Today is Tuesday; 10th of the Iranian month of Dey 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 4th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1441 lunar hijri; and December 31, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1324 solar years ago, on this day in 695 AD, Mohammad bin Qasim, the Arab governor of Iran, Multan and Sindh, on behalf of his tyrannical uncle, Hajjaj – original name Kulayb (whelp) – was born in obscurity. Among the reasons for his ruthless campaign to seize Sindh and try to push into India, was the refuge offered by the local rulers to Iranian and Arab Muslims, including followers of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt, fleeing the reign of terror of Hajjaj – the desecrator of the holy Ka’ba – on whose death, 50,000 men and women were found in dungeons. On Hajjaj’s death his 20-year old nephew was summoned to Damascus from Sindh, imprisoned, tortured and executed on the orders of the new Omayyad caliph, Sulaiman bin Abdul-Malik, who was a bitter enemy of the bloodthirsty family.

886 lunar years ago, on this day in 555 AH, historian and literary figure, Abu’l-Hassan Ali ibn Mohammad, known as Izz od-Din Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari, was born in a Kurdish family in Jazirat Ibn Umar in Iraq, which was part of the Great Seljuq Empire, with its capital in Isfahan. He spent a scholarly life in Mosul and often visited Baghdad, where he learned from the Iranian scholar Khateeb-e Tusi. With the disintegration of the Seljuq Empire, he was with the army of Salah od-Din Ayyoubi in Syria, and has written eye-witness accounts of the battles with the Crusader invaders of Europe, who had usurped Palestine and set up the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was about 28 years old when Bayt al-Moqaddas and Palestine were liberated after 88 years of Crusader occupation by the joint Islamic army of Kurds, Turks, Arabs and Iranians. Ibn Athir later lived in Aleppo and Damascus and died in Mosul. His chief work is a general history of the world, titled “al-Kamel fi’t-Tarikh” (The Complete History), in which he has included reports of the destructive events taking place in the last years of his life in the Islamic east, particularly in Central Asia and Khorasan, where the barbaric Mongol onslaught was destroying centuries of flourishing civilized life. He has written a specialized history of the Atabek Dynasty of Mosul titled “at-Tarikh al-Baher fi’l-Dowlat-al-Atabekiyah bi’l-Mawsil”. He also wrote the biographical encyclopedia on the companions of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), titled: “Osud al-Ghabah fi Ma‘rifat as-Sahabah”.  Izz od-Din should not be confused with his elder brother, Majd od-Din Ibn Athir, the author of "Jame' al-Usoul", which is a compendium of the "Sihah as-Sitta" or the Six Authoritative Hadith Books of Sunni Muslims, compiled almost wholly by Iranian converts to Islam.

794 solar years ago, on this day in 1225 AD, the Lý dynasty of Vietnam ended after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Trần Thái Tông, husband of the last Lý monarch, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, starting the Trần dynasty.

790 solar years ago, on this day in 1229 AD, the Spanish Muslim emirate of Majorca on the largest Mediterranean island of the same name in the Balearic Archipelago, was invaded and occupied by James I of Aragon, who changed the name of the capital from “Medina Mayurqa” to Palma, thus ending over five glorious centuries of Islamic culture and civilization. The first Muslims arrived on this island in 707, some four years before Spain was liberated by the Muslims. In 902, Issam al-Khawlani, in order to save the local people from the frequent raids of Vikings and other Christian marauders, liberated the whole Balearic Archipelago, ushering in a new period of prosperity under the Emirate of Cordoba. Agriculture and irrigation networks were developed and local industries set up by the Muslims. From 1087 to 1114 Majorca was ruled by the Taifa of Denia independently, and was able to ward off raids by Christian hordes from Europe including the Crusader marauders sailing towards Syria and Palestine to stir up sedition. It then came under the rule of the al-Morawwid Muslim dynasty of North Africa, and in 1176 was taken over by the al-Muwahhed dynasty until 1229, when the last emir of Majorca, Abu Yahya, was defeated by the Christian invaders, who forcibly Christianized the inhabitants after killing many of them. Minorca, (Manurqa in Arabic),  the other important island of the Balearic Archipelago, continued to be under Muslim control for another six decades, until it was also brutally invaded and occupied by the Christians of Aragon, who killed, Christianized and enslaved the Muslims.

527 solar years ago, on this day in 1492 AD, over a 100,000 Jews were expelled from Sicily by the Christian rulers because of their charging of high interest rates, usury, and above all the insulting of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, such as the slandering of Prophet Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary (peace upon them).

505 solar years ago, on this day in 1514 AD, the Belgian physician and surgeon, Andreas Vesalius, was born in Brussels. He gained fame mainly for his efforts to identify the functions of different body limbs through autopsy. For this reason, he has been named as the father of science of anatomy. He died in 1564.

459 lunar years ago, on this day in 982 AH, The Ottoman Turks retook Tunis in North Africa from the Spanish occupiers following seizure of the heavily guarded fortress of Halq al-Wadi. In this battle, 5000 Spanish and Italian soldiers were killed and 3000 others captured. The Ottomans also captured 225 canons.

387 solar years ago, on this day in 1632 AD, the Safavid Emperor of Iran, Shah Abbas II, was born. He became king on 15 May 1642 on the death of his father Shah Safi. His rule was relatively peaceful and was free of any Ottoman attack. In 1648 he managed to retake Qandahar in what is now Afghanistan, and hold it against attacks by Moghal India. The early death of this capable ruler in 1666 at the age of 34 years was a great blow to Iran.

328 solar years ago, on this day in 1691 AD, the Irish physicist and chemist, Robert Boyle, passed away at the age of 64. He studied under his father, Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, who was a famous English physicist, and soon honed his skills in physics. He is best known for Boyle's Law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system.

162 solar years ago, on this day in 1857 AD, Queen Victoria of Britain chose Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.

158 solar years ago, on this day in 1861 AD, 22,990 millimeters of rain fell in Cherrapunji, Assam in northeast India – a world record.

144 solar years ago, on this day in 1875 AD, the Danish orientalist, Arthur Christensen, was born in Copenhagen. During his years of study, he became interested in countries of the Orient, especially the history of Iran and conducted research on the history of Persian literature. He wrote his dissertation on the quatrains of the famous Iranian Islamic astronomer-mathematician, Omar Khayyam. He also wrote articles on Ferdowsi and other poets. Among his important books is the administration and social structure of Iran in the Sassanid era. He died in 1945.

107 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, the combatant Iranian religious leader, Mirza Ali Aqa Siqqat-ol-Islam Tabrizi, was martyred by the invading Russian forces. He played an important role in Tabriz, as an activist of the Constitutional Revolution. He resolutely struggled against the occupation of parts of northwestern Iran in the Caucasus by Czarist Russia, while guiding and leading people to this end. The Russians, who considered him an opponent, kidnapped and martyred him.

70 lunar years ago, on this day in 1371 AH, the Islamic scholar, Haydar Qoli Khan Afghani, known as Sardar Kabuli, passed away. He was an authority in logic, Arabic literature, mathematics, astronomy, history, and geography. A devotee of the Ahl al-Bayt, he wrote a valuable book on the virtues of Imam Ali (AS), the 1st Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He also translated into Persian, the famous book “al-Muraja’at”, on exchange of letters on principles of faith between Allamah Seyyed Abdul-Hussain Sharaf od-Din of Lebanon and Dean of Egypt’s al-Azhar Academy, Shaikh Saleem al-Bishri. His translation is titled “Monazeraat”.

41 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, over 200 citizens were martyred and more than 2,000 injured in the holy city of Mashhad when a peaceful public rally was attacked with tanks and machineguns by the forces of the tyrannical Pahlavi regime. On this same day in the city of Kerman in southeastern Iran, the regime’s forces martyred over a hundred citizens and injured some 400 others in trying to disperse a peaceful public protest. Simultaneously, public demonstrations erupted today throughout the country against the British-installed and US-backed Shah who declared martial law in most parts of the country. Massive rallies were held in the holy city of Qom, as well as in Shiraz, Ardabil, Hamedan, Gorgan, Malayer, Khorramabad, Boroujerd, Lar and other cities, while in the capital there was pitched street fighting between the regime’s forces and the public, demanding end of monarchy and return home from exile of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA).

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, amid the peak of religious-nationalist sentiments in the Soviet Union, the people of the Caucasus Republic of Azerbaijan staged an uprising for rejoining Iran. This region was an integral part of Iran since 500 BC until the Russians occupied it in the first half of the 19th century, along with other Iranian regions in the Caucasus, such as Daghestan, Chechen, Armenia, and the eastern parts of Georgia. The Azeri people, residing north of the Aras River continued to maintain their bonds with Iran’s history and culture. When the Red Army moved to suppress the uprising, many Azeri Muslims swam across the Aras River in freezing temperatures to come to the safety of Iran.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved in what was dubbed by the media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. For almost two centuries a battleground between the Hapsburgs and the Ottoman Turks, who ruled Slovakia, in October 1918 after World War 1, Czechoslovakia was created from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From 1939 to 1945, it was incorporated into Nazi Germany and seized to exist de facto. Revived after World War 2, it came under Moscow’s influence and existed as a Soviet satellite state until the end of communist rule in 1989.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, Saddam of the tyrannical Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, ordered a fresh summary execution of several thousand political detainees that lasted several weeks. During his 24-year rule as president which ended with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, the heartless Saddam massacred several million Iraqis, mostly members of the country’s Shi’ite Arab majority. 

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, resigned and was succeeded by Vladimir Putin. Earlier in the decade, Yeltsin had replaced President Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, which disintegrated in June 1991, resulting in the emergence of the Russian Federation. Yeltsin was deceived by the empty promises of the West, especially the US, which did not rescue Russia from the economic crisis. He also suffered a disastrous military defeat when his forces attacked the autonomous Chechen Muslim Republic, which was finally reoccupied by Moscow in 1994.  

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, Iranian scientists successfully tested the first nuclear fuel rod produced from uranium ore deposits inside the country for use in the Islamic Republic’s wholly peaceful nuclear programme.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime of the Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain, mercilessly martyred 15-year old Seyyed Hashem Sa’eed by firing at his chest, at close range, a tear gas canister. The birthrights of the vast majority of people of Bahrain are being denied by the Aal-e Khalifa regime, with the support of the US and Saudi Arabia, whose occupation forces periodically desecrate religious places. 

AS/SS