Today is Tuesday; 22nd of the Iranian month of Tir 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 7th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1437 lunar hijri; and July 12, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2116 solar years ago, on this day in 100 BC, Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, was born in a patrician family. One of his ancestors was born by caesarean section (from the Latin verb to cut, caedere, caes-ose); hence the cognomen “Caesar”. A military tactician, statesman, and author of Latin prose, he played a critical role in the events leading to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Empire. His victories in the Gallic Wars in what is now France, completed by 51 BC, extended Rome's territory to the English Channel and the River Rhine. He became the first Roman general to cross both when he built a bridge across the Rhine and conducted the first invasion of Britain. His dictatorial tactics were opposed by the Senate, among them Cato the Younger with the support of the philosopher Cicero – Rome's greatest orator and prose stylist. He was stabbed to death in 44 BC at the age of 56 by a group of senators, apprehensive of the totalitarian powers he had assumed in the wake of his elimination of all rivals in the civil wars that had followed his victories, emboldening him to violate the law against the crossing of the River Rubicon into Italy with armed legions to challenge for supreme power his former ally and rival Pompey – eventually defeated in Egypt and assassinated. Caesar was killed, while planning to invade the Iranian Parthian Empire to avenge the disgraceful defeat in the Battle of Carrhae (Harran in upper Mesopotamia and presently in modern Turkey) nine years earlier in 53 BC when Iran’s General Surena had routed a mighty Roman army led by General Marcus Licinius Crassus – member of the First Triumvirate, along with Caesar and Pompey. A person of loose morals, Julius Caesar, like all other pagans was a sadistic barbarian, who in his official ‘triumphs’ (public celebrations on Rome’s streets and amphitheatre) used to stage live battles and watch with delight as prisoners of war divided into groups brutally killed each other. His death transformed the republic into the Roman Empire under his designated heir, grandnephew Ocatavius, who after elimination of his main rival Mark Antony, assumed the imperial title of Emperor Augustus Caesar. Julius Caesar is remembered for replacement of the Roman lunar calendar with the Egyptian solar calendar of 365.25 days, by adding a leap day at the end of February every fourth year. The month of Quintilis was renamed July in his honour and thus, the Julian calendar (also named after him), opened on 1 January 45 BC. It was used in Europe until 1582 AD when it was replaced by the current Gregorian.

1126 lunar years ago, on this day in 311 AH, the renowned Iranian statesman, scientist, and geographer, Abu Abdullah Mohammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Jeyhani, passed away in Bukhara, where he served as vizier to the Iranian Samanid Dynasty. It was his political acumen that consolidated the Samanid realm in Central Asia and Khorasan (including present-day Afghanistan), following the murder of Ahmad Ibn Ismail, the second ruler and the ascension of the latter's 8-year old, Nasr. Poets and historians have eulogized him for his policies that included clemency towards fallen foes. His son and grandson also served as viziers. His lasting fame is indebted to the valuable works he wrote, the most important of which is in the geographical book “al-Masaalek wa’l-Mamalek”.

825 solar years ago, on this day in 1191 AD, during the Third Crusade launched by Christian mercenaries from Europe, including King Phillip of France and King Richard of England, the Muslim garrison of Acre, on the orders of Salah od-Din, surrendered, but over a month later, against the terms of the treaty, over 3,000 prisoners were beheaded in cold blood by King Richard of England, with their hands tied.

736 solar years ago, on this day in 1290 AD, King Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England because of their unfair economic activities including usury, in addition to their slandering of Prophet Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary. The expulsion edict, which was culmination of two centuries of Christian resentment, remained in force for the subsequent centuries, until Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews to return to England in 1657, in exchange for finance.

546 solar years ago, on this day in 1470 AD, Euboea, the second-largest Greek island after Crete, was liberated from its Venetian occupiers by the Ottoman Sultan Mohammad II. Called Egriboz by the Turks, for over three-and-a-half centuries it was the seat of a thriving sanjaq (or administrative division) that included much of mainland Greece, where mosques, baths, libraries, and bazaars flourished, until destroyed by Greek Christians, assisted by mercenaries from other parts of Europe in 1830. The Europeans called it Negroponte until the 19th century.

357 lunar years ago, on this day in 1080 AH, the prominent Iranian Islamic scholar, Seyyed Rafi od-Din Mohammad ibn Seyyed Haidar, known popularly as Mirza-e Rafi'a Na’ini, passed away. He was the teacher of the famous scholar, Allamah Baqer Majlisi. His works include the book titled “Hamla-e Haidari”.

217 solar years ago, on this day in 1799 AD, the Sikh warrior Ranjit Singh seized Lahore from his benefactors, the Afghan Durrani Dynasty, and declared himself the Maharaja of Punjab. Acquainted with Persian language as a young soldier, he was chosen by Zaman Shah Durrani as governor of Punjab. He soon assembled an army of Sikhs to carve out a kingdom. He desecrated the grand Badshahi Mosque of Lahore by turning it into a stable. In 1818, he occupied Multan, invaded Kashmir, and advanced upon Peshawar. His dreams of marching on Kabul did not materialize, but when Shah Shuja sought asylum with him, he seized the fabulous Koh-e Noor diamond which Nader Shah of Iran had taken from Mughal Emperor Mohammad Shah of Delhi and which after him had fallen to the Afghan general, Ahmad Shah Abdali Durrani. In 1849, when the British defeated the Sikhs, they seized Koh-e Noor which is currently in the crown of the British queen. Within ten years after Ranjit Singh’s death, his kingdom was annexed by the British.

162 solar years ago, on this day in 1854 AD, US inventor and entrepreneur, George Eastman, was born in Waterville, New York. A pioneering manufacturer of photographic materials, including rolled film (first patented 1884) and the Kodak camera (patented 1888), he founded the Eastman-Kodak Company, which for years held a virtual monopoly in the camera and film industry. His introduction of the first Kodak camera helped to promote large-scale amateur photography

102 solar years ago, on this day in 1914 AD, the prominent scholar of Persian literature and Iranian studies, Mohammad Moin, was born in Rasht, the capital of Gilan Province, in a religious family. He learned Arabic at a young age, and completed his studies at Tehran's Dar al-Fonoun Academy, where he obtained BA in literature and philosophy in 1934. He went to Belgium and graduated in applied psychology, anthropology and cognitive science. On returning to Iran he did his doctoral research under Ibrahim Pour-Davoud at Tehran University, and received a PhD with honours in Persian literature and linguistics. He is the first doctoral graduate in Persian literature from Tehran University. In 1942, he began lecturing at Tehran University, where he was later appointed full professor and subsequently promoted as Distinguished Professor to the Chair of Literary Criticism and Research in Literary Texts. In 1946, with the start of publication of the famous Persian lexicon “Lughat-Nameh Dehkhoda” by Allamah Professor Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, he began cooperation with him and contributed valuable articles to the project, for which he was awarded by several world universities and academic-literary foundations. His magnum opus is the six-volume "Farhang-e Moin" (Moin Dictionary). He passed away in 1971 and was buried in Astaneh Ashrafiyeh.

90 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, the notorious British spy, Gertrude Bell, who masqueraded as archaeologist, writer, traveller, and political officer, died. She was fluent in Arabic and Persian languages, and travelled extensively in Syria, Iraq, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along with that other notorious British spy, T. E. Lawrence, she helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan and Iraq, by placing the sons of the British agent, Sharif Hussain of Hejaz as kings, so as to brutally suppress the aspirations of the people. She was involved in creating and administering the modern state of Iraq, and has remarked in her travelogue: If Iraq were to be allowed real representative rule, then the Shi'a Muslim majority would definitely rise to power, but the British should never allow this to happen, because rule by a mujtahed is certainly not in London's interests.

70 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, King David Hotel in Bayt al-Moqqadas was exploded by the Irgun Zionist terrorist group, which placed bombs in its basement to kill more than 200 Palestinians, along with 15 Jews.

68 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, a day after the illegal Zionist entity seized the Palestinian town of al-Ludd (Judaized to Lod) it massacred in cold blood over 400 men, women and children, and then drove out from their homes to Jordan the remaining 20,000 (18,500 Muslims and 1500 Christians). The same day the Zionists occupied Ramlah and almost emptied the town of its Arab population – both Muslims and Christians. These two cities have been settled with the illegal Jewish migrants to the usurped land of Palestine that is wrongly called Israel.

56 lunar years ago, on this day in 1381 AH, the religious leader and famous political figure of Iran, Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Qasem Kashani, passed away. He attained the status of Ijtehad at the Najaf Seminary at a young age, simultaneous with his struggles against British colonial rule over Iraq, in the company of other ulema. He was expelled by the British, and on arriving in Iran, he launched his struggle against British colonial infiltration, which led to his imprisonment for several years. Following his release, he was elected to the parliament. With Ayatollah Kashani’s support for Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq and the continued struggles of the masses, Iran’s oil industry was nationalized and Mosaddeq was chosen as Prime Minister. But, when the Shah appointed the British stooge, Qawwam os-Saltanah, as the Premier; Ayatollah Kashani issued a statement calling on the people to enter the scene. As a result, the July 21, 1952 uprising took place. The terrified Shah removed Qawwam and Mosaddeq was reinstated as the Premier. Following the US-staged coup in 1953 and the fugitive Shah’s return to Iran, his agents put Ayatollah Kashani under surveillance until his death on this day, after his lifelong struggles against domestic despotism and foreign hegemony.

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, floods hit Pune in western Indian, due to breach of the Khadakwasla and Panshet dams. Half of the city was submerged, more than 100,000 families were relocated and the death tally exceeded 2,000.

44 lunar years ago, on this day in 1393 AH, the exegete of the Holy Qur’an, Ayatollah Mirza Abu’l-Hussain Sha’rani, passed away at the age of 73. As an authority on Islamic sciences, he was fluent in French, Arabic, and English languages. His works include a 10-volume exegesis of the Holy Qur’an.

38 lunar years ago, on this day in 1399 AH, the prominent Iranian religious scholar and exegete of the Holy Qur’an, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Taleqani, died of heart attack at the age of 70. He was involved in the political developments from an early age, and in 1963 was jailed by the Pahlavi regime for participating in the Khordad 15 Uprising (June 5, 1963), following the arrest of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). In the subsequent years till the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he was incarcerated or banished to the country’s remote places. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he was named by the Late Imam as Head of the Revolutionary Council as well as the Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran. In the first round of elections for the Assembly of Experts, he was elected as the Tehran representative for an 8-year term. He was a prolific writer and among his works is an exegesis of several surahs of the Holy Qur’an as well as a book titled "System of Ownership in Islam".

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, prominent Iranian thinker, Allamah Seyyed Taher Seyedzadeh Hashemi, passed away in Kermanshah, western Iran. He strove to promote Islamic teachings and in addition to compiling numerous books, he was a highly capable calligrapher. He was fluent in Arabic, Persian and Kurdish languages and wrote numerous odes in these three languages.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, in Bosnia, over a hundred Muslims were brutally decapitated and their headless corpses loaded on to trucks, under instructions of Serb intelligence officer, Momir Nikolic, who was eventually arrested in 2002 for killing some 1,000 Muslim males, taken from a UN compound in July 1995. He was also charged for the deaths of 6,000 more Muslim prisoners who were fleeing besieged Srebrenica. In 2003 Nikolic pleaded guilty to war crimes, but was only given a light sentence of 20 years in prison.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, the prominent scholar, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Waheedi Shabestari, passed away at the age of 84. He studied at the Qom Seminary under leading scholars, such as Sheikh Mahdi Mazandarani and Mirza Mohammad Ali Shahabadi, and mastered jurisprudence, theology, philosophy and gnosis. He settled in his hometown Shabestar, in northwestern Iran, and embarked on promotion of the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) in West Azarbaijan and Kurdistan Provinces, where he built several mosques and hussainiyehs. He was active in the Islamic movement against the despotic regime of the British-installed and American-backed Pahlavi Shah.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, the illegal Zionist entity launched a brutal war on Lebanon on the pretext of capture of two Israeli soldiers by the legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah. The 33-day invasion, supported by the US and certain Arab reactionary regimes, was defeated by the Islamic resistance, which shattered the myth of invincibility of Israel. The cowardly Zionist entity, however, attacked civilian areas, martyring a total of 1,200 men, women and children, in addition to destroying part of the infrastructure of southern Lebanon. Thanks to the people’s support for the Hezbollah, which retaliated with a steady barrage of rockets on Israel that took a heavy toll of life in the usurper state, the Zionists were forced to halt the war and withdraw in a humiliating manner.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, Iran’s famous film and theater director, Hamid Samandarian, passed away in his hometown Tehran, at the age of 81. He staged numerous dramas, including “No Exit” by Jean-Paul Sartre. He trained several Iranian actors and directors including; Ezzatolah Entezami, Reza Kianian, Golab Adineh, Mahdi Hashemi, Parviz Pour-Hosseini, and Ahmad Aghalou.

AS/ME