Today is Saturday; 30th of the Iranian month of Azar 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 24th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1441 lunar hijri; and December 21, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1379 solar years ago, on this day in 640 AD, Muslim Arabs captured the Babylon Fortress in the Nile Delta (near Cairo) after a seven-month siege. The strategic fortress that marked the boundary between Lower and Middle Egypt, was said to have been built by rebel Assyrian captives in the reign of Sesostris, and hence was called Babylon after the famous city and empire of the same name in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq). Other accounts say it was built by the Babylonian followers of the Achaemenid Iranian Emperor, Cambyses in 525 BC. Thus, built by the Persians, it was taken over by the Romans, and finally fell to the Muslims, whose ranks included several Iranian converts to Islam.   

1053 lunar years ago, on this day in 388 AH, the lexicographer, literary figure, and theologian, Abu-Ali Mohammad ibn Muzaffar al-Hatami al-Baghdadi, passed away. He has left behind numerous compilations, including the book “al-Hatamiyah”, which is a critical account of poems of his contemporaries.

1044 solar years ago, on this day in 975 AD, Abu Tamim Maad al-Muizz li-Dinillah, the 4^th self-styled caliph of the Fatemid Shi’a Muslim Dynasty of North-Africa-Egypt-Syria, died at the age of 44 in Cairo after a 22-year reign. In 973, two years before his death, he moved his capital from al-Mansura in what is now Tunis to the newly built city al-Qahera or Cairo in Egypt, following the conquest of the Land of the Nile by his Sicilian Muslim general Jowhar as-Siqili, who also built the famous al-Azhar Mosque and Academy in honour of Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), the Immaculate Daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Al-Muizz is credited for having commissioned the invention of the first fountain pen. In 953, on assuming power, he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir. As recorded by Qazi Nu’man at-Tamimi in his “Kitab al-Majalis wa’l-Musayaraat”, Mu’izz instructed: “We wish to build a pen which can be used for writing without having recourse to an ink-holder and whose ink will be contained inside it. A person can fill it with ink and write whatever he likes. The writer can put it in his sleeve or anywhere he wishes and it will not stain nor will any drop of ink leak out of it. The ink will flow only when there is an intention to write. We are unaware of anyone previously ever designing (a pen such as this).”

753 lunar years ago, on this day in 688 AH, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Mansour Qalawoon liberated Tripoli in northern Lebanon from the Crusader occupiers. His victory led to gradual liberation of Syria and Palestine from the European usurpers.

693 lunar years ago, on this day in 748 AH, Hassan Gangu titled Zafar Khan, was unanimously elected king with the title Ala od-Din Shah Bahmani, following his victory over rivals, who two years earlier had joined together to declare the Deccan (or south India) independent from the tyrannical rule of Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq of Hindustan (or northern subcontinent) by placing Naseer od-Din Ismail as the Shah at Daulatabad. Ala od-Din Shah Bahmani, who claimed descent from the pre-Islamic Iranian king, Bahman son of Isfandiyar, shifted his capital further south to Gulbarga, and expanded his kingdom in all directions during his 11-year rule. The dynasty he founded ruled for over 170 years – first from Gulbarga and then from Bidar – promoting Islam and Persian language, culture and architecture in southern India, by virtue of its direct sea-route contact with Iran, from where poets, scholars, artists, statesmen, traders and soldiers of fortune flocked to the Bahmani court. The Bahmanis respected Sufi saints and greatly revered Shah Ne’matollah Wali of Kerman for his devotion to the school of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). The Bahmani Empire – that stretched from the western to the eastern coasts of Peninsular India – split into five independent Persianate kingdoms that ensured the independence of the Deccan for another 170 more years until the conquest by the Moghal Emperor. Of the five, the three powerful dynasties (Nizamshahis of Ahmadnagar, Adelshahis of Bijapur and Qutbshahis of Golkandah-Haiderabad) followed the Shi’a Muslim creed and regarded the Safavid rulers of Iran as their emperor.

658 solar years ago, on this day in 1361 AD, Christian mercenaries in the service of the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, ambushed at Linuesa, a Spanish Muslim army of the Emirate of Granada that was returning home after a victory. Next month in January 1362, Mohammad VI of Granada won a decisive victory over the Christian aggressors by completely routing the Castilians.

604 lunar years ago, on this day in 837 AH, the prominent Iranian poet of the Timurid era, Seyyed Moin od-Din Ali Hussaini Sarabi Tabrizi, passed away. Born in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz, he was given the title “Qassem al-Anwaar” (Distributor of Lights), by his Sufi master after a vision he had of himself standing in the mosque holding a giant candle, from which members of the congregation lit their own candles. He became a missionary, eventually residing in Herat in Khorasan, northeastern Iran, until he was expelled by Emperor Shahrukh, because of his success in attracting disciples. He took refuge at the court of Shahrukh's son, Ulugh Beg the scientist, in Samarqand in what is now Uzbekistan. He wrote mystical treatises and a collection of poems including ghazals.

421 solar years ago, on this day in 1598 AD, Battle of Curalaba resulted in a major defeat of the Spanish invading troops in southern Chile by the local Mapuche natives, led by cacique Pelentaru. In Chilean historiography, the defeat suffered by Martín García Onez de Loyola, is often called Disaster of Curalaba, and marks the end of Spain’s "Conquista" period in Chile.

195 solar years ago, on this day in 1824 AD, English surgeon, apothecary, geologist, palaeontologist, and political activist, James Parkinson, died at the age of 69. He is most famous for his 1817 work, “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy” in which he was the first to describe "paralysis agitans", a condition that would later be renamed Parkinson's disease by Jean-Martin Charcot. The symptoms of Parkinson's Disease are a generalized slowness of movement, a tremor or slight shaking on one side of the body when at rest, some stiffness of the limbs, and problems of gait or balance.

187 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, during the Egyptian–Ottoman War, Turkish forces were decisively defeated in the Battle of Konya, just outside the city of the same name in modern-day Turkey. The Egyptians were led by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mohammad Ali Pasha, the Ottoman appointed Albanian Khedive of Egypt. The Egyptians after rapidly taking Bayt al-Moqaddas and the coastal regions of Palestine and Lebanon, took over Syria and advanced into Anatolia. Konya was Ibrahim's greatest victory. He lost 262 dead and 530 wounded, whereas the Ottomans lost 3,000 dead and over 5,000 taken prisoner, including many senior officers. Nothing remained between Ibrahim's army and the Turkish capital, Istanbul, after the battle. Political parleys, however, led to the signing of the Peace Treaty of Kutahiya, whereby the Ottoman Sultan ceded greater Syria to Mohammad Ali for his lifetime, and ceded Egypt's rule to Mohammad Ali's dynasty in perpetuity, with nominal allegiance to the self-styled Turkish caliph. As a postscript to Konya, it should be added that seven years later, the Ottoman Sultan Mahmoud abrogated the Treaty of Kutahiya and attacked the Egyptian forces, but was again routed by the Egyptians at the Battle of Nizib, on the frontier between the Ottoman Empire and Syria, on June 24, 1839. Ibrahim Pasha had earlier distinguished himself in Arabia, where he penetrated into the Najd to nab the Wahhabi desert brigand, Abdullah ibn Saud, and sent him to Istanbul for public execution, for having desecrating the holy shrine of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) grandson, Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala.

168 solar years ago, on this day in 1851 AD, the first higher polytechnic institute in Iran, Dar al-Fonoun School, was founded in Tehran by the celebrated Prime Minister, Amir Kabir Mirza Mohammad Taqi Khan. Initially, this academy taught engineering, mineralogy, pharmacy, and other common sciences of the day. The first batch numbered 150 students for a six-to-seven year course. Many of the graduates became statesmen of the country.

121 solar years ago, on this day in 1898 AD, French scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered 2 new elements that they later named radium and polonium

99 solar years ago, on this day in 1920 AD, Somalian general and founder of the Dervish state, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, died at the age 64. A religious and patriotic leader, he fought the 20-year Somaliland Campaign against British, Italian and Ethiopian occupation forces. The British, who were fearful of him, have called him the “Mad Mullah”. In several of his poems and speeches, Hassan said that the British "have destroyed our religion and made our children their children" and that the Christian Ethiopians in league with the British were bent upon plundering the political and religious freedom of the Somali nation.

69 solar years ago, on this day in 1950 AD, Iran’s expert of the art of Marquetry, Mohammad Hussein Sanee’ Khatam, passed away at the age of 67. Born in Shiraz, he was also a calligrapher well familiar with Arabic, Persian and English. He has to his credit valuable artistic works that adorn museums in Iran and abroad.

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded by eight guerrilla groups, and several educational, social, medical, cultural, and financial organizations, with Yasser Arafat as Chairman. In 1974, PLO was granted observer status at the UN and by 1982 had established relations with more than 100 countries. In the same year, the lightly armed Palestinian combatants in Lebanon came under heavy attacks from the well-equipped army of the illegal Zionist entity, and the PLO was forced to shift its headquarters to Tunis. Thereafter, its armed struggle subsided, and in September 1993, Arafat betrayed the Palestinian cause by signing the Oslo Treaty in Norway, thereby recognizing the illegal Zionist entity called Israel. PLO has become extremely unpopular amongst the Palestinians because of its compromising policies and its kowtowing to the West and Israel.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, the famous Urdu poet of the Subcontinent and writer of the Pakistani national anthem, Hafeez Jullundhri, passed away in Lahore at the age of 82. Born in Jullundhur in Punjab in undivided India in a Rajput Muslim family, from 1922 to 1929, he was editor of several monthly magazines namely, "Nou Nehal", "Hazaar Dastaan", "Tahzib-e Niswaan", and "Makhzan". His first collection of poems “Naghma-e Zar” was published in 1935. Jullundhri actively participated in the struggle against British colonial rule and used his writings to propagate the cause for creation of Pakistan. In early 1948, he joined the forces for the freedom of Kashmir and wrote the Kashmiri Anthem, "Watan Hamara Azad Kashmir". After the independence, he migrated to Lahore in the new state of Pakistan. He wrote many patriotic songs during the Pakistan-India war in 1965. Jullundhri's monumental work of poetry is “Shahnama-e Islam” that gave him incredible fame and which in the manner of the famous Iranian poet Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, is a record of the glorious history of Islam in verse.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, Saddam of Iraq’s repressive Ba’th minority regime, signed a military pact with the Soviet Union for the latest weaponry to use against Iran in the ongoing 8-year war which he had imposed on the orders of the US. Like the capitalist US, the communist superpower was also worried about an eventual victory by the Islamic Republic of Iran that would change equations in the region, including in Afghanistan which was already under Soviet occupation. Despite the sophisticated arms and armaments procured from almost all military powers of the world, Saddam’s dream of defeating Iran turned into his nightmare.

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, an explosion aboard a US passenger plane over Lockerbie in Scotland claimed 270 lives. The US and Britain, accused two Libyan nationals of involvement in the alleged bombing and used the UN Security Council as a tool to impose sanctions on Libya in 1992. In 1999 the Libyan regime of Mo’ammar Qadhafi was forced to handover two of its nationals to the Hague Tribunal for trial, resulting in the acquitting of one of them and life imprisonment for the other. In August 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for explosion of the US passenger plane and paid compensation to its victims. A month later, the UN Security Council annulled the sanctions imposed on Libya. This kowtowing to the West was not able to save Qadhafi from those who had installed him in power through a military coup in 1969. In 2011, he was overthrown and killed like a rat while fleeing.

12 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, security forces of Bahrain’s repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, stormed the houses of the country's most outspoken Shi’a Muslim opposition group “al-Wefaq” at dawn, kidnapping at least seven of its members. Shi’a Muslims account for over 75 percent of Bahrain's 450,000 citizens, and struggling for their rights despite acute oppression.

AS/SS