Today is Sunday; 17th of the Iranian month of Azar 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 11th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Sani 1441 lunar hijri; and December 8, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2084 solar years ago, on this day in 65 BC, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Roman poet and satirist, known as Horace, was born. He is best known for his three books “Odes”. Recently, Iranian scholar Mir Jalal od-Din Kazzazi has rendered into Persian an anthology of Horace’s Odes, most of which have historical and epic backgrounds and composed in a sensational language especially when describing events like Julius Caesar’s battles.

1262 solar years ago, on this day in 757 AD, the renowned Chinese poet, Du Fu, returned to Chang'an as a member of Emperor Xuanzong's court, after having escaped the city during the An Lushan Rebellion. A prominent figure of the Tang era, along with Li Bai, he is considered as the greatest of Chinese poets. His ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like the whole country, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years, before his death in 770 at the age of 58, were a time of almost constant unrest, with the country devastated by wars and famines, which killed two-thirds of the population of China. His works greatly influenced both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages. He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Hugo or Baudelaire. Du Fu's writings are considered by many literary critics to be among the greatest of all time in Chinese literature, and his dense, compressed language makes use of all the connotative overtones of a phrase and of all the international potentials of the individual word, qualities that no translation can ever reveal. A variety of styles have been used in efforts to translate his work into English.

1221 lunar years ago, on this day in 220 AH, Iranian Muslim astrologer and mathematician, Abu Ali al-Khayyat, passed away. He authored several books, including “Sair al-Amal” and “al-Mawalid”, which has recently been translated into English as the “Judgment of Nativities” and published in the West. His works, including the “Book of Aristotle” were translated into Latin in medieval Europe.

998 solar years ago, on this day in 1021 AD, Wang Anshi, Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty who attempted major and controversial socioeconomic reforms known as the New Policies, was born. These reforms constituted the core concepts of the Song-Dynasty Reformists. Wang Anshi's ideas are usually analyzed in terms of the influence the Rites of Zhou or Legalism had on him. His economic reforms included increase currency circulation, breaking up of private monopolies, and early forms of government regulation and social welfare. His military reforms expanded the use of local militias and his government reforms expanded the civil service examination system and attempted to suppress nepotism in government. Although successful for a while, he eventually fell out of favour of the emperor. Chinese politicians and historians have continued to look back on the reforms of Wang Anshi as either principled and measured or misguided and disastrous.

833 lunar years ago, on this day in 608 AH, prominent judge, historian, and literary figure, Ibn Khallikan, was born in Arbil, Iraq, in a Kurdish family. Educated in Aleppo and Damascus, he lived for several years in Cairo, Egypt, and later served as Chief Judge in Damascus, where he passed away in 681 AH, and was laid to rest in the foothills of the Qassiyoun Mountain. His important works include the famous biographical dictionary in several volumes, titled “Wafiyaat al-Ayaan wa-Anba Abna az-Zamaan" (Deaths of Eminent Men and History of the Sons of the Epoch).

515 solar years ago, on this day in 1504 AD, the “Oran Fatwa” was issued for the benefit of Muslims living under persecution in Christian occupied Spain by the North African scholar Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah al-Wahrani (of the city of Oran in present day Algeria), who ruled relaxation of Islamic law requirements for the forcibly converted Muslims. As a Maliki jurisprudent he instructed the Muslims in Spain on how to secretly practice Islam in order to survive and protect their faith by granting them comprehensive dispensations to conform to Christianity in public when performing acts normally forbidden in Islam. Ibn Abi Jum’ah was the Mufti of Oran, although he might have issued the fatwa in Fez (in present day Morocco). His was an Islamic legal opinion issued to address the crisis that occurred when Muslims in areas under the rule of Castile, in violation of the 1492 accord at the surrender of Granada the last Muslim emirate in Spain, were forced to convert to Christianity during 1500-1502 on pain of slavery, exile or death. The fatwa detailed relaxations of the shari’a, including instructions for observing the daily ritual prayers, and recommendations when obliged to worship as Christians. It enjoyed wide currency among Moriscos (Muslims nominally converted to Christianity and their descendants), as Castile occupied Navarre in 1515 forced Muslims to convert. In 1525 the rulers of Aragon forced Muslims living under their rule to convert to Christianity. The original Arabic Fatwa of Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah al-Wahrani is preserved in the Vatican Library in Rome. One of the surviving “Aljamiado” (Spanish written in Arabic letters) translations was dated at 1564, some 60 years after the original fatwa, which has been described as a “key theological document” to understand the practice of Spanish Muslims following the occupation of Spain by the Christians. This fatwa become the basis for the crypto-Islam practiced by the Moriscos until their final expulsions to Morocco and North Africa during the years 1609 to 1614, for fear of the Christian rulers of a possible Ottoman invasion of Spain in which case the Moriscos would have sided with the Turks. Many Spanish Muslims, however, continued to secretly adhere to Islam till the first half of the 18^th century, since it was not possible for those living for long centuries in the central and northern parts of Spain to migrate to North Africa.

151 solar years ago, on this day in 1868 AD, the Shogun warlords fell from power in Japan and thereafter social, political, and cultural reforms began. The Shoguns were a very powerful clique that first came into prominence in the 12th century. In later centuries they monopolized power and completely overshadowed the royal court. In 1867, with the coming to power of Emperor Mutsuhito, the Shoguns lost power and were totally crushed the next year.

116 solar years ago, on this day in 1903 AD, English philosopher and thinker, Herbert Spencer, died at the age of 83. He believed that science should be learned via observation and experiment. He admitted that mankind’s mind is limited, but he denied realities such as soul. Some of his works are namely: “Principles of Sociology”, “Principles of Biology”, and “Principles of Psychology”.

105 solar years ago, on this day in 1914 AD, the Falkland naval battle broke out between Britain and Germany off the southern tip of South America in the Atlantic Ocean, in the vicinity of Argentina. The Germans were defeated and the Islands again occupied by Britain. These oil-rich islands, called Malvinas by Argentina, are the source of dispute with Britain. Buenos Aires claims that it is part of Argentine territory and went to an unsuccessful war with Britain over them in 1982.

94 solar years ago, on this day in 1925 AD, prominent Urdu poet of the Subcontinent, Seyyed Nasser Reza Kazemi was born at Ambala, Haryana. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he came to Lahore and did some journalistic work with “Auraq-e Nau” and became editor-in-chief of the magazine “Humayun” in 1952. Later he was associated with Radio Pakistan, and other literary publications and organisations. He wrote several books and composed a great number of ghazals and other forms of poetry. He did translations of some English poets, especially his translation of Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" under the Urdu title "Brooklyn Ghaat Ke Paar", which is considered a masterpiece. He died in 1972.

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1941 AD, during World War II, a day after 200 Japanese warplanes bombarded the US military base in Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean, destroying 19 US warships, Japanese troops invaded Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Indonesia, thereby expanding the theatre of war in the east.

70 solar years ago, on this day in 1949 AD, the leader of Chinese nationalists, Chiang Kai-Shek, fled to Taiwan Island, after suffering defeat at the hands of communist party forces led by Mao Tse-Tung, who formed the new government of the People's Republic of China. The US seized the opportunity to meddle into Chinese affairs by supporting the separation of Taiwan from China and by handing the seat of China at the UN to breakaway Taiwan. However, in 1971, following US-China rapprochement, the UN General Assembly unanimously recognized the People’s Republic of China and admitted it to the UN Security Council as the fifth permanent member.

56 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, in Tehran, leaders of the 55-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) gathered for a summit meeting to promote Islamic solidarity. It was the first time that the Islamic Republic hosted the OIC Summit and took over chairmanship of this organization for the next four years.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, Iranian journalist, researcher, politician, and historian, Hussain Makki, passed away at the age of 88. He started his career as a journalist and researcher, and soon entered politics by being elected to the 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th rounds of the constitutional parliament. A staunch supporter of Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, he opposed British hegemony and the despotism of the Pahlavi regime. As a result he was sidelined by the regime in the aftermath of the 1953 coup. He wrote extensively, and as an eyewitness involved in political activities, he was an authority on the late Qajar and Pahlavi periods. His works include the 9-volume contemporary account titled “Twenty-Year History of Iran”, the 2-volume “Life of Ayatollah Modarres”, the 7-volume “Black Book” and two volumes of “Political Memoirs”.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, in Iraq a series of coordinated attacks by US-nurtured terrorists, struck Baghdad, including two supposedly suicide car bombers and another vehicle that blew up near government sites. At least 127 were martyred and over 500 wounded in one of the worst wave of violence in the capital against the country’s long oppressed Shi’a Muslim majority.

AS/SS