Today is Saturday; 27th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 20th of the Islamic month of Safar 1441 lunar hijri; and October 19, 2109, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2221 solar years ago, on this day in 202 BC, during the Second Punic War at the Battle of Zama, Roman legions under Publius Scipio Africanus defeated the famous general Hannibal Barca, the leader of the army defending Carthage near modern Tunis in North Africa. Despite Hannibal possessing numerical superiority, Scipio conceived a strategy to confuse and defeat his war elephants. Scipio's troops then routed the Carthaginian infantry. Soon after this defeat on their home ground, the Carthaginian senate sued for peace, which was given to them by the Roman Republic on rather humiliating terms, ending the 17-year war.

1380 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, the Arba’een or the traditional 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS) was observed in Karbala, with the Prophet’s aged companion, Jaber ibn Abdullah al-Ansari visiting the graves of the martyrs of history’s most heartrending tragedy. Every year, the Arba’een anniversary is commemorated throughout the world, especially in Karbala, where millions of pilgrims from all over the globe assemble to pay allegiance to the ideals of faith, truth, freedom, justice, and virtue of the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny. In Iran, Iraq, and in parts of many countries, the day is a public holiday, when mourning processions are taken out on the streets. The recitation of the special ziyarath (salutation) for Imam Husain (AS) on the Day of Arba'een is considered one of the 5 signs of a true believer. The other four signs are recitation in raised voice of the Qur'anic ayah Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Raheem during the ritual prayers; performance of 51 raka'at of ritual prayers in a single day at different times (17 obligatory and 34 recommended); prostration on soil or clay; and wearing of ring in a finger of the right hand.

1089 lunar years ago, on this day in 352 AH, the Arabic poet, Abu'l-Qassem Ali ibn Ishaq al-Baghdadi, passed away at the age of 42. Incidentally, he was born on this same day of 20th of Safar. Most of his poetry is on the unrivalled merits of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams. He lived for some time at the court of Amir Saif ad-Dowlah Hamdani in Aleppo and has praised this gallant ruler for his love of the Ahl al-Bayt, as well as his exploits against the Byzantines.

633 solar years ago, on this day in 1386 AD, Ottoman Sultan Bayazid I conquered Sofia the capital of Bulgaria, but because of the attacks on the eastern frontier in Asia Minor by Amir Timur, he could not continue his campaign in Europe.

274 solar years ago, on this day in 1745 AD, Irish author, Jonathan Swift, died in his hometown Dublin at the age of 78. He made strenuous efforts for independence of his country from British rule. He wrote books depicting the social conditions, including the fictitious work titled “Gulliver’s Travels” which became one of the world’s literary masterpieces.

238 solar years ago, on this day in 1781 AD, the commander of English forces in the US, Charles Cornwallis, surrendered to the commander of US forces, George Washington, thereby ending the US war of independence that was started in 1775 by rebels in the 13 colonies known as New England.

235 solar years ago, on this day in 1784 AD, Leigh Hunt, English essayist, poet and political radical, was born. He wrote the famous poem "Abou Ben Adhem" on the Iranian prince of Balkh, Ibrahim bin Adham, who renounced palace pleasures and worldly life to become a mystic.

206 solar years ago, on this day in 1813 AD, the major battle between 155,000 French soldiers, under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the 300,000-strong joint forces of Sweden, Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria, ended with Napoleon's failure. This four-day battle broke out in the vicinity of the German city of Leipzig. The French forces, who were demoralized in the wake of their futile attack on Russia in 1812, were crushed by the well-prepared and equipped joint forces. The failure was a prelude to Napoleon's future failures and his deportation to Elba Island in 1814.

138 lunar years ago, on this day in 1303 AH, the prominent Iranian Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ja’far Shushtari, passed away. His power of speech, piety, and strong memory was known to all. He was an accomplished jurisprudent and spent all his life, guiding people and carrying out religious duties. He groomed a large number of students and has left behind numerous books, including “Usoul ad-Din” (Fundamentals of Religion).

126 lunar years ago, on this day in 1315 AH, the renowned Bibliophile and Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Shahab od-Din Mar’ashi Najafi, was born in holy Najaf to the Iranian jurisprudent, Seyyed Shams od-Din Mahmoud. He was educated at the famous Najaf Seminary, attending the classes of the Ayatollahs, Mirza Abu’l-Hassan Meshkini, Sheikh Mohammad Hussain Shirazi, Seyyed Habib od-Din Shahrestani and Seyyed Ibrahim Shafei Rafaei Baghdadi. He studied for some years at the seminaries of Samarra and Kazemayn as well. He mastered theology, hadith, jurisprudence, exegesis of the Holy Qur'an, philosophy, ethics, and biography of narrators. After attaining the status of Ijtehad, at the request of Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi, the revivalist of the Qom seminary, he came to this holy city where he lectured and carried out research for six decades until he passed away at the age of 96. For over fifty years he led the daily ritual prayers at the shrine of Hazrat Fatemah al-Ma’sumah in Qom. In his youth in Najaf, he had become growingly concerned with the immense wealth of Islamic knowledge that was being lost in the displacement and destruction of Islamic texts. He took it upon himself to purchase as many rare books and manuscripts that he could on his modest student stipend in order to preserve them. When his stipend was exhausted he took a job at a rice cleaning factory in Najaf, performed Qadha prayers and fasts on behalf of others, and ate only one meal a day in order to raise enough money to purchase these books. He continued to collect these rare manuscripts after migration to Iran, eventually laying the foundation before his death of the Grand Mar’ashi Najafi Library in Qom, which today contains the world’s largest collection of manuscripts of the School of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, among its more than 300,000 books. Earlier in 1965, he had presented 278 rare Arabic and Persian manuscripts to the College of Divinity and Theology of the University of Tehran. He also donated many such books to libraries across Iran, before formal establishment of his library. He was a supporter of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, late Imam Khomeini (RA), in the struggles against the Shah’s despotic regime.

75 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, war broke out between the Japanese and US forces in the Philippines Archipelago during World War 2. The US forces, commanded by Douglas MacArthur, attacked Philippines and drove out the Japanese forces.

43 solar years ago, on this day in 1976 AD, one of the high-ranking officials of The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Ali Hassan Salameh, was martyred in Lebanon by Zionist agents in a car bombing.

36 solar years ago, on this day in 1983 AD, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop of Grenada Island in the Caribbean Sea, was executed along with 4 cabinet ministers  by Bernard Coard, a member of his own government, days after his overthrow and house arrest. The coup prompted a US invasion, which is largely seen as part of an intricate American plot in view of Bishop’s bitter opposition to Washington’s hegemonic policies. The US, arrested 17 persons n for Bishop’s killing and the local courts sentenced them to death, the verdicts were never carried out. The death sentences were later commuted to life in prison, and in 2005 they were allowed to appeal to the London-based Privy Council. In 2009 Bernard Coard and the six others — Dave Bartholomew, Callistus Bernard, Leon Cornwall, Liam James, Ewart Layne and Selwyn Strachan — were released. Ten others convicted in the killings, including Coard's wife, were previously released. The bodies of Bishop and 10 men killed with him have never been found.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, the Cambodian ruling party officially ended the 13-year communist rule of the country. The decision was made at the Congress of the Cambodian People's Party, which established a multiparty ruling system.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, Ayatollah Shaikh Mohammad Baqer Kamrehi passed away at the age of 96 and was laid to rest in the courtyard of the mausoleum of Seyyed Abdul-Azim Hassani in Rayy, Tehran. Born in Khomein, he mastered theology, jurisprudence, exegesis of the holy Qur’an, Hadith, history, Arabic and Persian literature, and lexicography. He authored over fifty books in various fields, “God-Consciousness”, “Pillars of Faith”, “Pearls of Wisdom”, and “Role of Religion in Social Spheres”.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2003 AD, the Bosnian Muslim politician and author, Alija Izetbegovic, died at the age of 78. He struggled against the Yugoslav communist regime since his youth and was imprisoned on several occasions. In 1989, he founded The Party of Democratic Action, which played a pivotal role in the independence of Bosnia in 1991. This Muslim politician was elected as the Bosnian president after the independence of this country. He played a vital role in defending the Bosnian people, throughout the attacks of Serbian army and Bosnian Serbs against Muslims. After the termination of war, he was elected twice to Bosnian presidential council. But, he voluntarily stepped down from power in 2000. In addition to political activities, he was also an Islamic thinker and author, writing a number of books, including "Islam between East and West", and "Islamic Declaration".

10 solar year ago, on this day in 2009 AD, some fifty Iranian citizens, including 5 senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC), 10 security personnel and the rest civilians, achieved martyrdom in Sistan-Baluchestan Province in a bomb blast triggered by the terrorist Jundullah outfit, operating from across the southeastern border in Pakistan and supported by the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Deputy Commander of IRGC ground forces, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, as well as a chief provincial IRGC commander, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh were among the martyrs.

9 lunar years ago, on this day in 1432 AH, Ayatollah Shaykh Mohammad Ali al-Amri, the leading religious scholar of Hijaz and Source of Emulation for many Muslims of Arabia, passed away in his hometown holy Medina, at the ripe old age of 105 years, and was laid to rest in the sacred Jannat-al-Baqi Cemetery. His lineage goes back to the 12^th Infallible Imam’s First and Second Special Deputies, Othman bin Sa’eed al-Amri and Mohammad bin Othman al-Amri, who were descended from the ancient Khazraj tribe of Yathreb or Medina. At the age of 16 he left for Iraq to study at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, which means he was not present in his hometown when it was seized with massive bloodshed and desecration of Islamic sanctities by the Wahhabi brigand of Najd, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, for whom the crafty British created the spurious entity called Saudi Arabia. Some 27 years later after attaining ijtehad in holy Najaf and having studied for a while in the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad in Iran, Shaykh al-Amri returned to his homeland. He involved himself in religious-social activities by building mosques, seminaries and hussainiyyas – the most famous of which is located in the middle of a large farm in Medina, where Islamic rituals are freely observed and which also has a guest house for Shi’a Muslim pilgrims in honour of the Prophet’s elder grandson and 2^nd Infallible Heir, Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS). As a result, he was arrested and imprisoned several times by the heretical Wahhabi regime, which also sentenced him to death many times, but he was fortunate to survive. The last time his execution was almost carried out, and in his own words: When I was brought up to the gibbet I quietly made tawassul (or entreaty) to the Prophet’s Immaculate Daughter Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon her), and miraculously the rope round my neck snapped and I survived.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, the prominent Iranian bibliographer, Dr. Ali Naqi Monzavi, passed away at the age of 88. Son of the famous Islamic bibliographer, Ayatollah Sheikh Aqa Bozorg Tehrani, he studied both at the Islamic seminary and the university. After obtaining PhD in Islamic sciences from Tehran University in 1958 he started as a lecturer, but due to his activities against Shah's despotic regime, he was forced to leave Iran for Lebanon in 1967. He continued his academic studies and obtained another PhD in philosophy from Saint Joseph University in Beirut in 1971. He returned to Iran in 1976 and continued to compile, translate and edit books. He also cooperated with Ali Akbar Dehkhoda and Mohammad Moin in compilation of the Dehkhoda Lexicon. He has left behind several books, including "The Arabic to Persian Lexicon".

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