Today is Thursday; 22nd of the Iranian month of Mehr 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 11th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1438 lunar hijri; and October 13, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1377 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, a day after Ashura, the survivors of the heartrending tragedy of Karbala, mostly women and children of the noble household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), including Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), the son and successor of Imam Husain (AS), were chained and fettered as ordinary captive by the Godless hordes of Omar ibn Sa'd and taken to Kufa to the court of the tyrant's Yazid's ungodly governor, Obaidollah ibn Ziyad, who tried to mock them. The Prophet's granddaughter, Hazrat Zainab (SA) delivered a memorable sermon unmasking the hypocrisy of the Omayyads and their bloodthirsty nature. The people of Kufa, who had deserted the cause of the Ahl al-Bayt, wept and felt remorse, which alarmed Ibn Ziyad and made him quickly dispatch the caravan of captives to Damascus in Syria, but through unfrequented routes so as to avoid the anger and indignation of the people of the towns that lay in the way.

1160 lunar years ago, on this day in 279 AH, the renowned Iranian Sunni Muslim authority on hadith, Mohammad ibn Eisa Tirmizi, passed away. He was born and died in Bagh, near Tirmiz in Greater Khorasan (now in Uzbekistan). At the age of twenty, he travelled to Kufa, Basra and the Hijaz, in pursuit of knowledge. His teachers included Mohammad al-Bukhari, Muslim Naishaburi and Abu Dawoud Sijistani – all three of whom were renowned Iranian Sunni Muslim compilers of hadith.  Tirmizi, who became blind in the last two years of his life, is the author of the "al-Jame' as-Sahih", popularly called "Sunan at-Tirmizi", one of the six canonical hadith compilations of Sunni Muslims. He has included in his compendium authentic narrations on the unrivalled merits of the blessed household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and has said that the term Ahl al-Bayt as used by God in the holy Qur'an and by the Prophet in several hadith, is exclusive for Imam Ali (AS), Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS), and does not include the Prophet's wife, as some allege. Tirmizi's grave is in Sherobad, 60 km north of Tirmiz, where he is called Tirmiz Baba.

786 solar years ago, on this day in 1240 AD, Raziyya Sultana, the only Muslim lady to sit on the throne of Delhi, was captured near Kaithal in Punjab by the local Jats and killed, along with her husband, Altuniya the Turk, after being defeated in battle near Delhi by the forces of her usurper brother, Muiz od-Din Bahram Shah. As the daughter and heir apparent of the third ruler of the Mamluk (slave) Dynasty of northern India, Shams od-Din Iltutmish, she ruled for four years, after being bypassed for six months by the Turkic nobility in favour of her brother, Rukn od-Din Feroz. Even before she became ruler, she was preoccupied with the affairs of state during her father's reign. A shrewd politician, she managed to keep the nobles in check, while enlisting the support of the army and the populace. Her greatest accomplishment on the political front was to manipulate rebel factions into opposing each other. At that point, Raziyya seemed destined to become one of the most powerful rulers of the Delhi Sultanate, but the turbulent Turkic nobles plotted and revolted against her, resulting in her downfall.

133 solar years ago, on this day in 1882 AD, the French author and philosopher, Joseph Arthur Gobineau, died at the age of 66. Born in Paris, he took to writing and journalism following completion of his studies. He served as the French ambassador to Iran and during this period, he learned Persian and Arabic languages as well as the ancient cuneiform scripts. He was unfortunately a racist or more properly a white supremacist, and wrote the highly flawed book: "An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races". The theory of supremacy of the so-called Aryan race was one of the pretexts of the German Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, for waging World War II, and massacring millions of Europeans. Among his other works, mention can be made of "Three Years in Asia", and "A History of Iran".

132 solar years ago, on this day in 1884 AD, Greenwich near London in Britain was adopted as the universal meridian. At the behest of the US President, 41 delegates from 25 countries met in Washington for the International Meridian Conference. The resolution fixing the Meridian at Greenwich was passed 22-1 –San Domingo voted against, while France and Brazil abstained. Greenwich lies on the River Thames, is thus the site of an imaginary line indicating 0° longitude that terminates at the North and South poles – 180 degrees on each side. Every place on Earth is measured in terms of its distance east or west from this line – just as the Equator divides the northern and southern hemispheres. The mean solar time at Greenwich is now called Universal Time and was formerly called Greenwich Mean Time. Theoretically, standard time becomes successively one hour earlier at each 15° longitude west of the Greenwich meridian and one hour later at each 15° longitude east.

93 solar years ago, on this day in 1923 AD, Ankara in central Anatolia, replaced Istanbul as the capital of Turkey. Istanbul served as capital of the Ottoman Empire for 470 years, since its capture by Sultan Mohammad Fateh in 1453. Established in the 4th century AD by the Roman Emperor, Constantine and known as Constantinople, it had previously served as capital of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire for over a thousand years.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, during World War II, the capital of former Yugoslavia, Belgrade, was liberated from the yoke of Nazi German troops by the Yugoslav patriots, led by Marshal Josef Tito, and with the assistance of Soviet Union's Red Army. This city was occupied by the Germans in 1941.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, the jurisprudent, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Mohsini Malayeri, passed away at the age of 89 in holy Qom. Born in holy Najaf, Iraq, in a family of scholars, he was a child when his father returned to his ancestral town Malayer in western Iran. He first studied religious sciences in holy Mashhad before settling in holy Qom on the revival of its Islamic seminary by Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Ha’eri Yazdi, whose classes he attended. He later studied under Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi and attained the status of Ijtehad. Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Mohsini Malayeri was known for his piety and high spiritual status.

18 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, prominent Iranian poet, Seyyed Mohammad Ali Safeer, passed away at the age of 77. After seminary studies he enrolled at Tehran University and graduated in both rational and traditional sciences. He was socially active and took part in establishment cultural and religious centres, especially the famous Hussainiyeh Irshad of Tehran. He was devout artist as well, as is borne out by the calligraphic works on titles of mosques. In addition to his Divan of poems, he wrote several books, such as “Khiradnameh”, and edited the Persian translation of verses attributed to the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans, microcredit, to lift millions out of poverty.  Born in 1940, the controversial Yunus was rated in 2008 in the list of the 'Top 100 Global Thinkers'. He is a member of the advisory board at Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology. In March 2011, the Bangladesh government fired Yunus from his position at Grameen Bank, which is connected with the US, citing legal violations and an age limit on his position. In 2012, he became Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland.

AS/MG