Today is Saturday; 17th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 6th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1438 lunar hijri; and October 8, 2015, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2335 solar years ago, on this day in 319 BC, Pyrrhus Greek general and statesman of the Hellenistic period, was born. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house (from c. 297 BC), and later he became king of Epirus (r. 306–302, 297–272 BC) and Macedon (r. 288–284, 273–272 BC). He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome. Some of his battles, though successful, caused him heavy losses, from which the term “Pyrrhic Victory” was coined.

1377 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, Habib ibn Mazaher al-Assadi, one of the loyal companions of Imam Husain (AS), with the permission of the Imam who was surrounded by the Yazidi forces in Karbala, rode out under cover of darkness towards the tribal areas of his clansmen, the Bani Assad, to urge them to rally to the aid of the besieged grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Some 90 tribesmen answered his call and rode towards Karbala, but the commander of the Omayyad forces, Omar ibn Sa’d, on being informed of the situation, dispatched a 400-strong force under Azraq ash-Shami to block their entry. After brief skirmish, seeing that the odds were heavily against them, the Bani Assad tribesmen dispersed while Habib returned to Imam Husain (AS), who was the least perturbed and said there is no Power except that of God and we are content with the Will of the Almighty Creator. The 75-year old Habib, who had the honour of the company of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), Imam Ali (AS), Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS), attained martyrdom on the Day of Ashura, fighting the Omayyad hordes to the last drop of his blood in defence of Islam, justice and all other virtues.

1377 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, Imam Husain (AS) wrote a brief letter to his brother Mohammad al-Hanafiyya, and followers of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt in Medina, emphasizing: “Indeed, anyone joining me (in Karbala) will attain martyrdom, while anyone who does not join me will not attain victory.”

The letter of the Prophet’s grandson has several messages. Firstly, it shows that Imam Husain (AS) was aware of his being martyred, along with his loyal companions, in his epic stand against the tyrannical rule of Yazid. Secondly, after explicitly spelling out the fate of anyone standing firm beside him, he meant to say that all those desiring any other objective in siding with him, should leave – as is clear by his emphasis on several occasions that he was waiving aside the pledge of allegiance to him by his companions so that everyone was free to leave him without any hesitation. Thirdly, there is no victory for his killers even if they celebrate his death and the imprisoning of the children and womenfolk of the Prophet’s Household with festivities, as will soon be evident by the ignominious end of the perpetrators of the Tragedy of Karbala – battlefield commanders such as Omar ibn Sa’d, Shimr, etc; Obaidullah ibn Ziyad the cruel governor of Iraq in Kufa, and Yazid the usurper caliph in Damascus. Fourthly, his message may also refer to the numerous uprisings launched by followers of the Ahl al-Bayt to avenge the innocent blood of the martyrs of Karbala with varying degrees of success, but never fully victorious by the sword alone.

1311 solar years ago, on this day in 705 AD, the 5^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan, died in Damascus at the age of 59 after a reign of 20 tyrannical years during which among a spate of crimes against Islam and humanity, he ordered his Godless general, Hajjaj Thaqafi, to defile the sanctity of the holy Ka’ba with fire and brimstone in order to kill the rival caliph, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr. Born in Mecca to the despicable Marwan, who along with his pagan father Hakam, was expelled by Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) for ridiculing Islam, he grew up in Medina, where his father as the cousin and son-in-law of Caliph Othman Ibn Affan manipulated all state affairs and was the actual cause of the latter’s murder. When Mu’awiyyah Ibn Abu Sufyan seized the caliphate from the Prophet’s elder grandson Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS), Marwan was appointed governor of Medina, and years later in 63 AH, along with his son Abdul-Malik, was lucky to be allowed to leave for Syria on the seizure of Arabia by Abdullah ibn Zubayr. In 64 AH, he suddenly found himself propelled to the truncated caliphate in those tumultuous years following the horribly mysterious death of the tyrant Yazid – the perpetrator of the tragedy of Karbala – abdication of the latter’s son Mu’awiyya II a few months later, and his own father Marwan’s surprising rise as caliph and death in the harem nine months later. He faced an uncertain future with the Omayyad caliphate shrunken to Damascus and its environs as Mokhtar Ibn Abu Obaidah, the Avenger of the Martyrs of Karbala, was all set to wipe out the Omayyads with his string of victories against the killers of the Prophet’s younger grandson, Imam Husain (AS). At this crucial juncture, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr, who a couple of years earlier had erred in letting Abdul-Malik and his father go over to Syria, again blundered by refusing to join forces with Mokhtar for obliterating the Omayyads once and for all. Instead he sent his brother Mus’ab to attack and kill Mokhtar, thereby giving breathing space to Abdul-Malik and in fact allowing him to regroup and attack the divided armies of Iraq and Hijaz. What followed was revival of the Omayyad tyranny and suppression of true Muslims, especially the Prophet’s progeny and their followers. Abdul-Malik initiated the brazenly racist and chauvinistic polices against the letter and spirit of Islam that made Arabs the dominant class, hand-in-hand with rabid Arabization that deprived Syrians, Egyptians, and North Africans of their native languages and rich cultural heritage. In the eastern parts of the empire, however, these apartheid policies failed to erode the Persian language and culture of the Iranians and other Muslim peoples, who in accordance with the message of the holy Qur'an, mastered Arabic language, literature and grammar, as well as hadith and Islamic sciences, while preserving for posterity the positive aspects of the legacies of the past.

1032 lunar years ago, on this day in 406 AH, the famous Islamic scholar Seyyed Mohammad Ibn Hussain al-Musawi al-Baghdadi, better known as Sharif Razi, passed away at the age of 47. He was a child prodigy. Along with his elder brother, Sharif Murtaza, he was a student of the celebrated scholar Shaikh Mufid. He was also a poet and a symbol of selflessness and devotion in his social activities. He wrote several books on a wide variety of topics such as exegesis of the holy Qur’an, theology, history, Arabic literature, and hadith. His fame, however, rests on his compilation of the book “Nahj al-Balaghah” (Highway of Eloquence), which contains the sermons, letters, and maxims of the Commander of the Faithful, the Prophet’s First Infallible Successor, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). The book is testimony to the Imam’s unparallel eloquence which is considered, even by non-Muslim Arabic scholars, to be next only to God’s Revealed Word, the holy Qur’an. His other works include: "Haqa’eq at-Tanzeel", and "Mu’jazaat al-Qur’an".

536 solar years ago, on this day in 1480 AD, the Great Standoff on either side of the Ugra River in Russia between the forces of Ahmad Khan, the ruler of the Great Horde, and Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, resulted in the withdrawal of both the adversaries and an odd celebration of victory by both of them. In 1476 Ivan III stopped paying the annual tribute to the Tatar-Mongol Muslims, which they had been collecting for the past two centuries. At the time, Ahmad Khan was busy with his struggle against fellow Muslim Tartars of the Crimean Khanate, and this led to formation of strange alliances. On one side was Christian Russia and Muslim Crimea, while on the other side was the Muslim Great Horde aligned with the Christian Poland-Lithuania union of King Casimir IV. After a brief battle, Ahmad drew back and decided to wait for Casimir's army. Ivan III also withdrew and decided against crossing the river. Ahmad Khan chose not to attack until the Lithuanians show up but they didn't because of Crimean raid on their territories. With the winter fast approaching Ahmad turned south, while Ivan returned to Moscow. As Nikolai Karamzin writes in his "History of the Russian State": "It should be an odd image: two armies ran away from each other, not pursued by anyone", and then celebrated it as victory. It is worth recalling that Russia was subjugated by Genghiz Khan's son Batu Khan in 1255, and the Golden Horde that he founded continued for a full century until 1359, reaching its peak during the 30-year reign of Uzbeg Khan who converted to Islam. The territory of the Golden Horde at its peak included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the right banks of the Danube River, extending east into Siberia. In the south its lands bordered on the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains up to the frontiers of the Mongol Ilkhanate Dynasty of Iran. The 1396 invasion of Tamerlane broke the Golden Horde into smaller khanates and by 1433 it was simply referred to as the Great Horde that controlled Russia.

482 solar years ago, on this day in 1534 AD, the English Parliament on the orders King Henry VIII severed its ties with the Roman Catholic Church when Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage with his first wife, Catherine of Spain. The Anglican Church now replaced the Catholic Church in England, with the Archbishop of Canterbury taking on the duties of the Pope.

160 solar years ago, on this day in 1856 AD, the Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the “Arrow Incident” on the Pearl River when Chinese police boarded the British vessel Arrow, arrested 12 Chinese crewmen on suspicion of piracy and lowered the British flag. The France, the US, and Russia, soon joined the British in subjecting China to a multipronged offense that ended in 1860 after the deliberate burning of the Summer Palaces by the western armies to humiliate the Chinese.  "Opium War" refers to one of the British tactical objectives: legalising the opium trade, expanding coolie trade, opening all of China to British merchants, and exempting foreign imports from internal transit duties.

135 solar years ago, on this day in 1881 AD, Vietnam was hit by a massive storm that destroyed houses and farms, claiming the lives of nearly 300,000 people, mostly in the south.

104 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, the First Balkan War began with tiny Montenegro declaring war on the Ottoman Empire, with the support of major west European powers. The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkan Peninsula in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913. By the early 20^th century, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia had seceded from the Ottoman Empire. In 1912, these countries formed the Balkan League. The First Balkan War broke out when the League attacked the Ottoman Empire on 8 October and was ended seven months later by the Treaty of London. After five centuries, the Ottoman Empire lost virtually all of its possessions in the Balkans, and large number of European Muslims began to be persecuted in these regions.

52 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, prominent Iranian researcher, writer and translator, Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim Ayati, passed away at the age of 50 in what was described as a road accident. Born near Birjand in Khorasan, he studied in holy Mashhad under prominent scholars, such as Adib Naishapuri, Shaikh Hashem Qazvini, and Shaikh Mojtaba Qazvini, and for a decade taught and preached in his hometown. He then enrolled at Tehran University, obtained PhD in philosophy and for years taught at the same university for years. As a conscious religious scholar, aware of the political conditions of the time, he became a close assistant of two of the prominent ulema of the era – Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Taleqani, and Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Motahhari. Dr. Ayati, who played a key role in the monthly journal “Goftar”, has left behind valuable works, such as “A Probe into the History of Ashura”, and “History of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA)”. He also edited the exegesis of the holy Qur’an written by Sharif Lahiji, in addition to translating several books into Persian.   

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, US helicopter gunships in the Persian Gulf, in a blatant act of state terrorism and open support for Saddam of Baghdad’s repressive Ba’th minority regime, whose armies were losing on the war fronts, in an unprovoked attack, sank three Iranian patrol boats.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, Zionist troops attacked Palestinian worshippers at the al-Aqsa Mosque, martyring 20 and wounding scores of others. The blind US support for Israel's crimes against humanity, prevented the passing of any UN resolution against the illegal Zionist entity.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2005 AD, a 7.6-magnitude quake hit Kashmir killing thousands of people in parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. The epicenter was Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. As many as 90,000 people were killed in the border regions of the three countries while 3.3 million people lost their homes and hearths.

AS/ME