Today is Friday; 2nd of the Iranian month of Mehr 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 21st of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Hijjah 1437 lunar hijri; and September 23, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1051 solar years ago, on this day in 965 AD, the famous Arabic poet, Ahmad bin Hassan Kufi, known by his penname “Mutanabbi”, was killed near Baghdad during an encounter with highway brigands at the age of 51. Gifted with sharp intelligence and wittiness, he started writing poetry as a nine-year old. Among the topics he versified were courage, the philosophy of life, and the description of battles. Many of his poems were and still are widely read by Arabic speakers. His great talent earned him respect from many political leaders of his time, and he praised kings and emirs in return for money and gifts. He joined the court of Sayf od-Dowla in Aleppo and during his 9-year stay in Syria versified his most famous poems. There was great rivalry between him and many of the scholars and poets at Sayf od-Dowla's court, including the latter’s cousin and brother-in-law, Abu Firas al-Hamdani. Mutanabbi lost Sayf od-Dowla's favour because of his political ambition to be a governor. He had no other choice but to leave Aleppo for Egypt to join the court of Abu’l-Misk Kafur. Here also he failed in his political ambitions and after his ridiculing of Kafur in satirical odes, he left for Iraq, where he was killed.

869 lunar years ago, on this day in 568 AH, the historian Jamal od-Din Abu’l-Hassan Ali ibn Yousuf ash-Shaybani, known popularly as Ibn Qifti, was born in the small Egyptian village of Qift. He studied in Cairo, and moved to Bayt al-Moqaddas and later to Aleppo in Syria, where he compiled most of his works. Some 26 of his works are known by their titles, of which only two survive. The first one is “Tarikh al-Hukama” (The History of Learned Men), which contains biographies of 414 physicians, philosophers and astronomers. The second extant work is a biography of about a thousand Muslim scholars. His lost works dealt mostly with historiography, including the “History of Cairo”; “History of the Seljuqs of Iran, Iraq, Syria & Anatolia”; “History of the Mirdasids of Syria”; “History of the Buwayhids of Iraq-Iran”; “History of Sultan Mahmoud Ghaznawi”, and separate histories of the Maghreb, and of Yemen.

801 solar years ago, on this day in 1215 AD, Kublai Khan, the 5th Khaqaan or Great Ruler of the Mongol Empire, was born. He was the second son of Tolui, and a grandson of the ruthlessly fearsome Mongol marauder, Genghis Khan. He succeeded his older brother Mongke as Khaqaan in 1260, after having conquered the northern parts of China in the preceding decade as a prince, along with the Iranic Sogdanian Muslim administrator, Mahmud Yalavach, who devised the census system accounting for the people in the newly formed Mongol Empire for the purpose of taxation and who later served as mayor of the capital, Khanbaliq (Beijing). In 1271, Kublai established the Yuan Dynasty and assumed the role of Emperor of China, ruling over present-day Mongolia, China, Korea, and some adjacent areas, in addition to the nominal position of overlord of the Mongol khanates of the Golden Horde in Eurasia and the Ilkhanids in Iran, Iraq, and parts of Syria. By 1279, the Yuan forces had overcome the last resistance of the Southern Song Dynasty, and Kublai became the first non-Chinese Emperor to conquer all of China. He failed to conquer Japan and Vietnam during his 34-year rule, which saw development and economic prosperity, including use of paper currency, as attested by the Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, who visited and stayed in China at Kublai’s court for long years.

678 solar years ago, on this day in 1338, the Battle of Arnemuiden was the first naval battle of the Hundred Years' War between England and France, and the first instance of a naval battle in Europe in which artillery was used, as the English ship Christofer had three cannons and one hand gun.

639 lunar years ago, on this day in 798 AH, the Ottoman army led by Sultan Bayezid I “Yildrim” (Thunderbolt), inflicted a crushing defeat on an alliance of Christian powers led by Hungary’s King Sigmund I with as many as 130,000 of Europe 's best trained soldiers. In the Battle of Nicopolis, near River Danube, the European army lost 100,000 soldiers, while 20,000 Christian troops fled the battlefield leaving behind as captives about ten thousand of their co-religionists, many of whom became Muslim

607 solar years ago, on this day in 1409 AD, the Battle of Kherlen on the banks of the river of the same name in the Mongolian Plateau, saw the forces of Ming China, who had been demanding allegiance from Khaqaan Oljei Timur to Chinese rule, suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the Mongols. Following the defeat, the Ming Yongle Emperor would personally lead an expedition against the Eastern Mongols, annihilating large proportions of the Mongol forces.

341 solar years ago, on this day in 1675 AD, the well-known French author and literary figure, Valentin Conrart, died at the age of 72. He was called by France's famous political prelate, Cardinal Richelieu, to contribute to development of French literature.

225 lunar years ago, on this day in 1212 AH, the 2^nd Qajarid king of Iran, Fath-Ali Shah, assumed power following the death of his childless uncle, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar. During his 37-year misrule, Iran lost extensive territories in the Caucasus to the Russian, in Khorasan to the Afghans, and in Baluchestan to the British. Bahrain in the Persian Gulf was seized by pirates, who set up the Aal-e Khalifa minority regime on this island. The pleasure-loving Fath Ali Shah did not even provide military aid to his energetic son, Crown Prince Abbas Mirza, who after retaking from the Russians what is now known as the Republic of Azerbaijan, was badly defeated and forced to concede more parts of Iran.

213 solar years ago, on this day in 1803 AD, the Battle of Assaye was fought in western India during the 2nd Anglo-Maratha War and resulted in a decisive defeat for the Maratha Confederacy by Major General Arthur Wellesley, who later became the Duke of Wellington and went on to defeat French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, at the famous Battle of Waterloo in 1814. Later in his memoirs, Wellington would recall the Battle of Assaye as more crucial, strategic and deadly than Waterloo. The battle was the result of the Maratha Confederacy’s bid for supremacy in central India. But the Marathas made the fatal mistake of stirring up hostilities with India's most powerful Muslim monarch, Nizam ol-Molk Asef Jah of Haiderabad-Deccan by raiding his border territories. When due warnings failed to chasten them, the Nizam, who a few years earlier had sacked the Maratha capital, Poona (Pune), prepared for war. The British joined the fight in order to crush any bid by the Marathas to become a major power after the shattering defeat they had suffered in 1761 in the 3rd Battle of Panipat at the hands of the Afghan king, Ahmad Shah Abdali – a former general of the late Iranian emperor Nader Shah Afshar. Thus, the British, assisted by 10,000 troops from Haiderabad, along with a regiment sent by Mysore’s Hindu Raja, confronted the 50,000 strong Maratha army, and after forcing it into pitched open battle, decisively won the encounter.

195 solar years ago, on this day in 1821 AD, the massacre of Tripolitsa occurred in Greece, during which Greek Christians mercilessly killed 30,000 Muslim men, women and children, as well as the small Jewish minority. So bloodcurdling was the genocide that for three days, the Greeks slaughtered Turks including women and children during the revolt in the Ottoman Province of Yunanistan. Within a few years all traces of four centuries of Turkish rule of Greece were obliterated through barbaric crimes by the Christians who destroyed mosques, converted many into churches and massacred or expelled ethnic Greek Muslims. British historian of the Greek Revolt, W. Alison Phillips, has noted: "…the other atrocities of Greeks paled before the awful scenes which followed the storming of Tripolitsa. For three days the miserable inhabitants were given over to lust and cruelty of a mob of savages. Neither gender nor age was spared. Women and children were tortured before being put to death. So great was the slaughter that from the gate to the citadel the hoofs of horses never touched the ground. At the end of two days, the wretched remnants of the Musalmans were deliberately collected, to the number of some two thousand souls, of every age and sex, but principally women and children, were led out to a ravine in the neighboring mountains and there butchered like cattle."

Another historian William St. Clair writes about the genocide of Muslims in Greece: "Their arms and legs were cut off and they were slowly roasted over fires. Pregnant women were cut open, their heads cut off, and dogs' heads stuck between their legs. From Friday to Sunday the air was filled with the sound of screams... One Greek boasted that he personally killed ninety people. The Jewish colony was systematically tortured... For weeks afterwards starving Turkish children running helplessly about the ruins were being cut down and shot at by exultant Greeks."

104 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, the Urdu and Persian author, linguist, researcher and critic, Dr. Ghulam Mustafa Khan, was born in Jabalpur, India, in a religious family of the Naqshbandi Sufi order. He was a product of the famous Aligarh Muslim University and did his MA in Urdu & Persian literature, followed by PhD on the eminent Persian poet, Hassan Ghaznavi. He migrated to Pakistan, and took up service at the Urdu College, Karachi. Later he was head of the Department of Urdu in Sindh University, Hyderabad. His book on the famous philosopher-poet Iqbal Lahori and the holy Qur’an, was awarded as the best book ever written on this subject. Dr Ghulam Mustafa became a famous religious and spiritual leader. He trained a large number of students and was author of more than 100 books in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English.

84 solar years ago, on this day in 1932 AD, the British allowed their agent, Abdul-Aziz Ibn Saud, to name a large part of the Arabian Peninsula that he had usurped through wars, bloodshed, and subterfuge, as “Saudi Arabia” – the only place in the world where the name of a tribal minority has been applied to a country. Abdul-Aziz was from Najd in the desert interior, where to advance his political goals he had allied himself with the schismatic Wahhabi cult, whose aim was to deceive and divide Muslims. He was promptly hired by the British against the Ottoman Empire on a monthly salary of 5,000 pound-sterling. With the defeat of the Turks in World War I, he was emboldened to raid other parts of Arabia, and after overcoming the Aal-e Rashid ruling clan, in 1925 he invaded Hijaz, where he massacred tens of thousands of Muslims in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the port city of Jeddah, as well as in Yanbu’ and Ta’ef. He desecrated and destroyed the sacred shrines in Mecca and Medina, and seized Najran and other areas from the Zaidi Imam of Yemen, followed by attacks on the independent Shi’ite Muslim sheikhdoms of the oil-rich eastern parts of Arabia on the Persian Gulf. The British now decided to dump their other agent, Sharif Hussain of Hijaz, whose two sons, Faisal and Abdullah, they had installed as kings in Iraq and the newly created entity called Jordan, respectively. They thus gave the green signal to Abdul-Aziz to assume the title of king and call the territories he had usurped as Saudi Arabia, but not before taking a pledge from him against opposing their plan to set up the illegal Zionist state in Palestine. It is widely believed that the Aal-e Saud clan is descended from the Jewish tribes which in the course of history were Arabicized and became Muslim. Interestingly, the Saudi regime has never supplied any weapons or backed any Palestinian group opposed to the illegal existence of Israel. As a matter of fact, the Wahhabis, who are notorious for their enmity towards the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt, and finance terrorist groups such as al-Qa’eda, Taleban, Salafis, etc, to preach hatred and kill Muslims, have never posed any threat to the Zionists.

77 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, the Austrian psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud, died at the age of 83. He conducted research on mental disorders, and presented new theories on the root cause of psychological ailments. He believed that the source of human thoughts and acts is the unconscious mind and many of mental disorders are caused by suppressed inclinations and tendencies, especially in childhood. Freud is thus called Father of Psychoanalysis. Among his books are "The Interpretation of Dreams", and "The Future of an Illusion".

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1365 AD, prominent Iranian poet, Ali Akbar Khoshdil Tehrani, passed away at the age of 72. After mastering Arabic grammar, jurisprudence, rhetoric, logic and philosophy, he spent the next 30 years travelling all over Iran and other regional countries, such as Iraq. Syria, Turkey, Hijaz, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India; and performing the Hajj pilgrimage four times. He composed all styles of classical Persian poetry including ghazals, but excelled in elegies and eulogies on Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams, to the extent that most religious gatherings start with his moving poems. He has left behind a divan of Persian poetry.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, Armenia declared independence from the former Soviet Union. Armenia was an integral part of Iran and the successive Persian Empires, beginning from the 6th century BC till the 19th century, when it was seized from Qajarid Iran by the Russians. In 1918, following the communist revolution Armenia declared its independence, but was suppressed by the Soviets. In the early 1990s, a referendum saw over 90% of Armenians vote in favor of independence. Armenia is situated in West Asia in the Caucasus region. It covers an area of almost 30,000 sq km, and shares borders with Iran, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, the Iranian painter and miniaturist, Ali Karimi, passed away at the age of 74. He was a student of Hadi Tajvidi, and in turn groomed numerous students, who are highly skilled painters.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Iranian President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a memorable speech at New York’s Columbia University followed by a scheduled address to the UN General Assembly. Thousands of people applauded his speech at the university in which he exposed the myth of the Holocaust and called for its scientific and academic probe. He also questioned the US government’s version of the 11 September 2001 incidents in New York.

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