Today is Friday; 7th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1394 solar hijri; corresponding to 20th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1437 lunar hijri; and May 27, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1052 lunar years ago,on this day in 385 AH, the famous Islamic historian and bibliographer, Mohammad Ibn Is'haq Ibn an-Nadeem, passed away. He was a follower of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt and the author of the famous encyclopedic work "al-Fehrist". In his own words, this work is "an Index of the books of all nations, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, which are extant in the Arabic language and script, on every branch of knowledge; comprising information as to their compilers and the classes of their authors, together with the genealogies of those persons, the dates of their birth, the length of their lives, the times of their death, the places to which they belonged, their merits and their faults, since the beginning of every science that has been invented down to the present epoch: namely, the year 377 of the Hijra." Ibn an-Nadeem's choice of the rather rare Persian word "pehrest" (Arabicized as fehrist/fehris) for the title of his masterpiece on Arabic literature is noteworthy. This work is ample testimony to his knowledge of pre-Islamic, Syriac, Greek, Sanskrit, Latin and Persian books. He gives the titles only of those books which he had seen himself or whose existence was confirmed by a trustworthy person.

684 solar years ago, on this day in 1332 AD, the Muslim historian and historiographer, Abdur-Rahman Ibn Mohammad Ibn Khaldun, was born in Tunis into an affluent Spanish Arab family that had settled in North Africa because of Christian onslaughts. He is regarded as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology, and economics. He travelled widely around Egypt, North Africa and Spain, where the Sultan of Granada sent him on a mission to the Christian King of Castile, Pedro the Cruel. He returned to Egypt, whose Mamluk ruler sent him to negotiate with the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur, during the siege of Damascus. In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldun has written on his discussions with Timur, who asked him in detail about North Africa and Spain. Among his many works is a voluminous universal history, but his fame rests on the "Muqaddemah" or Introduction to his History. He died in Cairo in 1406 at the age of 74.

585 lunar years ago, on this day in 852 AH, Ottoman Sultan Murad II decisively defeated a united European Christian Crusader army of 100,000 soldiers in the Second Battle of Kosovo, led by the king of Hungary, after three days of fierce fighting. The Crusaders arrived at the Kosovo Field, the same place the famous First Battle of Kosovo had occurred 60 years earlier between the Serbs and Ottomans, and resulted in Turkish domination of the Balkans. In this Second Battle of Kosovo, the 60,000-strong Muslim army completely destroyed the numerically superior Christian army, and five years later ended the existence of the tottering Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire by taking its capital Constantinople and renaming it Islambol (present Istanbul).

452 solar years ago, on this day in 1564 AD, John Calvin, French pastor and theologian, was burnt alive at the stake at the age of 55 by the Catholic Church on accusations of distorting the Christian Bible. In 1536 he had formally raised his objections in Geneva, Switzerland against the beliefs of the Catholic Church, as part of the Protestant Movement founded earlier by Martin Luther. He set up a council of priests to administer Geneva as per his beliefs which he elaborated in a book, in which he rejected the power of the Pope and the Church. Calvinism, as his belief is known, erred in ascribing predestination to God Almighty, alleging that good or bad deeds committed by human beings have no impact on their fate in afterlife. This wrong belief led many Christians to freely commit all sorts of abominable sins on the false assumption that Jesus will save them in the Hereafter.

313 solar years ago, on this day in 1703 AD, Saint Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, on the estuary of Neva River flowing into the Baltic Sea, a fortnight after he had captured during the Great Northern War what was then the Swedish fortress of Nyenskans in the land called Ingermanland inhabited by the Finnic tribe of Ingrians. He laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city, built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia and Swedish prisoners of war. Tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Peter moved the capital from Moscow to St Petersburg in 1712, although as early as 1704 he had referred to it as his seat of government. Between 1713-to-1728 and from 1732-to-1918, St Petersburg was the capital of Russia. On November 7, 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, stormed the Winter Palace, which led to the end of the post-Tsarist provisional government, and transfer of all political power to the Soviets. After that the city acquired a new descriptive name, "the city of three revolutions", referring to the three major developments in the political history of Russia of the early 20th century. In 1918, its name was changed to Petrograd. On March 12, 1918, the Soviets transferred the government to Moscow. On January 26, 1924, five days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad. During World War II, German forces besieged this city for 872 days, from September 1941 to January 1944. It was one of the longest, most destructive and most lethal sieges of a major city in modern history, resulting in the death of more than one million civilians, mainly from starvation. In 1991, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and end of communist rule, the city’s original name Saint Petersburg was restored. Today it is Russia's 2nd largest city after Moscow with 5 million inhabitants. It is the most western of Russian cities and a major European cultural centre, and an important port on the Baltic.

179 solar years ago, on this day in 1837 AD, the Treaty of Tafna was signed by Algerian freedom-fighters led by Sufi scholar Amir Seyyed Abdul-Qader al-Hassani and France, which had invaded Algeria in 1830 to supplant the declining power of the Ottomans – who were preoccupied with the western-supported rebellion in the Province of Yunanistan that led to the emergence of Greece as a new country. As per the treaty, France had control of Oran and Algiers while the remaining two-third of the country was free. In 1839, the French renewed attacks, but met with stiff resistance and by 1842 Abdul-Qader had the upper hand, until the arrival of fresh troops from France and mass massacres of the Muslim people. Following Morocco's refusal to support him, Abdul-Qader surrendered to the French in 1847 and was sent to France as a prisoner. Years later, he was released, but not allowed to return to Algeria. He went to Syria where he died at the age of 75 years in Damascus, after writing a treatise on philosophy. Algeria finally became independent in 1961 after a post-World War 2 struggle during which the French killed more than one million Muslims.

150 lunar years ago, on this day in 1287 AH, the great scholar, Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Najafi Isfahani, known as Masjid-Shahi, was born in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq. After attaining the status of Ijtihad, he came to Iran and settled in his ancestral city of Isfahan, where he engaged in teaching. In 1344 AH, on the invitation of Ayatollah Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri Yazdi, he went to holy Qom to help strengthen the revival of the Islamic seminary, and during his short stay of a year-and-a-half, before returning to Isfahan, he groomed several budding scholars, including the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). Besides the principles of jurisprudence, Imam Khomeini and other scholars regularly studied under him the Critique of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Imam Khomeini had profound memories of Ayatollah Masjid-Shahi and in his book “Makasib Muharramah” (Prohibited Professions) has quoted extensively from his teacher’s “Risalah Rawdat al-Ghina”, which he considers the best work on the critique of music. He has also quoted this respected teacher as authority in his discourse on the terminology of the principles of jurisprudence concerning the sanctioned or lawful things. Ayatollah Masjid-Shahi, who authored some 34 books, was among the teachers who authorized Imam Khomeini to relate hadith as the latter has mentioned in his book “Arba’een” (Collection of Forty Hadith). Among Ayatollah Masjid-Shahi’s books is “Wiqayat al-Adhan”, “Naqd-e Falsafa-e Darwin” and “Amjadiyyah”. He was also an expert in Arabic literature, and a poet himself. He was laid to rest in the Takht-e Fulad Cemetery of Isfahan.

111 solar years ago, on this day in 1905 AD, during the Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima began. Commonly known as the “Sea of Japan Naval Battle”, it was fought in the Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan, and was naval history’s only decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets, as well as the first naval battle in which wireless telegraphy (radio) played a critically important role. In this battle the Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo Heihachiro destroyed two-thirds of the Russian fleet, under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, which had traveled over 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) to reach the Far East. The 2-day battle effectively ended the war in Japan's favour. The Russians lost 4,380 killed and 5,917 captured, including two admirals, with a further 1,862 interned. The Japanese lost only three torpedo boats, with 117 men killed and 500 wounded.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1910 AD, the German bacteriologist and discoverer of the cause of tuberculosis, Robert Koch, died at the age of 67. He conducted research on the reasons behind cholera and anthrax as well. He visited South Africa, Egypt, and India for researches on ailments such as malaria. In 1905, he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

90 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, the uprising of Moroccan Muslims against the Spanish and French colonizers failed. The leader of this uprising, Abdul-Karim Rifi, after initial victories suffered defeats and the colonial powers massacred thousands of Muslims.

52 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died in office in New Delhi at the age of 75. Born in Allahabad, in a Kashmiri Hindu family, he graduated in law from London, and on returning home, started his struggles against Britain after joining the Congress Party. He was arrested several times, and on release carried on his struggle as a disciple of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Following India's independence, Nehru was elected prime minister, a post he held for 16 years. During his imprisonment, he wrote lengthy letters to his daughter, Indira Gandhi (later prime minister), and after release compiled them in book form under the titles “The Discovery of India” and “Glimpses of World History”, which also deal with the glories of the Islamic civilization and ancient Iranian culture. Nehru was well versed in English, Urdu, Persian and Hindi languages, and was one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement when the capitalist west and the communist east were converting world countries into satellite states.

36 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, Iran's post-revolution Majlis (parliament) started its first 4-year term – a landmark event for the Islamic Republic of Iran. There are 290 MPs in the Majlis, elected by the people's direct vote. Religious minorities, such as Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, have their own elected representatives. The Majlis as the Legislative Branch coordinates its policies with the other two branches of government – the Executive and the Judiciary.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, Palestinian-American philosopher, Isma'il Raji al-Faruqi, was murdered at the age of 65 along with his wife, Lois Lamya, at his home in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, by agents of the Zionist entity. An authority on Islam and comparative religion, he spent several years at al-Azhar University in Cairo, then taught at several universities in North America, including McGill University in Montreal. He was also the founder of the International Institute of Islamic Thought. He wrote over 100 articles for various scholarly journals and magazines in addition to 25 books. Al-Faruqi viewed the existence of Israel as an affront towards the religion of Judaism due to its state ideology of Zionism. He said that the injustice caused by Zionism is such as to necessitate war. He proposed a resolution in which Israel is dismantled and its institutions de-Zionised.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, a terrorist bombing in a mosque at Zahedan left 25 people martyred. Investigations pointed to the hands of the US and the Zionist entity, who are trying to stoke sectarian tensions as part of the plot to divide the Muslims.

MG