Today is Friday; 19th of the Iranian month of Shahrivar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 7th of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Hijjah 1437 lunar hijri; and September 9, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1444 solar years ago, on this day in 572 AD, the seven-year war broke out between the Persian and Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empires with the invasion of part of the Sassanid Empire by Emperor Justin II, who eventually suffered a shattering defeat at the hands of the Iranian Emperor, Khosrow I Anushiravan. Justin was forced to abdicate and was succeeded by Tiberius as the new emperor. The Romans paid 45,000 gold coins to Iran as war reparations.

1323 lunar years ago, on this day in 114 AH, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), the 5th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred in Medina at the age of 57, through poisoning by Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik, the self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime. His epithet "Baqer al-Uloum" means Splitter and Spreader of Sciences, and he spared no efforts to promote the pure and pristine teachings of Islam in an era when foreign ideas and thoughts were confusing the minds of Muslims. His period of imamate was 19 years, and he was descended on both sides from the Prophet. He was laid to rest in the sacred Jannat al- Baqie Cemetery of Medina.

1331 lunar years ago, on this day in 106 AH, the jurisprudent and Hadith narrator, Tawous ibn Kaysaan al-Yamani passed away in Mecca. Said to be of Persian stock from Hamedan, he resided in Yemen and is narrator of the "munajaat" (whispered supplications) to God Almighty of Imam Zayn al-Abedin (AS), the 4th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He is held in esteem by both Shi'a and Sunni scholars. Famous Iranian Sunni compilers such as Bukhari, Muslim Naishapuri, Tirmizi, etc. have recorded hadith on his authority.

1258 lunar years ago, on this day in 179 AH, Imam Musa Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), after being detained in Medina by the tyrannical Abbasid caliph, Haroun Rashid, was brought to the Iraqi port city of Basra and imprisoned in the palace of the governor, Eisa bin Ja'far. For a year the Imam languished here before being taken to Baghdad and imprisoned in the house of Fazl bin Rabee'. In 183 AH, on the 25th of Rajab, Imam Kazem (AS) left the mortal world, a martyr, after his food was poisoned on the orders of Haroun, who knew that as long as the Prophet's rightful successor was alive, his claim to caliphate was under question by the people.

1074 lunar years ago, on this day in 363 AH, the scholar, orator, and historian, Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Thabet, popular as Khateeb al-Baghdadi, passed away in Baghdad at the age of 73. Born near Baghdad, he was the son of a preacher of Darzidjan and studied under his father and other scholars. His primary interest was hadith. At the age of 20 he went to Basra to collect hadith. He then travelled east to Iran and made two trips to Naishapur in Khorasan, collecting in his journey more hadith in Rayy and Isfahan. Back in Baghdad, he acquired fame as a preacher and orator, and it is said that teachers and preachers of hadith would usually submit to him what they had collected before they used them in their lectures or sermons. Initially a follower of the Hanbali School of jurisprudence, he switched over to the Shafe'i school – a change that made Hanbalis his bitter enemies and heap accusations against him. This sectarian hostility forced him to leave Iraq for Syria and settle in Damascus, where he preached for 8 years, and before returning to Baghdad, spent a year in Tyre, Lebanon. He was a prolific writer and has authored several books, the most famous of which is the voluminous history titled "Tarikh al-Baghdad".  He has quoted many of the hadith on the merits of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt, especially Imam Ali and Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon them).

875 solar years ago, on this day in 1141 AD, Yelu Dashi, the Mongol Liao dynasty general who founded the Qara-Khitai dynasty in the northern parts of Central Asia, defeated the combined army of the Iran-based Seljuqid Empire and its Qara-Khanid vassals at the Battle of Qatwan near Samarqand, in what is now the Republic of Uzbekistan. The decisive defeat, with Sultan Ahmad Sanjar barely escaping alive, signalled the beginning of the end of the Great Seljuq Empire. Yelu Dashi had moved west from Northern China when the Jurchens invaded and destroyed the Liao Dynasty in 1125. In 1137 he took the Eastern Qara-Khanid capital of Balasaghun and later the same year he defeated at Khojand the Western Qara-Khanids, who were vassals of the Seljuqs. Qara-Khanid ruler Mahmud II appealed to his Seljuq overlord Sultan Sanjar for protection. After defeating Sultan Sanjar, Yelu Dashi spent ninety days in Samarqand, accepting the loyalty of Muslim nobles and appointing Mahmud's brother Ibrahim as the new ruler. However, he did allow the Muslim Burhan family to continue to rule Bukhara. After this battle, Khwarezm became a vassal state of the Qara-Khitai. In 1142, Yelu sent Erbuz to Khwarezm to pillage the province, which forced Atsiz to agree to pay 30,000 dinars annual tribute.

523 solar years ago, on this day in 1493 AD, Ottoman Sultan, Bayezid II defeated a joint army of the kingdoms of Croatia and Hungary at the Battle of Krbava, a part of Lika region in southern Croatia. The Ottoman forces were led by Khadem Yaqub Pasha, the Governor of Bosnia.

431 solar years ago, on this day in 1585 AD, French clergyman and statesman, Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal-Duke of Richelieu, was born. He was consecrated as a bishop in 1607 and was appointed Foreign Secretary in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government to become a cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642. Cardinal Richelieu was often known by his title of the King's "Chief Minister" or "First Minister". He sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong, centralized state. His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and to ensure French dominance in the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe. Although he was a cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers in attempting to achieve his goals. Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts. He is also a leading character in The “Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas, and portrayed as a main antagonist.

277 solar years ago, on this day in 1739 AD, the Stono Rebellion, the largest uprising of the enslaved black people in Britain's North American colonies, erupted near Charleston, South Carolina.  The uprising was led by Africans who were likely from the Kingdom of Congo. Their leader, Jemmy (referred to in some reports as "Cato") was a literate person who led other enslaved Africans, who may have been former soldiers, in an armed march south from the Stono River. After crushing the rebellion, the British executed most of the captured blacks and sold the few survivors in the West Indies.

225 solar years ago, on this day in 1791 AD, Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, was named after President George Washington.

188 solar years ago, on this day in 1828 AD, Russian author and literary figure, Leo Tolstoy, was born. He joined the Caucasian army and wrote his first novel: "Childhood". Later he left the army, and spent all his time studying and writing novels. Among his most important works, mention can be made of “Anna Karenina” and "War and Peace". Tolstoy died in the year 1910.

161 solar years ago, on this day in 1855 AD, during the last phase of the Crimean War, the Siege of Sevastopol ended when Russian forces abandoned the city. Sevastopol is one of the classic sieges of all time. The city of Sevastopol was the home of the Tsar's Black Sea Fleet, which threatened the Mediterranean Sea and the Ottoman Empire. The Russian army withdrew before the allies the British, French and Ottoman allies could encircle it. The siege was the culminating struggle for the strategic Russian port in 1854–1855 and was the final episode in the Crimean War. The Siege of Sevastopol was the subject of Crimean soldier Leo Tolstoy's “Sebastopol Sketches”. The Battle of Balaklava was made famous by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and Robert Gibb's painting “The Thin Red Line”.

94 solar years ago, on this day in 1922 AD, the 3-year long Greek invasion of Turkey ended with Turkish victory over the Greeks in Smyrna near Izmir.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD Japanese occupation troops in China laid down their arms and decided to withdraw. The victory was the outcome of the unification of the armed communist forces and the Chinese state army. The Empire of Japan formally surrendered to China.

68 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, following the end of World War II, withdrawal of Japanese occupation forces, and occupation of the southern half of the Korean Peninsula by the US, North Korea declared its independence. Less than a month earlier, American-occupied South Korea had announced its independence. North Korea shares borders with Russia and China to the north, and South Korea to the south. It covers an area of over 120,000 sq km.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1976 AD, China’s communist leader, Mao Zedong, died at the age of 83. In 1921 he founded China's Communist Party and won the support of the rural masses. In 1934, he led the 100,000-strong communist forces on a long march from the South to the North on foot to prevent clashes with the governmental forces. During this march which lasted for a year, more than 60,000 people lost their lives. After the termination of World War II the communists, led by Mao, defeated Chiang Kai-Shek, who was supported by the West, and declared the foundation of People's Republic of China in the year 1949. Mao managed to form a powerful central government in China. The ideas of Mao about communism were different to those of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, and are popularly known as Maoism.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the prominent Iranian religious scholar and exegete of the Holy Qur’an, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Taleqani, passed away due to heart attack at the age of 74. He was involved in the political developments from an early age, and in 1963 was jailed by the Pahlavi regime for participating in the 15^th of Khordad uprising (June 5, 1963), following the arrest of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). In the subsequent years till the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he was incarcerated or banished to the country’s remote places. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Taleqani was named by the Imam as Head of the Revolutionary Council as well as the Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran. In the first round of elections for the Assembly of Experts, he was elected as the Tehran’s representative for an 8-year term. He was a prolific writer and among his works is an exegesis of several surahs of the Holy Qur’an as well as a book titled "System of Ownership in Islam".

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, the prominent jurisprudent, Ayatollah Zia od-Din Amoli, passed away at the age of 78 after a long period of illness in his hometown Tehran. As a boy he accompanied his father, the prominent philosopher Mohammad Taqi Amoli, to the famous seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, where his sharp intellect enabled him to master Islamic sciences and attain the status of Ijtehad. He returned to Iran, and following the agreement between Egypt’s al-Azhar Islamic University and the Qom Seminary, he was sent to Cairo by Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Borouerdi to foster proximity between the Sunnis and Shi’a Muslims. For years he lobbied in Cairo with Egyptian authorities to include the teaching of Ja’fari jurisprudence at al-Azhar, but was not given any positive response. As a result, he returned to Tehran and busied himself in teaching and preaching. He was a staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolution against the repressive Pahlavi regime.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, the Central Asian country of Tajikistan declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Since the 6^th century BC, Tajikistan was part of the Iranian empires of the Achaemenian, Parthian and Sassanid Dynasties. After the advent of Islam, it became part of the caliphate and subsequently was an integral part of the Bukhara-based Iranian Muslim Samanid Dynasty. It fell to waves of Turkic conquerors and in the 19^th century was occupied by the Russians. The people speak Tajik, a form Persian language. Tajikistan covers an area of more than 143,000 sq km, and shares borders with China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan.

15 solar years ago, on this day in 2001 AD, former Afghan defence minister, Ahmad Shah Massoud, and leader of the Persian speaking ethnic Tajiks, was assassinated at the age of 49 by two al-Qaeda terrorists disguised as Arab journalists wanting an interview. A brilliant military tactician, known as “Shir-e Panjshir” (Lion of the Panjshir Valley), he fought the Soviet communist forces for ten years from 1979. He also successfully fought the Taliban terrorist militia, which had seized power in Kabul.

AS/SS