Today is Wednesday; 5th of the Iranian month of Aban 1395 solar hijri; or 24th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1438 lunar hijri; and October 26, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1240 lunar years ago, on this day in 198 AH, the 6th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, Mohammad al-Amin, was defeated, caught while fleeing, and executed by Taher Ibn Hussain, the commander of the army sent by his stepbrother Abdullah al-Mamoun from Khorasan to attack Baghdad and seize the caliphate. Amin, who ruled for four years following the death of his father, the tyrant Haroun ar-Rasheed, was an impetuous, rash, incompetent, and immoral person, immersed in the un-Islamic practice of sodomy.

1091 solar years ago, on this day in 925 AD, the famous Iranian Islamic physician and chemist, Mohammad ibn Zakariyya Razi, passed away at the age of 60. Born in the city of Rayy, he initially followed his father's profession of goldsmith before turning to chemistry, in addition to honing his skills in other sciences, such as medicine, geometry, logic, and philosophy. He has compiled almost 250 works in different scientific courses, including “al-Hawi” al-Kabir, on ways of leading a sound and healthy life. This monumental medical encyclopedia in nine volumes is also known as “Jame’ al-Kabir". Razi also wrote “al-Mansouri”, and “Sayrat al-Falsafiyah” on philosophy. He also wrote a home medical (remedial) novel for the general public titled “Man La Yahzuruhu at-Ṭabeeb”, (He Who has no Physician to Attend Him).

419 solar years ago, on this day in 1597 AD, during the Imjin War, Admiral Yi Sun-sin of Korea’s Joseon kingdom, with only 13 ships routed the powerful Japanese Navy consisting of 133 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang in the strait of the same name near Jindo Island off the southwest corner of the Korean peninsula. With only 13 ships remaining from Admiral Won Gyun's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Chilchonryang on August 27, Admiral Yi held the strait as a "last stand" battle against the Japanese Navy, which was sailing to support its land army's advance towards the Joseon capital of Hanyang (modern day Seoul). This naval battle is regarded as one of the most humiliating defeats for the Japanese, who lost 31 ships while the rest fled. The conflict ended in 1598 with the withdrawal of the Japanese forces from the Korean Peninsula.

350 solar years ago, on this day in 1666 AD, the Safavid Emperor of Iran, Shah Abbas II, died in Khosru-Abad near Damghan at the age of 34 after a reign of 24 years. His rule was relatively peaceful and was free of any Ottoman attack. In 1648 he managed to retake Qandahar in what is now Afghanistan, and hold it against attacks by Mughal India. The early death of this capable ruler was a great blow to Iran. He was succeeded by his inefficient and superstitious son, Shah Sulayman

327 solar years ago, on this day in 1689 AD, General Enea Silvio Piccolomini of Austria, while leading an army against the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, burned down the city of Skopje – presently the capital of the Republic of Macedonia – on the pretext of stopping the spread of cholera, but this did not prevent his own death soon from cholera affliction. The fire lasted for two days, burning much of the city; only stone-built structures, such as the fortress and some churches and mosques, were relatively undamaged. The fire had disastrous effect and the city's population fell from around 60,000 to around 10,000, and it also lost its importance as a trade centre.

203 solar years ago, on this day in 1813 AD, Canadians and the native Mohawks joined together to defeat the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay, when the US tried to invade and occupy Canada. The plan of US Secretary of War, John Armstrong, was to capture Montreal, which would have led to the conquest of all Upper Canada. But the resistance by the Canadians and Amerindian natives, coupled with British counterattacks defeated the Americans and forced them to abandon their expansionist designs, although they did succeed in sabotaging the prospect of an independent Amerindian state in the Midwest, called the First Nation in Canada. The war lasted from 1812 to 1815 during which the Americans conducted genocide of the Amerindian tribes, while the British captured and burned Washington, D.C. in addition to seizing New York, before defeat and withdrawal that led to the formal recognition of the USA by London.

166 lunar years ago, on this day in 1272 AH, the prominent religious scholar, Mullah Mohammad Taqi Astarabadi, passed away while on a visit to Tehran. Son of the noted religious scholar, Mullah Mohammad Ismail, he was a student of Mohammad Taqi bin Mohammad Rahim od-Din Tehrani-Isfahani, the author of “Hidayat al-Mustarshedin”, and attained the status of Ijtehad. He spent fourteen years in Iraq attending the classes of the famous scholars of the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

143 solar years ago,  on this day in 1873 AD, the noted statesman of the Subcontinent, Abu’l-Qassem Fazl ul-Haq, known as Sher-e-Bangla (Tiger of Bengal), was born in what is now Bangladesh. He was a senior figure of the Congress Party, but as Muslim in the 1920s, he organised the Muslim League which was later led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He played a crucial role in drafting and presenting the Lahore Resolution and had active public position in British India advocating for the Pakistan Movement in the 1940s. After establishment of Pakistan, he was appointed as Chief Minister of East Pakistan in 1952, and in 1955 became the Interior Minister of Pakistan. In 1956, he was appointed Governor-General of East Pakistan and led the United Front and presided over the provisional state until 1958. Sher-e-Bangla founded several educational and technical institutions for Bengali Muslims, including Islamia College in Calcutta and Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) in Dhaka. Today throughout Bangladesh, educational institutions (e.g., Barisal Sher-e Bangla Medical College), roads, neighborhoods (Sher-e Bangla Nagor), and stadiums (Sher-e Bangla Mirpur Stadium) have been named after him. In Islamabad, Pakistan, the Fazl ul-Haq Road is named after him. He passed away at the age of 89 in Dhaka.

104 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, during the First Balkan War, the Turkish Muslim city of Selanik was surrendered to the Greek invaders by its Ottoman governor Tahsin Pasha, as assistance failed to arrive from Istanbul in the face of a twin aggression by the breakaway Turkish provinces of Yunanistan (Greece) and Bulgharistan (Bulgaria), which both wanted to seize more Muslim territories including this thriving port city. On the same day, troops of another breakaway Ottoman province, Servistan (Serbia), captured Skopje – currently the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. During almost five centuries of Ottoman rule, Selanik was a thriving Muslim city with flourishing bazaars, mosques, public baths, libraries, and other facilities. After the Second Balkan War (1913), Selanik and southeastern Macedonia were officially annexed to Greece, and the city was renamed Thessaloniki, while Bulgaria occupied northern Macedonia, and Serbia northwestern Macedonia. Muslims which were in majority throughout Macedonia soon became a minority in their divided homeland because of mass deportations by Greece and Bulgaria. Today, Muslims make up only 40 percent of the population of the Republic of Macedonia, while in the Greece-ruled Macedonia they number not more than 200,000.

84 lunar years ago, on this day in 1354 AH, the Urdu poet and playwright, Agha Mohammad Shah, known as "Hashr Kashmiri", passed away in India at the age of 60. He was born in the city of Benares, and in addition to being a memorizer of the Holy Qur’an was an accomplished scholar in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu languages. He composed poems and wrote a total number of 36 plays. His writings were in simple, fluent language, in which he depicted the problems of daily life in an impressive manner.

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, following the independence of the subcontinent from British colonial rule and its partition into India and Pakistan, the strategic Muslim land of Jammu and Kashmir was annexed by India against the wishes of the Kashmiri people, on the pretext that the British-installed Hindu minority ruler prefers to accede to India. This prompted Pakistan to send troops into Jammu and Kashmir and in the resulting war that ended through UN intervention calling for plebiscite, the land was split between the two neighbours, with two-thirds under Indian occupation, and the rest under Pakistan. Because of the refusal of New Delhi to honour its commitment to hold plebiscite under UN auspices, the Kashmir question has dragged on with disastrous results for the Kashmiri Muslim people, the overwhelming majority of whom prefer independence. India and Pakistan fought two more inconclusive wars over Kashmir in 1965 and 1971.

61 solar years ago, on this day in 1955 AD, following the plots hatched by Western regimes, Vietnam, which was struggling for liberation from French colonial rule, was divided into two parts. The goal was the American bid to gain foothold in the region on the pretext of stopping the spread of communism. The brutal war imposed by the US on the pretext of the fabricated incident of the Gulf of Tonkin, ended after over a decade in 1975, with the collapse of the artificial state of South Vietnam and the unity of the country, which was savagely bombed by the Americans.

43 solar years ago, on this day in 1973 AD, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Hussaini Zanjani passed away at the age of 83 and was laid to rest in Qom in the holy mausoleum of Hazrat Ma’souma (peace upon her). After initial Islamic studies in his hometown Zanjan, he moved to Qom on the revival of the Seminary of that holy city by Ayatollah Shaikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri and mastered jurisprudence, theology, history, and literature. He was well aware of contemporary issues. His works include “Khayr al-Omour”, “Afwah ar-Rejaal”, “Forouq al-Ahkaam” and twenty other books.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the prominent Iranian Islamic scholar and Hadith researcher, Professor Seyyed Jalal od-Din ‘Mohaddith’ Ormavi, passed away at the age of 75 and was laid to rest in Rayy in the holy mausoleum of Hazrat Shah Abdul-Azim al-Hassani (AS), beside the grave of the great exegete of the holy Qur’an, Shaikh Abu’l-Futouh Razi. Born in Orumiyeh in West Azarbaijan Province, his dedicated research in hadith literature earned him the epithet “Mohaddith” or Authority in Hadith, from Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Arabbaghi of Orumiyeh. He went on to obtain PhD in Divinity and joined Tehran University as a lecturer at the faculty of Rational and Traditional Sciences. He diligently continued his research in hadith or the statements attributed to Prophet Mohammad (AS) and the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, obtained in the process “Ijaza” or permission to relate hadith from many Sources of Emulation, including Allamah Aqa Bozorg Tehrani and Shaikh Mohammad Ali Mo’ezzi. He edited, researched, translated and wrote over 45 books.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, Jordan’s King Hussein, and Zionist premier, Yitzhak Rabin, signed a scandalous treaty, brokered by Israel's godfather, the US, in order to weaken the Arab front against Israel. The so-called peace process had started as of the Madrid Conference, convened in 1991 in the Spanish capital. The US had promised to waive Jordan's debts and to provide financial aid on condition that Amman enter into trade with the usurper Zionist entity. The US never fully honoured its word, thereby further humiliating the Jordanian ruler, who for long years had been in secret contact with Israel in the vain hope that compromise would boost his country's economy. This never happened and on the contrary the Jordanian people became more infuriated towards the regime and the US.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, Dr. Fathhi Shaqaqi, the Secretary-General of Palestine's Islamic Jihad, and an active combatant against the illegal Zionist entity, was martyred by Mossad agents on the Mediterranean island state of Malta at the age of 44 years. He was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza, and studied medicine at Cairo University.

AS/ME