Today is Wednesday; 7th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 26th of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Hijjah 1437 lunar hijri; and September 28, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2064 solar years ago, on this day in 48 BC, on landing in Egypt, Roman general and politician Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus or Pompey the Great, was murdered by his own confidante, Septimius, on the orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt at the age of 58. In the mid-60 BC, he joined Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gaius Julius Caesar for the ruler of the Roman Republic, in the military-political alliance known as the First Triumvirate, which Pompey's marriage to Caesar's daughter Julia helped secure. After the deaths of Julia and Crassus, Pompey sided with the conservative faction of the Roman Senate. Pompey and Caesar then contended for leadership of the Roman state, leading to a civil war. When Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus, he sought refuge in Egypt, where he was assassinated. His career and defeat are significant in Rome's subsequent transformation from Republic to Principate and Empire.

1400 solar years ago, on this day in 616 AD, Javanshir Arran-Shah, the king of the Iranian land of Arran in what is today the Caucasus Republic of Azerbaijan was born in the Gardman region of Armenia. He reigned from 637 to 680 and was either of Parthian or Persian origin, as his family, the Mihranids, claimed descent from the Sassanid Persians. He was placed on the throne by the Sassanid Emperor in place of his father, Varaz Grigor, who had converted to Christianity from Zoroastrianism. Javanshir, who also converted secretly to Christianity, sided with the Sassanid Dynasty during the Arab invasion of Persia and was personally rewarded by Emperor Yazdegerd III two golden spears, two golden shields and a flag, probably the Derafsh Kaviani. In 636, he and his forces, alongside the Armenian prince Musel III Mamikonian, took part in the famous Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in Iraq between the Persian and Arab armies. The Sassanid defeat made Javanshir lose hope and he fled to his kingdom, from where he wrote a letter to Emperor Constans II and became ally of the Byzantine Empire. After his alliance with the Byzantines, he joined forces with the Iberian king Adarnase I to attack garrisons of the declining Sassanid Empire in the Caucasus, expanding his dominion from Derbend in Daghestan to Aras River on what is today Iran’s northwestern border. Soon, faced with the advancing armies of the Muslims from the south and the Khazar offensive on the north, Javanshir recognized the suzerainty of the caliph, a move that facilitated the spread of Islam in his homeland. Javanshir was assassinated in 680 at the age of 64.

878 lunar years ago, on this day in 559 AH, the religious scholar and literary figure, Abu'l-Fazael Amedi, was born in the Iraqi city of Waset. In Baghdad he mastered theology, jurisprudence, literature, and mathematics. He was an excellent poet and passed away in his hometown at the age of 49.

778 solar years ago, on this day in 1238 AD, the Muslim emirate of Valencia in Spain was forced to surrender to the besieging King James I of Aragon, on certain conditions that were never kept by the Christians who persecuted Muslims and converted mosques into churches, beside expelling over 50,000 of the people of this land, which for five hundred years had nurtured many great Islamic scholars and poets. Known as "Balansia" to Muslims and also called "Madinat-at-Turab" (or City of Sands), its keys were delivered to King James by the Muslim king, Zayan, with the words: "In the city of Valencia live Muslims, the nobles of my people, along with Christians and Jews. I hope you continue to govern in the same harmony, all working and living together in this noble land. Here, during my reign, Easter processions went out and Christians professed their religion freely, as our Qur'an recognizes Christ and the Virgin. I hope you bestow the same treatment to the Muslims of Valencia."

Poets such as Ibn al-Abbar and Ibn Amira, have mourned their exile from this beloved Islamic city in their poems. The Christians broke their promise and gradually obliterated all traces of Islam and Muslims.

478 solar years ago, on this day in 1538 AD, during the Ottoman-Venetian War, the Turkish navy led by Khayr od-Din Pasha (Barbarossa or Red-beard to the Europeans), scored a decisive victory over a so-called Holy League fleet assembled by the Christian powers in the Battle of Preveza fought off the western coast of the Province of Yunanistan (modern day Greece). The cause of the battle was the capture the year before by Khayr od-Din Pasha of a number of Aegean and Ionian islands under control of the Republic of Venice, namely Syros, Aegina, Ios, Paros, Tinos, Karpathos, Kasos and Naxos. The Ottomans also annexed the Duchy of Naxos, besieged the Venetian stronghold of Corfu, and ravaged the Spanish-held Calabrian coast in southern Italy, ringing alarm bells in Rome and making Pope Paul III to assemble the Christian Alliance, which suffered a resounding defeat. At the end of the Battle of Preveza, the Muslim Turks sank 10 ships, burned 3, and captured 36 others, besides taking about 3,000 Christian prisoners. The Ottoman navy did not lose any ship. This day is a Turkish Navy National Holiday. The next year in 1539, Khayr od-Din Pasha returned and captured almost all the remaining Christian outposts in the Ionian and Aegean Seas.

223 solar years ago, on this day in 1793 AD, Mubarak od-Dowla, the Nawab Nazem of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, died after a reign of 23 years, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Babr Jang, Wazir od-Dowla. He belonged to the Persianate Najafi Seyyed family that started with Mir Ja’far Ali Khan, who was installed as ruler in 1757 after the decisive Battle of Plassey, for betraying his suzerain, Nawab Siraj od-Dowla of the dynasty of Iranian origin.  

176 solar years ago, on this day in 1838 AD, Akbar Shah II, the titular emperor of the once great Mughal Empire died and was succeeded on the throne of Delhi by his son, Mohammad Bahadur Shah II Zafar. In 1857, the curtain came down on the empire founded in 1525 by the Central Asian adventurer, Zaheer od-Din Babar (protege of Shah Ismail Safavi of Iran), as Bahadur Shah Zafar, in whose name the people of northern India rose against the British, was dethroned, humiliated and exiled in 1858 by the colonialists to Yangon (Rangoon) in Burma, where he died in 1862. Zafar, an accomplished poet in both Urdu and Persian, was a great patron of Urdu poets.

125 solar years ago, on this day in 1891 AD, the American author, Herman Melville, died at the age of 72. He was a sailor by profession, and when his ship sank in one of his voyages, he was marooned on an island inhabited by primitive people. Melville wrote about this adventure and his escape from what he alleges cannibals in a book titled "Typee" which made him famous. His most important novel is “Moby-Dick”.

121 solar years ago, on this day in 1895 AD, the French physician and chemist, Louis Pasteur, died at the age of 73. He presented new theories on contagious diseases such as rabies, and made major discoveries in this field. His innovative methods in treatment of infectious ailments and identification of microbes revolutionized the principles of hygiene. He created and tested vaccines for diphtheria, cholera, yellow fever, plague, rabies, anthrax, and tuberculosis.

46 solar years ago, on this day in 1970 AD, Egyptian president, Jamal Abdun-Nasser, died at the age of 54. He participated in the first war imposed by the illegal Zionist entity on Arab states in 1948. In 1952, along with General Mohammad Najib, he staged a coup against King Farouq to end the monarchy and two years later after ousting Najib, he became president. He was a staunch anti-colonialist and in 1956 he nationalized the Suez Canal, a measure that prompted France, Britain and the Zionist entity to attack Egypt. In the 1967 war against the usurper state of Israel, he suffered a shattering defeat and lost the Sinai Peninsula, mainly because of his miscalculation in committing as many as 70,000 Egyptian troops to the civil war in Yemen, when the greatest enemies of Arabs and Muslims were the Zionists and their godfathers in the West.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, combatant religious scholar, Hojjat ol-Islam Seyyed Abdul-Karim Hasheminejad, was martyred by the MKO terrorists in the holy city of Mashhad at the age of 48. He was a student of such prominent scholars as Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi and the Father of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (God bless his soul). Because of his public opposition to the Shah's despotic regime he was incarcerated and tortured by Pahlavi agents on several occasions. Following the victory of Islamic Revolution, he played an effective role in public affairs. Among the valuable works which he has left behind, mention can be made of the books: "Hazrat Zahra (SA)", and "The School of Thought of Resistance".

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, several high-ranking commanders of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Armed Forces were martyred in a plane crash while returning from the “Samen al-Ai’mma” operations that broke the siege of city of Abadan and pushed back the invading Ba’thist forces. Among the 80 martyrs of the crash were Minister of Defence Musa Namju, Commander of the Ground Forces Valiollah Fallahi, Air Force Commander Colonel Javad Fakouri, IRGC Deputy Commander Yusuf Kolahdouz, and IRGC’s Mohammad Ali Jahan Aara. On hearing of this incident Imam Khomeini (RA) paid tributes to the martyrs and referred to them as “Commanders of Islam”.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, the jurisprudent, Ayatollah Mohammad Hassan Safi Isfahani, passed away at the 76. After studies in his hometown Isfahan, and later at the seminary in holy Qom, he left for Iraq for higher studies at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, where his teachers included Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsin Hakim and Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Qassim Khoie. He returned to Iran at the age of 50 and became head of the Isfahan seminary. He wrote several books, including “Comparative Study of Islamic Economy with Socialist and Capitalist Economies”.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1996 AD, The UN Security Council issued a resolution, calling for an end to excavation of a tunnel underneath the courtyard of the al-Aqsa Mosque by the illegal Zionist entity. The US, however, lobbied for removal of this clause from the resolution. The excavation at al-Aqsa triggered bloody confrontations between the Zionist regime forces and Palestinians, resulting in the martyrdom of hundreds of Palestinians and wounding of thousands. Israel, because of US support, continues its excavations in the surroundings of this sacred mosque.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, the al-Aqsa Intefadha of the Palestinian people started following desecration of this sacred mosque by Ariel Sharon, the ringleader of the Likud party and the mass murderer of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps of southern Lebanon. Sharon, who had entered the sanctified Muslim place of worship with his boots on, died earlier this year after lying for eight long years in a state of coma, having lost all senses, which is a sign of divine wrath that struck him.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Iran's parliament voted to designate the CIA and the US Army as terrorist organizations, in response to a US Senate resolution seeking a similar designation for the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC). As a matter of fact, the US, through these two, brazenly conducts overt and covert state terrorism around the world.

AS/ME