Today is Wednesday; 6th of the Iranian month of Mordad 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 22nd of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1437 lunar hijri; and July 27, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1096 lunar years ago, on this day in 341 AH, the Iranian poet, Abu Ishaq Kesa-i Marvazi, was born in the Khorasani city of Marv, which was seized by Russia in 1884 and is now in the present day republic of Turkmenistan. His life was concurrent with the waning years of the Iranian Samanid Dynasty of Bukhara and the rise of the Turkic Ghaznavid Dynasty of Ghazna. Hence he has written poems in praise of the rulers of these two dynasties, before embracing the truth of the school of the Ahl al-Bayt. Thereafter he devoted his life to writing poetry on the merits of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and his First Infallible Heir, Imam Ali (AS). He has left behind a Divan of poems.

814 solar years ago, on this day in 1202 AD, the Battle of Basian occurred in what is now northeastern Turkey following the seizure of Erzerum by Rukn od-Din Suleymanshah II of the Seljuq Sultanate of Roum, resulting in the victory of the Georgians, who managed to check the advance of the Turks, but failed to take the city.

717 solar years ago, on this day in 1299 AD, the invasion of Nicomedia by Osman Bey is considered by historians to be the date of foundation of the Ottoman state.  Osman’s father Ertugrul, was an Oghuz Turk, who fleeing the Mongol invasion of Muslim lands in Central Asia, came to Anatolia (modern Turkey) from Marv in Khorasan with 400 horsemen to serve the Seljuqs of Roum against the Byzantines. The collapse of the Seljuq Sultanate of Roum saw Anatolia divided into a patchwork of independent, mostly Turkic states, the so-called Ghazi emirates. One of the emirates was led by Osman Bey (1258–1326), from whom the name Ottoman is derived. He extended the frontiers of Turkic settlements toward the edge of the Byzantine Empire. In the century after the death of Osman, Ottoman rule began to extend over the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans at the expense of the Byzantines, who went into oblivion with the capture of their capital Constantinople in 1453 by the Turks and its renaming as Istanbul as the new capital. The Ottoman Empire reached its zenith in the 16^th century, overlapping the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, and turning of the Mediterranean Sea into the Turkish Lake. In the east, Ottoman expansion was first checked by the fearsome Central Asian conqueror Amir Timur at the beginning of the 15^th century, and in the subsequent centuries by the powerful Persian Empire of the Safavids of Iran. The decline set in towards the end of the 17^th century and the beginning of the 18^th century and continued until its final defeat in First World War. In 1923 the Ottoman Empire was dissolved and replaced by the Republic of Turkey.

740 solar years ago, on this day in 1276 AD, James I of Aragon, died at the age of 68. An avowed enemy of Muslims, during his long 63-year reign, he occupied the prosperous Spanish Muslim Ta'efa of Valencia (Arabic Balansiya), through treachery, granting asylum to its deposed ruler, the apostate Zayd Abu Zayd, who adopted the Christian name Vicente Bellvis, married a Christian woman, and betrayed the Muslims. The Siege of Burriana in 1233 and the Battle of the Puig in 1237 launched by James were bravely resisted by Zayyan ibn Mardanish of Valencia, who was overpowered in 1238, thereby ending over five centuries of glorious Muslim rule over this region on Spain’s eastern coast. James next attacked and occupied the Muslim-ruled Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, exterminating the local Spanish Muslim population and settling Christian Catalans in their place. In 1856, when his body was exhumed, his deformed skull was found to have the crack he suffered as a result of an arrow shot by a Muslim archer that pierced him above his left eyebrow.

714 solar years ago, on this day in 1302 AD, the Battle of Bapheus occurred, resulting in a decisive victory for the rising principality of the Ottoman Turks over the Byzantine Empire, and opening up of all of Asia Minor for the Muslim conquest. The Ottomans achieved characteristics and qualities of state after this battle near what is now Yalova in Turkey. Osman I, who served the Seljuq sultans of Roum or Anatolia, took over leadership of his clan in 1282, and over the next two decades launched a series of ever-deeper raids into Byzantine territories. By 1301, the Ottomans were besieging Nicaea, the former imperial capital. In the spring of 1302, Emperor Michael IX launched a campaign, but the Turks avoided open battle and carried on hit-and-run raids that weakened and isolated the Byzantine army, forcing the emperor to retreat by the sea, followed by waves of refugees. At this Michael's co-emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos sent another army across the Bosporus which was routed by the Turks at Bapheus – the first major victory for the nascent Ottoman emirate. The Byzantine defeat sparked a massive exodus of the Christian Greek population from the area into the European parts of the Empire. In the next one-and-a-half centuries, the Ottomans were to complete the conquest of the Byzantine Empire by capturing its capital Constantinople in 1453 and renaming it Islambol (Istanbul).

430 solar years ago, on this day in 1586 AD, potatoes were introduced from the Americas to Britain by Thomas Harriot and cultivated by Walter Raleigh in his estate in Ireland. The origin of the potato is not definitively known, and there are other accounts of its being brought to Europe by the Spanish much earlier.

326 lunar years ago, on this day in 1112 AH, the renowned scholar, Seyyed Nematollah Jazayeri passed away at the age of 61 in the city of Pol-e Dokhtar where his mausoleum stands as a site of pilgrimage. He traced his descent to Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), the 7^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in one of the islands in the estuary of the Tigris-Euphrates confluence at the headwaters of the Persian Gulf near Basra; hence his epithet ‘Jazayeri’, he and his brother Seyyed Najm od-Din came to Shiraz for religious education. He transcribed books, corrected the transcriptions and wrote glosses on books in order to earn living, simultaneous with his studies. He spent three years in this manner, studying under great scholars such as Sheikh Ja’far Bahrani, the celebrated Mullah Sadra Shirazi, and Seyyed Hashem Ehsai. After marriage he shifted to the Safavid capital, Isfahan, for higher studies, and here his teachers were Mirza Rafi Tabatabaei, Sheikh Emad Yazdi, Mohaqeq Sabzevari, Sheikh Horr Ameli, Mullah Mohsen Faiz Kashani, and the famous Allamah Baqer Majlisi. He soon became a great scholar in his own right, and groomed several students, besides writing books on a wide variety of subjects. After 8 years in Isfahan, he left for Iraq but because of the restrictions placed by the Ottoman occupiers did not stay there for long. Invited by the governor of Khuzestan, he moved to southwestern Iran where he established many mosques and religious schools. He served as Sheikh ol-Islam in the Shustar region, and also preached in southern Iraq where he strove to abolish the enmity between Arab tribes. He wrote some 55 books such as an exegesis of the holy Qur’an titled “Oqoud al-Marjaan”, “Riyadh al-Abraar fi Ma’refat al-Aimmat al-Athaar” (on the biographies of the Infallible Imams), "Qissas al-Anbiyya" (Accounts of the Prophets), "Madinat-al-Hadith", "Hedayat al-Mo'menin" and “al-Anwar an-Nu’maniyya fi Ma’refat an-Nishaat al-Insaniyya”. He also wrote a commentary on "Sahifat as-Sajjadiyya", the collection of supplications of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), the 4^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).  Among his descendants are prominent religious scholars, academicians, and statesmen, spread over Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and the Subcontinent, including his great grandson, Seyyed Abu’l-Qassim Jazayeri Shushtari, titled “Mir Alam”, the early 19^th century prime minister of the state of Haiderabad-Deccan in southern India. In Lucknow in the northern India, his descendants include the famous religious scholar Mufti Seyyed Mohammad Abbas Jazayeri Shustari (1809-1869) and his equally scholarly son, Mufti Seyyed Ahmad Ali.  

286 lunar years ago, on this day in 1151 AH, the Iranian Islamic scholar, Mohammad Hussain Khatoun-Abadi, passed away. He was an authority in theology, literature, and hadith. Among his valuable compilations, mention can be made of "al-Alwaah-us-Samawiyyah" (Heavenly Tablets).

244 solar years ago, on this day in 1772 AD, a treaty was signed by the three major European powers of the 18^th century for division of Poland among Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Poland thus ceased to exist until its rebirth in 1918 after the end of World War I.

205 lunar years ago, on this day in 1232 AH, the jurisprudent and theologian, Mullah Ali Akbar Eiji Isfahani, passed away. He groomed students and authored several books, including “Zubdat-al-Ma’aref”.

181 solar years ago, on this day in 1835 AD, Italian poet, Giosue Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci, was born. He was very influential and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906 he became the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

175 solar years ago, on this day in 1841 AD, Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, was killed in a duel at the young age of 27. The most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837, and the greatest figure in Russian Romanticism, his influence on later Russian literature is still felt in modern times, not only through his poetry, but also through his prose, which founded the tradition of the Russian psychological novel. His works include the short stories “A Hero of our Time”, and “Ashiq-e Gharib” (the Turkish fairytale “Stranger Lover”), and the poem “Death of the Poet”.

172 solar years ago, on this day in 1844 AD, British scientist, John Dalton, died at the age of 78. He conducted extensive research and made several discoveries in the fields of physics, chemistry, and natural sciences. He set the principles for combination of gases and discovered the positive and negative impacts of disintegration and combination of colors.

136 solar years ago, on this day in 1880 AD, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Afghan forces led by Shir Ali’s son Ayub Khan defeated the British Army in a battle near Maiwand.

107 lunar years ago, on this day in 1330 AH, the Ottomans withdrew from Libya in conformity with the Treaty of Ouchy after losing the war with the invading Italian forces.

70 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, American writer of novels, poetry and plays Gertrude Stein, died at the age of 72 in France, where she had settled. A literary innovator and pioneer of Modernist Literature, her works included the murder mystery "Blood on the Dining-Room Floor" and “The Biography of Alice B. Toklas”.

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, Indian ornithologist, Salim Ali, known as the “Birdman of India” died. Born into an Ismaili Shi’ite family, his love of birds started at age 10, when he began writing his observations. Eventually he undertook professional education in ornithology. In 1930 he began a bird survey of Hyderabad State. By 1976, he had published several popular regional field guides of Indian birds for which he is famous. These surveys were based on extensive travels throughout India and Pakistan. The title of his autobiography “The Fall of a Sparrow” recalls the first sparrow that drew his interest as a boy.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people, in a referendum, approved amendments to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution, as per the instructions of the Late Founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini (RA). The amendments included enhancement of the presidential powers and elimination of the post of prime minister.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2007, US occupation troops attacked Muslims in the holy city of Karbala, martyring scores of people. Simultaneously, US-backed terrorists exploded a truck bomb in Baghdad’s Shi’a Muslim neighbourhood of Karradah martyring at least 105 people and injured 193 others. A year earlier on this same day, US-backed terrorists had fired a rocket and mortar barrage, followed by a car bomb in Baghdad, martyring 32 Shi’a Muslims and wounding 153 others.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, prominent Iranian film director and producer, Saifollah Dad, passed away at the age of 52. He turned out some of the outstanding hits such as “From Karkheh to Rhine”, “The Satan”, “Children of Divorce,” and ‘The Survivor”. The last named is an epic historical film about the brutal expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland by Zionist terrorists at the illegal birth of Israel in 1948.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, the Saudi Arabian regime, as part of its repressive policy against the Shi’a Muslims, detained a number of peaceful protesters in the restive eastern region and opened fire on them in Qatif, wounding several as hundreds marched to demand the release of detainees.

AS/ME