Today is Tuesday; 7th of the Iranian month of Aban 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 30th of the Islamic month of Safar 1441 lunar hijri; and October 29, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2558 solar years ago, on this day in 539 BC, Iran’s monotheist Achaemenian Emperor, Cyrus the Great, after conquering the Babylonian Empire, allowed Israelites to return to their homeland from which they had been forcibly brought to by the polytheist tyrant, Nebuchadnezzar, and kept in bondage from almost 70 years in what is now Iraq. The Israelites had suffered for their disobedience of the laws of Moses and their killing of several prophets of God. Many of the monotheistic Israelites chose to stay in the Achaemenian Empire, and God raised prophets amongst them such as Daniel, whose shrine in the southwestern Iranian city of Shoush, is a centre of pilgrimage for Muslims. Of the liberated Israelites who returned to their homeland, most of them continued their wicked ways and five centuries later when God raised Prophet Jesus in their midst, they ganged up against him and tried to kill him and betray him to their polytheist overlords, the Romans, but the Virgin-Born Messiah was lifted alive to the heavens, while his betrayer, Judas Iscariot, was crucified.

1238 lunar years ago, on this day in 203 AH, Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), attained martyrdom at the age of 55, as a result of a fatal dose of poisoning in the city of Tous, Khorasan, northeastern Iran, by the crafty Mamoun, the self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. Born in Medina in 148 AH, he was 35 years when the mantle of Imamate (or divinely-decreed leadership) came to rest on his shoulders following the martyrdom of his infallible father, Imam Musa Kazem (AS) in Baghdad in the dungeon of the tyrant Haroun Rashid. In 200 AH, Imam Reza (AS), because of his popularity among the people as the Prophet's righteous successor, was forced to leave Medina and come to Khorasan in northeastern Iran by Mamoun, whose capital was Marv (presently in Turkmenistan). Here, the Imam turned down Mamoun’s deceitful offer of caliphate saying: “If the caliphate is (really) yours, you cannot give to others what God has entrusted you with, and if it is not yours, how can you give it others what does not belong to you (at all).” Mamoun then forced the Prophet's Heir to agree to become his Heir Apparent although the middle-aged Imam was over twenty years his senior. The plan was to confine the Imam to the palace in the hope of tainting his spotlessly pure character with the court’s luxurious life and to isolate him from the ummah. However, to the bewilderment of the regime, when the Imam's popularity increased, as a result of his exemplary behaviour with the ordinary people, as well as his dynamic debates with scholars of various religions and philosophical schools including Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus, Mamoun martyred him in a treacherous manner through a fatal dose of poison. He then feigned grief, claiming that it natural death. The Imam was laid to rest in Sanabad in the suburbs of Tous, which soon grew into "Mashhad-ar-Reza" or Place of Martyrdom of Reza (AS) – or simply Mashhad, which is a world famous centre of pilgrimage today, with millions of people coming from all over the globe to pay homage at the magnificent golden-domed shrine.

524 lunar years ago, on this day in 917 AH, the plot of Kamal Khan, the Abyssinian official, to assassinate the newly-enthroned Isma'il Adel Shah of the dynasty of Iranian origin of Bijapur, was discovered by the queen-mother, who took timely steps to foil the attack on the palace in which the assailant was killed himself. Isma’il, the son and successor of the founder of the dynasty, Yusuf Adel Khan of Saveh (near Tehran), ruled for 25 years and was an accomplished Persian poet. His mother, Poonji Khatoun, was a noble Maratha lady who embraced the truth of Islam. Bijapur was a Persianate kingdom in the Deccan (southern India), and during its almost two centuries of existence, maintained cordial ties with the Safavid Emperors of Iran, in addition to patronizing Persian arts, architecture and poetry, thanks to a steady flow of migrants from Iran from various walks of life.

515 solar years ago, on this day in 1504 AD, Korean artist, writer, calligraphist, and noted poet, Shin Saimdang was born and raised in Gangneung. Her artwork is known for delicate beauty; insects, flowers, butterflies, orchids, grapes, fish and landscapes were favorite themes. Approximately 40 paintings of ink and stonepaint colours have survived, although many others are assumed to exist. Unfortunately, not much of her calligraphy is left but her style was greatly praised in her time, with high-ranking officials and connoisseurs writing records of her work. As the mother of the Korean Confucian scholar Yi I, she is often held up as a model of Confucian ideals. Among her poems is “Thinking of Parents”, which she dedicated to her mother. She died in 551 AD at the age of 48, after moving to Pyongan. Shin Saimdang is the first woman to appear on a South Korean banknote, the 50,000 won note, first issued in June 2009.

96 solar years ago, on this day in 1923 AD, with the formal dissolving of the 400-year old Ottoman caliphate, and the 623-year old Ottoman Dynasty, Turkey was declared a laic and secular republic by the western-oriented Mustafa Kamal Pasha, who styled himself as Ata Turk (Father of the Turks). For 15 years, Ata Turk blindly aped the West and tried to uproot the cultural, religious, and spiritual values of Turkish Muslims, to the extent that he abolished Islamic rules, forbade the recitation of the Azaan and the holy Qur'an, imposed European dress, banned women from wearing the hijab, and changed the beautiful Arabic-Persian script of the Turkish language to Latin. After his death in 1938, Turkey started the painfully slow progress of rediscovering its Islamic religious and cultural identity, and today, thanks to the people's awakening, the country is trying to get back again into the Islamic fold. Turkey, known as Anatolia or Asia Minor to the Greeks, was an integral part of the Achaemenian Persian Empire until the invasion of Alexander of Macedonia. Later after the advent of Islam and liberation of Anatolia from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, mainly by Turkic Muslim tribes from Central Asia, this land became part of the Iran-based Seljuqid and Ilkhanid Empires. The Ottomans brought this region under their complete domination only after 1500, following their conquest of several independent fellow Turkic principalities of Anatolia, invading and occupying the southwestern parts that were traditionally under the sway of the Mamluks of Egypt-Syria, and finally their narrow victory over Iran’s Shah Ismail Safavi at Chaldiran in 1514. Turkey covers an area of 780,000 sq km, and borders Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Greece.

93 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, prominent leader of Iran's Constitutional Movement, Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Modarres, escaped an assassination attempt against him by Reza Khan of the British installed Pahlavi regime. Two years later, the Ayatollah, who in 1925 had unsuccessfully opposed the dissolution of the Qajarid dynasty, was arrested along with his family and friends and exiled to Khaf and then to Kashmar, where in 1937 he was fatally poisoned on the orders of Reza Khan and achieved martyrdom at the age of 67. A product of the seminaries of Isfahan and holy Najaf in Iraq, in 1910, he was chosen by Najaf's ulema and sent to Tehran to supervise the laws passed by the Majlis (parliament), to make sure they are not against the rules of shar’ia. In 1914, he was elected as a Majlis representative of Tehran. In 1916, during World War I, he moved to Iraq, Syria, and Turkey together with some political figures, and served as the Minister of Justice in a cabinet formed in exile by Nezam os-Saltaneh. After returning to Iran, he was elected in the Majlis elections a few more times. Modarres fought against the presence of British forces in Iran, vigorously opposing the proposed 1919 agreement that would have transformed Iran into a British protectorate. His martyrdom anniversary (December 1) is marked in the Islamic Republic of Iran as Majlis Day (Day of the parliament). Ayatollah Modarres was among the teachers of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), and his portrait is depicted on the obverse of the Iranian 100 rials banknote.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, Zionist troops stormed the Safsaf village in the Jaliliyeh (Galilee) region, and massacred over 70 Palestinian men, women, and children. The victims were tied and shot in cold blood and some of the women were raped by the Israeli criminals.

63 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Zionist troops invaded the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, following nationalization of the Suez Canal by President Jamal Abdun-Nasser. The usurper state of Israel intended to occupy the Gulf of Aqaba at the rear end of Red Sea for movement of its ships. Two days later, Britain and France, in support of the illegal Zionist entity, stationed their paratroops around Suez Canal. The goal behind this trilateral attack was to force Egypt into relinquishing the nationalization of this canal, which links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, and was controlled by France and Britain till then. After a few months occupation, the invaders withdrew from Egyptian soil in March 1957 under pressure from world public opinion and many world governments. This incident is known as the Suez War.

63 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Zionist forces committed yet another atrocious crime, slaughtering the residents of Kafr Qasim Village. After curfew was announced in the village, without prior notice the Israeli terrorists attacked it and martyred at least 49 innocent Palestinian men, women, and children, besides wounding scores of others. A few months later, the people of Palestine staged demonstrations in protest to this carnage, and the usurper state of Israel was forced into holding a make-belief trial for the perpetrators of this barbaric crime. All the culprits were acquitted later and set free.

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, formed months before in April following seizure of Zanzibar by President Julius Nyerere was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania. It is worth recalling that a thousand years ago, Islam had been brought to east Africa by Iranians from Shiraz, whose descendants are still found in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and Kenya.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, Iranian scholar and poet, Hojjat al-Islam Hussain-Ali Rashed, passed away at the age of 75. Born in the northeastern city of Torbat-e Haideriyyeh in Khorasan, at the age of 16 he moved to Mashhad where for ten years he studied at the seminary under prominent scholars, including Adib Naishapuri. He later studied under the ulema of Najaf, Isfahan, and Tehran and became a prominent preacher. In 1946, he became a lecturer at Tehran University and also taught Islamic sciences at the Madras-e Sepah Salar (Madrasa-e Aali Mutahhari). During this period, Radio Iran started broadcasting his ethical and religious discourses. His works include “Fazilat-hai Rashed”, “Two Philosophers of the East and West”, and “Collection of Rashed’s Discourses”.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, the Marmaray Rail Tunnel under the Bosporus Strait, the world's first sea tunnel connecting two continents and the deepest submerged tunnel, was opened for public travel and over 300,000 people travelled through it on the 90^th anniversary of the Turkish Republic. A 1.4-km stretch of the tunnel lies 50 meter below the seabed. The 13-km project linking Kazlicesme in Europe and Ayrılıkçesme in Asia is part of what will be a total 77-km cross-city surburban service above and below ground when construction is finished.

AS/SS