Today is Thursday; 24th of the Iranian month of Tir 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 9th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1437 lunar hijri; and July 14, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1327 lunar years ago, on this day in 110 AH, the well-known interpreter of dreams, Mohammad Ibn Sirin, died at the age of 77. Born in the Iraqi port city of Basra to a bondmaid and a father of Greek-Syrian ancestry, named Sirin, who was given by Caliph Omar Ibn Khattab as a slave to Anas bin Malek – the not so obedient servant of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – he was of sharp memory and worked as a cloth merchant. After learning the holy Qur'an and the hadith literature, he led an ascetic way of life and soon established himself as an interpreter of dreams. His sources of narration are rather weak because of his lack of access to the Prophet's blessed progeny, the Ahl al-Bayt.

1260 solar years ago, on this day in 756 AD, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty of China fled the capital Chang'an as the forces of An Lushan advanced toward the city. A general of Sogdian-Turkic ethnicity at the Tang court, An Lushan launched his revolt against Chancellor Yang Guozhong in Yanjing. The rebellion spanned the reigns of three Tang emperors before it was quashed in 763, and involved a wide range of regional powers, including Arab and Persian Muslims, Iranian Sogdian forces, and the pagan Gogturks. The rebellion and disorder resulted in a huge loss of life and large-scale destruction. It significantly weakened the Tang dynasty at a time when it was all set to defeat the Tibetan Empire, and led to the loss of the western regions. As a matter of fact, the western expansion of the Tang Empire was checked four years earlier in 751 by the victory of the Muslims over a large Chinese army in the Battle of Talas in the Ferghana Valley in Central Asia, following the defection of the Karluk Turks during the midst of the battle. An Lushan was given control over the entire area north of the lower reaches of the Yellow River, including garrisons about 164,000 strong. He took advantage of various circumstances, such as popular discontent with an extravagant Tang court, the Iranian-involved Abbasid Rebellion against the Omayyad Dynasty, and eventually the absence of strong troops guarding the palace. In 756, over 22,000 Arab-Iranian Muslims were sent by the Abbasid caliph to the aid of the Tang. They stayed in China after the war and intermarried with the Hui Chinese – who are predominantly Muslim till this day. During the rebellion the port of Canton – currently called Guangzhou, near the mouth of the South China Sea – was pillaged in 758 by sea-borne Arab and Persian forces.

227 solar years ago, on this day in 1789 AD, the infamous Bastille Prison was seized by tens of thousands of Parisian and a large section of it was destroyed during the French Revolution. Built in 1369 for military purposes, Bastille was a symbol of tyranny of the hated monarchial system.

200 solar years ago, on this day in 1816 AD, French novelist, diplomat and travel-writer, Joseph Arthur, Comte de Gobineau, who was an unabashed racist, believing in the supposed superiority of the white-skinned people, especially the so-called Aryans, and right of the aristocrats to rule over the masses, was born. Influenced by the absurdly rigid caste system of the Hindus, he propounded the theory of the Aryan master race and tried to legitimize racism and racial demography that was later picked up by German dictator Adolf Hitler and his Nazis. In the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1848, Gobineau wrote a 1400-page book, titled “An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races”, in which he claimed that aristocrats were superior to commoners and that they possessed more Aryan genetic traits because of less inbreeding with inferior races including the Alpines and the Mediterranean people. His writings were praised by white supremacist, pro-slavery Americans like Josiah C. Nott and Henry Hotze, who translated his book into English but omitted around 1000 pages, since parts of it negatively described Americans as a racially mixed population. His writings also influenced prominent anti-Semites such as Richard Wagner, the Romanian far-right politician professor A. C. Cuza and leaders of the Nazi Party. Gobineau served as a diplomat and was initially posted to Iran, before being assigned to Brazil and other countries. He reflected his disdain for ordinary people, claiming that French aristocrats like himself were the descendants of the Germanic Franks who conquered the Roman province of Gaul in the 5th century AD, while common French people were the descendants of racially inferior Celtic and Latin peoples. He derided Chinese culture as “without beauty and dignity”, and maintained that the Jews had polluted Europe. He was extremely hostile towards Slavic peoples, especially Russians. He called the people of southern and western Iran a “degenerative race”, and was sympathetic to the heretical Babi cult, some of whose writings he translated into French.

155 solar years ago, on this day in 1861 AD, the first machinegun was built by US industrialist, Kott Link. His weapon was not automatic, but later the technology was perfected and machineguns were used in wars.

149 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, Swedish chemist, Alfred Bernhard Nobel, demonstrated use of dynamite for the first time at a quarry in Redhill, Surrey, Britain. In 1866 he had produced what he believed was a safe and manageable form of nitroglycerin called dynamite for quarrying minerals and building roads in mountainous terrains. Earlier in 1864, an explosion at his plant had killed his younger brother and four other workers. Deeply shocked by this event, he now worked on a safer explosive and in 1875 came up with gelignite. Other inventions followed, including ballistite, a form of smokeless power. Nobel was dismayed when his invention was misused by European regimes for sabotage and killing of fellow humans. In view of this, he set aside a huge sum as Trust for awarding a peace prize every year to a person who strives most for global peace and security. After him the Trust decided to increase the number of Nobel Prizes every year for outstanding persons in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, and literature – in addition to peace. Unfortunately, because of US hegemony, these prizes, especially the ‘peace prize’, have lost their meaning, and are awarded to mass murderers and agents of the West in Muslim and other countries who subvert their own societies in the interests of foreign powers.

142 solar years ago, on this day in 1874 AD, the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, Abbas II, was born. Named Abbas Hilmi Pasha, he was a great-great-grandson of Mohammad Ali Pasha, the founder of Egypt’s Albanian Muslim Dynasty, and in 1892 succeeded his father, Towfiq Pasha, as ruler. Because of his opposition to British meddling and his sympathies with the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, he was deposed in 1914, and replaced by his uncle Hussain Kamel, whom the British granted the title of Sultan and formally declared Egypt as their ‘protectorate’, thus ending nominal Ottoman suzerainty. The 150-year rule of the Mohammad Ali Pasha Dynasty, ended in 1952 with the ouster of King Farouq in the military coup led by General Mohammad Najib and Colonel Jamal Abdun-Nasser, whose uniformed heirs continue to deny the Egyptian Muslim people their democratic right, as was evident on 3^rd July 2013 by the US-backed military’s overthrow of President Mohammad Morsi, the head of the year-long first ever freely elected government of Egypt.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1910 AD, the prominent freedom fighter of the Constitutional era, Ayatollah Seyyed Abdullah Behbahani, was martyred by terrorists. Born in holy Najaf in Iraq, where after learning Islamic sciences under his virtuous father, Seyyed Ismail Mojtahed Behbahani, he became a student of Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi – famous for the fatwa against tobacco consumption that was benefitting the British. On coming to Iran, he became active in the Constitutional Movement in cooperation with Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq Tabatabai. He played a pivotal role in the victory of the Constitutional Revolution, making utmost efforts to this end, which led to his martyrdom.

77 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, the Leader of Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Husseini Khamenei, was born in the holy city of Mashhad, in Khorasan in a religious family. He learned Islamic sciences under his scholarly virtuous father, Seyyed Jawad, and in 1958 left for the holy city of Qom where he stayed for seven years studying theology, jurisprudence and Islamic philosophy under prominent lecturers such as Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabatabai, and the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (God bless him). For a brief period he was in holy Najaf in Iraq, before returning to his hometown Mashhad, where he became a leading preacher, opposed to the oppressive Pahlavi regime. As a result he was detained and exiled on several occasions for exposing the corruption of the British-installed and US-backed regime. On the threshold of the victory of the Iranian people's movement, he was instated by Imam Khomeini as a member of the Islamic Revolution Council. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he was assigned important posts such as the Imam’s representative at the High Defence Council. In 1981, he was elected as president of the Islamic Republic and four years later was re-elected for the second term. In 1981, while preaching in a mosque, he was the target of a terrorist bomb blast, and sustained serious injuries. In June 1989, after the passing away of Imam Khomeini, he was elected as the new Leader of the Islamic Revolution by the Assembly of Experts in view of his piety, prudence, popularity, political acumen, knowledge, managerial skills, and familiarity with current issues in Iran, the region, and the world. Over the past 27 years, Ayatollah Khamenei has ably discharged his duties to the benefit of Iran, and the Islamic world.

58 solar years ago, on this day in 1958 AD, the British installed monarchy of Iraq was overthrown by popular forces led by the Kurdish general, Abdul-Karim Qassem, who became the nation's new leader. Iraq was declared a republic after the end of the 37-year monarchial system that the British had imposed in 1921 against the wishes of the Iraqi people by installing Faisal of Mecca as king in Baghdad, after crushing the popular uprising of the Iraqi people led by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Shirazi and Ayatollah Kashef al-Gheta. In the coup, Faisal II, his uncle the former regent Prince Abdullah, and the pro-British premier, Noori as-Sa'eed were killed, while trying to flee.

48 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, Afghanistan’s prominent jurisprudent and reformist, Seyyed Ismail Balkhi, was martyred under suspicious circumstances at the age of 49 in Kabul. Born in Balkhab District of Sar-e Pol Province, he was a member of the Persian-speaking Shi’a Muslim Hazara community. An innovative poet, Gnostic, and charismatic political leader, after early education in Afghanistan, he travelled to Iraq for higher studies in Islamic theology and jurisprudence at the famous seminary of holy Najaf.  On return to his homeland, he had to spend fourteen years in prison under the trumped up charges of conspiring to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic. He believed in political change but never embraced any armed movement. His patriotism and love for his country are evident in a number of poems he composed whilst in prison, giving Afghans a message of freedom and democracy.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, prominent Persian archeologist, Iranologist and a world expert on Achaemenid archeology, Ali Reza Shapour Shahbazi, died at the age of 64 in Washington, and his body was transferred to his hometown Shiraz for burial in the gardens surrounding the tomb of the famous Persian poet, Khwaja Hafez Shirazi. After graduation from Iran, he got a MA degree in archeology from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and PhD in Achaemenid archeology from the University of London. On return to Iran, he served as professor of Archeology at Shiraz University and founded the Achaemenid Research Foundation in 1973. Later he settled in the US, and became a Full Professor of history in Eastern Oregon University. At the time of his death, he was a lecturer in Achaemenid archeology and Iranology at Harvard University, and the Columbia University. Shahbazi wrote numerous classic books and articles on archeology (Achaemenid, Sassanid and Islamic) in English, German, French, and Persian languages. He was contributor to the Encyclopedia Iranica.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, two terrorist bomb blasts at the Jame' Mosque in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan, left 27 people martyred and 169 others wounded, while ceremonies were underway in celebration of the birth anniversary of Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3^rd Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The devilish outfit, which wrongly styles itself ‘Jundullah’ or soldiers of God, claimed responsibility for this cowardly act of terrorism. The Zahedan terrorist bomb blasts occurred a month after the execution of this satanic gang's ringleader, Abdul-Malik Rigi, who admitted his links with the US in his confessions.

3 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, the world's last telegram was sent in India. It was the last major country to shut down telegram service. India's 163-year-old telegram service was no longer needed as e-mail and texting had replaced bicycle telegram messengers. In Britain, telegram delivery ceased in 2008, while in the US, Western Union's dwindling service was terminated on 27 January 2006. The first formal telegram was sent by Samuel Morse in Washington to his business partner Alfred Vail in Baltimore, on 24 May 1844. Soon, wires were strung across the US and other countries, which eventually were connected by a Transatlantic cable under the ocean and more submarine cables.

AS/ME