Today is Sunday; 14th of the Iranian month of Shahrivar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 2nd of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Hijjah 1437 lunar hijri; and September 4, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1217 solar years ago, on this day in 799 AD (according to the solar Gregorian calendar), Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) was martyred through food poisoning in Baghdad in the prison of the Abbasid tyrant, Haroun Rasheed, at the age of 55. The Islamic date of his martyrdom is 25th Rajab, 183 AH. Imam Kazem (AS), as the son and successor of Imam Ja'far Sadeq (AS) and the father of Imam Reza (AS), needs no introduction. He held aloft the torch of the true teachings of his ancestor, the Prophet, in those days of Abbasid tyranny for 35 long years, suffering several rounds of imprisonment but nonetheless grooming a large number of disciples in the genuine principles of Islam. His sprawling golden-domed mausoleum today majestically stands out as the largest shrine in the Iraqi capital, as he continues to rule over the hearts of not just the people of Baghdad but of the faithful throughout the world, while there is no trace of the grave holding the rotten bones of Haroun, the hero of Arabian Nights revelries.

1043 solar years ago, on this day in 973 AD, the prominent Iranian Islamic scientist, Abu Rayhan Mohammad Ibn Ahmad al-Berouni, was born in Kath in the Iranian land of Kharazm, a region adjoining the Aral Sea and presently in the central Asian republic of Uzbekistan. He was a multisided genius and wrote prolifically on history, geography, astronomy, mathematics, mineralogy, and various other topics. He authored over 180 books. His work on geometry, arithmetic, trigonometry, and algebra, is titled "at-Tafhim" in which he has calculated the weight of objects. Berouni, who was a follower of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, has written about the spherical shape of the Earth and its revolving on its axis as it orbits round the Sun, several centuries before the Europeans were to discover these facts. He was conversant in Arabic, Persian, Greek and Sanskrit, and after visiting India and spending several months in the company of its sages, he wrote the valuable book, “Tahqiq ma lil-Hind”. Among his valuable compilations, mention could be made of “Kitab at-Tafhim li-Awa’ilSina‘at at-Tanjim” (The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astronomy), and “Asaar al-Baqiyah an-il-Qoroun al-Khaliya” (The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries), which is a comparative study of calendars of different cultures and civilizations, interlaced with mathematical, astronomical, and historical information. He also wrote the “Qanoun al-Mas'oudi”, an extensive encyclopedia on astronomy, geography, and engineering. He passed away at the age of 77 in Ghazni (present day Afghanistan), where he was affiliated to the court of the Turkic conqueror, Sultan Mahmoud and his son, Sultan Mas’oud.

953 solar years ago, on this day in 1063 AD, Toghril Beg, the Turkic warlord who rose to power in Central Asia, Iran, Iraq, Anatolia, and parts of Syria, died at the age of 73 in Rayy, now a suburb of modern Tehran, where his tower-shaped tomb still stands. He, along with his elder brother, Chaghri Beg, rose to prominence in the service of the Khaqan of the Qara-Khanid Dynasty of Bukhara that had replaced the Iranian Samanid Dynasty in Central Asia. He then united the Turkoman warriors of the Eurasian Steppes into a confederacy of tribes that traced ancestry to an ancestor, named Seljuq, and after defeating the Qara-Khanids, vanquished the Ghaznavids of Khorasan and Afghanistan, before conquering eastern Iran. He established the Seljuq Sultanate after conquering the Iranian Plateau and Anatolia (modern eastern Turkey). The Abbasid caliph of Baghdad secretly invited him to Iraq to replace the Iranian Buwaihid Shi’ite Dynasty. Tughril marched upon Baghdad in 1055, and to the chagrin of the caliph, relegated the Abbasids to figureheads by taking command of the caliphate's armies in military offensives against the Byzantine Empire and the Syrian territories of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’ite Caliphate of Egypt and North Africa. In 1058, he lost Baghdad to the Fatemids but recaptured it two years later. On his death the childless Toghril, who had forcibly married the Abbasid caliph’s daughter, was succeeded after a brief struggle between the two sons of his deceased brother, Chaghri, by his surviving nephew Alp Arsalan, perhaps the greatest ruler of the Seljuq Dynasty.

270 solar years ago, on this day in 1746 AD, The Treaty of Kerden was signed between the Ottoman Empire and Nader Shah Afshar of Iran, reaffirming the border drawn in the Treaty of Zuhab and allowing Iranian pilgrims to visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in the Hijaz, which was under Turkish occupation.

235 solar years ago, on this day in 1781 AD, Los Angeles, today the 2nd largest US city, was founded as “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula” (or The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola River). It was set up near an Amerindian Chumash village in the California region of what was then called New Spain – comprising of Mexico, southern states of the US, Florida and all Spanish-speaking countries till Panama – by a group of forty-four settlers, of whom 26 were of African ancestry and the rest Europeans, Mestizo and Mulatto. In 1821 Mexico seceded from New Spain and was almost attacked by an expansionist US, which by 1847 occupied large territories including Alta or Upper California, which was home to 300,000 Amerindians, or one-third of all indigenous people throughout North and South America. The Europeans began to decimate the native population, while the non-native population of California was not more than 8,000. The US, as part of its hegemonic and genocidal policies has obliterated almost all native Amerindians, who today account for a mere 1.7 percent of the 38 million population of California.

198 solar years ago, on this day in 1818 AD, the ministry of foreign affairs was established for the first time in Iran, with Mirza Abu’l-Hassan Khan Shirazi as foreign minister, operating under the country’s prime minister, who in turn was responsible to the Qajarid Shah. It was the first ministry in Iran, and before that the Department of External Affairs used to handle Iran’s foreign relations. Gradually other ministries were established to take care of the different areas of work entrusted to the prime minister, as bureaucracy grew.

191 solar years ago, on this day in 1825 AD, Zoroastrian intellectual, Dadabhai Naorozji, known as the Grand Old Man of India, was born in Bombay (Mumbai). Of Iranian origin, he was an educator, a cotton trader, and a political and social leader, who was the first Asian to become a British MP, and was a founding father of the Indian National Congress. An ordained priest, in 1851, he founded in India an organisation to restore the Zoroastrian religion to what he considered its original purity and simplicity. In 1854, he launched a fortnightly publication “Rast Goftar” (Truth Teller), to clarify Zoroastrian concepts. In 1855, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the Elphinstone College in Bombay. He travelled to London, established the cotton trading Dadabhai Naorozji & Co in 1859 and later became professor of Gujarati at University College of London. He was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Party member between 1892 and 1895. He refused to take the oath on the Bible as he was not a Christian, but was allowed to take the oath of office in the Name of God on his copy of “Khordeh Avesta”. In his political campaign and duties as an MP, he was assisted by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the future Muslim nationalist and founder of Pakistan, who was then a student in London. Naorozji set up the association to counter the theory that Europeans were intellectually superior to Asians, and his book “Poverty and Un-British Rule in India” brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain. He estimated a 200–300 million pounds loss of revenue to Britain that is not returned. He described this as “vampirism”, with money being a metaphor for blood, which humanised India, and he called Britain's actions as “monstrous”. Naorozji returned to India, and was re-elected president of the Indian National Congress in 1906. He died in Bombay on 30 June 1917, at the age of 91. Books written by him include: “The Manners and Customs of the Parsees (Zoroastrians)” and “The European and Asiatic races”.

166 lunar years ago, on this day in 1271 AH, the Ottoman Turkish Empire allied with the French and British forces to inflict a crushing defeat on the Russian army in the Battle of Chernaya River, also known as Battle of Traktir Bridge, in which the Russians lost 7 thousand soldiers during the Crimean War – considered one of the first modern wars as it introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare, including the first tactical use of railways and the telegraph. It is also famous for the work of Florence Nightingale, who pioneered modern nursing practices while caring for wounded British soldiers. The Crimean War was one of the first wars to be documented extensively in written reports and photographs: notably by William Russell (for The Times newspaper) and Roger Fenton respectively. News correspondence reaching Britain from the Crimea was the first time the public were kept informed of the day-to-day realities of war.

134 solar years ago, on this day in 1882 AD, Thomas Edison flipped the switch to the first commercial electrical power plant in history, lighting one square mile of lower Manhattan. This is considered as the day that began the electrical age.

108 solar years ago, on this day in 1908 AD, Afro-American novelist and poet, Richard Wright, was born near Natchez in Missouri. He wrote about the abuses of blacks in white-dominated American society, and how brutally the US treats people of African origin, whose ancestors were kidnapped from Africa and forced into slavery in the New World. His best known work is “Native Son” (1940). His other works include: “Uncle Tom's Children” (1938), “12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States” (1941), “Black Boy” (1945), and “White Man Listen”. Wright died in self-exile in France in 1960.

79 lunar years ago, on this day in 1358 AH, Egyptian scholar and poet, Tantawi Jowhari, passed away at the age of 71. He was a brilliant linguist, in addition to being a memorizer, exegete, and analyzer of Holy Qur'an. He was also fluent in English and always taught Islamic sciences.

49 lunar years ago, on this day in 1388 AH, prominent researcher and dean of seminary, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Taqi Musavi, popular as “Muhaqqiq Damaad”, passed away in Qom at the age of 63 and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Hazrat Ma’soumah (SA). Born in Ahmadabad near Ardakan, after preliminary studies in Yazd, he came to Qom and studied under the leading ulema, including the founder of the seminary, Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri, who gave his daughter in marriage to him – hence his epithet “Damaad” or son-in-law.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, Iran's Prosecutor General, Ayatollah Ali Qoddusi, was martyred due to detonation of a bomb planted by MKO terrorists. He was a student of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabatabai (the famous exegete of the holy Qur'an), and the Father of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). On attaining the status of Ijtehad, he actively participated in religious affairs including the foundation of the Haqqani Seminary. In 1962, he joined the Imam in the struggle against the Shah's regime, and was imprisoned for his revolutionary activities. On victory of the Islamic Revolution, he was appointed Prosecutor-General.

18 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, American students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Stanford University, founded “Google” as a multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products that include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software. Since then Google has moved increasingly into the communications field. As a social networking service (Google+), it provides email (Gmail) and each day processes over one billion search requests and about 24 petabytes of user-generated data. “Google.com” is listed as the most visited website in the world, and runs several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube and Blogger. Critics claim that like other social networking systems, Google is a tool of the US government for espionage and data-collecting activities around the world.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, the prominent scholar, Seyyed Morteza Ayatollahzadeh Shirazi, passed away at the age of 72, and was laid to rest in the Shaykhan Cemetery, adjacent to the holy shrine of Hazrat Fatema Ma’suma (SA) in Qom. Born in holy Najaf in Iraq, he was the grandson of the famous Grand Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hassan Shirazi who issued the tobacco prohibition fatwa to save Iranian economy from British exploitation. At the age of 23 he enrolled at Tehran University and on graduation travelled to Egypt, where he stayed for ten years, obtaining PhD in Arabic literature from Cairo University, and teaching Persian literature at al-Azhar University. He then left for Britain, where he completed a course at Cambridge University in Semitic languages. On return to Iran, he taught at Tehran University, where for 21 years he was also editor-in-chief of the Scientitic-Research Journal of the Facutly of Literature. His research articles were printed in academic journals in Iran and abroad. He wrote and translated some 25 books including “Farhang-e Istelahaat-e Rouz” (Lexicon of Current Phrases and Idioms”, and the multilingual dictionary “Majma’ ol-Lughaat”.

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