Today is Saturday; 16th of the Iranian month of Mordad 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 3rd of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1437 lunar hijri; and August 6, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1266 solar years ago, on this day in 750 AD, the 13^th and last self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, Marwan II, titled “al-Hemar” (the Donkey), was caught and killed in Egypt at the age of 62 after a 6-year rule while fleeing through Syria, Palestine, and North Africa, following defeat in the Battle of Zab on the banks of the river of the same name in northern Iraq at the hands of the Abbasids on January 25 the same year. Thus ended the Godless rule of the Omayyads established in 661on the seizure of the Islamic realm by Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan through a dubious treaty imposed upon Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Prior to the decisive Battle of Zab, the hated Omayyads had suffered a series of defeats all the way from Iran to Iraq by the combined forces of the Abbasids, Shi’ite Muslims, and Iranians. At Zab, Marwan assembled a vast army made up of many veterans of earlier Omayyad campaigns against the Byzantine Empire, but the zeal of the opponents demoralized his forces and they fled in the face of determined attack. Marwan escaped the battlefield and was relentless pursued by the Abbasids, who cornered him in Abusir in Nile delta and executed him.

510 solar years ago, on this day in 1506 AD, the army of the Crimean Khanate led by Fateh Giray Khan lost the Battle of Kletsk to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led by Court Marshall Michael Glinski. Established in 1449 by Tatar Muslims in what is now southern Ukraine, southern Russia and Moldova, the Khanate of Crimea ruled the area for over three centuries till it fell to Russian expansionism in 1783. It was closely allied to the Ottoman Empire and became its vassal state in its last century of rule. The Crimean Khanate established a flourishing Islamic culture, used the Perso-Arabic script, and built splendid mosques, bazaars, public baths, fountains, palaces, and libraries.  

506 solar years ago, on this day in 1510 AD, Da’ud Khan of the Faruqi Dynasty of Khandesh in Central India, died after a reign of 7 years during which he was totally dependent on his two brothers, Hussain Ali and Yar Ali, with the former serving as vizier of the state. Because of ill advice, Da’ud attacked the Nizamshahi Dynasty of Ahmadnagar, but the latter’s army marched into Khandesh, almost making him lose his kingdom which was only saved by his pleas of help to the Sultan of Malwa, who forced him to become his subordinate. His son and successor, Ghazni Khan, was killed by poisoning within ten days of his death, prompting the kingdoms of Berar and Ahmadnagar to install his cousin, Alam Khan, as ruler, a move that was opposed by Mahmoud Shah, the powerful sultan of Gujarat, who instead sent an army to crown another member of the Faruqi Dynasty as Adil Khan III. Founded in 1382 by Malik Ahmad Raja Faruqi, the son of a Rajput convert to Islam who served Sultan Feroze Shah Tughlaq of Delhi, Khandesh and its capital Burhanpur, were annexed by the Mughal Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar in 1601. The Sultanate was a Persianate society, and made rich contribution to Persian literature, art and architecture. Islam was also promoted through peaceful means, as is evident today by the large number of Tadvi Bhils, and Raj Gonds, who are Muslims.

207 solar years ago, on this day in 1809 AD, Alfred Tennyson, British Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign and one of the most popular English poets, was born. He excelled in penning short lyrics, such as “Break, Break, Break”, “Tears Idle Tears” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” – the last one pertaining to the abortive charge of the British Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War. He also wrote some notable blank verse including “Idylls of the King” and “Ulysses”. A number of phrases from Tennyson's work have become commonplaces of the English language, including “Nature, red in tooth and claw”, “Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all”, “Theirs not to reason why/ Theirs but to do and die”, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”, “Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers”, and “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”. He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson died in 1892 at the age of 83.

191 solar years ago, on this day in 1825 AD, Bolivia was liberated from Spanish colonial rule after sixteen years of seesaw struggle following the revolution launched in 1809 by the famous South American freedom-fighter, Simon Bolivar. Bolivia covers an area of almost 1.1 million sq km, and shares borders with Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. In the 2006 general elections, for the first time in its history, Bolivia saw the emergence of a member of the long-suppressed indigenous Amerindian majority population, as president. President Juan Evo Morales, ever since his victory, has been the target of propaganda and ridicule, by the US and West Europe for his independent policies.

135 solar years ago, on this day in 1881 AD, the Scottish physician and discoverer, Alexander Fleming, was born. In the company of two other scientists, Florey and Chain, he discovered Penicillin. The three scientists were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.

121 lunar years ago, on this day in 1316 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Fesharaki passed away, at the age of 63. Born in Fesharak, near Isfahan, after preliminary studies, he was 11 years old when, along with his elder brother, he left for Iraq for higher studies at the famous seminary in holy Najaf. He attained higher status of knowledge and was known for his piety and asceticism. He declined to declare himself Marja’ or Source of Emulation, despite having the necessary qualifications, but continued to groom scholars in various branches of Islamic sciences. 

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, when World War II was almost over, the US, in a blatant act of state terrorism, dropped an atomic bomb on the unsuspecting city of Hiroshima, far away from any warfront. The lethal bomb named "Little Boy" by the sadistic Americans, instantly killed over 90,000 men, women and children, and left almost a hundred thousand others injured. In addition, some tens of thousands of Japanese were to die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning from the bomb whose destructive power was equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT explosives. The destructive effects of this dastardly American atomic bombardment of Hiroshima remain to this day. A few days later, the US again resorted to yet another crime against humanity by dropping a second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Despite calls worldwide for disarmament, the US and its dangerously armed accomplices refuse to oblige, and are testing still more lethal weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1962 AD, the island state of Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea, gained independence from British colonial rule. European invaders, starting with the Spanish and followed by the French, in one of the most blatant acts of genocide, exterminated the indigenous people of this island. Later, on seeing the agriculture potential of Jamaica, especially in sugarcane cultivation, they kidnapped from Africa tens of thousands of black people and forced them to work as slaves. Jamaica covers an area of 10991 sq. km.

51 solar years ago, on this day in 1965 AD, Indian troops crossed into Pakistan, and fighting spread to Punjab and the disputed Muslim-populated Himalayan land of Kashmir as Pakistanis crossed into Indian-controlled areas. The 2nd Indo-Pakistani conflict started without a formal declaration of war, which officially started towards the end of August and ended in early September, with both sides suffering heavy casualties and unable to defeat the other. The Tashkent Declaration of January 1966 under the auspices of the Soviet Union resulted in a peace meeting between Pakistan’s President Field-Marshal Mohammad Ayoub Khan and India’ Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who after talks died due to a massive heart attack.

18 lunar years ago, on this day in 1419 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq as-Sadr was martyred in Iraq, along with two of his sons, by the repressive Ba'th minority regime of Saddam. The people of Iraq demonstrated against this act of state terrorism but were brutally suppressed. He was the father of the present leader of the Sadrist faction of Iraq, Hojjat al-Islam, Seyyed Muqtada Sadr. A year earlier, Saddam had martyred two other leading scholars of the Najaf seminary, Ayatollah Gharavi and Ayatollah Borujerdi.

AS/ME