Today is Monday; 24th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 7th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1437 lunar hijri; and June 13, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1439 lunar years ago, on this day in the second year prior to Hijra, Abu-Taleb, the father of Imam Ali (AS) and the uncle and protector of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), passed away in Mecca. On the death of his father Abdul-Muttaleb, he and his wife, Fatema bint Asad, had taken charge of the 8-year orphan of Abdullah, his deceased brother, and brought up the future Prophet as their own son. Abu Taleb was a staunch monotheist following the creed of his ancestor, Prophet Abraham, and when God formally appointed his now 40-year old nephew as the Last and Greatest Messenger to mankind, he firmly believed in the message of Islam and protected the Prophet against the taunts and attacks of the pagan Arabs. When the Meccans imposed the social-economic boycott on the Prophet, he took his nephew and the whole neo Muslim community under his protection to the safety of the gorge outside Mecca which is still called “She'b Abi Taleb” in his honour.  His death saddened the Prophet and since earlier in the same year, the Prophet's loyal wife, the Mother of all True Believers (Omm al-Momineen) Hazrat Khadija also passed away, the year is known in Islamic history as "Aam al-Hozn” (Year of Grief).

1213 lunar years ago, on this day in 224 AH Ibrahim bin Mahdi, stepbrother of the Abbasid tyrant Haroun Rashid, died at the age of 62 in Baghdad. Born of an African concubine and known as Ibn Shakla because of his dark complexion, he was proclaimed as caliph in Baghdad in 201 AH by the Abbasids in protest to the seemingly pro-Hashemite policies of the reigning caliph, his nephew Mamoun, in declaring the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir, Imam Reza (AS) as Heir Apparent of the realm. Two years later in 203 AH, with the crafty Mamoun’s return to Baghdad after martyring Imam Reza through poisoning in Tous, he resigned and spent the rest of his life as a singer and a musician. Ibn Shakla reportedly had a phenomenal vocal range.

1076 lunar years ago, on this day in 361 AH, the grand al-Azhar Mosque and Madrasah was officially opened for prayer by Jowhar as-Saqali, the Sicilian general of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite dynasty who completed the grand project three years after conquering Egypt and establishing the city of Cairo, as the new capital of the Empire that now stretched from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean."al-Azhar" is a derivative of "az-Zahra" (or the Radiant), the famous epithet of Hazrat Fatema (SA) the daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) in whose honour the mosque and the religious school were built. The Fatemids restored the full form of the Azaan or call for the daily prayers, from the minarets of al-Azhar and other mosques, by bearing testimony to the imamate of Imam Ali (AS) after the Prophethood of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The phrase "hayya ala khayr il-amal", meaning "hasten to the best of deeds", which was dropped from the Azaan by the second caliph, was also revived. Exactly, a year later on this same date in 362 AH, the Fatemid caliph, al-Mu’iz le-Dinillah arrived in his new capital Cairo, from Mahdia in what is now Tunisia, the then capital of the Fatemid state.

980 solar years ago, on this day in 1036 AD, Ali az-Zaher, the 7th self-styled caliph of the Ismaili Shi’ite Muslim Fatemid Dynasty of Egypt, North Africa-Syria, died at the age of 31 due to a plague after a 15-year reign. Son of al-Hakim be-Amrillah, his youth and weakness allowed the Turkic slave guards to seize the vizierate, as a result of which the Empire slipped into decadence, although the bid of the Byzantine Christian Empire to encroach upon Syria and Aleppo was thwarted. 

926 lunar years ago, on this day in 511 AH, the famous Imami theologian, Seyyed Abu’l-Makarem Ibn Zuhra, was born in Aleppo, Syria. He studied in Najaf in Iraq under prominent students of the famous scholar Abu Ja’far Shaykh at-Tayefa Tousi, and on return to Syria groomed several scholars. He has left behind several books including "al-Ghunyah" on fiqh. He passed away in 585 AH.

691 solar years ago, on this day in 1325 AD, the famous Muslim worldwide traveler, Shams od-Din Mohammad bin Abdullah, popularly known as  Ibn Battuta, began his journey, leaving his home in Tangiers for the Hajj pilgrimage to holy Mecca at the age of 24. Born in the northwest African city of Tangiers, which is now in Morocco, after performing the Hajj, he kept on travelling, visiting over a period of thirty years, most of the Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands in the three continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. His journeys including trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, and to West Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China, cover a total of 121,000 km (75,000 miles), surpassing by threefold the travels of his near-contemporary Marco Polo of Venice. In Iraq, he visited the holy shrine in Najaf of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), and although a Sunni, he has admitted how people from far and near seek intercession with God through the First Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and are cured of their ailments. He then travelled all over Iran, and later, after visiting the Byzantine Empire, Europe and Russia, he arrived in India, where he was appointed the Qazi of Delhi by Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq. On his return to his homeland Morocco, again served as Qazi. He dictated to scribes the details of his travels in his book titled "ar-Rehla". He died in 1369 in his homeland.

493 lunar years ago, on this day in 944 AH, one of the renowned historians and poets, Seyyed Nizam od-Din Mohammad M’asoum Safai Tirmizi, who wrote under the penname “Naami”, was born in India. His ancestors were from Qandahar in Afghanistan. He and his father served the Sultans of Gujarat in western India. He has left behind valuable books, such as “Tibb-e Naami” on medicine. He passed away in 1019 AH.

477 lunar years ago, on this day in 960 AH, Ottoman admiral Turgut Raees took control of the Mediterranean island of Corsica and the city of Catania in Malta, to free some seven thousand Muslim captives. He gave Corsica to the French, who soon lost it to the Spanish.

151 solar years ago, on this day in 1865 AD, poet and playwright, William Butler Yeats, was born to an Anglo-Irish family in a Dublin suburb. He is best remembered for his poems titled "Byzantium" and "Easter 1916." He won the Nobel Prize in 1923. The first volume of his autobiography was "Reveries Over Childhood and Youth", published by him in 1915. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is his best known poem. He died in 1939.

110 solar years ago, on this day in 1906 AD, Sinn Fein was established in Ireland by prominent journalist, Arthur Griffith, as the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), for independence from British colonial rule. Sinn Fein’s efforts finally resulted in independence for Southern Ireland in 1921. The party, alongside IRA, continued its political struggle for unity of Northern and Southern Ireland. Finally, after two years of intense negotiations with the British regime and Protestant parties, the leaders of Sinn Fein signed a peace agreement with London on April 10, 1998, according to which Northern Ireland turned into an autonomous region.

107 solar years ago, on this day in 1909 AD, the Constitutionalists marched upon Tehran from two different directions of the country to take control of the capital, forcing Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar to flee the palace and seek refuge in the Russian embassy, thus ending a turbulent two-and-a-half year rule of terror. The Shah was bitterly opposed to the parliament – set up during the rule of his father, Mozaffar od-Din Shah after a hard fought struggle by the masses – to the extent that in the initial year of his short reign, he contrived with the British and Russians to shell the national parliament with artillery. The nation turned against him, and on this day the Constitutionalists from Gilan entered Tehran via Qazvin, while revolutionaries of the Bakhtiari tribes converged from the direction of Isfahan in the south. The victors of Tehran held a parliamentary session to formally depose Mohammad Ali Shah on July 16 and replace him on the Peacock Throne with his 12-year old minor son, Ahmad Shah.

95 solar years ago, on this day in 1921 AD, with the influx of the first batch of European Jews, the Palestinians launched their national movement against the Zionists. The British, along with Zionist terrorist bands, brutally suppressed the Palestinian people and continued to bring in hundreds of thousands of illegal Jewish migrants from various parts of Europe that resulted in the illegitimate birth of Israel in 1948.

75 solar years ago, on this day in 1941 AD, the Soviet Union, which had occupied the former Romanian province a year earlier, loaded 22,600 Moldovans on cargo trains bound for Siberia, where the deportees were used for forced labor.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, the first ever surface-to-surface missile was used in warfare, when Nazi Germany targeted Britain with its V-1. Until then, only warplanes were used to bomb enemy sites. Missiles were cheaper than aircraft and prevented loss of life and machines. In the aftermath of World War II, other countries developed missile technology and built today’s advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles.

36 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, Ayatollah Gholam-Hussain Tabrizi Abd-Khodai, passed away at the age of 97 in holy Mashhad. A product of the Islamic seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, where he studied under Ayatollah Mohammad Kazem Yazdi, on return to his hometown Tabriz, he published a religious magazine, which because of its political tones against the tyrannical regime of Reza Khan Pahlavi, forced him into hiding. In 1931, he shifted to holy Mashhad where he stayed until the end of his fruitful life, witnessing the victory of the Islamic Revolution and end of monarchial tyranny.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, a total of 120 members of parliament tabled a two-star bill in the Majlis calling for impeachment of the then Iranian president, Abu’l-Hassan Bani Sadr, for his incompetence in managing executive affairs, drifting away from the ideals of the Islamic Revolution, and growing closeness to the MKO hypocrites, which all posed dangers to the Islamic Republic at a time the Iraqi invasion was raging at the frontiers. Earlier on June 10, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (God bless him) had relieved him of the post of Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces because of his failure to check the advance of the Ba’thist forces. On June 20, the Majlis found him guilty of political incompetence by 177 affirmative votes, 12 abstentions, and 1 negative vote. The following day Imam Khomeini dismissed him from the president’s post, as the nation hailed the move. Upon Bani Sadr’s deposal, his friends, the MKO terrorists, stepped up subversive activities, including the terrorist explosions of 27 June that led to the martyrdom of Chief Justice Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hussaini Beheshti and 72 officials. On July 29, Bani Sadr, with his mustache shaved off and disguised as a chador-wearing woman, fled the country for France, along with MKO terrorist ringleader, Masoud Rajavi, aboard an aircraft piloted by an anti-revolutionary.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, at around 9 a.m. local time, a sacrilegious bomb attack was carried out by agents of Global Arrogance at the holy shrine of al-Askariyayn at Samarra, resulting in the destruction of the two ten-story high gold-plated minarets, flanking the earlier destroyed golden dome. This was the second bombing of the holy shrine of Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS) and Imam Hassan al-Askari (AS) – respectively the 10th and 11th Infallible Successors of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The first sacrilegious bomb attack had occurred on 22nd February 2006, destroying the shrine’s magnificent golden dome. The holy shrine is now under construction on a grand scale.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, in the central Philippines a bus rented by Iranian medical students plunged into a ravine while travelling a mountain road, killing 21 people and injuring 26 others.

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