Today is Tuesday; 28th of the Iranian month of Aban 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 21st of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1441 lunar hijri; and November 19, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar. 1383 solar years ago, on this day in 636 AD, the decisive Battle of Qadesiya, fought near al-Hirah

1383 solar years ago, on this day in 636 AD, the decisive Battle of Qadesiya, fought near al-Hirah around Kufa in present-day Iraq, resulted in the victory of Muslim forces over the powerful and numerically superior Sassanid army which was equipped with the dreaded war elephant corps that many times during the 4-day battle panicked the Arab cavalry. On the eve of the battle, in order to check the rapid advance of Muslims in Syria and Iraq, an alliance was formed between Iran’s Emperor Yazdegerd III and Emperor Heraclius of Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire), who married his granddaughter Manyanh to the Iranian monarch. The death of Iranian general Rustom Farrokhzad in the see-saw battle demoralized the Sassanid forces and their Arab Christian allies, resulting in defeat of the Persian Empire and start of the Islamization of Iraq and Iran. Qadisiyya was a small town on the west bank of the River Ateeq, a branch of the Euphrates near Hira, the ancient capital of the Lakhmid Arab Dynasty – a client state of the Sassanid Empire. The Muslims gained a large amount of spoils, including the famed jewel-encrusted royal standard, called “Derafsh-e Kaviyani” (Flag of Kaveh).

927 solar years ago, on this day in 1092 AD, Malik Shah I, Sultan of the Iran-based Seljuq Empire that including Iraq and parts of Syria, Anatolia, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, died in Baghdad at the age of 39 after a 20-year reign, and was buried in his capital Isfahan. During his youth, he participated in the campaigns of his father Alp Arslan, along with the latter's able and efficient Iranian vizier, Nizam al-Mulk Tusi, including the decisive Battle of Manzikert in what is now Turkey, where the Byzantine Army was routed and Emperor Romanov IV taken prisoner, but later released. In 1066 at the age of 13, Alp Arsalan proclaimed him heir in a lavish ceremony in Marv and six years later in 1072 on the death of his father, he formally became sultan of the empire, but his accession was not peaceful, as he had to fight his uncle Qavurt, who claimed the throne. Nizam al-Mulk ably managed the vast empire, while Malik-Shah waged wars against the Qarakhanids Turks in the northeast, the Ghaznavids in the east and established order in the Caucasus. Malik-Shah's death, a month after the death of Nizam ul-Mulk, remains a mystery to this day. He is believed to have been poisoned by the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad – some months after a debate between Sunni and Shi'a scholars which convinced Malik Shah and Nizam ul-Mulk of the rationality of the School of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

308 solar years ago, on this day in 1711 AD, Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, Russian polymath, scientist and writer, was born. He made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the Law of Mass Conservation in chemical reactions. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices and others. Lomonosov was also a poet and influenced the formation of the modern Russian literary language.

213 solar years ago, on this day in 1806 AD, the blinded Moghal Emperor, Shah Alam II died at the age of 78 after a 45-year reign that saw his fortunes fluctuate in northern India until his authority was reduced to Delhi and its suburbs – till what is now the Indian capital’s Palam Airport. A famous Persian couplet of those days mockingly says: “Saltanat-e Shah-e Alam; Az-Dilli ta Palam” (King of the World’s Realm; from Delhi to Palam). Named Ali Gauhar, he was 11 years old when Iran’s Nader Shah Afshar invaded India. In 1759, on the murder of his father, Emperor Alamgir II by the treacherous vizier, Feroze Jung III Imad ul-Mulk, he managed to escape the Red Fort. In 1761 he was nominated as Emperor by Ahmad Shah Abdali – Nader Shah Afshar’s Afghan general and victor of the Battle of Panipat against the Marathas. In 1764, aided by the joint armies of Nawab Mir Qassim of Bengal and Nawab Shuja od-Dowla of Awadh, he fought the unsuccessful Battle of Buxar against the British, and was forced to sign the Treaty of Allahabad the next year that legitimized British control of the revenues of Bengal and Bihar. On his return to Delhi, he set about reforming the administration and the army, under his efficient vizier, Mirza Najaf Khan – an Iranian migrant and scion of the erstwhile Safavid Dynasty. He managed to defeat the Sikhs, the Jats, and the Pashtun Rohillas to assert his authority, but over a decade later, after the death of the able vizier, his fortunes reversed and the Red Fort was occupied by the Afghan rebel Abdul-Qader Rohilla, who blinded him in 1788. After restoration to the throne, he sought British protection as a titular ruler. An accomplished poet in Persian he wrote under the penname “Aftab”. He was succeeded by his son, Akbar Shah II – father of Bahadur Shah Zafar, whom the British deposed in 1857 to end the empire founded in 1526 by the Timurid prince, Zaheer od-Din Babar.

198 lunar years ago, on this day in 1243 AH, the Iranian city of Erivan and the khanate of the same name in the Caucasus, was occupied by Russia after stiff resistance by the governor Hussain Qoli Khan Qajar, during the two-year war that led to the signing of the humiliating Turkmenchay Treaty by the inefficient ruler Fath Ali Shah Qajar, resulting in the detachment from the Persian Empire of what are now the Caucasus republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, along with Nakhichevan. Erivan was renamed Yerevan and became the centre of the Russian oblast of Armenia. For more than two millenniums, most of the Caucasus, including Daghestan and the eastern section of Georgia were part of the various Persian Empires. In 1501, Shah Ismail, the Founder of the Safavid Empire, had liberated Erivan from the Aq Qoyounlu Turks. In 1736, in the waning years of the Safavid Dynasty, the area was designated as Khanate of Erivan and corresponded to most of present-day central Armenia, most of the Igdır Province and of Kagızman district of the Kars Province of present-day Turkey, and the Sharur and Sadarak districts of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. At the time of the Russian occupation, over 80 percent population of Erivan was Muslim – made up of Persians, Azeris, and Kurds – while Armenian Christians numbered only 15,000 or less than 20% of the population. The Russians forced the majority of Muslims to leave and replaced them with Christians and Armenians in the city and the countryside in order to change the demography of the region. Ḥussain Qoli Khan Qajar, who was known for his bravery, honesty and justice, refused to make any deal with the Russian occupiers, as is evident by Russia’s anger as demonstrated in Article XII of the Turkmenchay Treaty, which specifically deprived him and his brother of the right to sell or exchange their property in Erevan, a right granted to all others.

191 solar years ago, on this day in 1828 AD, the acclaimed Austrian song composer, Franz Schubert, died. He was born in a poor family in the vicinity of Vienna. Although he composed more than 600 songs, his ingenuity in classical music, and multiplicity of his works did not rescue him from poverty. His songs were welcomed after his death.

136 solar years ago, on this day in in 1883 AD, German born engineer Carl Wilhelm Siemens, died in Britain at the age of 60.

168 solar years ago, on this day in 1851 AD, following court intrigues by local agents of foreign powers, on loss of their illegal interests, the highly efficient Iranian Prime Minister, Mirza Taqi Khan Amir Kabir, was deposed by the Qajarid king, Nasser od-Din Shah, for whom he had been guardian since his ascension to the throne as a boy and had saved Iran from the colonial designs of Britain and Russia. Within a couple of months, this statesman was killed in the “hammam” (bathhouse) of the famous garden-pavilion of Feen in the city of Kashan, where he was exiled. With Amir Kabir died the prospects of an independent Iran led by meritocracy. He had risen from lower rungs of the society through hard work, honesty, and voracious appetite for knowledge and eagerness to learn new techniques. He became prime minister of Mohammad Shah and within three years carried out important reforms. His achievements include the vaccination of Iranians against smallpox; economic development of the fertile Khuzestan Province; foundation in Tehran of the Dar ol-Fonoun Academy (for teaching medicine, surgery, pharmacology, natural history, mathematics, geology, and natural sciences to train the civilian and military staff); cancellation of the one-sided treaties with the Russians and the British; launching of a newspaper; crackdown on the seditious Babi-Bahai plot against Islam and the country; and execution of the heretic Mohammad Ali Bab.  

42 solar years ago, on this day in 1977 AD, Egyptian president, Anwar Sadaat, humiliated himself and betrayed the Palestinian cause with his official visit to the illegal Zionist entity called Israel. The visit enraged world Muslims, including Arabs, and especially Palestinians. A year later, Sadaat further betrayed the Palestinian cause by signing the scandalous Camp David Treaty in the US with the usurper Zionist entity. Most Muslim states severed ties with Egypt in protest, and finally Sadaat paid dearly for his treason when in October 1981 while inspecting a military parade he was executed in a revolutionary manner by Major Khaled Islambouli.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, as a humanitarian gesture to expose the colour, and gender discrimination in US society, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), ordered the release of 13 female and black Americans from among the scores of spies captured by Iranian revolutionary students on the seizure of the US espionage den in Tehran.

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, the leaders of NATO and Warsaw Pact signed an agreement in Paris ending the Cold War between the Eastern and Western blocs. It was also agreed to end psychological warfare and reduce the weapons of these two military organizations. Soon, following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of socialist rule in eastern European states, Warsaw Pact was dissolved, but in violation of the agreement, NATO not only did not disband but has continued to expand towards the east, stirring sedition and creating instability in world countries.

14 solar years ago, on this day in 2005 AD, a US-Saudi backed terrorist detonated an explosive rigged car in a crowd of Shi’ite Muslim mourners north of Baghdad, martyring over 50 people and causing injury to over a hundred others.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, a police vehicle of Bahrain’s repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, deliberately crushed to death 16-year old Yousuf Ali Baghdar in the Juffair area of Manama, and when the funeral procession was held for the martyred teenager, the police forces brutally attacked the ceremony and injured scores of men, women, and children. The Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain is in the grip of popular revolution which the US and British-backed regime is trying to crush.   

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, a double terrorist bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut martyred 23 people and injured 160 others. The damage to the Iranian embassy was slight and only one staffer suffered some wounds. The bombing was carried out by terrorists on the payroll of the Saudi Arabia and Israeli, trying to destabilize Syria and Lebanon.

AS/SS