Today is Thursday; 28th of the Iranian month of Mordad 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 15th of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Qa’dah 1437 lunar hijri; and August 18, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1332 solar years ago, on this day in 684 AD, the crucial Battle of Marj Rahit took place near Damascus for control of Syria, resulting in a surprise victory for Marwan Ibn al-Hakam of the tottering Omayyad regime, because of the support of the Banu Kalb tribesmen against the rival Banu Qays clansmen. The Banu Qays were led by the governor of Damascus, Dahhak Ibn Qays al-Fihri, a partisan of Abdullah Ibn Zubayr, who had styled himself as caliph in Hijaz on the death of the tyrant Yazid, but made the fatal mistake of allowing Marwan to leave Medina for Syria. Twenty days earlier at Marj as-Suffar, Dahhak had defeated Marwan and almost annihilated the Omayyads. Marwan, who decades ago had been banished along with his infidel father, Hakam Ibn Aas, by Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) but recalled to Medina by Othman Ibn Affan and given charge of all state affairs during his 12-year caliphate, now took advantage of the abdication by Yazid’s son, Mu’awiyya II, to declare himself caliph. Marwan’s victory was due to the bribing of commanders of the rival forces by his generals, such as Obaidollah Ibn Ziyad, the perpetrator of the heartrending tragedy of Karbala and the martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husain (AS). After nine months in power Marwan was choked to death by Yazid’s wife whom he had married, and was succeeded by his equally cruel son, Abdul-Malik. The new self-styled Omayyad caliph continued to struggle for control of Islamic lands with the rival caliph, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr, and succeeded in occupying Egypt, but in 686 was soundly defeated near Mosul in Iraq by the avenger of Imam Hussain’s blood, Mukhtar Ibn Abu Obaidah, whose forces killed the despicable Omayyad commander, Obaidollah Ibn Ziyad. Abdul-Malik, terrified of Mukhtar’s possible march upon Damascus, was relieved at Abdullah Ibn Zubayr’s blunder of attacking Iraq instead of accepting Mukhtar’s offer of alliance for finishing off the Omayyads. In 687 Mus'ab ibn Zubayr resorted to bribes and treachery to defeat and kill Mokhtar, but four years later was defeated and killed in turn by the now resurgent Abdul-Malik, who after occupying Iraq and Iran, sent his bloodthirsty general, Yusuf Hajjaj to Hijaz the next year in 692 to kill the rival caliph in Mecca and destroy the holy Ka’ba.

1305 lunar years ago, on this day in 132 AH, the Abbasids, after defeating the Omayyad tyrants, assembled all surviving male members of this Godless clan near River Jordan, tied them up, and made them lie underneath wooden planks on which they held a grand feast by stomping to death their mortal enemies. The first Abbasid caliph is thus called "Saffah" because of the Omayyad blood he had shed by wreaking such a horrible vengeance that he even ordered the digging up of the graves of all their caliphs, including Mu'awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, and burned their bones, saying he was punishing them for their crimes against humanity.

937 lunar years ago, on this day in 500 AH, Arabic grammarian, lexicographer and hadith scholar, Abu’l-Karam Mubarak bin Fakher, passed away in his hometown Baghdad. Known as Ibn Fakher, he was student of the leading linguists of the Arabic language, such as Abdul-Wahed bin Burhan Ukbari, Abu’l-Qassim Rakhi, and the Iranian Abu’l-Hussain bin Shahwaiyh. He followed the Basra school Abu Ali Farsi, and studied the book of the famous Iranian grammarian of the Arabic language, Sibawaiyh, with the help of an explanation written on it by Abu Sa’eed Sirafi. He made trips to Hijaz and Yemen to learn the original Arabic dialect. He learned hadith from Abu Tayyeb Taher bin Abdullah Tabari and others, claims to have heard narrations that no other persons have related, prompting later scholars to question his statements and to accuse him of lies.

789 solar years ago, on this day in 1227 AD, the bloodthirsty Mongolian Buddhist tyrant, Genghis Khan, died at the age of 65, after devastating centres of civilization, especially in the Muslim world, including Iran, and slaughtering some seventeen million people. Named Temujin at birth in a nomadic family, he united the scattered Mongol tribes and then savagely attacked and occupied northern China. He now expanded his dominions in the west by conquering the Turkic Qara-Khitai Khanate that brought his borders to the Khwarezmian Empire, whose ruler, Shah Ala od-Din Mohammad, made the fatal mistake of first mistreating the trade delegation sent by Genghis Khan, and then after repulsing the first wave of Mongol invasion, making a tactical blunder by dividing his army into small divisions on the assumption that there won’t be any further attacks. The result was catastrophic. Genghis, known for his treachery and betrayal of even his own friends, attacked with ferocity, razing to the ground flourishing Muslim cities and slaughtering entire populations. The fabled Iranian Islamic cities of Samarqand and Bukhara were devastated, and next came the turn of the cultural-commercial capital, Urgenj, whose artisans were sent to Mongolia, young women and children were given to the Mongol soldiers as slaves, and the rest of the population was massacred. The Iranian historian Juvayni states that 50,000 Mongol soldiers were given the task of executing twenty-four Urgenj citizens each, which would mean that 1.2 million people were killed. Urgenj is considered one of the bloodiest massacres in human history. In his pursuit of the fugitive Shah, Genghis invaded Khorasan, massacring 70,000 people in Merv, and 190,000 in Naishapur, where the famous Persian poet, Attar Naishapuri was among the victims. The researcher Steven R. Ward has written: "Overall, the Mongol violence and depredations killed up to three-fourths of the population of the Iranian Plateau, possibly 10 to 15 million people. Some historians have estimated that Iran's population did not again reach its pre-Mongol levels until the mid-20th century." Genghis was buried somewhere close to the Onon River and the Burkhan Khaldun Mountain, and his funeral escort killed everyone across its path to conceal his grave.

602 solar years ago, on this day in 1414 AD, the prominent Persian poet and literary figure, Noor od-Din Abdur-Rahman Jami, was born in the city of Jam, in Khorasan Province. He went to Samarqand to learn Islamic sciences, literature and history, and visited several other lands before settling in Herat. He has left behind a large number of works in prose and verse, including “Baharestan”. Jami, who died at the age of almost 80, has also composed beautiful odes in praise of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Ahl al-Bayt.

529 solar years ago, on this day in 1487 AD, the four-month siege of the strategic Spanish Muslim port of Malaga of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, ended with its occupation by the Christian forces, aided by mercenaries from other parts of Europe, who massacred the Muslims and sold the remnants into slavery. It was the first conflict in which ambulances, or special vehicles for the purpose of carrying injured persons, were used by the Muslim defenders. King Ferdinand II of Aragon invaded the Muslim territories with 20,000 horsemen, 50,000 infantrymen and 8,000 mercenaries, which were joined by artillery units. Mohammad XIII, Sultan of Granada made an attempt to relieve the fortress of Velez, but was forced to retreat to Granada where he found that he had been overthrown in favour of his nephew Abdullah. Seeing no hope of relief, Velez surrendered on 27 April 1487 on condition that the lives of the people would be spared, and they would keep their property and religion – promises which the Christians did not keep. The fall of Malaga was a harsh blow to the Spanish Muslims, who were mercilessly massacred by the Christians, while the survivors, numbering around 15,000, were enslaved and their property confiscated. Five years later in 1492, through treachery and deceit, the Christians, assisted by mercenaries from other parts of Europe, attacked and occupied Granada itself, thereby ending almost 8 centuries of glorious Muslim rule in Spain. Hundreds of thousands of Spanish Muslims fled to North Africa for safety, as their pleas to the Mamluks of Egypt and the Ottomans fell on deaf ears, because of infighting amongst these two great Mediterranean Muslim powers that could have saved Granada and Spanish Muslims from the Christian onslaught.

368 solar years ago, on this day in 1648 AD, the 18^th Ottoman Sultan, Ibrahim Deli (the Deranged), who styled himself the 10^th Turkic Caliph, was strangled to death at the age 33, after 8 years in power, on the orders of his minor son and successor, Mohammad IV, as per the fatwa issued by the chief Qazi of the realm. Son of Ahmad I through a Greek concubine, he was one of the most notorious Ottoman Sultans. He spent all his early life in close confinement before succeeding his elder brother Murad IV. Four of his brothers had been executed by Murad, and Ibrahim lived in terror of being the next to die. His reign, however, was free of any wars with the traditional Ottoman rivals, the Safavid Shahs of Iran.

166 solar years ago, on this day in 1850 AD, French novelist and playwright, Honore de Balzac, died in Paris at the age of 51. He is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. The novel sequence “La Comedie Humaine”, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.

148 solar years ago, on this day in 1868 AD, the English oriental scholar, Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, was born in West Riding, Yorkshire. He started as a language lecturer at Cambridge University, and conducted extensive research on Persian and Arabic literature. He was a great admirer of the acclaimed Iranian poet and mystic, Mowlana Jalal od-Din Rumi, whose famous Mathnavi he translated into English in several volumes, along with a detailed commentary – the result of his 25-year long research. Nicholson, as a teacher of the great poet-philosopher of the Subcontinent, Muhammad Iqbal Lahori, translated the latrer’s first philosophical Persian poetry book “Asrar-e Khudi” into English as “The Secrets of the Self”. He also wrote the book “A Literary History of the Arabs”. Another prominent student of Nicholson was Arthur John Arberry, an Arabic-Persian expert and a Rumi admirer, who completed an academic English translation of the holy Qur’an as well as translation of Iqbal’s long ode in Persian “The Javid-Namah”  He died in 1945 in Chester in Cheshire.

148 solar years ago, on this day in 1868 AD, French astronomer, Pierre Janssen, discovered a previously unknown bright yellow line in the spectrum of the chromosphere of the sun during a solar eclipse he was observing from India. This was an indication of a new element. For over 30 years, it was assumed the element was only present in the sun since the spectral line was not observed in the lab until 1895 when William Ramsay examined a gas released from treating the mineral cleveite. Ramsay named the new element “helium” after the Greek word “helios” for the sun.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1943 AD, General Ali-Agha Ismail-Agha Shikhlinski of Russian occupied Azarbaijan, died in Baku at the age of 78. Born in a noble family first mentioned in 1537 during the reign of Emperor Shah Tahmasb Safavi of Iran, his mother was a granddaughter of the famous Azeri poet Molla Vali Vidadi. After graduating from the Tiflis military academy he served as lieutenant-general of the Russian imperial army, and fought in the First World War. Earlier, during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, as artillery commander, he distinguished himself during the siege of Port Arthur when, despite being severely wounded in his leg, he personally aimed the guns which had lost their gun crews and repulsed attacks of superior Japanese forces. Shikhlinski published a number of works on artillery, including the book titled “Use of Field Artillery in a Battle”, and invented an original target-finding device, which was called “Shiklinski triangle”. After the October revolution by the communists, he resigned from his post and moved to Tiflis, where he was charged with formation of the Muslim corps supported by the Ottoman Army of Islam in the Battle of Baku against the Soviet army. In January 1919, the government of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic appointed him a deputy to the Minister of Defense. After the Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan and establishment of the Soviet regime there, Shikhlinski was arrested 1922 and released two months later. He resigned from military service in 1929 and published his memoirs in 1944.

63 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, the US staged a coup in Iran to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq in retaliation for nationalization of the oil industry and to return to the Peacock Throne the fugitive British-installed Pahlavi potentate, Mohammad Reza. The coup plotters mobilized a number of thugs to take to the streets and attack government centres with the assistance of mercenaries in the security forces. General Fazlollah Zahedi, a US pawn, announced the collapse of the Mosaddeq administration and his own appointment as the premier through the radio network. The consequence of the coup was Washington’s total domination over Iran’s sources, which continued until the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

58 solar years ago, on this day in 1958 AD, Brojen Das of East Pakistan (presently Bangladesh) swam across the English Channel in a competition, as the first Asian to ever do it. He came first among 39 competitors.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, an arson attack on Cinema Rex in Abadan, southwestern Iran by SAVAK the notorious state-terrorism tool of the Pahlavi regime, resulted in a massive blaze that burned to death beyond recognition at least 470 Iranian men and women. Agents of the Shah barred the doors and doused the place with gasoline before setting it alight, in a vain bid to put the blame on the Iranian Muslim people, during the events leading to the triumph of the Islamic Revolution. The crime shocked the world. The Father of the Islamic Revolution from his exile in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq, issued a letter of condolences that read: “To all respected people of Abadan. The highly tragic news of burning-to-death of hundreds of our compatriots by that calculated state (Pahlavi regime) has resulted in severe sorrow and regret. I can’t imagine any Muslim, and even a human being, would commit such a violent crime except for those who are accustomed to brutality and savagery by nature…”

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, prominent Iranian physician and bacteriologist, Mrs Azar Andami, passed away at the age of 58. Born in Rasht, she dedicated her life to the promotion of medical sciences in Iran, and won international acclaim. A crater on Venus has been named in her honour as “Andami” by the International Astronomers Union (IAU).

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, President Pervez Musharaf of Pakistan had to resign due to threat of impeachment, after nine years in power, following his bloodless coup against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999. He was allowed to leave the country, but is currently under house arrest with several charges against him, following his return to Pakistan last year and unsuccessful bid to contest the parliamentary elections.

One solar year ago, on this day in 2015 AD, Khaled al-As’ad, Syrian Archaeologist and Head of antiquities at the ancient city of Tadmour or Palmyra – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – was brutally beheaded at a public square in his hometown Palmyra in front of a large crowd, by takfiri terrorists of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. He was 81 years old and spent a lifetime in the excavations and restoration of Palmyra. He had become the principal custodian of the site for 40 years since 1963. Besides his native Arabic, he was fluent in several languages, including ancient Aramaic and regularly translated texts from this language until 2011. In 2001, he had announced the discovery of 700 7^th century silver coins bearing images of Iran’s Sassanid emperors, Khosrow I and Khosrow II, who ruled Iraq and parts of Syria before Islam. When he retired in 2003, his son Waleed took on the mantle of his work at Palmyra, and before the takfiri terrorists seized the city, father and son helped evacuate the city museum to a safe location. The fate of his son, who was also captured by the terrorists, is not yet known.

AS/MG