Today is Monday; 20th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 2nd of the Islamic month of Sha'ban 1437 lunar hijri; and May 9, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1235 lunar years ago, Fadhl ibn Sahl ibn Zaadaan-Farrukh Sarakhsi, the powerful Iranian prime minister of Mamoun (the 7th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime), was slain under mysterious condition while in the bathhouse of the city of Sarakhs, which today straddles the Iran-Turkmenistan border. Known for his craftiness in devising the plan to force Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), to leave Medina and come to Mamoun's capital in the Khorasani city of Merv (presently in Turkmenistan), he was entrusted with both the military command and civilian administration with the title “Dhu'r-Riyasatayn” (Possessor of Two Offices). A convert to Islam from Zoroastrianism, Sahl and his brother, Hassan, were instrumental in consolidation of the caliphate of Mamoun, whose mother was Iranian. Sahl was the de facto ruler of the caliphate until the year before his death, having played a crucial role in the civil war between Mamoun and his brother Amin. According to the historian Ibn Atheer, he was suspected of being a follower of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt and was thus murdered – probably on the orders of Mamoun. Following his death the public turned against Mamoun, who pleaded with Imam Reza (AS) to use his influence to calm down the agitators.

1041 lunar years ago, on this day in 396 AH, the renowned Iranian scholar, poet and mystic, Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, was born in Herat, which is now in Afghanistan, but was then an integral part of Khorasan. He was a commentator of the holy Qur'an, a compiler of hadith, and known for his oratory and poetic talents in Arabic and Persian. He wrote several books on Islamic mysticism and philosophy. His most famous work is "Munajaat- Namah", which is considered a masterpiece of Persian literature. His exegesis on the holy Qur'an is titled "Kashf ul-Asrar", and was compiled in 10 volumes by his disciples after his death. He used to avoid the company of the rich, powerful and the influential. Abdullah Ansari was a direct descendant of the Prophet's companion and host in Medina, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. He died in 1088 in his hometown Herat. He is the ancestor of the line of the Heravi Khwajavi in Iran, who once dominated Khorasan and eastern Iran. Some of his descendants moved to the Subcontinent. Among them was Hakim Shaikh Ilm ud-din Ansari, better known as Wazir Khan, who was a governor of the Mughal Emperors in Multan, in what is now Pakistan. He is best known for having built the famous Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore. His other prominent descendent was Qutb ud-din Ansari who founded the famous Firangi Mahal school of religious thought and education, near Lucknow in India. He passed away in 481 AH.

565 solar years ago, on this day in 1450 AD, Abdul-Latif “Pidarkush”, the Timurid ruler of Central Asia and Khorasan, was assassinated after a reign of 6 months. The reason he is called “Pidarkush” by the people of Central Asia, was because of his killing of his own father, the famous scientist-king, Ulugh Beg – the son of Shahrukh Mirza and grandson of Amir Timur.

363 solar years ago, on this day in 1653 AD, the construction of Taj Mahal, which is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and among the best examples of Islamic architecture in India, ended after twenty-two years. Shah Jahan, the 5th Great Moghul Emperor of the Timurid Dynasty of the northern part of the Subcontinent (present day northern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the eastern part of Afghanistan) built it in memory of his wife of Iranian origin, Arjmand Banu Begum, who died while giving birth to her fourteenth child. This beautiful mausoleum in the city of Agra on the banks of the River Jamuna, is made of white marble, with ayahs of the holy Qur’an inscribed on its façade and interior. It incorporates and expands on design traditions of Persian architecture and earlier Mughal architecture. The best architects of the Mughal Empire along with those of Iran, like Eisa Isfahani, were employed to construct it. Today it is regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

211 solar years ago, on this day in 1805 AD, the German author, poet, and playwright, Friedrich Von Schiller, died at the age of 45. He became familiar with the celebrated German poet and writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and like his friend, created a new style in German literature. His first play was “The Robbers”, in which he exposed official oppression. He was subsequently banned from writing but continued to write in secrecy.

105 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, an American delegation led by Morgan Schuster, arrived in Iran on the invitation of the Qajarid government to serve as an advisory team for reforming of economic and financial affairs. Czarist Russia strongly protested, saying Iran can appoint foreign nationals only with the permission of Russia and Britain. The Russians immediately landed troops in Bandar Anzali demanding a recourse and apology from the Iranian government. Russian troops also invaded Khorasan and advancing towards started shelling the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) – the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Many people of Mashhad were martyred and wounded in this barbaric attack that forced the Iranian government to cancel the services of Morgan Schuster in December the same year.

100 solar years ago, on this day in 1916 AD, the scandalous Sykes-Picot Accord was signed by representatives of Britain, France, and Russia in Paris for dividing up the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire and limiting the Turkish possessions to Anatolia or present day Turkey. Even before the formal defeat of the Ottomans in 1917, lines were drawn on paper to share the spoils by the two principal European colonial powers. The British took control of Iraq and the Hijaz. Shaam or Greater Syria was split up into four parts, with the British taking Jordan and Palestine, and the French taking Syria and Lebanon. The main goal of this plan was to set up in Palestine, an illegal entity called Israel as a homeland for European Jews.

89 solar years ago, on this day in 1927 AD, Iran issued an announcement on supposed revocation of capitulation. Two years after collapse of the Qajarid dynasty and assumption of power by the British agent, Reza Khan Pahlavi, treaties and agreements concluded by the Qajar kings granting concessions to foreign countries, especially Russia, were selectively revoked. Reza Khan’s purpose in his so-called revocation of capitulation was a dishonest measure to depict an anti-colonial face of himself in Iran with the help of the British-backed mass media, as is evident by the Foreign Ministry’s sending letters to embassies of European countries in Tehran such as Britain, Germany, France, etc., reiterating their special rights and political, economic and judicial privileges in Iran. For example, on 10 May 1928 on which concession treaties were supposedly annulled by the Majlis, the Foreign Ministry sent a letter to British Minister Plenipotentiary in Iran, Robert Henry Clive, assuring him of immunity of British nationals as before. Similar letters were sent to the US ambassador and German Minister Plenipotentiary in the following days. Capitulation was enforced as a law subsequent to the Russo-Iran Wars of the first half of the 19th century. It was first imposed on Iran by Tsarist Russia through the humiliating Turkmenchay and Golestan Treaties. Thereafter, Britain and other European powers compelled Iran to grant them special rights and privileges. Although in 1921, a day prior to the coup in Iran against Ahmad Shah Qajar, the Soviet Union had unilaterally cancelled the Tsarist colonial institution of capitulation treaties, including the 99-year treaty with Iran, Reza Khan’s decree on its supposed revocation in 1927 was actually issued six years after end of the capitulation treaty period. It was thus a superficial measure to fool the Iranian people, since Reza Khan was strongly loathed due to his anti-Islamic policies like banning of religious preaching and prohibition of teaching of the holy Qur’an and religious courses in the schools. In 1963, his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi entered into a more humiliating capitulation treaty with the US by granting American citizens all immunity against crimes they commit in Iran. This was approved by the cabinet ministers in October 1963, by the Senate in August 1964, and by the rubber-stamp Majslis on 13 October 1964. This was strongly denounced on 26 October the same year by the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (God bless him) and led to his exile from Iran. Following triumph of the Islamic Revolution, Iran cancelled forever all capitulation rights to foreigners on May 13, 1979.

44 solar years ago, on this day in 1972 AD, Ayatollah Kohistani Behshahri, passed away at the age of 83 in his hometown Kohistan near Behshahr, Mazandaran. A product of the Holy Najaf seminary of Iraq, where he reached the status of Ijtehad after studying under such prominent ulema as Grand Ayatollah Mirza Hussain Na’eni and Grand Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani, he established the Islamic seminary in his hometown and groomed a number of students, including the Islamic revolutionary figure, Martyr Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Abdul-Karim Hashemi-Nejad, who was a member of the Assembly of Experts.

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, fifty days after Saddam’s savage chemical bombardment of the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabcheh to prevent its inhabitants from welcoming Iranian Muslim combatants as liberators from the repressive rule of the Ba’th minority regime, the United Nations Security Council approved a vaguely-worded Resolution 612. Although the resolution condemned the use of the internationally-banned chemical weapons as against the Geneva Protocol, it neither named Saddam as aggressor nor user of chemical weapons by merely calling on the two sides to refrain from violation of the Geneva Protocol, despite the fact that there was no evidence of Iran breaking the law.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, Iranian author, researcher, and lecturer, Hojjat al-Islam Dr. Seyyed Javad Mostafavi, passed away. An authority on Islamic sciences, following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he served as chancellor of the University of Islamic Sciences in holy Mashhad. Among the works written by him are “al-Kashef” and “Miftah al-Wasa’el”.

24 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, Armenia invaded the Caucasus Republic of Azerbaijan and occupied Qarabagh region, where a sizeable part of the population was Armenian Christians. Armenian troops occupied 20% of Azeri soil, and despite the ceasefire between the two countries as of 1993, this part of the Azerbaijan Republic is still under occupation. What is now called the Azerbaijan Republic was an integral part of Iran for some three millenniums until its occupation by Czarist Russia in the wars of 1813 and 1828 that led to the signing of the Golestan and Turkmanchai Treaties, according to which it should be returned to Iran after the specified number of years. Armenia, along with the eastern half of Georgia and most of the southern Caucasus including Chechen and Daghestan, were also traditionally part of the various Iranian empires.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, Bosnia's war crimes court launched the trial of 11 Bosnian Serbs charged over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, its first genocide trial since it opened the year.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran declared in a letter to US President George Bush that the western concept of democracy had failed worldwide and pointed out to "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the US. The crises plaguing the modern world are all due to the deceit and hypocrisy of the liberal democracy of the West, which violently suppresses the rights of sovereign states and peoples.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, the Islamic Republic of Iran opened the biggest car plant of the West Asia-North Africa region, set up by “SAIPA” the Iranian automobile company.

3 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, Iran built a new, radar-evading drone that can do surveillance and fire on enemy targets. The new aircraft, dubbed “Hemaseh” or Epic, can fly at high altitudes.

AS/ME