Today is Thursday; 16th of the Iranian month of Aban 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 9th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awal 1441 lunar hijri; and November 7, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1388 solar years ago, on this day in 630 AD, Byzantine Emperor Constans II was born to Constantine III (son of the famous Heraclius). Baptized Herakleios and called Constantine the Bearded, Constans was a diminutive nickname given to him. His 27-year reign saw loss of territory to the rising power of the Arab Muslims. In 642, he withdrew his forces from Egypt and tried to stave off several Arab attacks on the islands of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. In 645 his fleet occupied Alexandria, but a Muslim victory the next year made him abandon this Egyptian port. The situation was complicated by the suppression of Monothelitism (or theory that Jesus has two natures but one will) as well as the rebellion of Gregory, the Exarch of Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, who fell in battle against the advancing Arab army in 648. The Muslim forces, which a year earlier had entered Armenia and Cappadocia and sacked Caesarea Mazaca, raided Phrygia in 648, and in 649 they launched their first maritime expedition against the island of Crete. A major Arab offensive into Cilicia and Isauria in 650–651 forced Constans II to enter into negotiations with Osman's governor of Syria, Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, who in 654 treacherously broke the truce and renewed his raids by sea, plundering Rhodes. Constans led a fleet to attack the invaders at Phoinike (off Lycia) in 655 at the Battle of the Masts, but was defeated – 500 Byzantine ships were destroyed in the battle, and the Emperor himself was almost killed. When Imam Ali (AS), the righteous heir of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), took over the caliphate, the senseless raids, plunders, and killing of Christians and other peoples, were halted. Constans took this respite to devote himself to European affairs in the Balkans and Italy, moving his capital to Syracuse on the island of Sicily, entrusting administration of Constantinople and the eastern provinces to his son and successor Constantine IV as co-emperor. Imam Ali (AS) believed in winning hearts through rational discourse about the dynamism of Islam rather than unnecessary wars or occupation of the lands of other nations. With the martyrdom of the Imam and seizure of the caliphate by Mu’awiyah from Imam Hasan (AS), the Arabs renewed their raids against Byzantine. On September 15, 668, Constans II was assassinated in his bath by his chamberlain.

1376 lunar years ago, on this day in 65 AH, Omar ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, the commander of Yazid's army in the Battle of Karbala, was executed for his unpardonable sin of perpetrating the tragic martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), his family, and his companions, including the 6-month old infant, Ali Asghar; decapitating the martyrs and mounting their heads on lances; trampling the corpses of martyrs by horses; and dragging as captives to the courts of the tyrants in Kufa and Damascus, the noble women and children of the household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). A seditious person throughout his life, Omar ibn Sa’d who failed to heed the earnest advice of Imam Husain (AS) before the battle to save his soul from perfidy, was executed by his own brother-in-law (i.e. his wife's brother), Mokhtar ibn Abi Obayda Thaqafi, a virtuous Muslim who had vowed to avenge the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS). Mokhtar’s uprising succeeded in driving out the Omayyads from Iraq and bringing to justice all the principal killers of the Prophet's grandson.

1181 lunar years ago, on this day in 260 AH, marks the first day of the divinely-decreed Imamate or leadership of mankind of Imam Mahdi (AS), the 12^th and Last Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). A day before his father, Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), was martyred through poisoning. His mother was the noble and virtuous Greek lady, the Byzantine emperor’s granddaughter, Hazrat Narjis (SA), who on her mother's side she was descended from Simeon the loyal disciple of Prophet Jesus (AS). When he was orphaned the 12^th Imam was 5 years old and was brought up in secrecy, since the Abbasid caliphs were fearful of the Prophet’s famous hadith that the 12^th and the Last of his Infallible Heirs would rise as Qa'em al-Mahdi to cleanse the world of all traces of oppression and corruption by establishing the global government of peace, prosperity, and justice. The Abbasids launched a manhunt to find the orphaned boy but by God's Grace he was safe from his enemies in what is called the state of “Ghaybat as-Soghra” (Minor Occultation). In 329 AH, the “Ghaybat al-Kobra” (Major Occultation) started, which still continues, and by the Grace of God, the Redeemer of mankind, along with Prophet Jesus, will reappear in the end times when the earth would be filled with injustice.

1024 solar years ago, on this day in 994 AD, Spanish Muslim philosopher and scientist, Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Sa’eed, popular as Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi, was born in Cordova. His great-grandfather Hazm had embraced Islam and the family claimed to be of Iranian descent. As a theologian, he was a leading proponent in Spain of the Zaheri School of jurisprudence founded by the Iranian Sunni jurist, Dawoud az-Zaheri al-Isfahani, who opposed the “qiyas” or analogy of his compatriot Abu Hanifa. He reportedly wrote 400 works on a variety of topics, of which only 40 still survive. At a time when Christian Europe was immersed in the age of ignorance and presumed the world to be flat, Ibn Hazm by citing hadith and stating ayahs of the holy Qur’an proved that the spherical shape of the Earth with emphasis on ayah 5 of Surah Zumar, where God Almighty says: “The night overlaps the day, and the day overlaps the night”. He pointed out that for this cycle of overlapping the Qur’an uses the word “kawwara” which is derived from “kurra”, meaning "ball" or "sphere". Through a globe he demonstrated that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth.

600 lunar years ago, on this day in 841 AH, work started for construction of the Gowharshad Mosque in the southern courtyard of the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). This magnificent mosque was built on the orders of Empress Gowharshad Begum, the virtuous Iranian wife of Shahrukh Mirza, the son and successor of the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur. Gowharshad also set up a “waqf” (endowment) for maintenance of this grand mosque and its library. The architect was Qawwam od-Din Shirazi, who is responsible for so many of Shah Rukh's great buildings. The mosque’s portal continues the Samarqand style of arch within arch, enriched by a succession of bevels that give it depth and power. The thick, tower-like 40-meter high twin minarets, merging with the outer corners of the portal screen, extend to the ground and, together with the high foundation revetment of marble, give the ensemble the impression of solidity necessary to support its exuberant colour. The entire court facade is faced with enamel brick and mosaic faience of the finest quality. The full scale of colours includes a dominant cobalt blue and turquoise, white, a transparent green, yellow, saffron, aubergine and mirrorblack - all tones fluctuating through several shades. The mosque has an area of 9410 square meters. It has a big 50-meter high azure dome, four verandas, a courtyard and seven big shabestans (chambers for late night prayers). An inscription, written by Gowharshad’s son Baysunqur Mirza, who was a famous calligrapher of his time, still remains on the margins of the entrance of the veranda. Inside the mosque, near the prayer niche is a high exquisitely carved pulpit of walnut wood that was made in 1243 lunar hejira, without any nail or iron used in it. It is showcased in glass and no preacher sits on it, since it is reserved for the Lord of the Age, Imam Mahdi (AS), when he reappears.

592 solar years ago, on this day in 1426 AD, the Lam Son Uprising in Vietnam led by Le Loi emerged victorious against the Ming army of China in the Battle of Tot Dong–Chuc Dong near what is now Hanoi. Two years later China conceded defeat and its occupation forces surrendered to the Vietnamese. Le Loi, rather than putting to death the captured Ming soldiers and administrators, magnanimously provided ships and supplies to send them back to China. He ascended the throne, taking the reign name Le Thai To and establishing the Le dynasty (1428-1788).

526 solar years ago, on this day in 1492 AD, Ensisheim, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, struck the earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, in Alsace, France.

207 solar years ago, on this day in 1811 AD, the Battle of Tippecanoe was fought between native Amerindians and the US forces led by William Henry Harrison, who resorted to deceit and breach of treaty to defeat Shawnee chiefs, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, the leaders of a confederacy of native Amerindians from various tribes opposing US expansionism in North America. The natives maintained that all America is their ancestral land, which cannot be sold to the invaders from Europe. Two years later in 1813, the US occupiers killed the chiefs and carried out genocide and ethnic cleansing on a wide scale to add more states and territories to the original 13 New England colonies that had banded together as the United States of America and broke away from British rule.

156 solar years ago, on this day in 1862 AD, the exiled titular Moghal Emperor, Siraj od-Din Mohammad Bahadur Shah II “Zafar”, died in prison in Rangoon (Yangon, capital of Myanmar) at the age of 87 and was buried in an unmarked grave by his British captors. In 1837, he had succeeded his father Akbar Shah II to the throne of Delhi, whose jurisdiction did not extend beyond the Red Fort. During the uprising of 1857, he became an unwilling instrument of the rebels, whose allegiance to him brought about British vengeance, resulting in his humiliating dethronement and exile to Burma in 1858, thus ending over three and a quarter centuries of the rule of the Timurid dynasty, founded by Zaheer od-Din Babar – a protege of Shah Ismail, the Founder of the Safavid Empire of Iran. His sons and grandsons were shot in cold-blood by the British, who sadistically sent their heads to the aging father as gifts on the day of Nowrouz (Spring Equinox), when traditional celebrations were in progress for the new solar hijri year. Zafar was an accomplished poet in both Persian and Urdu.

151 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, Marie Sklodowska Curie, was born in the Polish Capital, Warsaw. She went to Paris to study physics, where while studying at Sorbonne University she got married to French physician, Pierre Curie, whose surname she adopted. After years of research on uranium minerals her experiments in 1898 led to discovery of two new elements. She separated polonium and then radium a few months later. The quantity of radon in radioactive equilibrium with a gram of radium was named “curie”. With Henri Becquerel and her husband, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for physics. In 1911, she was sole winner of a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry. Her family won five Nobel awards in two generations. She died of radiation poisoning in 1934.

139 solar years ago, on this day in 1879 AD, Russian Marxist leader, Leon Trotsky, was born. He was deported twice to Siberia for his activities against Czarist rule, and managed to escape both times. After the victory of the February Revolution in 1917, he returned home and when the Bolsheviks seized power, he was appointed as the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs. A year later, he was named the People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Later, he was involved in a power struggle with Joseph Stalin, who after the death of Vladimir Lenin, seized power, expelled Trotsky from the communist party, exiled him, and finally had him assassinated in 1940 in Mexico. Trotsky was one of the ideologues of the Bolshevik Revolution and had differences of opinion with Lenin. He wrote a number of books including “History of the Russian Revolution” and “The Revolution Betrayed”.

101 solar years ago, on this day in 1917 AD, with World War I raging, the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin and Trotsky, hijacked the February Revolution of the Russian people by toppling the interim government of Alexander Kerensky and seizing power in Russia. Kerensky, empowered by the people’s discontent with the corrupt and oppressive rule of the Czars, coupled with their fragility in the face of foreign enemies, had formed the government on March 15, 1917 by forcing Nicolas II to resign. The Bolsheviks, by deceiving the people with slogans of peace, bread, and distribution of land, seized power and set up the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) – a highly repressive system that choked the life, freedom, and religion of the people for 74 years, before collapsing in 1991.

92 lunar years ago, on this day in 1349 AH (1930 AD), Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Sistani was born in the holy city of Mashhad, Khorasan, northeastern Iran, in a family of religious scholars. His father was Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Mohammad Baqer, while his grandfather, also famous as Ayatollah Seyyed Ali al-Sistani, had travelled to Iraq to study under the famous Mirza Mohammad Hassan Shirazi (who issued the fatwa on tobacco ban), before returning to Mashhad in 1318 AH (1900-01 AD). The family had long been residing in holy Mashhad. During the Safavid period, his ancestor Seyyed Mohammad was appointed by Shah Sultan Hussain to the office of Sheikh ol-Islam in Sistan province, where he settled, and hence became known as "Sistani". Grand Ayatollah Sistani began his religious education as a child, first in Mashhad, where his teachers were Mohammad Taqi Adib Nishapuri, Seyyed Ahmad Mudarres Yazdi, Mirza Hashim Qazwini, and Mirza Mahdi Isfahani. In 1368 AH (1948-49 AD), he moved to holy Qom to attend the advanced classes of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi and Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hujjat Kuhkamara’i. In 1370 AH (1952 AD), he traveled to Iraq to study in the famous seminary of the holy city of Najaf, and in 1380 AH (1960-61 AD), at the young age of 31 years, he attained Ijtehad. In 1413 AH (1992 AD), following the deaths in quick succession of Grand Ayatollah Abu’l-Qassem Khoei and Grand Ayatollah Sabzevari, he became the leading authority of Iraq. During the years of Saddam’s repressive rule, he survived the violent Ba'thist repression and persecution that resulted in the martyrdom of several ulema. Since the overthrow of the Ba'th Party, Grand Ayatollah Sistani has played an increasingly prominent role in regional religious and political affairs and he has been called the "most influential" figure in post-invasion Iraq. When Mosul fell to the US-Saudi supported takfiri terrorists (Daesh) who were advancing towards Baghdad, Grand Ayatollah Sistani announced it a collective obligation (wajeb al-kifa'i) to defend the country, the nation, and the sanctities by citizens who could carry guns to fight the terrorists. As a result, with timely help from Iran, the Hashd ash-Sha’bi (popular mobilization units) were formed and heroically defeated. He has a large worldwide following.

62 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, the Suez War ended with the mediation of the UN. The war had started with the invasion of Sinai Peninsula by the illegal Zionist entity, and the raid on the Suez Canal region by its backers, the British and the French. The pretext for the invasion of Egypt by these three states was nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian president, Jamal Abdun-Naser.

43 solar years ago, on this day 1975 AD in Bangladesh, a joint force of people and soldiers took part in an uprising led by Colonel Abu Tahir to oust and kill coup leader Brigadier Khalid Musharraf, thereby freeing the then house-arrested army chief and future president Major-General Zia ur-Rahman.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, demonstrations were held across Iran in protest to the Pahlavi regime’s imposing of military rule through appointment of General Gholam-Reza Azhari as premier. The revolutionaries vowed to continue popular protests until victory of the Islamic Revolution. Also on this day, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) conveyed a message to the Iranian nation on the massacre of Tehran university students on November 4, 1978. Part of this message read that the courageous Iranian nation has proved that tanks and machine guns are of no use and cannot counter the Iranian nation’s indomitable determination.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, prolific US writer, historian, and philosopher, William James Durant, died. He is best known for his 11-volume work “The Story of Civilization”, written in collaboration with his wife, Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975. He acknowledged the rich contribution to world civilization of Islamic scientists, regarding whose inventions and innovations he has widely written, saying there are still thousands of Arabic and Persian manuscripts in libraries waiting to be discovered, in order to present a proper picture of the heyday of Islamic civilization. Earlier in 1926 he had written “The Story of Philosophy”.

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1987, Tunisian Prime Minister Zain al-Abidine bin Ali overthrew his mentor President Habib Bourquiba and assumed dictatorial powers of the country. The openly anti-Islamic Bourquiba had seized power from the Husaynid Dynasty following independence from France in 1956 and ruled Tunisia with an iron fist for almost three decades. Zain al-Abidin bin Ali’s despotic rule ended in January 2011 when he was overthrown in a popular uprising. After elections, the Islamic party, an-Nahdha, led by Rashed Ghannoushi, has assumed power of the country. Tunisia covers an area of more than 163,000 sq km. it shares borders with Algeria and Libya and is situated south of the Mediterranean Sea.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, the Iranian poet, linguist, and religious eulogist, Professor Ali Akbar Malek, passed away at the age of 87. An authority on Persian poetry and literature, he was an expert in English, French and German, and taught these languages at the university level. For years his active presence at literary gatherings presented audiences with his artistic and religious works on Prophet and the Infallible Imams. He left behind at least fifteen works in poetry and literature, including “Wadi-e Ishq” (Valley of Devotion), “Tarana-e Dil” (Anthem of the Heart), and “Safarnama-e Hajj” (Hajj Travelogue).

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, the repressing Aal-e Khalifa minority regime of Bahrain illegally evoked the citizenship of 31 men, including exiled political activists and former opposition members of Parliament, as part of its measures to change the demography of this Persian Gulf island state.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, terrorists on the payroll of Saudi Arabia, martyred Iranian state prosecutor Musa Nouri in Sistan-Baluchestan Province. In collaboration with the US and the illegal Zionist entity, the Wahhabis indulge in terroristic activities in a vain bid to disrupt Islamic unity in Iran.

AS/SS