Today is Tuesday; 15th of the Iranian month of Tir 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 29th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1437 lunar hijri; and July 5, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

987 solar years ago, on this day in 1029 AD, Abu Tamim Ma'ad al-Mustanṣir-Billah, the 8^th self-styled caliph of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite Dynasty of Egypt-North-Africa-Syria-Hijaz, was born in Cairo. As a 7-year old he succeeded his father, Abu'l-Hassan Ali az-Zaher, and ruled for 58 years until his death at the age of 65. During his early years, his mother administered state affairs. The Iranian philosopher-poet, Hibatullah ibn Musa Mu'ayyad fi'd-Din ash-Shirazi, served him as the "Da‘i" (chief missionary), eventually attaining the highest rank of "Bab al-Abwaab" (Gate of Gateways). Son of Musa Ibn Dawoud, the chief Ismaili missionary in the Fars region of Iran, he was the main ideologue and was also in charge of the "Dar al-Ilm" (House of Knowledge) in Cairo, where missionaries from both inside and outside the Fatemid Empire were trained. In the last twenty years of his reign, following the death of Mu'ayyad Shirazi in 1078, the caliph's Grand Vizier and head of the armed forces, the Armenian Muslim, Badr al-Jamali, became the supreme temporal authority in the realm, and succeeded in taming the turbulent Turkic Mamluks, who through constant infighting, had drained the treasury and destroyed the famous library of the Fatemids, scattering precious books and even using them to light fires. Many Iranians served in various capacities in the Fatemid court in Cairo, including the Arabic Grammarian Ibn Babshaad.

815 solar years ago, on this day in 1201 AD, a series of earthquakes and aftershocks started in Upper Egypt and the adjoining Syrian region southern parts of Palestine, resulting in the death of some 1.1 million people over a period of several months.

789 lunar years ago, on the eve of this day in 648 AH, the celebrated scholar, Hassan Ibn Yusuf Ibn Ali Ibn Mohammad Ibn Mutahhar, was born in Hillah, Iraq. Renowned as "Allamah Hilli", he was a child prodigy, and after initial education under his qualified father, and acquiring of fiqh from his famous maternal uncle "Muhaqqiq Hilli", he proceeded to study from other masters of his era, including the celebrated scholars of Iraq Seyyed Ali bin Tawous and Seyyed Ahmad bin Tawous, as well as Maytham al-Bahrani of Bahrain and the Iranian Islamic genius, Khwaja Naseer od-­Din Tusi, who taught him philosophy and logic. Later, he held debates with scholars of the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence – Hanbali, Hanafi, Maleki, and Shafei. During one such debate in the Ilkhanid court, his rationality convinced the Buddhist-born and Christian-baptized Mongol Emperor of Iran-Iraq, Oljeitu Khodabanda, to become a Muslim and a staunch follower of the Ahl al-Bayt. Allamah Hilli's works include at least a hundred books and treatises on various subjects such as jurisprudence, theology, logic, philosophy, hadith, exegesis of the holy Qur'an and Rijal or evaluation of hadith narrators. Each book of this great mujtahid is enough to portray his precocity and genius. Among the noteworthy works are "Ma'arej al-Fahm", "Qawa'ed al-Ahkaam", "Tadhkirat ul-Fuqaha" and "Tabsirat ul-Mutallimeen", the last being studied by seminary students till this day. He also wrote on proofs from the holy Qur'an, the hadith, and the intellect, on the right to caliphate of Imam Ali (AS) after the passing away of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). This famous book is titled "Nahj al-Haq wa Kashf as-Sidq". Allamah Hilli was succeeded by his worthy son, Mohammad, who is acclaimed as “Fakhr al-­Muhaqqiqeen” (Pride of Researchers).

630 lunar years ago, on this day in 807 AH, the Egyptian Hanafi historian, Ibn al-Furat, passed away in his hometown Cairo at the age of 72. His history "Tarikh ad-Duwwal wa'l-Muluk" focuses largely on the Crusades. The work remained unfinished and survives in fragments of the original autograph manuscript, mostly preserved in Vienna. Ibn al-Furat's work is of particular importance for modern scholars due to its high level of detail and the mostly verbatim use of a wide variety of sources, including Christian and Shi’a authors. Some of these works survive only through Ibn al-Furat's reuse of them.

339 lunar years ago, on this day in 1098 AH, the prominent jurisprudent, Mohammad bin Hassan Shirwani, passed away in Isfahan at the age of 65, and his body was taken to Mashhad, Khorasan for burial in the mausoleum of Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Shirwan in the Caucasus, after preliminary studies under his scholarly father he came to the Safavid capital Isfahan for higher religious studies, and benefitted from such great scholars as Mohaqqeq Hussain Khwansari, and Mohammad Taqi Majliis, mastering a wide variey of sciences, such as jurisprudence, theology, exegesis of the holy Qur’an, mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy. He married the daughter of the Elder Majlisi (sister of the famous Allamah Mohammad Baqer Majlisi), and travelled to holy Najaf in Iraq, where he attained the status of Ijtehad. On his return to Iran after several years, during which he wrote many valuable books, he was welcomed in Isfahan by the Safavid monarch and the ulema, including his brother-in-law Allamah Majlisi. Shirwani groomed many prominent scholars and wrote several books.

246 solar years ago, on this day in 1770 AD, the naval Battle of Chesma took place in the bay of the same name, in the area between the western tip of Anatolia and the island of Chios, between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire. It was the greatest naval defeat suffered by the Ottomans, who until then were masters of the seas. The victory inspired great confidence in the Russian fleet and allowed the Russians to control the Aegean Sea for some time. The defeat of the Ottoman fleet also sped up rebellions by minority groups in the Empire, especially the Orthodox Christian nations in the Balkan Peninsula, who helped the Russian army in defeating the Turkish Muslims.

241 solar years ago, on this day in 1775 AD, the Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Continental Congress and professed the attachment of the American people to Britain’s King George III. It expressed hope for the restoration of harmony and begged the king to prevent further hostile actions against the 13 New England colonies – later the United States of America (USA). The following day, Congress passed a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, which rejected independence but asserted that American colonists were ready to die rather than be enslaved. King George refused to receive the Olive Branch Petition, and on August 23 proclaimed the New England colonies to be in open rebellion, resulting in deterioration of relations with the colonists, declaration of independence a year later and the subsequent 7-year war that saw the birth of the USA.

205 solar years ago, on this day in 1811 AD, Venezuela gained independence from three centuries of Spanish rule, during which the European colonialists wiped out almost the entire native population of the land in addition to plundering its natural resources. The Venezuelan people started their struggle under the leadership of Francisco de Miranda in 1806, and finally under the famous South American freedom fighter, Simon Bolivar, they vanquished the Spanish in 1811. Venezuela covers an area of 91,2050 sq km and shares borders with Colombia, Brazil, and Guyana.

183 solar years ago, on this day in 1833 AD, French inventor, Joseph-Nicephore Niepce, who was the first to make a permanent photographic image, died at the age 68. In 1807, with his brother Claude, he invented the pyreolophore, an internal combustion engine fueled by lycopodium powder. Although never practical, the engine was able to move a 2-m model boat upstream. By 1813, Niepce had taken up lithography, which led to his invention of photography. By letter, in May 1816, he told Claude of an apparatus that produced a (negative) image using a paper coated with silver chloride fixed with nitric acid. After further experimentation, by 1826, he achieved the first fixed positive image. Approaching bankruptcy, in 1829, he signed an agreement of cooperation with Daguerre.

175 lunar years ago, on this day in 1272 AH, the virtuous scholar Seyyed Hassan Sadr Ibn Seyyed Hadi as-Sadr was born in the holy city of Kazemain, near Baghdad in Iraq. At the age of 16 he went to holy Najaf to study under the leading ulema and nine years later moved to Samarra to study under the celebrated scholar, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi (famous for his fatwa against tobacco consumption in Iran). He returned to Kazemain seventeen years later and soon became the leading mujtahed. He passed away in 1354 at the age of 82. He groomed many students and wrote several books such as the “Role of Shi’ite Scholars in Development of Islamic Sciences”, The Shi’ite Muslims and Promotion of Islamic Arts”, and a refutation of the absurd viewpoints of the pseudo scholar Ibn Taimiyya.

122 solar years ago, on this day in 1894 AD, British archaeologist and politician, Austen Henry Layard, whose excavations in Mesopotamia (Iraq) revealed the palaces of the great Assyrian kings, Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal, yielding much evidence of both the antiquity and the cultural achievement of the ancient civilizations, died in London at the age of 77. After wondering for many months, mostly in Iran, he began excavations at Nimrud in 1845, making detailed drawing of his discoveries. In Niniveh, near Mosul, he uncovered in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal. “The Planiform” he found at Nineveh – likely a 700 BC copy of the astronomer's notes – described in cuneiform the crashing of an asteroid, with the words: "white stone bowl approaching" that "vigorously swept along." The asteroid probably crashed into the Austrian Alps, leaving a swath of cataclysmic damage such as, for example, the Genesis destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Levant. The artifacts Layard uncovered included huge winged bulls, hawk-winged lions with human heads, many other statuary reliefs, and alabaster slabs with cuneiform inscriptions. He shipped immense sculptures and other finds back to England – although a cultural loot of a foreign nation that unintentionally saved these unique relics of the past from the vandalism of Takfiri outfits which are currently destroying museums, libraries, mosques and shrines in Iraq and Syria. Later in life, Layard abandoned archaeology and turned to politics.

85 solar years ago, on this day in 1931 AD, Ismail Mohammad, Chief Justice of South Africa as well as of Namibia, was born in Pretoria into a Muslim family of Indian merchants. Educated at the Indian School, he became a qualified lawyer, but was refused admission to the Pretoria Bar Association as it was reserved for white lawyers during the apartheid era. Later he succeeded in joining the Johannesburg Bar Association. In the 1960s he served as a lawyer in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. In 1974 he became the first non-white in South African history and co-authored the constitution of Namibia. In 1984, he was made an English Barrister. In 1991 he became Chair of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, and the country's first non-white judge of the Supreme Court. He became a judge of the Constitutional Court in 1995. In 1996 he was made Chief Justice of South Africa by President Nelson Mandela. Ismail Mohammad passed away in 2000 at the age of 69.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1962 AD, Algeria gained independence following years of struggle against the French occupiers and the martyrdom of over a million Algerian Muslims. On the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, the French set foot in Algeria in 1830, which led to intense struggle with Amir Seyyed Abdul-Qader al-Hassani, who resisted for 17 years, before his surrender. In early 20^th Century, all of Algeria was dominated by France and the city of Algiers was capital of the French interim government during World War II, after which the Algerian people started their struggle for complete independence, under Ahmad bin Bella, who became the first president. Algeria covers an area of 2.38 million square km and shares borders with Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara.

44 lunar years ago, on this day in 1393 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Hussaini Zanjani passed away at the age of 85 and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of Hazrat Ma’souma (peace upon her). After initial Islamic studies in his hometown Zanjan, he moved to Qom on the revival of the Seminary of that holy city by Ayatollah Shaikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri and mastered jurisprudence, theology, history, and literature. He was well aware of contemporary issues. Among his books is “Khayr al-Omour”.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1977 AD, General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq staged a bloody coup to topple the elected government of Prime Minister Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto and seize power. Two years later he executed Bhutto and a number of his opponents, after closing the parliament and prohibiting the activities of parties and the press. In 1985, Zia orchestrated elections and elected himself as president with US blessings. In 1988, he once again dissolved the national and state assemblies, dismissing the premier with vague promises of another election. On August 17, 1988, Zia ul-Haq was killed, along with several Pakistani army commanders and the US ambassador, when a military plane they were travelling exploded in midair. The present state of anarchy and rampant terrorism in Pakistan is because of General Zia’s dubious policies and his unholy alliance with the US and Saudi Arabia to tarnish the image of Islam.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, Ayatollah Seyyed Jawad Khamenei – father of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei – passed away at the age of 91 in Mashhad and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Khameneh in East Azarbaijan Province, northwestern Iran, he was educated by his scholarly father, before moving to Mashhad, Khorasan, northeastern Iran, where he studied under Ayatollah Aqazadeh Khorasani and Ayatollah Aqa Hussain Qomi. He went to holy Najaf in Iraq for higher religious courses and attended the classes of Grand Ayatollah Mirza Hussain Na’ini and Grand Ayatollah Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani. On return to Iran, he left the rest of his life in Mashhad in piety and asceticism.  

AS/MG