Today is Monday; 26th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 15th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1438 lunar hijri; and October 17, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1085 lunar years ago, on this day in 353 AH, the Iranian Sunni Muslim collector of Hadith, Abu Ali Sa'eed bin Osman ibn as-Sakan al-Baghdadi, passed away at the age of 59 in Egypt, where he had settled after travelling widely over Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, Syria and Arabia, for trade and for recording of hadith from any source available. He claimed descent from the Sassanid Emperor, Khosrow Anushirvan, and introduced to Egypt the hadith compendium known as "Sahih Bukhari", compiled a century ago by his Iranian compatriot, Mohammad Bukhari – also born in a family of Zoroastrian converts to the Sunni sect. Among the books written by Ibn as-Sakan, mention could be made of "Sunan as-Sihah" on hadith and "al-Horouf fi Sahabah" on the companions of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Ibn as-Sakan also recorded narrations from the Prophet foretelling the martyrdom in Karbala of his younger grandson, Imam Husain (AS).

849 lunar years ago, on this day in 589 AH, the famous Islamic scholar, Seyyed Razi od-Din Ali Ibn Musa, known popularly as Seyyed Ibn Tawous, was born in the city of Hillah in Iraq. The House of Aal-e Tawous, descended from Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was originally from Medina, and the most famous family of scholars in Hillah. Seyyed Razi od-Din Ibn Tawous studied basic sciences under his grandfather in Hillah and then went to Najaf, Karbala and Kazemayn for higher studies. He stayed in Baghdad for 15 years, conducting researches in different branches of science, but rejecting any offer of portfolio in the court of the Abbasid rulers. He was expert in many sciences including astronomy. He was a prolific writer and among his works is the famous Prayer Manual titled "Iqbal al-A'maal" as well as "al-Luhouf" on the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala. His other important book is "al-Malahem wa’l-Fitan" on the events leading to the reappearance of the Prophet's 12th and Last Successor, Imam Mahdi (AS), who will weed out corruption and oppression from the earth by establishing the global government of peace, prosperity and justice. He passed away at the age of 75.

750 solar years ago, on this day in 1266 AD, the Muslim missionary of the Chishti Sufi Order of the Punjab region of the Subcontinent, Baba Fareed od-Din Ganj-e Shekar, passed away at the age of 93. His forefathers had migrated from Khorasan to the Subcontinent, where he convinced many Hindus to accept the truth of Islam. Although, he was fluent in Persian, in order to carry the message of Islam to the non-Muslim masses, he composed poems and treatises in Punjabi, thus laying the foundation for development of this vernacular language. Many of his odes were incorporated into the holy book of the Sikh religion by its founder Guru Nanak a couple of centuries later. The shrine of Ganj-e Shekar, who was a devotee of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, is in Pakistan’s Punjab, and is often the target of bomb attacks by the heretical Salafi groups.

571 solar years ago, on this day in 1448 AD, the Second Battle of Kosovo, led to the decisive victory of the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Murad II over a huge 100,000 strong army of several Christian countries led by Hungarian king, John Hunyadi. The Crusaders arrived at the Kosovo Field, the same place the famous First Battle of Kosovo had occurred 60 years earlier between the Serbs and Ottomans, and resulted in Turkish domination of the Balkans. In this Second Battle of Kosovo, the 60,000-strong Muslim army completely destroyed the numerically superior Christian army, and five years later ended the existence of the tottering Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire by taking its capital Constantinople and renaming it Islambol (present day Istanbul).

512 lunar years ago, on this day in 926 AH, the Mongol Shah Beg Arghun of Qandahar, finding it impossible to maintain his hold on the region against the rise of the Timurid prince, Zaheer od-Din Babar, in Kabul and the surrounding areas, marched south on Thatta in Sindh, where at the Battle of Fatehpur, he defeated and killed General Darya Khan, the prime minster of Jam Firuz, thus ending the 185-year independence of the Samma Dynasty. Jam Firuz fled, but later submitted, was pardoned, and given half of the government of Sindh. Shah Beg then took Sistan and proceeded to Bhakkar which he made his capital. It is said Shah Beg was actually invited to invade Sindh by Jam Firuz’s mother, who wanted to free her son from the hold of the regent Darya Khan.

503 lunar years ago, on this day in 935 AH, the Qizilbash army of the teenaged 14-year old Safavid king, Shah Tahmasb I, defeated the Uzbek occupation forces at Jam in Khorasan and drove back the invaders from Iranian soil. Tahmasb, having succeeded his adventurous father, Ismail, the founder of the dynasty, stabilized the Empire during his 52-year rule, carrying out internal reforms and pursuing a foreign policy of peace and judicious defence. Although he lost Iraq to the Ottomans, he firmly blunted their designs to make inroads into Iran, and on the northeastern frontier thwarted all attempts by the Uzbeks, while maintaining cordial relations with the Mughal Empire, providing refuge to fugitive Emperor Humayun Shah and subsequently restoring him to the throne of the Subcontinent. To the Safavid dynasty, which ruled for 230 years, goes the credit for unifying Iran as a nation state on the basis of adherence to the school of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

447 lunar years ago, on this day in 992 AH, Muzaffar Shah III of Gujarat was defeated at Sarkhej by Mirza Khan the general of Mughal Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar and fled to Cambay where he was again defeated at Rajpipla, thus ending the Muzaffarid Dynasty’s almost 180-year rule.

253 lunar years ago, on this day in 1185 AH, the Iranian poet and calligrapher, Abdul-Majid Taleqani, passed away. He created unique works of art. His calligraphic works include the Divan or collection of poems of the renowned Iranian poet, Shaikh Sa'di of Shiraz. He has left behind his own poems in book-form titled "Divan-e Khosh".

199 solar years ago, on this day in 1817 AD, the Indian educator, politician, and Islamic reformer, Seyyed Ahmad Khan was born in Delhi in a family that had migrated from Iran. His father, Mir Mohammad Muttaqi and grandfather, Seyyed Hadi, were attached to the Mughal court. He was trained in Persian, Arabic, Urdu and religious subjects, as well as mathematics and astronomy, and was well versed in the mathnavi of the great Persian mystic, Mowlana Jalal od-Din Roumi. After the 1857 rebellion against British rule that abolished the Mughal dynasty, he wrote the book "Asbab-e Baghawat-e Hind" (Causes of the Indian Revolt) in which he rejected the notion that the conspiracy was planned by Muslim elites feeling insecure at the diminishing influence of Muslim rulers. He held the British responsible for their aggressive colonial expansion and ignorance of India's rich culture. He then launched the campaign for modern education of the Muslims of India by founding the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College, which later developed into the famous Aligarh Muslim University. His efforts gave rise to a new generation of Muslim entrepreneurs and politicians. He also founded the All-India Muslim League, which decades later under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, resulted in the birth of Pakistan. When the British banned the study of Persian in order to cut the cultural links of Indian Muslims with Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia, he took up the patronage of Urdu which led to its widespread use amongst Indian Muslims, and years later, following the Partition of India its adoption as the official language of Pakistan. Seyyed Ahmad Khan was knighted by the British as "Sir", and his views on nature were strongly criticized by the famous pan-Islamic Iranian thinker, Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi. He died at the age of 81.

129 solar years ago, on this day in 1887 AD, the German physicist and mathematician, Gustav Kirchhoff, died. Born in 1824 AD, he studied sun rays and later with the cooperation of one of his colleagues, discovered their scope. He also elaborated on the laws of diversion of electrical currents.

104 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declared war on the tottering Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War that resulted in further loss of the Turkish Muslim territories in Europe.

77 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, Iranian poet, journalist and patriotic politician, Mirza Mohammad Farrokhi Yazdi, was martyred under torture in prison at the age of 50 by the British-installed Pahlavi regime. Born in Yazd, he was expelled from school at the age of 16 during the Constitutional Movement for writing poetry against despotism of the Qajarid Dynasty. He became politically active and was imprisoned because of writing material in opposition to the infamous 1919 Anglo-Persian Agreement. In prison, he protested that “He whose only offense is love of the motherland / No creed would condemn to a dark cell.” In 1921, he published the political newspaper “Toufan” (storm), winning fame for his poetry and constant attacks in his editorials against the British agent, Reza Khan, who was installed as Shah of Iran in 1925. In 1939, he was arrested, sentenced to prison at Tehran's Qasr prison, and killed by air injection. Among his poems is a lampooning of British politician, Lord Curzon for his meddling in Iranian affairs during the waning years of the Qajarid era:

Lord Curzon has gotten angry

He is going to write a lament;

We don't exchange dignity with abasement

We don't obey the British embassy;

O' Curzon, leave us

You can't exploit the country of Jamshid;”

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, at least 400 peaceful Algerian Muslim protesters were mercilessly massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police.

43 solar years ago, on this day in 1973 AD, Arab oil exporting states imposed oil sanctions on the US, Britain, and companies selling oil to the illegal Zionist entity, because of their support for Israel's October 6 war against Syria and Egypt. The swift oil price hike was an unexpected blow for Western regimes, and its consequences showed that Islamic countries, if united, are capable of countering the West's plots against Muslims.

36 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammad Ali Rajai, delivered a keynote address at the UN General Assembly, unmasking the Western-backed atrocities of the Pahlavi regime against the Iranian people as well as the US imposition of war on Islamic Iran through Saddam. He also elaborated on the global topics of importance, such as the Zionist usurpation of Palestine and the conspiracies hatched by colonialists across the world. Following the speech, representatives of the US administration requested a meeting with him, but he rejected it because of US crimes and meddling in the affairs of Iran and other countries. Less than a year later Rajai was elected president of Iran, but was soon martyred in a bomb blast triggered by the US-backed MKO.

18 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, Hakeem Mohammed Saeed, Pakistani Islamic medicinal expert, scholar and philanthropist, was killed by terrorists at the age of 78. Born in Delhi to a family of herbal medical practitioners, who had established the Hamdard Waqf Laboratories, he learned Arabic, Persian, Urdu, English and studied the Holy Qur’an. In 1948, he migrated to Pakistan and settled in Karachi, where he set up the Hamdard Foundation, whose herbal medical products have become household names in the subcontinent. His cherished dream was to revive the golden age of the Islamic civilization, particularly in the medical fields, and he authored or compiled about 200 books in medicines, philosophy, science, health, religion, natural medicine, literary, social, and travelogues.

AS/MG