Today is Thursday; 31st of the Iranian month of Tir 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 16th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1437 lunar hijri; and July 21, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1951 solar years ago, on this day in 365 AD, a tsunami devastated the city of Alexandria in Egypt, killing 5,000 people inside the city and another 45,000 outside it. The tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter scale.

1430 lunar years ago, on this day in 7 AH, the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), performed an astounding miracle known as “Radd ash-Shams” (Return of the Setting Sun), when he supplicated to God to reverse the revolve of Planet Earth for some moments so that the resulting daylight allows his cousin and divinely-decreed vicegerent Imam Ali (AS) to formally perform the Asr or late afternoon ritual prayer, which the Imam had performed through gestures, so as not to disturb the descent of Divine Revelation on the Prophet whose head was resting on his. This is indeed one of the proofs of the significant status of Imam Ali (AS). It happened that the Prophet had sent the Imam on an errand, and when the latter returned after discharging the duties entrusted to him, the Asr Congregational Prayer was over. At this time, the Prophet suddenly felt the descent of Divine Revelation upon him, and rested his head on his cousin’s lap. The revelation lasted till the sun was about to set, and on getting up the Prophet asked the Imam whether he had performed the Asr Prayer in the proper manner. The Imam replied: since your blessed head was on my lap and you were receiving Divine Revelation, I couldn't disturb, you and performed the Asr Prayer with gestures. The Prophet supplicated to God and suddenly daylight appeared as it is at the time of the Late Afternoon Ritual Prayer, allowing Imam Ali (AS) to perform the Asr Prayer in its proper manner. This event has been recorded by both Shi’a and Sunni historians and authorities of Hadith. A mosque was built at the place where the miracle had occurred in Medina, and was known as “Masjid Radd ash-Shams”. It stood for centuries and was a site of pilgrimage for both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, until it was demolished in the 1980s by the heretical Wahhabi regime of Saudi Arabia.

This miracle is not a matter of surprise, since according to Islamic texts, as well as biblical sources, the sun had stood still for several hours for Prophet Joshua the successor of Prophet Moses, during a battle with the infidels. This is indicative of the Power of the Almighty Creator over the elements of nature, which are His Own creation and function according to His Will, without the least disturbance in the orderly functioning of the universe.

It is also worth noting that the full moon had miraculously split in two when Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) prayed to God and pointed his finger towards the sky, in response to the demand of some pagan Arabs led by Abu Jahl, along with a group of Israelites, to prove his mission. The first two ayahs of Surah al-Qamar refer to this fact as follows: "The Hour has drawn near and the moon is split. If they see a sign, they turn away, and say, ‘An incessant magic!"

As is clear from the ayahs, the Arab pagans tried to deny this manifest miracle which was produced on their demand, by calling it magic or sorcery, while the Jew immediately accepted Islam, since he had read in the Torah how God made the sun and the moon stand still for Prophet Joshua.

The return of the sun or more properly the momentarily reverse of the Revolving Earth, in a smooth manner and without the least jolt to the world of creation, happened again for Imam Ali (AS) in Hillah, Iraq, during his caliphate, when he supplicated to God to allow a group of Muslims who had missed the Asr Prayer while engaged in defence preparations.

927 lunar years ago, on this day in 510 AH, the hadith scholar and historian, Ahmad Ibn Yusuf Ibn Azraq al-Fareqi, was born in the Miyafareqin region of what is now southeastern Turkey. He travelled widely, becoming familiar with social state of the masses, their customs, and the historical developments of the said regions. These journeys are recorded in his magnum opus titled "Tarikh al-Fareqi", which is a general history with special focus upon the author's native region of Miyafariqin and Amed. He died in 577 AH at the age of 67 years.

298 solar years ago, on this day in 1718 AD, The Treaty of Passarowitz was signed between the Ottoman Empire on one side and the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Republic of Venice on the other. During the years 1714-1718, the Ottomans had been successful against Venice in Greece and Crete, in the Ottoman-Venetian War, but, in the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–1718, they had been defeated at Petrovaradin (1716). The treaty reflected the military situation. The Ottoman Empire lost the Banat and southeastern Syrmia, central part of present-day Serbia (from Belgrade to south of Krusevac), and a tiny strip of northern Bosnia to Austria. Venice renounced claim to the Peloponnesus Peninsula and Crete, retaining only the Ionian Islands and the cities of Preveza and Arta. The result of the treaty was restoration of Habsburg rule over much of the territory of present-day Serbia, which had been lost during the Great Turkish war between 1688 and 1699.

242 solar years ago, on this day in 1774 AD, the 6-year Russo-Turkish War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, according to which the weakened Ottoman Empire lost Southern Ukraine, Northern Caucasus, and Crimea to expansionist Russia. The treaty was a most humiliating blow to the once-mighty Ottoman realm. Russia gained two outlets to the Black Sea, which was no longer an Ottoman lake. The Crimea was the first Muslim territory to slip from the sultan’s suzerainty. The frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, which for three centuries, prior to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, had posed existential danger to Europe, would gradually shrink for another two centuries, until the Sykes-Picot accord detached its Arab possessions as well, to reduce it to modern Turkey.

233 solar years ago, on this day in 1783 AD, the Russians, taking advantage of the weakness of Iran, flexed their military muscles in the Caucasus by declaring Georgia as their protectorate. The Georgians, which for over two millenniums were part of the Persian Empire, were banned from maintaining direct relations with either Iran or the Ottoman Turks.

218 solar years ago, on this day in 1798 AD, the Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was a major engagement during the French invasion of Egypt, and resulted in the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte scoring a decisive victory against the forces of the Georgian Mamluk rulers (Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey), wiping out almost the entire Egyptian army. It was the battle where Napoleon employed one of his significant contributions to military tactics, the divisional square. Actually a rectangle, the deployment of the French brigades into these massive formations repeatedly threw back multiple cavalry charges by the Egyptians. The victory effectively sealed the French conquest of Egypt and Napoleon entered Cairo after the battle to create a new local administration under his supervision. The battle highlighted the weaknesses of the Ottoman Empire in the face of a changing Europe. Napoleon named the battle after the Egyptian pyramids because they were faintly visible on the horizon, 15 km away, when the battle took place some 6 km from Cairo. Nevertheless Napoleon's position in Egypt was precarious, despite his wearing of Muslim dress, showing respect for the Sheikhs of al-Azhar, and renaming himself as Ali Bonaparte. Britain and the Ottoman government joined forces to defeat him and finally drove out the French in 1801.

185 solar years ago, on this day in 1831 AD, with installation of Leopold I as king, Belgium became a constitutional monarchy – a day now celebrated as National Day. In 1830, the Belgian Revolution had led to the separation of the Southern Provinces from the Netherlands and to the establishment of a Catholic, officially French-speaking and neutral Belgium. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters as well as those of several other major international organisations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square km and has a population of about 11 million people.

128 solar years ago, on this day in 1888 AD, the English inventor, John Boyd Dunlop, invented pneumatic tyres. He had realized that inner-filled tyres reduce the speed of vehicles and therefore made a tyre which was filled with air. This type of tire granted further speed and flexibility to vehicles. He died in the year 1921.

117 solar years ago, on this day in 1899 AD, American author, Ernest Hemingway was born. For a while, he worked as a reporter in England and France. He was the innovator of short stories in simple language. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Among his books, are “The Old Man and the Sea”, “A Farewell to Arms”, and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. He committed suicide in 1961.

64 solar years ago, on this day in 1952 AD, the International Court of Justice at Hague, ruled by a vote of 9 to 5 that it had no jurisdiction in the British-Iranian dispute over nationalization of Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later British Petroluem). The verdict ended Britain's bid to force Iran to stop oil nationalization. The decision was based on the majority finding that the 1933 oil concession was a simple contract rather than an international agreement and that Britain could not invoke previous treaties. Hussain Navaz, Iranian Minister to the Netherlands and the agent in the case, said the court's decision would strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq, at a crucial moment in the Iranian political situation. London, however, continued to issue threats against Iran, and the next year ganged up with the US to overthrow the elected government of Prime Minister Mossadeq on August 19, in order to restore the fugitive Pahlavi Shah to the Peacock Throne in Tehran.

62 solar years ago, on this day in 1954 AD, an armistice treaty was signed between France and Vietnam at the end of Geneva Conference, which put an end to French colonial rule of Indochina. This treaty was concluded on May 1954, following the fall of the French Fortification in Vietnam, named “Dien Bien Phu”. At the International Geneva Conference, attended by France, the US, Britain, China, the USSR, and Vietnam, the division of Vietnam into North and South was included on American insistence. According to this treaty, foreign forces should have left Vietnam’s soil, but the US, in violation of the terms of the treaty, dispatched its troops to the region to confront the freedom-seeking people of Vietnam, and obstructed the unification of Northern and Southern Vietnam. The people of Vietnam, who had fought against the French colonial rule for a long time, this time confronted the US and defeated America after nearly two decades of war.  Northern and Southern Vietnam became once again united in a single country in 1975.

46 solar years ago, in 1970 AD, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed after 18 years of work. It is a huge rock-filled dam that lies just north of the border between Egypt and Sudan. It captures the world's longest river, the Nile, in the world's third largest reservoir, Lake Nasser. Built with Soviet aid at a cost of $1 billion, it now produces hydroelectricity meeting 50% of Egypt's power needs. It holds several years of irrigation reserves, assists multi-cropping, has increased productivity 20-50%, enormously increased Egypt's arable land, and overall, increased Egypt's agricultural income by 200%. The embankment is 111 meters high, with a width of near 1,000 meters. Lake Nasser is 480 long and up to 16 km wide.

33 solar years ago, on this day in 1983 AD, the world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, four days after Iran accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598 to stop the Iraqi war, Saddam, who had earlier accepted this same resolution, violated its terms and clauses, by launching a fresh attack in southwestern Iran. Thanks to the readiness of the Muslim combatants, this fresh Ba’thist attack was defeated and it revealed the warmongering nature of Saddam, who had started the 8-year war in September 1980. Ceasefire finally ended the Iraqi War on August 20, 1988.

3 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, in Yemen armed terrorists seized an employee of the Iranian embassy in Sanaa. Diplomat Nour Ahmad Nikbakht was freed by Iranian special operatives in March, 2015.

AS/ME