Today is Tuesday; 11th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 24th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1437 lunar hijri; and May 31, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

793 solar years ago, on this day in 1223 AD, during the Mongol invasion of the lands of the Cumans – a non-Muslim Turkic people whose expansive khanate stretched from the Black Sea to Lake Balkhash in what is now Kazakhstan, the Battle of the Kalka River in Ukraine, ended with a resounding victory for the armies of Genghis Khan led by Subutai the Valiant, who defeated the joint forces of the Russians and Cumans. Subutai had marched north from western Iran through the Caucasus after defeating the local peoples. Khan Koten of the Cumans, convinced the Volga Bulgars and Khazars to join him, but the Mongols managed to persuade him to abandon the alliance by reminding him of the Turkic-Mongol friendship and promising a share of the booty. The Mongols, after routing the joint armies of the Khazars and Bulgars, broke their promise and attacked the Cumans, destroying their armies and executing all the prisoners before sacking Astrakhan. Koten fled to the court of his son-in-law, Prince Mstislav the Bold of Kiev-Rus, who after a year of hesitation assembled an alliance of Russian princes to face the Mongols. After drawing out the Rus armies for nine days in a feigned retreat, the Mongol army turned to face their pursuers along the Kalka River, and defeated the joint Slavic-Turkic forces. The expedition was history's longest cavalry raid, with the Mongols riding 5,500 miles or 8,900 km in three years.

439 solar years ago, on this day in 1577 AD, Empress Noor Jahan of the Mughal Empire of the subcontinent was born as a commoner in the border town of Qandahar to the Iranian refugee, Mirza Ghiyas Beg Tehrani, who was fleeing Safavid Persia to India following the fall from grace of his aristocratic family. Named Mehr an-Nisa at birth, she was the fourth child of her father, whose talents were welcomed in India by Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar who appointed him minister and conferred the title E’temad od-Dowla upon him. Mehr an-Nisa was brought up at the Mughal court and was married to an Iranian émigré, Ali Quli, titled Shir-Afgan for his bravery in grappling with a tiger. Her husband died in a skirmish and the widow returned along with her orphaned daughter to the Mughal court where Emperor Noor od-Din Jahangir enamoured by her beauty proposed marriage to her. He subsequently made her the empress with the official title “Noor Jahan” (Light of the World). She was noted for her wisdom, administrative abilities, and scholarly pursuits. She was the power behind the throne. Although she didn’t bear the emperor any child, she remained loyal to him even after his death, and was later buried in the same mausoleum in Lahore in what is now Pakistan. Her brother Asef Khan rose to become minister, while she arranged for her daughter from her previous marriage, to marry Jahangir`s youngest son, Prince Shahryar, and her niece Arjmand Banu (later Mumtaz Mahal – buried in the famous Taj Mahal) to marry Prince Khurram, (the future Emperor Shah Jahan). A staunch follower of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt, Noor Jahan, who punished the killers of the great Iranian scholar, Qazi Seyyed Noorollah Shushtari (Shaheed Sallis or the Third Martyr), died on 17 December 1645 at the age of 68.

216 lunar years ago, on this day in 1221 AH, the Ottoman state issued a decree confirming the Albanian general, Mohammed Ali Pasha, as governor of Egypt, a few years after his successful ending of the political and administrative crisis in the Land of the Nile. Later, following the sacrilegious Wahhabi attack on the shrine of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala, Iraq, and the desecration of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina by Godless elements from the Najd, the Ottoman Sultan tasked Mohammad Ali to end the sedition. He successfully accomplished the mission by restoring order to the Hijaz and sending his sons to pursue the Wahhabis right into their heartland Najd, where he ordered the destruction of their capital, Diriyya, and sent the Wahhabi chieftain, Abdullah ibn Saud, in chains to Istanbul for execution for his unpardonable crimes. The dynasty founded by Mohammad Ali was known as "Khedive" from the old Persian word for prince or ruler and ruled Egypt for over a century and a half, till its overthrow in 1952 by Colonel Jamal Abdun-Nasser.

207 solar years ago, on this day in 1809 AD, Austrian musician and composer, Joseph Haydn, died at the age of 77. In 1781, his acquaintance with the famous Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart led to improvement of his symphonies. His musical pieces include “The Creation”.

197 solar years ago, on this day in 1819 AD, US Poet Walt Whitman was born in West Hill, New York. He became America’s national poet with vibrant works such as “Leaves of Grass” (1855). His poems included: “When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloomed”. Some of his poems were inspired by his Civil War experience as a hospital volunteer in Washington. Although a staunch supporter of the Union cause, Whitman comforted dying soldiers of both sides. He died in 1892.

184 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, French mathematician, Evariste Galois, died at the young age of 21 from wound suffered in duel. Born at Bourg-la-Reine, while still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a problem standing for 350 years. His work laid the foundations for Galois Theory and group theory, two major branches of abstract algebra, and the subfield of Galois Connections.

169 solar years ago, on this day in 1847 AD, following a series of border incidents in the 1830s by the Ottoman Empire against the Iranian port city of Khorramshahr in violation of the 1821 Treaty of Erzurum that pushed the two counties to the brink of war, Britain and Russia mediated the Second Treaty of Erzurum. The Ottomans had attempted to destroy Iranian commercial interests in Khorramshahr at the instigation of the merchants of Basra. A border commission made up of representatives of Iran, the Ottoman government, Britain, and Russia was set up. It sat from 1843 to 1847, and its work culminated in the second Treaty of Erzurum, which was signed on 16 Jamadi al-Akher 1263 AH corresponding to 31 May 1847. The treaty stipulated that Iran would cede the region west of the River Zuhab to the Ottomans in exchange for guaranteed sovereignty over islands and territory near the Persian Gulf. Particularly significant were two provisions in Article 2: First, Iran abandons all claim to the city and province of Suleimaniya (including Naftkhanah), and the Ottoman government formally recognizes the unrestricted sovereignty of Iran over the city and port of Khorramshahr, Khizr Island, the Abadan anchorage, and the land on the eastern bank of the Shatt Al-Arab (Arvandroud), which are in the possession of the tribes, recognized as belonging to Iran. Iran’s right to “navigate freely without let or hindrance on the Shatt Al-Arab from the mouth of the same to the point of contact of the frontiers of the two parties” was also recognized. The Ottomans also promised not to hinder Iran's traders and pilgrims visiting the holy shrines in Iraq and Hijaz.

125 lunar years ago, on this day in 1312 AH, the Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatolllah Mirza Mohammad Hassan Shirazi, passed away at the age of 82 in Samarra, Iraq. He was born in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz and after completion of preliminary studies, left for the Najaf Seminary in Iraq, where he studied under the celebrated Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli. The name of Mirza Shirazi brings to mind the famous fatwa or edict he issued for boycott of Tobacco which forced the Qajarid king, Nasser od-Din Shah, to cancel the monopoly over tobacco production in Iran that he had granted to the British Talbot Company.

114 solar years ago, on this day in 1902 AD, the Boer War ended with the British victory over the Dutch of South Africa and signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging, ending the 3-year uprising by the Afrikaners, led by Louis Botha, the commandant general of the Transvaal forces. The combination of superior fire power and a brutal war of attrition launched by Lord Kitchener forced the Boers to give in. The British burned the farms of Africans and Boers alike and collected as many as a 100,000 women and children in carelessly run and unhygienic concentration camps on the open veldt. Britain annexed Transvaal.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1910 AD, South Africa was formed with the merger of two British colonies. In the mid-17th century, the Dutch, and two centuries later, the British, seized large parts of this land and oppressed the local black people. In 1899, Boers, who were the Dutch immigrants in South Africa, revolted against British domination, but were defeated. In 1931, the Union of South Africa gained independence from Britain and came under white minority racist rule, known as Apartheid that denied the indigenous black people and all other non-white people, basic rights. In 1991, as a result of the struggle of the black people, Apartheid fell apart, and representative rule of the majority was established. South Africa covers an area of more than 1.2 million square km and shares borders with Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Of South Africa’s 52 million population Muslims account for almost 3 percent and although made up of South Asians, are rapidly winning converts from both the black and white people.

82 solar years ago, on this day in 1935 AD, in Quetta in what is now capital of Pakistan’s Baluchistan State, a magnitude 7.7 degree earthquake killed some 50,000 people.

46 solar years ago, on this day in 1970 AD, the Ancash earthquake caused a landslide that buried the town of Yungay in Peru, resulting in the death of more than 47,000 people.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, one of the founders of the Iran Calligraphy Society, Seyyed Hussain Mir-Khani, passed away after his life-long dedication to the art of calligraphy. He started practicing calligraphy as of childhood and honed his skills in this art by the age of 11 years. He also spent thirty years grooming numerous students of calligraphy. In addition to his artistic creativity, he was renowned for his ethical virtues.

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, the World Health Organisation (WHO) designated May 31 as World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) which is observed worldwide every year. It is intended to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption around the globe. The day is further intended to draw attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects, which currently lead to nearly 6 million deaths each year worldwide, including 600,000 of which are because of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.

17 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, Iranian philologist and author, Dr. Mahdi Roshan-Zameer, passed away in Tehran at the age of 80. Born in Tabriz, he completed his higher studies in Tehran and travelled to France, where he obtained his PhD in 1957. On returning to Iran, he became a professor at Tabriz University where he taught for 27 years. Among his works are: “Problems of the French Language” in 3volumes, “Diyar-e Khoubaan” in 2 volumes on literary selections, and French translation of the book “Firdowsi and Iran’s National Epic”.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, in southern Thailand Buddhist terrorists sprayed gunfire into a mosque, killing 7 Muslim worshippers. Black-clad raiders roared into Kolomudo, a Muslim village, firing assault rifles and hurling grenades from a pickup truck at a group of teenagers relaxing near the mosque. When the attack was over, five of the youths lay martyred. A roadside bomb killed 11 paramilitary troops almost simultaneously, while a 12th soldier died the next day.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, Chinese authorities evacuated nearly 200,000 people and warned more than 1 million others to be ready to leave quickly as a lake formed by a devastating earthquake that occurred on May 12 threatened to breach its dam. The confirmed death toll from the earthquake, reached nearly 69,000, with another 18,000 still missing.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, the illegal Zionist entity indulged in a terrorist act of piracy in international waters by hijacking the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian relief for the Palestinian population of this impoverished enclave. The flotilla consisted of six ships with food and medicine, along with 663 activists from 37 countries. Zionist soldiers boarded it and brutally attacked the unarmed activists, martyring at least nine Turkish citizens and injuring over fifty others. This gruesome and barbaric raid drew worldwide condemnation and reinforced the resolve of activists and aid convoys to break the siege of Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, the US has continued to support the barbarism of Israel.

AS/ME