Today is Wednesday; 25th of the Iranian month of Dey 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 19th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1441 lunar hijri; and January 15, 2020, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2608 solar years ago, on this day in 588 BC, the Babylonian tyrant, Nebuchadnezzar II (Bokht an-Nasar) laid siege to the holy city of Bayt al-Moqaddas to crush the revolt by the Israelite Zedekiah (Sadqiya), who had dared to side with Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt, despite being installed as king by Nebuchadnezzar during his earlier invasion of Judah. The Prophet of God, Jeremiah (Irmiya), had cautioned the evil Zedekiah against such an action that would only bring war, woe and destruction upon the Israelites, who disregarding the monotheistic laws of Moses had turned to a life of idolatry and vice. The 18-month siege ended on July 23, 586 BC with the fall of the city, which was plundered and razed to the ground, including Solomon’s Mosque for the worship of the One and Only God. Zedekiah, along with his followers attempted to escape, but was captured, made to see his sons put to death, before his own eyes were pulled out, and carried fettered as a captive to Babylon, where he remained a prisoner until death. Nebuchadnezzar, who transported almost all the population of Palestine to Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), reportedly went mad for a period of seven years, as a result of divine affliction, during his reign of 43 years. It is worth noting that the recently executed Iraqi tyrant, Saddam of the repressive Ba’thist minority, used to regard himself as a reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar, who was said to have been weaned on sow's milk.

1074 solar years ago, on this day in 946 AD, al-Mustakfi-Billah, the 22nd self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime was blinded, ousted from power, and replaced by his relative al-Muti, after a reign of little more than a year. He was installed as caliph by Tuzun the Turk, who had blinded and deposed his predecessor and cousin, al-Muttaqi after a 4-year reign. Tuzun soon died and the inability of al-Mustakfi to administer Baghdad resulted in famine and chaos that only subsided with the entry of the Iranian general Moiz od-Dowlah Daylami, the Founder of the Buwaiyhid Dynasty that ruled Iraq and Iran for over a hundred years.

645 lunar years ago, on this day in 796 AH, Mirza Mohammad Taraghay Ulugh Beg, the Timurid ruler of Transoxiana, and an accomplished astronomer and mathematician, was born in Soltaniyeh in northwestern Iran. Grandson of the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur, he was deputy and eventually successor of his father, Shahrukh Mirza, in Central Asia and later parts of Khorasan and Afghanistan. His mother was the virtuous lady, Gowharshad, who built the grand mosque in Mashhad at the shrine of Imam Reza (AS) – the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – which still bears her name. Ulugh Beg built Madrasahs in Samarqand and Bukhara, transforming the cities into cultural centres of learning. He ruled for almost half-a-century the present-day countries of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the southern parts of Kazakhstan – and for a while parts of Khorasan. Rather than politics, he was entirely devoted to art, literature and science. In 1428 he built the famous observatory at his capital Samarqand in cooperation with the famous Iranian astronomer, Ghiyas od-Din Jamshid. In his observations he discovered a number of errors in the computations of the 2nd century Greco-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy, whose figures were still being used. His map of 994 stars was the first one since Hipparchus. The crater “Ulugh Beg” on the Moon was named after him by the German astronomer, Johann Heinrich von Madler, on his 1830 map of the Moon. Ulugh Beg measured the solar year, starting with the Spring Equinox or Nowrouz at 365 days 5 hours, 49 minutes and 15 seconds, making it more accurate than what Copernicus would later estimate. He also determined the Earth's axial tilt as 23.52 degrees, which remains the most accurate measurement to date – more accurate than later measurements by Copernicus and Tycho Brahe, and precisely matching the currently accepted figure. In mathematics, Ulugh Beg wrote accurate trigonometric tables of sine and tangent values correct to at least eight decimal places. His works were written in Arabic and Persian and translated into Latin. Ulugh Beg was killed in 853 AH at the age of 57 by his rebellious son, Abdul-Latif "Pidarkush" (killer of his own father), while on his way to Mecca for pilgrimage after being deposed.

575 solar years ago, on this day in 866 AH, Jam Nizam od-Din II, known as Nindo, the most powerful ruler of the Samma Dynasty, succeeded his father Sanjar Sadr od-Din and ruled for 48 years over Sindh, parts of Punjab, Baluchestan and Gujarat. Towards the end of his reign he defeated a Mughal army sent against him by Shah Beg Arghun from Qandahar. Founded by Rajputs who had embraced the truth of Islam, the Samma civilization contributed significantly to the evolution of the "Sindhi-Islamic" architectural style, which is a blending of Persian art as well. Thatta, which is in modern Pakistan, was the capital of this kingdom that lasted almost two centuries from 1335 to 1527. The city is still famous for its necropolis, which covers 10 square km on the Makli Hill. Every year thousands perform pilgrimage to this site to commemorate the saints buried here. The graves testify to a long period when Thatta was a thriving center of trade, religion and scholarly pursuits.

530 lunar years ago, on this day in 911 AH, the famous Egyptian hadith scholar, lexicographer, and exegete of the holy Qur'an, Abdur-Rahman Jalal od-Din Suyuti, passed away in Cairo at the age of 62. Born in a family of Persian origin that had migrated from Iran during the Mamluk period and settled in Asyut, in Upper Egypt from where it derived the family name as-Suyuti, he was a follower of the Shafe’i School. An expert in jurisprudence, hadith, history, exegesis of the Holy Qur'an, and Arabic grammar and literature, he earned the title “Ibn al-Kutub” or Son of Books. His books are still taught today in Islamic seminaries. In his exegesis titled "ad-Dur al-Manthour" (Scattered Pearls), he has pointed to the ayahs revealed by God Almighty on the outstanding merits of Prophet Mohammad's (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt, i.e. Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), Imam Ali (AS), Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS). He also wrote a separate book on the Merits of the Ahl al-Bayt. Suyuti traveled to Syria, Hijaz, Yemen, India and Morocco, and settled down towards the end of his life in his homeland Egypt. Among his works mention can be made of “al-Itqaan fi Uloum al-Qur’an” which means The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qur’an, the two books on hadith titled “al-Jaame' al-Kabeer” and “al-Jaame' as-Sagheer” and the “Tarikh al-Khulafa” (History of the Caliphs), in which he has exposed the true nature of many of the tyrannical caliphs of the Omayyad and Abbasid dynasties.

508 solar years ago, on this day in 1512 AD, Muzaffar Shah II of Gujarat in western India received an embassy from Shah Ismail I, the Founder of the Safavid Empire of Iran. The ambassadorial delegation from Tabriz arrived with rich presents to congratulate Muzaffar Shah II on his accession and also to announce the grand victory of the Iranian forces over the Uzbek ruler Mohammad Khan Shaibani at the Battle of Merv on December 2 1510 (30th Sha’ban 916 AH). At first, the Persian envoy was honourably received, but subsequently his entourage was attacked and his property destroyed by a mob inflamed either by anti-Shia feeling, or, according to one version, by the machinations of Saheb Khan, the exiled prince of the Malwa. Muzaffar Shah was compelled to pay heavy compensation for the losses suffered by the Iranian envoy. Iranians from different walks of life migrated and settled in Gujarat, both during the 175 years of its existence as an independent sultanate and its subsequent role as a Mughal province that served as the centre of trade with the Muslim World through the sea route.

461 solar years ago, on this day in 1559 AD, Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England, as the 5th and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty founded by her grandfather, Henry VII. Although short-tempered and indecisive, with a strain of cruelty, her 44-year reign is known as the Elizabethan era, and saw the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and for the seafaring prowess of Francis Drake.

425 solar years ago, on this day in 1595 AD, the 12th Ottoman Sultan, Murad III, who styled himself as the 4th Turkish caliph, died after a reign of 21 years, during which he earned notoriety for his fratricide (strangling five of his brothers to death), massacre of fellow Muslims, and institutional decline of the empire. Son of Sultan Salim II, “the Drunkard” and his Jewess concubine, Rachel, he ended the long Peace of Amasya with Iran, by starting the 12-year war in the Caucasus. As a result of the growing inclination of the Turkish tribes of Anatolia towards the school of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt, he made a pact with France, stopped the Ottoman push into Europe, and massacred thousands of Shia Muslims. As a result, his armies suffered defeats in Europe as well, at the hands of the Austrian Hapsburg Empire.

361 solar years ago, on this day in 1659 AD, during the War of Succession, when the four sons of the bedridden Moghal Emperor Shah Jahan had declared themselves emperors in different parts of the empire, Shah Shuja the governor of Bengal and the eastern provinces of India, lost a decisive battle at Khajwa to his younger brother Aurangzeb and fled to Arakan in what is now under occupation of Burma (Myanmar), thus losing his bid for the Moghal throne. The two generals instrumental in Aurangzeb’s victory were Khwaja Abed Qilich Khan Suhrawardi (grandfather of Asef Jah Nizam ul-Mulk, the founder of the Asef-Jahi Dynasty of the Deccan), and Mir Mohammad Sa’eed Khan Ardestani, titled “Mir Jumla”, the Iranian minister who had defected from the court of Abdullah Qutb-Shah of Golkandah-Haiderabad and joined the Moghals. Aurangzeb, whose mother Arjmand Bano Mumtaz Mahal was of Iranian stock, assumed full, undisputed control of the empire, which he expanded it to its zenith by conquering the Persianate Deccan sultanates of the Adel-Shahis and Qotb-Shahis (both founded by Iranian adventurers) during his fifty-year rule as the last Grand Emperor of the Subcontinent’s Greatest Persianate empire.

225 solar years ago, on this day in 1795 AD, the Russian author and politician, Aleksandr Griboyedov, was born. He was skilled in writing dramas, but was not successful in the political scene. He was a Russian army officer during the second war that Moscow imposed on Iran in the Caucasus in 1828. Following the defeat of Iran in this war and the occupation of large parts of Iranian territory in the Caucasus by the Russians, including the present day Republic of Azerbaijan, Griboyedov was sent to Tehran to procure the release of Russian prisoners. His stubbornness, inexperience, and violence throughout this mission provoked the Iranian people against him, which led to his death in 1829.

181 solar years ago, on this day in1839 AD, El Salvador officially announced its independence following dissolution of the Central American Union. The country, however, did not attain stability and calm until a century later. After centuries of Spanish colonial rule, El Salvador had thrown off the European yoke in 1821 and joined the Central American Union in 1824. El Salvador covers an area of almost 21,000 sq km. It is situated in Central America, and shares borders with Honduras, and Guatemala.

41 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, during the crucial days of the Islamic Revolution, major clashes erupted between the unarmed demonstrators and the Shah’s US-backed soldiers. Several soldiers, impressed by the Islamic movement, joined the people, thereby further demoralizing the Shah’s US-trained army. In his message from exile, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), encouraged soldiers to join the people for defence of the divine religion of Islam, in order to rescue the country from the yoke of hegemonic powers.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, the combatant religious scholar, and the elected representative of the Majlis (parliament), Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Haqqi Sarabi, passed away at the age of 72. Born in Sarab near Tabriz, after initial studies he left for holy Qom and later for holy Najaf in Iraq, where he attained Ijtehad. On return to Iran, he involved himself in the struggle against the repressive rule of the Pahlavi regime. Following triumph of the Islamic Revolution, he was elected as a representative in the Majlis and the Assembly of Experts.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 2001 AD, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, went online, as free-of-cost universal information.

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