Today is Sunday; 30th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 13th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1437 lunar hijri; and June 19, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2256 solar years ago, on this day in 240 BC, Greek astronomer and mathematician, Eratosthenes, estimated the circumference of the earth. As the director of the library of Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt, he read in a papyrus book that in Syene, approaching noon on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, shadows of temple columns grew shorter. At noon, they were gone. The sun was directly overhead. However, a stick in Alexandria, far to the north, could cast a pronounced shadow. Thus, he realized that the surface of the Earth could not be flat. It must be curved. Not only that, but the greater the curvature, the greater the difference in the shadow lengths.

1342 lunar years ago, on this day in 95 AH, the tyrannical governor-general of the Godless Omayyad regime, Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, died of pain in his stomach at the age of 54. Of uncertain paternity and born to a morally-loose woman in Ta’ef, he was named “Kulayb” – Arabic for whelp, that is, offspring of dog or wolf. Although later in life he changed his name to Hajjaj and added the surname Thaqafi, without any connection to the famous Thaqafi clan, his innate canine characteristics were evident throughout his bloodthirsty life. His mean mentality earned him the post of “Shurta” or police chief in Damascus, and his subsequent cruelties against any form of dissent caught the attention of the Omayyad usurper, Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan, who appointed him governor-general of Iraq and Iran, to crush the followers of the blessed household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). It is said that as many 125,000 Muslims were killed on the orders of Hajjaj, in addition to those who died fighting against his tyrannical rule. Among the prominent and pious figures martyred by this tyrant was the Prophet’s venerable companion, Jaber ibn Abdullah al-Ansari and two of the most loyal followers of Imam Ali (AS) – the devoted servant Qanbar and the faithful disciple, Kumayl bin Ziyad to whom the Imam had taught the famous supplication of the same name that is recited by believers on Friday eve. Among the other unpardonable sins of Hajjaj was his storming of the holy Ka'ba in Mecca in pursuit of the self-styled caliph, Abdullah ibn Zubair, who was eventually killed along with 10,000 of his men. The holy Ka'ba also suffered extensive damage and desecration. On his death when prisons were opened, over 50,000 men and women were released, while thousands of corpses were discovered.

747 solar years ago, on this day in 1269 AD, King Louis IX of France ordered all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge of “shame” to be fined ten livres of silver. The Jews were subjected to severe persecution and humiliation in Christian Europe that often resulted in the burning of their localities and mass massacres, at a time when they enjoyed all rights in Muslim lands and rose to prominent positions.  Louis IX was also an avowed enemy of Islam and Muslims, and suffered a humiliating defeat in 1250 in the Battle of Fareskur in Egypt which he had invaded as head of the 7th crusade, in league with the Buddhist Mongols, who were ravaging Iran and the Muslim World from the east. While trying to flee, he was captured along with his brothers, and later procured released by paying a huge ransom. In 1270 he mobilised the 8th Crusade and invaded Tunis along with Prince Edward of England, to use it as a base for attacking other Muslim lands, especially Palestine. However, disease and dysentery broke out in the camps of the Christians, and many died including the French king himself in August the same year, thereby aborting the Crusade.

393 solar years ago, on this day in 1623 AD, French author and mathematician and innovator of calculation devices, Blaise Pascal, was born. In hydrodynamics he formulated what came to be known as Pascal's law of pressure. He became religious in the waning years of his life and wrote a book on Christianity titled “Provincial Letters”. He died at the age of 39.

269 solar years ago, on this in 1747 AD, Nader Shah Afshar was assassinated in Quchan, Khorasan, at the age of 59, by the captain of his guards, Salah Beg, because of his increasing cruelty, after a 11-year reign as Emperor, following his usurpation of the Iranian throne by displacing the Safavid boy-king, Shah Abbas III, upon whom he had forced himself as regent by deposing his father, Shah Tahmasp II, in the aftermath of his victorious campaigns that liberated the country from the Afghan occupation and drove out the Ottomans from the northwestern provinces. Born as Nader Qoli into the Qereqlu clan of the Afshars, a Qizilbash tribe settled in northern Khorasan; following the death of his camel-driver father, Imam Qoli, he, along with his mother, was abducted as a young boy by marauding Uzbek tribesmen, from whom he managed to escape. He joined a band of brigands and eventually became their leader. Under the patronage of Afshar chieftains, he rose through the ranks to become a powerful military figure. During the chaos resulting from the defeat of Shah Sultan Hussain Safavi and the occupation of the Iranian capital, Isfahan, by the Hotaki Afghan rebels, Nader initially submitted to the local Afghan governor of Mashhad, Malek Mahmoud, but then rebelled and built up his own small army. Sultan Hussain's son had declared himself Shah Tahmasp II with the support of the Qajar tribe, with whom Nader Qoli joined ranks, but on discovering the treacherous correspondence of the Qajarid chief with the Afghans, he revealed the plot to Shah Tahmasp II, who executed the traitor and made Nader the chief of his army. Nader subsequently took the title Tahmasp Qoli (Servant of Tahmasp). In late 1726, he recaptured Mashhad. In May 1729 he took Herat. In September 1729 in the Battle of Damghan, he decisively defeated the usurper Ashraf Afghan Hotaki, and in December liberated the imperial capital Isfahan. In the spring of 1730, he attacked the Ottomans and regained most of the lost Iranian territory. His relations with the Shah, however, declined as the latter grew jealous of his general's military success. While Nader was in the east, Tahmasp II tried to assert himself by launching a campaign to liberate Yerevan but ended up losing Armenia and Georgia to the Ottomans. Nader denounced the treaty with the Ottomans, and in 1732 forced Tahmasp II to abdicate the throne in favour of the infant, Abbas III, to whom Nader became regent. He now liberated Armenia and Georgia as well as Baghdad from the Ottomans, and soon liberated the whole of the Caucasus by forcing the Russians to return Daghestan to Iran. In January 1736, he held an assembly of leading political figures to suggest removal of Abbas III, and on March 8, 1736, crowned himself the new Shah, thereby ending the two centuries and thirty-five year rule of the Safavid Dynasty. In 1738, he liberated Qandahar, and when the Hotaki Afghan rebels fled into India, he asked for their surrender from the Mughal Emperor, Mohammad Shah, whose weakness provided him the pretext to cross the border into the Subcontinent to capture Ghazni, Kabul, Peshawar, Sindh and Lahore. He then advanced deeper into India crossing the River Indus and defeating the large Mughal army at the Battle of Karnal on 13 February 1739. Nader, along with the defeated Mohammad Shah entered Delhi in triumph. He forced the Mughal Emperor to hand over the keys of the royal treasury, from which he took the famous Peacock Throne, along with a trove of fabulous jewels, such as the fabulous diamonds Koh-e Noor (Mount of Light) and Darya-e Noor (Sea of Light). He also took with him thousands of elephants, horses and camels, loaded with the booty, which was so great that he stopped taxation in Iran for a period of three years following his return. In 1740 he launched the Central Asian campaign to conquer the Khanates of Bukhara and Kharazm. In the Persian Gulf, he liberated Bahrain, and in 1743 he conquered Oman and its capital Muscat. Then after a war with the Ottomans, he freed the holy city of Najaf in 1746 in Iraq, a year before his death.

237 solar years ago, on this day in 1779 AD, Mohammad Ali Khan, the 2nd ruler and son of Karim Khan, the Founder of the Zand Dynasty, died of a heart attack, having reigned less than 5 months. The power was transferred to his brother Abu’l- Fath, who was deposed two months later by his uncle, Sadeq Khan Zand. During his almost 30-year rule, Karim Khan Zand held sway over almost all of Iran, along with Basra in Iraq and parts of the Caucasus, except for Greater Khorasan. To legitimize his rule, he had placed the Safavid prince, Ismail III, as a figurehead, and never took the title of Shah, contenting himself with the honourary epithet “Wakil ar-Re’aya” (Representative of the People). He based his administration on social justice, and to this day is regarded as one of the most able rulers in Iranian history. On his death, infighting weakened the dynasty and for the next 15 years that it lasted, none of the seven rulers who followed him could ensure public welfare and security, oblivious of the danger posed by the Qajar warlord, Agha Mohammad Khan, who overthrew them in 1794 to establish the Qajarid Dynasty – which the British replaced in 1925 with the Pahlavi potentate, Reza Khan.

149 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, Austrian prince, Maximilian, who had occupied Mexico a year-and-a-half earlier, was executed by freedom fighters. In 1855 President Benito Juarez of Mexico, as part of his nationalistic policies, had curtailed the undue privileges of the White minority and the power of the Catholic Church – measures that angered European powers, which led by France, invaded Mexico and imposed Maximilian as king. Juarez, however, continued his struggles against the French forces and the monarchists, and after crushing them and executing the imposed king, once again was instated as the president.

139 solar years ago, on this day in 1877 AD, the first flying object that did not need a tarmac and could vertically take off and touchdown, or remain stationary in air, was tested. Named Helicopter, it was tested by Italian inventor, Enrico Forlanini, in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. This primary model of the helicopter was later perfected by Polish expert, Igor Sikorsky, and patented in his name.

109 lunar years ago, on this day in 1328 AH, the Iranian theologian and mystic, Mirza Jahangir Khan Qashqai, passed away. Born among Qashqai nomads in central Iran, he became a prominent Islamic scholar, and groomed numerous students in the seminary of Isfahan, including Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Modarres, and Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi, during his 50-year teaching career. He passed away at the age of 85 in Isfahan.

97 lunar years ago, on this day in 1340 AH, the prominent theologian, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Sistani (grandfather of the current Source of Emulation Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Sistani of holy Najaf) passed away in holy Mashhad, Khorasan in northeastern Iran. The reason the family is called Sistani is because of the appointment of an ancestor to the religious post of Shaikh ol-Islam in Greater Sistan Province by Shah Sultan Hussain Safavi, for promotion of the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Ayatollah Sistani, after completion of studies in Najaf, returned home to Iran and settled in Mashhad. He used to lecture on theology and jurisprudence, in addition to leading the Friday Prayers at Gowhar-Shad Mosque adjacent to the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the Prophet’s 8^th Infallible Heir. He was jailed for a while during the Constitutional Movement due to his struggles against despotism of the Qajarid regime.

67 solar years ago, on this day in 1949 AD, prominent philosopher of the Subcontinent, Seyyed Zafar ul-Hassan, passed away in Lahore, Pakistan, at the age of 64. Educated at Allahabad, he obtained doctorates from the universities of Erlangen and Heidelberg in Germany, before becoming the first Muslim Scholar of the Subcontinent to obtain a PhD from Oxford University in Philosophy. He started teaching at Aligarh Muslim University, India in 1911, and in 1913 became professor of philosophy at Islamia College, Peshawar in what is now Pakistan. From 1924 to 1945 he was professor of philosophy at the Aligarh Muslim University, where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Philosophy. In 1939, he put forward the 'Aligarh Scheme' along with Dr Afzaal Hussain Qadri, titled "The Problem of Indian Muslims" proposing three independent states in the Subcontinent. From 1945 to 1947, he served as Emeritus Professor at Aligarh. In 1947, he migrated to Pakistan on its creation. He wrote many books including "Revelation and Prophet", "Message of Iqbal", and "Philosophy of Islam".

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, Britain granted independence to the tiny Persian Gulf emirate of Kuwait, which throughout history, was part of the Iranian Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid Empires. With the advent of Islam, this area was classified with Iraq and was subsequently ruled by the Iranian Buwaiyhid dynasty of Baghdad, followed by the vast Iran-based empires of the Seljuqids, the Ilkhanids, the Qara Qoyunlu, and the Safavids. The Ottoman Turks briefly took over this mostly deserted land, which in the 18th century saw an influx of nomads from Najd in the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula who occupied it and began to call it Kuwait. In 1756, they chose a certain Sabah bin Jaber as the tribal chief, whose descendants have continued to rule Kuwait. In 1899, British colonialists, as part of their policy to curtail the power and influence of the Ottoman Turks, declared Kuwait as a protectorate. With the discovery of oil, tiny Kuwait became rich overnight, and even after independence from Britain, it's foreign and defence policies are virtually controlled by the West, especially the US, in view of persistent claims by neighbouring Iraq. From August 1990 to March 1991, Kuwait was occupied by Saddam, the Ba'thist dictator of Baghdad, who was forced to evacuate it as a result of the First Persian Gulf War launched by the US-led multinational alliance. Kuwait covers an area of 18,000 sq km and shares land borders with Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, the MKO terrorists committed a blasphemous crime in Mashhad by triggering a bomb blast in the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), while pilgrims were commemorating the anniversary of the tragedy of Ashura – the 10^th of Moharram. Scores of pilgrims were martyred or wounded and part of the holy shrine was damaged. The Leader of Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in his message of condolences to the Iranian nation, said: By committing such a sacrilegious crime, the MKO terrorists showed they are not committed to any humanitarian principle; and their enmity toward the courageous and faithful Iranian nation has no limits.

18 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, Ayatollah Ali Gharavi Tabrizi was martyred at the age of 68, along with his companions, while returning to Najaf from pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala. He was gunned down by agents of the repressive Ba’th minority regime, which two months earlier had martyred another prominent scholar of the Najaf seminary, Ayatollah Morteza Boroujerdi. Born in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz, after initial studies at holy Qom, Ayatollah Gharavi had left for Najaf at the age of 19 for higher studies, and after attaining the status of Ijtehad was involved in grooming students and writing books.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Takfiri terrorists, as part of their campaign to desecrate holy Islamic sites, triggered a deadly bomb blast at Baghdad’s al-Khilani Mosque, resulting in the martyrdom of 78 people and injury of 218 others.

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