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Vladimir Lenin, and Jean-Paul Sartre; as well as Anatole France, Friedrich Engels, H. G. Wells, and Robert Frost. He kept notebooks of concepts, definitions, and philosophies of influential intellectuals, which included composing analytical sketches of Buddha and Aristotle, along with examining Bertrand Russell on love and patriotism, Jack London on society, and Nietzsche on the idea of death. Sigmund Freud's ideas also fascinated him topics such as dreams and narcissism. As a medical student, Guevara traveled throughout South America and was shocked by the poverty, hunger, and disease he witnessed. His burgeoning desire to help overturn the capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the US prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified his political ideology. Following his meeting in Mexico with Cuban leader, Fidel Castro in the 1950s, the two teamed up to lead the Cuban revolution to victory in 1959 by overthrowing US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. He was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful continental motorcycle journey. His experiences and studying of Marxism–Leninism led him to posit that the Third World's underdevelopment and dependence was an intrinsic result of imperialism, neocolonialism, and monopoly capitalism. 1959, Castro sent Guevara on a three-month tour of 14 mostly Bandung Pact countries (Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Yugoslavia, Greece) and the cities of Singapore and Hong Kong. He also visited China, the Soviet Union, and Palestine. In 1965, Guevara left Cuba to plan revolution abroad, first in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia to form a guerrilla group to bring down US-installed regime. He was cornered by the CIA, imprisoned and executed

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, Palestinian revolutionary Majed Abu-Sharaar was martyred in Italy by agents of the illegal Zionist entity. The usurper state of Israel pursues a policy of terrorism against Arabs and Muslims around the world in a vain bid to prolong its illegal existence on the soil of Palestine.

AS/SS