Today is Wednesday; 18th of the Iranian month of Dey 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 12th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1441 lunar hijri; and January 8, 2020, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1494 lunar years ago, on this day 53 years before Hijra, Abdullah, the father of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), passed away in Yathreb at the age of 25, after a bout of illness while returning to Mecca from a trade trip to Syria. The year is known as “Aam al-Feel” (Year of the Elephant), since earlier in the year Yemen’s Abyssinian governor Abraha led an army equipped with elephant corps to attack the holy Ka'ba that brought swift divine wrath upon the aggressors in the form of a flock of small birds which showered them with a hail of deathly pebbles. Abdullah was the youngest son of Abdul-Muttaleb, the custodian of the holy Ka’ba, and scion of the monotheist Hashemite clan of the Qoraish tribe, directly descended from Prophet Ishmael (AS), the firstborn son of Prophet Abraham (AS). Abdullah passed away some two months after his virtuous wife, Amena bint Wahb, gave birth to the future Prophet, whom he was not destined to see because of his journey. He was laid to rest in Dar an-Nabigha in the Banu Najjar quarters of Yathreb, which 53 years after his death became known as Medinat-an-Nabi or the City of the Prophet, following his son’s migration and transforming of the city into the capital of the first-ever Islamic state. In 1925 Wahhabi heretics of the Aal-e Saud clan destroyed his grave.

696 solar years ago, on this day in 1324 AD, Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, died at the age of 69. He was seventeen years old when he started his long journey to China, along with his father and uncle, visiting several Asian lands, including Iran, both on the way and while returning. During his return journey he escorted Princess Kokachin sent by Kublai Khan from China as a bride for his grandnephew, Arghun Khan, the Ilkhanid Mongol ruler of Iran-Iraq. It took two years for Marco Polo and the bridal party to reach Hormuz by sea from southern China, and when they arrived in Maraghah, the then capital of Iran, the Khan had died and was succeeded by his son, Ghazaan Khan, who married the princess and on conversion to Islam changed his name to Mahmoud. When Marco Polo finally returned to his hometown, Venice in 1291, it was after 24 long years, but with many riches and after travelling some 24,000 kilometers. He related his memoirs to Rustichello da Pisa while both were prisoners of the Genova Republic, mentioning his observations at the court of China’s Mongol Emperor, such as use of paper money, in addition to his observations in other Asian cities and lands, including Iran.

488 lunar years ago, on this day in 953 AH, Sunni Muslim scholar Shams od-Din ibn Tuloun ad-Dimashqi, passed away in his hometown Damascus at the age of 73. He was well versed in several sciences such as jurisprudence, hadith, history, geography, medicine, literature and poetry. He wrote several books such as “Safinat-al-Tulouniya” and “Shadharaat az-Zahabiyyah”. In the last named work he has mentioned through reliable chain of authority the famous Hadith Thaqalayn, which Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) proclaimed to a huge gathering on the plain of Arafaat from atop Jabal ar-Rahmah (Mount of Mercy) on 9th Zilhijjah during his Farewell Hajj Pilgrimage, saying:

“I am leaving behind among you the Two Precious Things (Thaqalayn), the Book of Allah (holy Qur’an) and my progeny the Ahl al-Bayt. Hold fast to them and you will never go astray, for the two never part with each other, even when they return to me at the Fountain (of Kowthar on the Day of Resurrection).”

378 solar years ago, on this day in 1642 AD, Italian scientist, astronomer, and physicist, Galileo Galilei, died at the age of 78. Born in Pisa, he studied literature until the age of 19 before turning to physics and mathematics. With the usage of lens, invented by the famous Muslim astronomer, Ibn al-Haytham, he developed a telescope for observing stars. With this instrument, and with the aid of the writings of Islamic scientists, he wrote that the surface of moon has plains and altitudes and each galaxy is made of small and large stars. He also claimed as his own, the discoveries of Islamic scientists that the Sun is at the centre of the Solar System and other planets, including Earth, revolve round it. These discoveries were already made several centuries earlier in the Islamic world by the renowned Iranian astronomer, Abu-Rayhan Birouni (a follower of Prophet Mohammad’s [SAWA] Ahl al-Bayt), who had proved the orbit of the Earth around the Sun as it rotates on its axis. Following the publication of Galileo’s theory on the movement of earth and other planets of the solar system round the sun, the Roman Church charged him with blasphemy, forcing him to renounce his views or risk execution.

339 solar years ago, on this day in 1681 AD, the Treaty of Radzin ended the five-year war between the Ottoman Empire and the allied countries of Russia and Poland. The Turks were forced to recognize Russia’s sovereignty over much of Ukraine including the capital Kiev and its adjacent districts. Russia was also granted access to the Black Sea, although the Muslim populated Crimean Peninsula remained in Ottoman hands.

240 solar years ago, on this day in 1780 AD, an earthquake of estimated magnitude 7.7 hit the city of Tabriz, Iran, killing about 80,000 people and causing major damage.

230 lunar years ago, on this day in 1211 AH, the Iranian astronomer and mathematician, Mirza Hussein Doost Mohammad Isfahani, was born. He passed away at the age of 81 years and was laid to rest in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq.

143 solar years ago, on this day in 1877 AD, native Amerindian Chief, Tasunke Witko, whom the Anglo-Saxon occupiers of America, called 'Crazy Horse', fought his last battle against the US Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory, before he was tricked into surrendering, and some months later cowardly shot to death. He took up arms against the US regime to fight encroachments on Amerindian territories and way of life of the Lakota people by the white-skinned occupiers of his homeland. In June 1876 he had defeated the better armed US army at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The US, which was originally made up of the 13 'New England' colonies established by the British occupiers of North America, has almost wiped out the native Amerindians, as part of its expansionist policy of genocide.

94 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, chieftain of a Wahhabi clan from Najd, declared himself king of Hejaz after destroying the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina, and massacring tens of thousands of Muslims in the two holy cities, as well as in Jeddah and Ta’ef. A salaried servant of the British Empire for destabilizing Ottoman rule in Arabia and paid in India currency through the Bombay Presidency, in the 1920s he expanded his territories at the expense of fellow British agent, Sharif Hussein of the Hejaz. He also occupied parts of Yemen and seized the oil-rich lands of the Sh’ite Muslim tribal chiefs on the eastern, Persian Gulf coast of the Arabian Peninsula. In 1932, the British decided to gift him with a kingdom called Saudi Arabia, for his promise to facilitate the planting of the Zionist entity, Israel, in Palestine. The most blasphemously criminal act of Abdul-Aziz was destruction of the sacred cemeteries of Jannat al-Mo’alla in Mecca that housed the holy tombs of family members of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and of Jannat al-Baqie in Medina that housed the holy shrines of Four of the Prophet’s Twelve Infallible Heirs – Imam Hasan al-Mojtaba (AS), Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), Imam Mohammad al-Baqer (AS) and Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS).

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, Pakistan formally acknowledged that at least 50,000 Pakistanis were being kept as slaves by powerful landlords in the Sindh Province. The acknowledgement was made by Governor Moinuddin Haider. Pakistan is among the countries with the highest number and highest percentage of forced labour. According to the latest figures from Pakistan, about two million people are in bonded labour, mostly in the Sindh and Punjab provinces, particularly in brick kilns, carpet-making, agriculture, fishing, mining, leather tanning, and production of glass bangles;

19 solar years ago, on this day in 2001 AD, the Taliban militia massacred over 300 unarmed Shi’ite Muslims of the Hazara ethnic group in Yakalang in Afghanistan. Created from among Afghan Pashtun refugees in Pakistan, with Saudi money and weapons supplied by the US, the savage militia seized power in Afghanistan and terrorized the country and the people by implementing inhuman medieval European laws in the guise of Islam, until its ouster by the Americans in 2001. The Taliban, like similar terrorist groups, such as al-Qa’eda, Boko Haram, Daesh, and Lashkar-e Jhangavi, preach and practice hatred, violence, and brutal killings of Muslims, as part of the Zionist-Salafi-Imperialist plot to tarnish the image of Islam.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, the Iranian historian and researcher, Hojjat al-Islam Ali Davani, passed away at the age of 78. Born near the city of Kazeroun, in southern Iran, at the age of 14 he left for the seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq for learning Islamic sciences. He returned to Iran five years later and continued studies under prominent figures, such as Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi, and the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). He soon attained the status of Ijtehad. He was an expert on Islamic history and wrote 110 books and numerous articles in this regard. His books include "The Movement of Iranian Ulema", which is in ten volumes. He was compiling the "Alawid Encyclopedia" when death overtook him.

AS/SS