Today is Thursday; 27th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 10th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1437 lunar hijri; and June 16, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1653 solar years ago, on this day in 363 AD, Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate during his retreat from what is now Iraq (lower Mesopotamia), following counterattacks by the Persian army, sailed up the River Tigris and burned his fleet of supply ships in a bid to inspire his forces to make a bold stand. Ten days later, he was killed in the Battle of Samarra as the Iranian army of Sassanid Emperor Shapur II (equipped with war elephants from the Indian satrapies) inflicted a shattering defeat on the Romans. Earlier, while Shapur was in the east, Julian the Apostate (who renounced Christianity and reverted to paganism), had made a daring raid on the Persian capital, Ctesiphon (Mada’en, near Baghdad), as part of an unsuccessful European attempt to seize Iraq for possible infiltration into the Iranian Plateau and domination of the east – like Alexander of Macedonia. The Romans failed to take Ctesiphon and fled in the face of Iranian resistance.

1440 lunar years ago, on this day, three years before Hijra, the First Lady of Islam, Omm al-Momineen or Mother of all True Believers, Hazrat Khadija (SA), passed away in Mecca. She spent 25 years of marital bliss with Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and as long as she was alive, the Prophet never took another spouse. A staunch monotheist, following the creed of Prophet Abraham (AS), when 15 years after her marriage God formally entrusted her husband with the universal message of Islam, she promptly believed in his mission. As the richest lady of Arabia, she spent all her wealth for the promotion of Islam, and to feed, clothe and shelter the persecuted neo Muslim community, to the extent that when she breathed her last there was no monetary or property inheritance left for her orphaned daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA). Since within a year of the passing away of Hazrat Khadijah (SA), the Prophet lost to the cold hands of death his loving uncle and guardian, Hazrat Abu Taleb (AS), the year has become famous in Islamic history as “Aam al-Hozn" (Year of Grief).

1384 solar years ago, on this day in 632 AD, marks the start of the religious calendar of the Zoroastrian community with the ascension to the throne in Ctesiphon (near Baghdad in modern Iraq) of the 8-year Yazdegird III, the 29th and last Emperor of the Sassanid Dynasty. He was the son of Shahryar and grandson Khosrow II (Pervez), and after a series of internal conflicts, was placed on the throne, but never truly exercised authority. The Muslim conquest of the Persian Empire began in the first year of his reign, and ended twelve years later with the Battle of Oxus River in Central Asia, the eastern limit of the Sassanid Empire in 644 AD. After fleeing to China via Turkestan, Yazdegird III returned to Iran but was killed by a local miller in Marv in 651 on the instructions of the governor of that city which is currently in Turkmenistan. His daughter, Princess Shahrbano married Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3rd Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and became mother of the Prophet’s 4th Infallible Heir, Imam Ali Zain al-Abedin (AS).

1377 lunar years ago, on this day in 60 AH, Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3rdInfallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), received the first batch of letters in Mecca from the notables of Kufa inviting him to Iraq for deliverance of the Islamic realm from the Godless rule of Yazid ibn Mu’awiyyah. In due course, the number of these letters reached 12,000, and the Imam sent his cousin, Muslim ibn Aqeel, to Iraq to probe the situation. When the tyrant Yazid sent assassins in the garb of pilgrims to assassinate him, the Imam, in order to safeguard the inviolable sanctity of the holy Ka’ba and its surroundings from any spilling of blood, left for Iraq, where those who had ardently invited him, not just turned their backs upon him, but ganged up with the brutal Omayyad hordes to cruelly martyr him, his family members, and his companions, on the plain of Karbala.

952 lunar years ago, on this day in 485 AH, the renowned vizier of the Seljuqid Dynasty, Hassan Ibn Ali Ibn Ishaq Tusi, titled Khajeh Nizam ul-Mulk, was assassinated near Nahavand at the age of 75 while on his way to Baghdad from the capital Isfahan. Born in the northeastern city of Tous, he initially served the Ghaznavid sultans as chief administrator of Khorasan Province. Four years later with the rise of the Seljuqs, he served as vizier to the Sultans, Alp Arslan and Malik Shah I. He set up schools of higher education in several cities, which were named after him as Nizamiyyah and turned out to be models of universities that were later established in Europe. Nizam ul-Mulk is also widely known for his treatise on kingship titled "Siyasat-Nama" or "Siyar al-Molouk" (Book of Government). Although it is claimed he was stabbed by a member of the Assassins (corruption of Hashshashin) sent by his former friend, Hassan Sabbah of Alamut, his son-in-law Muqatel Ibn Atiyyah, has said he was assassinated in the same year as Malik Shah I after a debate between Sunni and Shi'a scholars that led to his and the Sultan’s conversion to the Creed of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt.

383 solar years ago, on this day in 1633 AD, the famous French traveler of the Muslim World, Jean de Thevenot, was born in Paris. In 1652 he started his journey by visiting England, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. In 1655 he came to Istanbul the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and then proceeded to Smyrna, the Greek islands, and finally to Egypt, landing at Alexandria. He stayed for a year in Egypt, then visited Sinai, and, upon returning to Cairo, joined the Lent pilgrim caravan to Bayt al-Moqaddas. He visited the chief places of pilgrimage in Palestine, and was again in Cairo. In January 1659 he sailed from Alexandria to Tunis and after spending four years in Italy in studies, in November 1663 he again sailed for the East, calling at Alexandria and landing at Sidon (in Lebanon), whence he proceeded by land to Damascus, Aleppo, and then through Iraq to Mosul, Baghdad and Mandali. He entered Iran in August 1664, proceeding by Kermanshah and Hamedan to the Safavid capital, Isfahan, where he spent five months. Then he joined the French merchant Tavernier, and proceeded by Shiraz and Lar to Bandar-Abbas on the Persian Gulf, in the hope of finding a passage to India. Tavernier left for India but Thevenot returned to Shiraz and visited the ruins of the Achaemenid capital Persepolis, which was destroyed by Alexander of Macedon. He then travelled to Basra and sailed for India on November 6, 1665, arriving at the port of Surat in Gujarat on January 10, 1666. He was in the Mughal Empire of India for thirteen months, and crossed into the Deccan or south India where he stayed for a while in Haiderabad, the capital of the Qutb Shahi Dynasty, travelling around the kingdom as far as Masulipatam on the Bay of Bengal. He returned overland to Surat, from where he sailed to Bandar-Abbas and went up to Shiraz. He passed the summer of 1667 at Isfahan, and in October started for Tabriz, but died on the way at Miyaneh on November 28, 1667. Thevenot was skilled in the Turkish, Arabic and Persian languages, and a curious and diligent observer. He was also well skilled in natural sciences, especially in botany, for which he made large collections in India.

200 solar years ago, on this day in 1816 AD, English poet George Gordon Byron read “Fantasmagoriana” (a French anthology of German ghost stories) to his four house guests at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Switzerland –Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori. He challenged that each guest write a ghost story, which culminated in Mary Shelley writing the novel “Frankenstein”, John Polidori writing the short story “The Vampyre”, and Byron writing the poem “Darkness”. Byron led an unprincipled life, travelling around Europe and indulging in scandalous affairs. He died of severe bleeding at the age of 36, while inciting the Greeks to sedition against Ottoman Muslims.

162 lunar years ago, on this day in 1275 AH, the prominent scholar of Iraq, Sheikh Hussain ibn Shaikh Radhi ibn Sheikh Nasar an-Najafi, passed away.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, 14-year old Afro-American boy, George Junius Stinney Jr., was mercilessly executed by the US government on alleged charges of homicide. He was the youngest person executed in the US in the 20th century. His execution is proof of the flawed concept of justice in the US, which styles itself as champion of human rights and uses this as a tool to interfere in the affairs of other countries, despite its sordid record of genocide of the Amerindians and mistreatment of black and coloured peoples. There are cases in the US where after execution it has been proved that the person handed capital punishment was innocent.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, during World War II, the US air force carried out an extensive bombardment of southern Japan in a bid to force Tokyo to surrender. Tens of thousands of Japanese civilians were killed and the factories and farmlands were destroyed. Japan, however, stood steadfast. Having failed to break the spirit of the Japanese, the US intensified its crimes against humanity, and over a year later in August 1945 it dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

53 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, the first female astronaut, the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova, started her journey into outer space on board the Vostok-6 Spacecraft, two years after the first male astronaut of the world, Yuri Gagarin, orbited the Earth. Tereshkova orbited 48 times around the Earth in 70 hours and 50 minutes.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1976 AD, the Soweto Uprising, also known as the 16 June Uprising, started in South Africa as a series of protests led by high school students. Students from numerous Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools by the white racist Apartheid regime. An estimated 20,000 students took part in the protests. The number of people who died is estimated at 700. June 16 is marked as Youth Day with a public holiday in South Africa, in remembrance of the events of 1976.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the Father of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) ordered setting up of the Construction Jihad Organization for self-sufficiency of Iran and for eradication of poverty and deprivation. People of various strata of society, especially pupils, students, and committed and educated youths, responded to the Imam's call and thus started the nationwide mobilization for revival and reconstruction of disadvantaged regions. Construction Jihad has done commendable services, and was active during the eight-year Holy Defence to safeguard Iran's independence and territorial integrity against Saddam's US-supported Ba'thist war machine. Its valuable service cover rural industries, agriculture, animal husbandry, dam construction, natural resources, watershed management and dozens of other fields. It is also active in a number of African states such as Tanzania, Ghana, and Zimbabwe. In 1983, Construction Jihad Organization turned into a Ministry, and in 2000 was merged with the Ministry of Agriculture.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, the Azad (Open) University was established in the Islamic Republic of Iran with nationwide branches in order to help the growing number of those seeking academic qualifications to pursue higher education. With branches throughout Iran and also in some countries abroad, it is one of the largest comprehensive systems of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the world. Over the years, IAU has promoted “higher education for all” as its key objective. Currently it has an enrollment of 1.7 million students. It has university branches in UAE, Britain, Lebanon and Afghanistan.

3 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, Jalil Shahnaz, one of the greatest maestros of Persian classical music and a virtuoso of the tar, died at the age of 92. Born in Isfahan, he studied under the supervision of Abdul-Hussain Shahnazi. In 1949 he started his professional career at Radio Isfahan and in 1957 he was invited to cooperate with Radio Tehran. In the capital he worked as a soloist at Golha program for years. In 2004, he was awarded as Immortal Face of Iranian Arts and Music.

AS/ME