Today is Monday; 9th of the Iranian month of Dey 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 3rd of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1441 lunar hijri; and December 30, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

953 solar years ago, on this day in 1066 AD, Yusuf ibn Naghrila, the vizier of the Spanish Muslim emirate of Gharnatha (Granada in southern Spain), was killed, along with his supporters, for his treason by masses of people who burst into the royal palace following the refusal of Emir Badis al-Muzaffar to dismiss him. Born into a Jewish family but devoid of belief in any religion, Yusuf ibn Naghrila was a haughty person who at times openly insulted the faith of Islam and violently suppressed any opposition to him. When news circulated that he intended to kill Badis, deliver the realm into the hands of Emir al-Mu’tasim of the neighbouring emirate of Almería with whom Granada was at war; then to kill Mu’tasim and seize the throne himself, the people took the law into their hands to eliminate the vizier. Even the Jewish encyclopedia admits that he "controlled" the Emir and "surrounded him with spies." In Muslim societies Jews were allowed all rights as citizens and rose to the senior-most positions in state affairs, at a time when they were despised, and subjected to frequent bouts of massacres in Christian Europe. 

815 solar years ago, on this day in 1204 AD, the Spanish Muslim scholar, Sa'eed ibn Hakam al-Qurashi, who was also ruler of the Mediterranean Balearic island of Minorca (Manurqa in Arabic), was born in what is now Portugal in the city of Tavira (Tabira in Arabic) in the Algarve region (al-Gharb or the west, in Arabic). He studied philology at Seville (Ishbiliya in Arabic) and took part in literary reunions of famous Arabic poets. He was well versed in Islamic law and medicine, in addition to being a philologist, grammarian and poet. After the occupation of the Balearic Islands by the Christian forces of Aragon, Sa’eed ibn Hakam took the title of Ra’ees and declared Minorca independent. He built a strong political apparatus in Madinat-al-Jazira (modern Ciutadella) with a council of ministers, secretaries and clan representatives. On 17 January 1287, after five glorious centuries of Muslim rule, the Christians occupied this Muslim island, killed many of its inhabitants, sold many of them as slaves in Ibiza, Valencia and Barcelona, and forcibly Christianized the rest.

688 lunar years ago, on this day in 753 AH, Malik Maqboul Telangani was made minister in Delhi by Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq and bestowed the title of Qawwam ul-Mulk. Born as Kattu Yugandhar in a noble Hindu family of Warangal in the Deccan, and made commander of the Kakatiya Kingdom with the title Ganna Nayaka by King Prataparudra, he was captured in battle by the army of the Delhi Sultanate, and embraced the truth of Islam. Because of his sincerity and loyalty he won the confidence of Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq and was appointed governor of Multan (in today’s Pakistan). His administrative abilities in the Punjab won praise and he was later sent to his native Deccan to deal with the rebellion of his former overlords, the Kakatiyas. On return to Delhi he rose rapidly in ranks to the extent that the next king, Feroze Shah Tughlaq, made him finance minister and then vizier (prime minister) with the title Khan-e Jahan. He mastered the Persian language and accompanied the Sultan on the expedition to Gujarat and successfully subdued the rebels. Feroz Shah would refer to him as “my brother” and during the Sultan’s six-month absence in Sindh, Khan-e Jahan Telangani ably administered Delhi. He never exceeded his powers, and had a strong desire to perform the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, which he couldn’t undertake because of state responsibilities. He built several mosques in and around Delhi and on his death his son, Jauna Khan, inherited his position as vizier. Built in 1388 AD, his tomb adjacent to the Sufi shrine of Seyyed Nizam od-Din Awliya, was the first octagonal mausoleum in Delhi. The only other octagonal mausoleum predating it in the Subcontinent is the Sufi shrine of Shah Rukn-e Alam in Multan.

346 solar years ago, on this day in 1673 AD, Ahmed III, the 23^rd Ottoman Sultan and the 14^th self-styled Turkish caliph was born. He ruled from 1703 to 1730 – a period called “Asr-e Laleh” (Tulip Era) in Ottoman history, because of the victories over the Russians and the flowering of arts including establishment of the first press in the Muslim world for printing books in Turkish and Arabic. In 1710 he was urged by Sweden to declare war against Russia, and the Ottoman forces under Baltajı Mohammad Pasha won a major victory at the Battle of Pruth against Peter the Great. In the aftermath, Russia returned Azov in the Crimean Peninsula in what is now Ukraine, to the Ottomans, agreed to demolish the fortress of Taganrog and stop interfering in the affairs of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Again the next year, Ahmed came nearer than any Ottoman ruler to break the power of Russia when Turkish armies led by Grand Vizier Damaad Ibrahim Pasha succeeded in completely taking control of the Pruth River. The Ottomans could have advanced to Moscow, but the march was halted on fears that Shah Sultan Hussain Safavi of Iran might liberate Iraq and territories in the Caucasus and eastern Anatolia, thereby causing panic and turning the Sultan's attention away from Russia. Ahmed III also maintained diplomatic relations with the Moghal Empire of the Subcontinent. Embassies were exchanged with Jahandar Shah in 1712, and in 1716 with Emperor Farrukhsiyar, who in his letter has provided a graphic description of the campaign of his commander, Seyyed Hassan Ali Khan Barha against the Rajput and Maratha rebellions.

184 solar years ago, on this day in 1835 AD, Cherokees were forced to move across the Mississippi River after gold was discovered on their land in Georgia. A couple of days earlier the US had bribed a few Cherokees to sign the Treaty of New Echota making it obligatory for the whole tribe to evacuate their ancestral lands. The Treaty resulted in the cession of all Cherokee land to the US and the removal of the Cherokee was completed by 1838. The US has a sordid record of genocide and ethnic cleansing despite its claim to respect human rights. 

177 solar years ago, on this day in 1842 AD, Osman Hamdi Bey, an Ottoman Turkish administrator, intellectual, art expert, archaeologist, and pioneering painter, was born in Istanbul to Ibrahim Edhem Pasha – a Greek convert who held several administrative posts, including foreign minister and Grand Vizier. He studied law before travelling for higher studies to Paris, where during his 9-year stay, he pursued his interest in fine arts, and trained under the French orientalist painters Jean-Léon Gérôme and Gustave Boulanger. On his return to Istanbul, he was sent to the Ottoman province of Baghdad, where his interest in archaeology grew. In 1871 he returned to Istanbul and during the 1870s, worked on several assignments in the upper echelons of the bureaucracy. In 1881, he became director of the Imperial Museum (Muze-i Humayun), a position he used to develop the museum, rewrite antiquities laws and create nationally sponsored archaeological expeditions. In 1882, he instituted and became director of the Academy of Fine Arts, which provided the Ottomans with training in aesthetics and artistic techniques without the need to go to Europe. In 1884, he oversaw promulgation of a law prohibiting historical artifacts from being smuggled abroad – a giant step in preservation of the antiquities of not just Anatolia, but also Syria, Palestine, and Iraq, which were being looted by the Europeans. He conducted the first scientific based archaeological researches done by a Turkish team. His digs included sites as varied as the Commagene tomb-sanctuary in Nemrud Daghi in southeastern Anatolia (a UNESCO World Heritage Site today), and Sidon in Lebanon. The sarcophagi he discovered in Sidon – including the sarcophagus thought to contain the remains of either King Abdalonymus of Sidon; or of Mazaeus, a Persian noble who was also the governor of Babylon during the Achaemenid period. It is considered among the worldwide jewels of archaeological findings. His paintings depicting Ottoman lifestyle adorn museums today in Turkey and several other countries. He passed away in his hometown Istanbul in 1910 at the age of 68.

154 solar years ago, on this day in 1865 AD, Rudyard Kipling, English author, poet, and Nobel Prize laureate, was born in Bombay. He is chiefly remembered for his tales and poems of British soldiers in India and his tales for children, such as “Jungle Book”, and “Kim”. He was an unabashed supporter of British imperialism.

113 solar years ago, on this day in 1906 AD the All India Muslim League was founded at the All-India Mohammadan Educational Conference in Dacca, East Bengal, which is now Bangladesh. It emerged from the Aligarh Movement, formed in the second half of the 19^th century to promote modern education for Muslims. The goal was to define and advance Muslim agendas, protect Muslim rights in India, and present a unified Muslim voice against the British colonialists. The Muslim League played a decisive role during the 1940s in the Indian independence movement, as the driving force for creation of Pakistan as an independent state for the Muslims of the northwestern regions of the Subcontinent.

104 lunar years ago, on this day in 1337 AH, prominent Islamic scholar, Seyyed Ismail Sadr, passed away in the holy city of Kazemain in Iraq. Born in Isfahan to the scholar of Lebanese ancestry, Sadr ad-Din Saleh, after preliminary Islamic studies under his brother in Iran, he left for Iraq to study at the famous Najaf Seminary. He mastered theology, jurisprudence, ethics, and other Islamic sciences under prominent ulema such as Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Ansari and Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi. He soon became the leading marja’ or source of emulation. Seyyed Ismail Sadr is the ancestor of the well-known and respected Sadr family spread over Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. His elder son, Sadr ad-Din Sadr was the father of Seyyed Imam Musa as-Sadr of Lebanon, who was imprisoned in 1978 and later martyred by Mo’ammar Qadhafi of Libya, while his second son, Haidar as-Sadr, was the father of Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Baqer as-Sadr, who was martyred by Saddam in April 1980. His fourth son, Mohammad Mahdi as-Sadr was the grandfather of Iraqi religious-political leader, Seyyed Moqtada as-Sadr.

103 solar years ago, on this day in 1916 AD, the controversial Russian figure, Grigori Rasputin, was killed. He was an illiterate farmer that conned his way into the court of Russian Czar Nicolas II as a priest and after the medical treatment of his son, gained a unique status in the Empire. His power and influence gradually surged to such an extent that all ministers and statesmen were under his control and the Czar became very dependent on him. But his power did not last long and Rasputin was killed by courtiers, who saw him as a threat to their own interests.

81 lunar years ago, on this day in 1360 AH, the prominent Islamic scholar and poet, Ayatollah Mirza Abu-Abdullah Shaikh al-Islam Zanjani, passed away at the age of 51. He was a product of the Islamic seminaries of Isfahan and Najaf, and settled in his hometown Zanjan. He travelled to Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, where the famous al-Azhar Academy appreciated his scholarship, and printed some of his works on the holy Qur'an in Arabic.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, operatives of two Zionist terrorist outfits, in a joint operation, raided the village of Balad ash-Shaikh in British occupied Palestine, setting fire to the homes and hearths of Palestinians, as a result of which sixty men, women, and children were martyred. On the same day, a Zionist terrorist group, Irgun, in two other attacks, hurled bombs at a gathering of Palestinians, martyring seventeen and wounding dozens of others. The upsurge in Zionist terrorism in the waning days of the year 1947 and the early days of 1948 was a prelude to the illegal birth of the usurper entity called Israel in May 1948.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, with the collapse of monarchy, Romania became a republic. Romania, which for several centuries was part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, had been set up as an independent kingdom in 1862 by Russia, France and other European powers, intent upon weakening the Muslims. From 1913 to 1920 the area covered by Romania doubled, such that following the termination of second Balkans War, parts of Hungary were given to it in return for alliance with France and Britain. During World War II, Romania suffered heavy losses and lost the majority of its annexed territories. In 1947, the last King, Michael, was ousted and a socialist republic set up by the Soviet Union. In 1989, communist rule collapsed in Romania. Today there are less than 100,000 Muslims in Romania, which over the past century-and-a-half has systematically depopulated their once large numbers.

69 lunar years ago, on this day in 1372 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hujjat Kuhkamara’i passed away in holy Qom at the age of 62 and was laid to rest in a room adjacent to the mosque of Hujjatiyya School which he had built. Born in Tabriz in a scholarly family from Kuhkamar in the Ahar district of Azarbaijan which traced its lineage to Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), the 4^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), he studied Arabic grammar, jurisprudence, mathematics, medicine and other subjects in his hometown, under his qualified father, and began to teach “Sharh al-Lum’a”. At the age of 18, he left for Iraq for higher studies at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, where his teachers included Ayatollah Shaikh ash-Shari’a Isfahani, Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Firuzabadi, Ayatollah Shaikh Abdul-Karim Ha’iri, Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hussain Na’ini, Ayatollah Ziya od-Din Iraqi, and Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Tabataba’i Yazdi. He also studied mathematics and astronomy under Haidar Quli Khan Sardar Kabuli. After almost two decades in Najaf during which he was socially active in addition to teaching a large number of students, he returned to Iran and was appointed Friday Prayer Leader at the holy shrine of Hazrat Fatema al-Ma’suma (SA) by his teacher Shaikh Abdul-Karim Ha’iri, on whose passing away six years later in 1355 AH, along with Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Taqi Khwansari and Ayatollah Seyyed Sadr od-Din as-Sadr, he became administrator of the Qom Seminary in those repressive days of the British installed Godless dictator Reza Khan Pahlavi. Ayatollah Kuhkamara’i built the Hujjatiyya Seminary in Qom, which was architecturally designed by his student the famous exegete of the holy Qur’an, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabataba’i. His other students include: Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Muhaqqiq Damad, Ayatollah Mirza Hashem Amoli, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Qazi Tabataba’i, Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, and Ayatollah Ja’far Sobhani. Among the books he compiled is “Mustadrak al-Mustadrak fi Istidrak ma faat 'an Saheb al-Mustadrak”: in which he has mentioned hadiths missed by Mohaddith Noori in “Mustadrak al-Wasa’el”

41 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, following failure of the military cabinet of General Gholam Reza Azhari to suppress the popular Islamic uprising in Iran, the British-installed and US-backed Shah named Shapour Bakhtiar as Prime Minister. The people called Bakhtiar a stooge of foreign powers. In his message from exile, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), declared Bakhtiar’s cabinet as illegitimate and called on people to continue their struggle for overthrow of the British-installed and US-supported Pahlavi regime

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, under acute pressure from the US, Vatican, the seat of the Catholic sect of Christianity, was forced to establish diplomatic ties with the illegal Zionist entity called Israel. It is worth noting that the Zionists, as heirs of Judas Iscariot, the Israelite who tried to betray Prophet Jesus (AS) to the Romans, continue to ridicule the fundamental principles of Christianity by unabashedly slandering the Virgin-Born Messiah and his mother, Mary (SA).

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, the deposed dictator of Iraq’s defunct Ba’th minority regime, Saddam, was executed by hanging at the age of 69 for his crimes against humanity. A person of doubtful paternity, Saddam was born in al-Awja village near the city of Takrit, and as a thug involved in social crimes including murder, he joined the Ba’th Party at the age of 20. After the coup staged by the Ba’thists in 1968 under command of General Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, he was instated as deputy president. In July 1979, a few months after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the US and Britain replaced Bakr with Saddam, in order to use his savage nature to brutally suppress the Iraqi Muslim people from following the footsteps of Iran to determine the fate of their country. After massacring thousands of members of Iraq’s Shi’ite Arab majority, including the leading ulema such as Ayatollah Seyyed Baqer as-Sadr, and after expelling tens of thousands of Iraqis, Saddam, at the behest of his masters in the West, invaded the Islamic Republic of Iran to try to topple the government. He utterly failed and the war dragged on for eight years during which he was supplied with internationally banned chemical weapons by the West for use against both the Iranian and Iraqi peoples. Two years after the end of his 8-year war, Saddam occupied Kuwait, his own former benefactor. This led to an international coalition against him, and following the retreat of Iraqi forces from Kuwait, he was allowed by the US to again massacre Iraqi Shi’ite Muslims by hundreds of thousands, and to desecrate the holy shrines of the Imams of the Prophet’s Household in Karbala and Najaf. Finally, in 2003 when his own godfathers, the American and the British, launched an attack to remove him, he fled and hid himself, until he was caught and jailed. The bloodthirsty Saddam was responsible for the death of several million people, including Iraqis and Iranians.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, millions of Tehranis gathered on streets adjoining Tehran University Campus, while millions more held rallies in various towns and cities of Iran, to denounce sedition and renew allegiance to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, following his call for demonstration of national unity in the face of the plots of the internal and external enemies of Iran, in the aftermath of the presidential elections held on June 12. This grand display of national solidarity exposed the seditionists in their true colours and frustrated the plots of Global Arrogance.

AS/SS