Today is Wednesday; 17th of the Iranian month of Shahrivar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 5th of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Hijjah 1437 lunar hijri; and September 7, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1946 solar years ago, on this day in 70 AD, the city of Bayt al-Moqaddas (called Jerusalem by the West) was occupied, plundered, and destroyed by the pagan European forces of Roman Emperor, Titus, who called himself an instrument of God's wrath against the Israelites – who had long deviated from the path of Prophet Moses and were indulging in cardinal sin by openly insulting Prophet Jesus and his virgin-mother, Mary. As many as a million people were massacred, while hundred thousand Jews were taken to Europe as slaves. The Jewish structure built by the tyrannical Israelite king, Herod, and known as Second Temple, was destroyed. The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Beit ol-Moqaddas and the Temple, still stands in Rome.

835 solar years ago, on this day in 1191 AD, during the Third Crusade launched on Palestine by European Christian invaders, the Battle of Arsuf was fought between Richard I of England and the Kurdish sultan of Egypt-Syria, Salah od-Din Ayyubi near Jaffa after the Muslim loss of the city of Acre. Four years after the decisive victory of the combined Muslim army of Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Iranians, in liberating the occupied Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas and ending the 88-year illegal existence of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Crusaders tried various tricks to recapture of Bayt al-Moqaddas but failed.

604 solar years ago, on this day in 1312 AD, Ferdinand IV of Castile, notorious for his enmity towards Muslims, died suddenly in his tent at Jaen while preparing to raid the Spanish Muslim kingdom of Gharnata (Granada) in southern Spain. Three years earlier in 1309, along with Alonso Perez de Guzman of Aragon, and mercenaries from other parts of Europe, he had attacked and occupied the Muslim island of Gibraltar (corruption of the Arabic word Jabal at-Tareq), which for six hundred years was part of the Islamic world.

502 solar years ago, on this day in 1514 AD, the Ottoman sultan, Selim I, entered Tabriz, a fortnight after managing to turn a virtual defeat into a narrow victory over the Safavid army of Shah Ismail I in the Battle of Chaldiran. He, however, soon retreated from northwestern Iran following reports of preparation for counter attack by Shah Ismail’s Qizilbash forces that demoralized the Ottoman army which mutinied and forced the Turkish sultan to withdraw.

483 solar years ago, on this day in 1533 AD, Queen Elizabeth I of England, was born in Greenwich to Henry VIII. As the 5^th and last monarch of the Tudor Dynasty founded by her grandfather, Henry VII, she succeeded her elder stepsister Mary on the throne and immediately changed the creed of the country from the Catholicism to Anglican. Although short-tempered and indecisive, with a strain of cruelty, her 44-yar reign known as the Elizabethan era, saw exploration of North America by the seafarers such as Francis Drake, defeat of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel, and flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. She went bald at age 29 due to smallpox, and remained a spinster, with frequent indulgence in illicit relations with her courtiers.

450 solar years ago, on this day in 1566 AD, Suleiman I, the 10^th Ottoman sultan and the 2^nd self-styled Turkish caliph, died at the age of 72 at Szigetvar, Hungary, as his troops besieged a fortress during their expansion in south central Europe. His corpse was brought to the capital Istanbul for burial. Son of Selim I and a daughter of Mengli Giray Khan of the Crimean Khanate, during his 46-year long rule, the Mediterranean Sea became a Turkish lake, as his admirals, especially Khayr od-Din Pasha (Barbarossa to the Europeans), took most of the North African coasts and successfully raided the southern European coasts of Italy, France, and Spain, and the Adriatic islands, defeating the navies of the Christian powers and the pope. In the east, Suleiman’s all three invasions of Iran’s Safavid Empire ended in failure, because of the wise policies of Shah Tahmasp I, who let the Ottomans take Baghdad by evacuating his forces, but strongly blunted their attacks in western Iran and the Caucasus, resulting in the signing of the 30-year Peace of Amasya. Suleiman’s great empire began a gradual decline under his slothful son, Selim II. An accomplished poet in Turkish and Persian, he was known as “Qanouni” (Lawgiver), and carried out administrative reforms that included the switch to Turkish as the state language from Persian in which all officials records had hitherto been kept for centuries. Suleiman built several imposing monuments such as libraries, public baths, and mosques, especially the Suleimaniyeh Mosque, perhaps the finest mosque ever constructed by the Ottomans.

321 solar years ago, on this day in 1695 AD, the English pirate, Henry Every, in one of the most profitable raids in history, attacked the Moghul fleet of India in the Arabian Sea and captured the treasure-laden ship “Ganj-e Sawai”, anglicized by the attackers as ‘Gunsway’. In response, Emperor Aurangzeb threatened to end all English trading in India, and made London officially apologize and launch a wide scale hunt for the pirates, who seemed to have escaped to the safety of the Caribbean. “Ganj-e Sawai”, along with its escort the “Fateh Mohammad”, was en route from present day Mocha in Yemen to Surat, India. The six pirate ships which had been hovering in the Bab al-Mandeb Straits surprised the two Indian ships, after a 25-ship Mughal convoy bound for India had gone well ahead. They first attacked “Fateh Mohammad”, whose crew to the utter surprise of the English pirates, put up little resistance, and as a result the pirates sacked the ship for 50,000 pound sterling worth of treasure. Henry Every now sailed in pursuit of the “Ganj-e Sawai”, overtaking it about eight days from Surat. The “Ganj-e Sawai” had 62 cannons and a musket-armed guard of four to five hundred, as well as six hundred other passengers. No sooner did the pirates launch their attack, one of the cannons of the Indian ship exploded, killing some of its gunners and causing great confusion that demoralized the crew. The pirates boarded the ship and suffered great casualties, when suddenly the cowardly captain, Ibrahim Khan, rushed below the deck. After two hours of fierce but leaderless resistance, the Indians made the mistake of surrendering to the pirates, who now subjected them to several days of horror, raping of women, and murdering prisoners at will. Some of the women committed suicide by jumping into the sea. The loot from the “Ganj-e Sawai” totalled around 600,000 pound sterling including 500,000 gold and silver pieces, besides the gemstones, whose value was never estimated.

309 solar years ago, on this day in 1707 AD, the French biologist and author, George-Louis Buffon, was born. He conducted extensive research and compiled the 24-volume book of Natural History, which is a collection of scientific data about the history of Earth, plants, animals, and stones. He died in the year 1778.

204 solar years ago, on this day in 1812 AD, during the French invasion of Russia, the Battle of Borodino, the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, was fought near Moscow and resulted in a French victory.

194 solar years ago, on this day in 1822 AD, Brazil declared itself independent from Portugal, which had seized this part of Latin America in 1500 with the landing of a fleet led by Pedro Alvares Cabral. The Portuguese almost drove into extinction the local Amerindians and forcibly Christianized other natives. They kidnapped hundreds of thousands of black people from Africa to work as slaves on plantations and farmlands. In 1808, the Portuguese royal family, fleeing the troops of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, established themselves in Rio de Janeiro, which became the seat of the entire Portuguese Empire. In 1815 Dom Joao VI, elevated Brazil from colony to sovereign Kingdom united with Portugal. After the Portuguese had repelled Napoleon's invasion, Joao VI returned to Europe in April 1821, leaving his elder son, Pedro de Alcantara, as regent in Brazil. When Portugal attempted to turn Brazil into a colony again, the Brazilians refused to yield and Prince Pedro stood by them declaring the country independent from Portugal. On 12 October 1822, he was crowned Dom Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil. On 29 August 1825, Portugal formally recognized the independence of Brazil, which 1889 became a republic. Brazil covers an area of 8.5 million sq km, has an extensive coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, and shares borders with Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

117 solar years ago, on this day in 1899 AD, the Boxer Uprising or Yihetuan Movement started in China. Boxers were a group of Chinese troops protesting the increased meddling by the Western and Japanese regimes in the internal affairs of China. The uprising was savagely suppressed by the joint forces of major European states, along with troops from the US, and Japan.

102 lunar years ago, on this day in 1335 AH, the Egyptian scholar Mohammad Ghazali as-Saqqa was born in the small town of Nikla al-Enab (نكلا العنب), southeast of the seaport of Alexandria. He graduated from al-Azhar University in 1941. The author of 94 books, he attracted a following with works that sought to interpret Islam and the holy Qur’an, in a modern light. He is credited with contributing to a revival of Islamic faith in Egypt. He was, however, close to the Egyptian government, and was expelled by the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1990 he became a member of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. He established contacts with the Islamic Republic to procure the release of 149 Egyptian prisoners of war, who were captured while fighting as mercenaries for the Saddam’s repressive Ba’th minority regime.

76 lunar years ago, on this day in 1361 AH, the prominent Iranian religious scholar and Gnostic, Allamah Mohammad Hussain Gharavi Isfahani, popular as Kompani, passed away in the holy city of Najaf at the age of 65 years. He was born in the holy city of Kazemain near Baghdad and was well-versed in philosophy, Gnosticism, history, geography, poetry, and literature. His sharp mind and power of speech made him a prominent figure. He has left behind a large number of articles and journals. He has also left behind a collection of poems in praise of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Ahl al-Bayt.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, eminent Iranian writer, Houshang Moradi Kermani, best known for children's and young-adult fiction, was born at Sirch, a village in Kerman Province. For his lasting contribution as a children's writer, he was a finalist in 2014 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. Several Iranian movies and TV-series have been made based on his books. In 2006, Dariush Mehrjui directed “Mehman-e Mamaan” based on Moradi Kermani's novel with the same title. Some of his books have been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, and Armenian. His auto-biography was published in 2005, titled “Shoma ke Gharibe Nisteed” (You are not a Stranger). He has won many national and international awards which include Hans Christian Andersen Honorary diploma (1992) and University of San Francisco book of the year (2000).

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, the Shah's despotic regime brutally attacked a massive rally in Tehran on Friday, the weekly holiday, killing as many as four thousand defenseless men, women, and children. The day is known as Black Friday or the Day of Martyrs. The Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) from his exile in holy Najaf in Iraq, sent a message of condolences to the people of Tehran, saying: "This is the path of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), and of his son, the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS). The Iranian nation should be assured that, sooner or later, victory is yours."

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, Mobuto Sese Seko, former dictator of Zaire (Congo), died of prostate cancer in exile in Rabat, Morocco, after fleeing the capital Kinshasa as forces led by General Lauren Kabila closed in on the city. Mobutu began his career in the Belgian Congolese army, rising to sergeant-major, the highest rank available to Africans. In 1965, five years after independence, as commander-in-chief of the army, he staged a coup to seize the presidency. He ruled with an iron fist for 32 years and began to Africanize names, most notably changing the name of the country from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Republic of Zaire and his own name from Joseph-Desire Mobutu to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (which means “The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”). Although he was a violent and ruthless dictator, he was supported by the Western regimes, especially the US and France. Congo has always been in the spotlight of the Western regimes, given its strategic position in Central Africa and existence of ample copper and diamond resources.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, leaders of almost all religions such as Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, Buddhist sects, Hindus, Jews, Shintos, and Christians of various denominations, gathered in Greenland for a 6-day coastal tour and symposium called "The Arctic: Mirror of Life," designed to focus global attention on climate change.

AS/ME