Today is Monday; 26th of the Iranian month of Bahman 1394 solar hijri; corresponding to 6th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1437 lunar hijri; and February 15, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1426 solar years ago, on this day in 590 AD, Khosrau II was crowned the twenty-second Sassanid Emperor of Persia, following his revolt against his father, Hormizd IV, who was deposed, blinded and killed. Grandson of the wise, just and benevolent ruler, Khosrau Anushirvan, he styled himself Perviz (or Victorious) but lacked the traits of virtue. This wa evident by incidents during his 38-year reign that ended in 628 with his torturous death in prison at the hands of his generals, after he had haughtily torn the letter of invitation to Islam from Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and threatened to attack Hijaz from Iranian-controlled Yemen, following the reversal of his fortunes in the 26-year long Roman-Iranian War. In 602, he had attacked the Roman Empire, and in the next decade while Islam was publicly proclaimed for the first time in Mecca, Iranian armies overran Syria, Palestine, Egypt and almost the whole of Anatolia right up to the walls of Constantinople. The victories of the Zoroastrian Persians over the Christian Romans gladdened the hearts of the Arab infidels and made them mock Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), at which God revealed Surah Roum, predicting the eventual triumph of the monotheists – indeed one of the eternal miracles of the holy Qur'an. In 622, coinciding with the Prophet's migration from Mecca to Medina, the fortunes of Khosrau began to decline with defeat after defeat in Anatolia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Georgia, Armenia, and Iraq; resulting in his ouster, death and replacement by son, Qobad II. 

1023 lunar years ago, on this day in 414 AH the famous Iranian-Islamic mathematician and astronomer, Abu Sa'eed Ahmad ibn Mohammad ibn Abdul-Jalil as-Sijzi, passed away at the age of 77. He was from Sistan which in those days was also called Sijistan, hence his epithet as-Sijzi. He had a deep knowledge of literature which he used to his advantage. He dedicated his astronomical work to Azod od-Dowla the ruler of the Buwaiyhid kingdom of Iran and Iraq. He also dedicated another of his works to the ruler of Balkh in Greater Khorasan. He also worked in Shiraz making astronomical observations from 969 to 970. He also did a lot of geometry work. Abu Rayhan Birouni wrote that Sijzi believed in a heliocentric system in which the Earth was moving and that he invented an astrolabe called the "Zuraqi" based on this idea. As a mathematician, Sijzi made a special study of the intersections of conic sections and circles. He replaced the old kinematical trisection of an angle by a purely geometric solution (intersection of a circle and an equilateral hyperbola).

500 lunar years ago, on this day in 937 AH, Emperor Zaheer od-Din Babar, the founder of the Mughal Empire of the northern Subcontinent, died in his capital Kabul, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Naseer od-din Humayun, to the throne of Delhi. Born in Andijan in the Ferghana Valley in what is now Uzbekistan, he was the son of the local ruler, Omar Sheikh (a great-grandson of Amir Timur), while on his mother's side, he was grandson of Yunus Khan, the ruler of Moghulistan, and thus a direct descendent of the fearsome Genghis Khan. Like the rest of the Timurids, Babar had embraced Persian language and culture, although his mother tongue was Chaghatai Turkic. In his obsession to take control of Samarqand he lost Ferghana as well, on being defeated by Obaidullah Khan Shaibani, the ruler of the Uzbeks, who were newcomers to the region and were fast displacing the local Tajiks (or Persian speakers) and Timurids. He accepted Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid Dynasty of Iran, as suzerain, after rejecting demands from the Ottoman Sultan to acknowledge him as overlord. This alliance enabled him to chalk out an independent kingdom in Kabul, which he used as a base to recapture Samarqand with Safavid help, but soon lost it for the third time. Later with his combined Tajik and Turkic military, he conquered the northern parts of the Subcontinent by defeating the Afghan king, Ibrahim Lodhi of Delhi, at the Battle of Panipat in 1526 AD, and the next year routed the huge Rajput-Afghan joint army of Rana Sanga. He was a poet in both Persian and his Turkic, and was a devotee of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

489 lunar years ago, on this day in 948 AH, the Iranian mathematician, Ghiyas od-Din Mansour, passed away and was laid to rest in the city of Shiraz. He learned rational and traditional sciences under his father and other Ulema. Upon the order of the Safavid Emperor, Shah Ismail, he was charged with repairing the Maragheh Observatory and was appointed as the prime minister in the era of the next Safavid ruler, Shah Tahmasb. He resigned from this post, and spent the rest of his life grooming students, and compiling books. His most important works include “Hojjat ul-Kalaam” and “al-Haqa’eq”.

452 solar years ago, on this day in 1564 AD, the Italian scientist, astronomer, and physicist, Galileo Galilei, was born in the city of Pisa where he mastered physics and mathematics. With the usage of lens, invented by the famous Muslim astronomer, Ibn al-Haytham, he developed a telescope for observing stars. With this instrument, and with the aid of the writings of Islamic scientists, he wrote that the surface of moon has plains and altitudes and each galaxy is made of small and large stars. He also recorded as his own, the discoveries of Islamic scientists that the Sun is at the centre of the Solar System and other planets, including the Earth, revolve around it. These discoveries were already made several centuries earlier in the Islamic world by the renowned Iranian astronomer, Abu-Rayhan Birouni, who as a follower of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), had proved the circular movement of the spherical Earth around the Sun. Following the publication of Galileo’s theory about the movement of the Earth and other planets of the solar system around the Sun, the Roman Church charged him with blasphemy, forcing him to renounce his views or risk execution. He died in 1642.

234 solar years ago, on this day in 1782 AD, a naval battle broke out between France and Britain off the coastlines of India and lasted seven months, as part of the two European colonial powers' rivalry in controlling the Subcontinent and plundering its rich resources. Earlier, France had relinquished its Indian possessions following its defeat in the 13-month long Madras War.

147 solar years ago, on this day in 1869 AD, the famous Urdu-Persian poet of the Subcontinent, Mirza Asadollah Khan Ghaleb, passed away in Delhi at the age of 73. Born in Agra in a Persianized Turkic family, whose ancestors had migrated to India from Samarqand, he was well versed in the Persian, Arabic, Turkic and Urdu languages, and excelled in composing ghazals (lyrics) in a unique style. His choice of words, philosophical references, delicate metaphors, and witticism, has made his poetry highly popular in India, Pakistan, and wherever Urdu speakers are found. He initiated a new style in letter-writing which greatly influenced the development of Urdu language. Ghaleb was an accomplished poet in Persian, and also composed qasidahs (panegyrics) in praise of noblemen as well as Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), Imam Ali (AS) and the Infallible Ahl al-Bayt.

118 solar years ago, on this day in 1898 AD, as a pretext to start a war with Spain, the USS Maine was deceitfully blown up by US agents in Havana harbour in Cuba, killing more than 260. The resulting 4-year war with Spain saw the US seize Cuba, Guam Island and the Philippines. In our own days, the glaring example of US deceit and state terrorism was the collapse of the Twin Towers of New York's 110-storey high World Trade Center through a series of implosions, while to deceive world public opinion, two remote-controlled unmanned aircraft crashed into it, in order to blame others and provide a pretext for the occupation of Afghanistan.

74 solar years ago, on this day in 1942 AD, during World War II, Singapore fell and British General, Arthur Percival, surrendered to the Japanese. Some 80,000 Indian, British and Australian troops became POWs, the largest surrender of British-led military forces in history.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, the Soviet forces were forced to withdraw from Afghanistan after almost ten years of occupation.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, Bahrain’s Fazel al-Matrook attained martyrdom in Manama. While, participating in the funeral procession of Ali Abdul-Hadi Mushaima, who was martyred the day before, he succumbed to his wounds in hospital after being shot at close range. The Bahraini people are peacefully demanding their denied birthrights since the past four years, but the Aal-e Khalifa minority regime has answered them with bullets, razing of mosques, burning of copies of the holy Qur’an, desecration of Hussainiyahs, and torture and killing of unarmed activists.