Today is Monday; 18th of the Iranian month of Azar 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 12th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1441 lunar hijri; and December 9, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1309 lunar years ago, on this day in 132 AH, the new breed of usurpers of the Islamic realm, the Abbasids, officially commenced their rule, with Abu’l-Abbas Abdullah ibn Mohammad, assuming the title of caliph after defeating Marwan al-Hemar, the last ruler of the Godless Omayyad dynasty. The new caliph was known as “Saffah” because of his wanton shedding of Muslim blood. The Abbasids, who rose to power by deceiving the people, especially that of Iran, Iraq and Hijaz, by claiming to restore the political rule to the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, turned out to be the mortal enemies of the Infallible Imams of the progeny of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Abbasids were helped by their Iranian agent, Abu Muslim Khorasani, who inflicted a series of defeats on the Omayyads. Saffah not only massacred almost all the Omayyads, except for Abdur-Rahman who fled to Spain and founded a dynasty there, but he also dug up the graves of the Omayyad caliphs including Mu’awiya ibn Abu Sufyan and burned their bones. It is interesting to note that on opening the grave of the accursed Yazid, the perpetrator of the tragedy of Karbala, nothing was found in the grave except a burnt thighbone and ashes, as if divine wrath had already struck the killer of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husain (AS).

1288 solar years ago, on this day in 730 AD, in the Battle of Marj as-Sabalan on the outskirts of Ardabil in northwestern Iran, the army of Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik, the 10th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, was annihilated by Khazar Turkic nomads led by Barjik, the son of the Khaqan. The Omayyad commander, Jarrah Ibn Abdullah al-Hakami, was among the 20,000 Arab forces killed along with their Iranian allies including the Zoroastrian Dehqan of Azarbaijan, Mardan Shah. The Khazars then mercilessly plundered Ardabil and other towns and cities, carrying off immense loot as well as over 40,000 men, women and children as captives. The next year Barjik penetrated as far as Mosul in northern Iraq, where he was defeated and forced to retreat to the northern Caucasus. Earlier, Jarrah Ibn Abdullah, known as "Farres ahl ash-Sham" (Chief Cavalier) of the Syrians, who had served at various times as governor of Basra, Sistan, Khorasan, Armenia, Azarbaijan and Arran, had penetrated the northern Caucasus to attack the Khazar capital. The Omayyad setback in the Caucasus and northwestern Iran was accompanied by defeats in the subsequent years on all fronts, including France, Central Asia, India, and finally Khorasan, from where the Abbasids launched their revolution under their Iranian general, Abu Muslim Khorasani, to seize the caliphate.

1270 solar years ago, on this day in 748 AD, Nasr Ibn Sayyar, the last Omayyad governor of Khorasan, who as an anti-Islamic Arab nationalist terrorized the people of northeastern Iran and Central Asia for decades, died at the age of 85 in Saveh (southwest of Tehran) while fleeing, after a string of defeats suffered by his Syrian-North Arabian army at the hands of the Arab-Iranian Muslim revolutionaries determined to overthrow the Omayyads and replace them with members of Prophet Mohammad's (SAWA) family. The uprising was hijacked by the Abbasids, who seized the caliphate and once again deprived the Ahl al-Bayt of their political rights. Nasr ibn Sayyar earned lasting damnation for killing the Prophet’s venerable descendent, Yahya ibn Zaid – Imam Zain al-Abedin’s (AS) grandson – whom he martyred in battle in Jowzajan (in today’s Afghanistan) and sent the head to the Omayyad court in Damascus. Nasr’s policy, like that of other Omayyad governors in Spain, France, the Caucasus, and Sindh, was to prevent the masses from becoming Muslims, since this would deprive the self-styled caliphs in Damascus of the revenues they reaped by levying heavy taxes on non-Muslims.

1200 lunar years ago, on this day 241 AH, the prominent Sunni jurisprudent Ahmad Ibn Mohammad ibn Hanbal ash-Shaybani, passed away at the age of 77. Born in Baghdad to an officer of Abbasid regime serving in Khorasan, his principal teacher was the jurisprudent Mohammad Ibn Idris Shafei. Ibn Hanbal’s famous work is “Musnad”, which among other hadith contains several narrations on the unsurpassed merits of the Infallible Ahl al-Bayt of the Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Out of fear of the Abbasid regime, he did not meet Imam Mohammad at-Taqi (AS) and Imam Ali an-Naqi (AS) – the 9th and 10th Heirs of the Prophet.

1145 lunar years ago, on this day in 296 AH, Abdullah ibn Mu'taz, who ruled for only a single day and a night as caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, was killed at the age of 48. He was installed by a faction of the powerful Turkic slave guards following the death of al-Muktafi, the 17th self-styled Abbasid caliph, and then deposed the next day by the vizier. He went into hiding, was found, and strangled to death by a servant of his relative, the 13-year old al-Muqtadir, who was now installed as caliph. Abdullah lived a hedonistic life, writing poetry devoted to pleasures of the immoral life he led – as is evident in his work “Kitab al-Badi”. He was a son of Mu'taz, the 13th self-styled caliph, who during his brief 3-year reign – before being deposed, brutally beaten and murdered by the Turkic guards – martyred Imam Ali an-Naqi (AS), the 10th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Like the rest of the clan, Abdullah ibn Mu'taz was also notorious for his enmity towards the Prophet's blessed Ahl al-Bayt. He wrote an ode in praise of what he viewed as merits of the tyrannical and immoral Abbasids over the rest of the Bani Hashem. These superficial verses on the forged merits of the Abbasid usurpers was given a fitting answer in a brilliant piece of versified eulogy by the poet and scholar Ali ibn Mohammad at-Tannoukhi, who points to the God-endowed merits of the Ahl al-Bayt, whose virtues are praised in the holy Qur'an and Hadith.

726 solar years ago, on this day in 1292 AD, the world-acclaimed Persian poet of Iran, Shaikh Mosleh od-Din Sa’di, passed away in his hometown Shiraz. He left at a young age for Baghdad where he studied at the famous Nizamiyah Academy, excelling in Islamic Sciences, law, governance, history, Arabic literature and theology. The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Iran led him to wander for 30 years through Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, and Anatolia or what is now Turkey. He also refers in his works about his travels in Sindh or present day Pakistan, as well as India and Central Asia. Sa'di performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Even during his travels he composed beautiful Persian and Arabic poems. On return to his hometown, Shiraz, he composed his two famous masterpieces, “Bustan” (the Orchard) and “Golestan” (Rose Garden). The poems in “Bustan” speak of such topics as justice, love, kindness, modesty, contentment, education, repentance, and prayers. The next year he completed “Golestan”, which is in prose, and also contains his Arabic and Persian poems, in addition to moral and social anecdotes in 8 chapters. His collection of poems also includes odes and quatrains. The tomb of Sa’di in Shiraz is a frequently visited site.

410 solar years ago, on this day in 1608 AD, English poet and polemical pamphleteer, John Milton, was born in London. Among his important works are “Paradise Lost”, and “Paradise Regained” which are epic poems. An opponent of monarchy and a supporter of religious freedom (but only for Christian sects), in 1644, at the height of the civil war in England, he wrote “Areopagitica”, a pamphlet decrying censorship. It is considered an influential philosophical defence of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression. At the age of 36 he lost one eye and at 44 went completely blind. After overthrow of the monarchy he served under Oliver Cromwell in the Commonwealth of England as Secretary of Foreign Tongues to handle correspondence with European states as well as propaganda for the regime. On restoration of the monarchy, Milton retired from public life and died at the age of 66.

276 solar years ago, on this day in 1742 AD, the Swedish chemist and one of the pioneers of modern chemistry, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, was born in Stockholm. After years of experiments he discovered gas chlorine, which is an important chemical element and has numerous applications in the industrial sector. He also discovered magnesium and glycerin. Scheele died in 1786.

260 solar years ago, on this day in 1758 AD, the 13-month long Madras War between Britain and France started in southern India, following the French attack on Fort St. George on the Bay of Bengal. The 3,000 French forces were heavily outnumbered by the 22,000-strong British-led troops of local sepoys (corruption of the Persian word “sipahi” for soldier). The surrender of the French in January 1761, paved the way for the rise of the British in India, where infighting among the various Muslim successor states of the Mughal Empire, enabled them to establish their rule as the paramount colonial power.

162 solar years ago, on this day in 1856 AD, the Iranian city of Bushehr on the Persian Gulf was seized by the invading British forces after long battles lasting several years with the local Iranian defenders. The British plan was to stop Iran from liberating the Khorasani city of Herat from joint Afghan-British occupation. The British, taking advantage of the weakness of the Qajarid dynasty, soon spread their control over all of southern Iran. This situation lasted till 1913, when Iranian resistance started and continued during World War I under the leadership of Raees Ali Delvari, forcing Britain to move its diplomatic, commercial, and military headquarters to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, which had been earlier seized from Iran.

101 solar years ago, on this day in 1917 AD during World War I, the British forces, made up of Arab and Indian contingents under Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, defeated the Ottoman troops in Palestine, and occupied the Islamic holy city of Bayt al-Moqaddas, which houses the former qibla (or focal point of prayers) of Muslims. By October 1918 when the war ended, the British forces inflicted more defeats on the Turks and driving them out of Syria and Iraq, occupied more lands in West Asia. The seizure of Palestine was a step toward materialization of the notorious Balfour Declaration of the then British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, who had called for setting up of a Jewish state in the heart of the Muslim World by illegally settling European Jews in Palestine.

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1940 AD, during World War II, Operation Compass was launched by British and Indian troops against Italian forces near Sidi Barrani on the borders of Egypt and Italian-occupied Libya. It was the first large Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) and lasted till complete victory in February 1941, resulting in the capture of Cyrenaica till El Agheila on the Gulf of Sirte. A total of over 138,000 Italian and Libyan soldiers surrendered, along with hundreds of tanks, and more than 1,000 heavy artillery pieces and aircraft,

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, in western Java up to 430 Indonesian Muslim men were rounded up and shot by Dutch colonial troops in the village of Rawagedeh. The Dutch called the incident a "police action" to quell an uprising. In 1995, the Dutch government admitted that summary executions had taken place in Rawagedeh (now known as Balongsari), but said prosecutions were no longer possible. In September, 2011, a court ordered the government to compensate the widows of Indonesian villagers, to apologize for the killings and to give each of the 10 plaintiffs $27,000. The money was never properly distributed among the families of the victims.

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, the first Intefadha or Islamic uprising of the Palestinian people against the usurper entity, Israel, started in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Muslims were inspired by the Islamic Revolution of Iran, and were disillusioned by the nationalist and socialist parties like the PLO, which in collaboration with the US and Europe entered into the infamous Oslo Accord with Israel, in a vain bid to offset the Islamic movement.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, the UN, in a report, declared the Iraqi Ba’th minority regime as aggressor of the 8-year war-imposed on Iran on September 22, 1980 on the orders of the US. UN Secretary General, Ecuador's Javier Perez de Cuellar also emphasized in his report that based on UN Charter, and international rules and regulations, Saddam should accept responsibility for his unjustified aggression. On September 22, 1980, Iraq launched unprovoked air and ground attacks on Iran, and during the invasion, which was fully backed by the capitalist west and the socialist east, several Iranian frontier cities and towns were occupied and innocent women, children, and men were martyred. The Iranian combatants rallied under the guidance of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), and staged epics of resistance during the holy defence to blunt the Ba'thist aggressors and liberate Iranian territory until the acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 598 in July 1988.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Reza Golpayegani, passed away. Born in the central Iranian city of Golpayegan, he studied Islamic sciences under prominent ulema including Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Haeri the reviver of the Qom Seminary, which later Grand Ayatollah Golpayegani made his base and for years, groomed a large number of scholars. On the victory of Islamic Revolution, he firmly supported the Founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini (RA) and always defended him and his ideals through statements. He founded numerous schools and hospitals in Iran and abroad, and has left behind numerous books on Islamic sciences.

AS/SS