Today is Friday; 7th of the Iranian month of Aban 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 26th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1438 lunar hijri; and October 28, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1292 lunar years ago, on this day in 146 AH, Ali al-Abed Ibn Hassan al-Musallas, passed away at the age of 45 in the dungeon of the tyrant Mansur Dawaniqi, the 2^nd self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. His grandparents were Hassan al-Musanna, the son of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) elder grandson, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), and Fatema the daughter of the Prophet’s younger grandson Imam Husain (AS). He was unsurpassed in his patience, worship and remembrance of God. He was imprisoned along with other descendants of Imam Hasan (AS), because of the Abbasid fears of the Prophet’s progeny to whose leadership Mansur had sworn allegiance during persecution under Omayyad rule. On becoming caliph, Mansur put several descendents of Imam Hasan (AS) in a dark dungeon where the day could not be differentiated from the night, except by means of the recitations and acts of worship of Ali al-Abed. These disciplined, orderly and continuous acts used to make the others aware of the time for prayers. One day, due to the hardships of captivity and the weight of his fetters, his uncle, Abdullah Mahadh (father of Nafs Zakiyya and Ibrahim – who were martyred in battle in 145 AH), lost patience and told him in a state of great agitation: Do you not witness our misfortunes and adversities? Do you not pray to God to grant us relief from this suffering? Ali al-Abed remained silent for a while and then said, “O’ uncle! There exists for us a (lofty) rank in Paradise, which we can never achieve except through patience over these or even more severe adversities, and there exists for Mansur a dreadful place in Hell, which he shall never reach except by subjecting us to such persecution. If we are patient, we shall soon find ourselves in ease and comfort, for death is not very far from us. But if you wish I shall pray for our deliverance.” Abdullah replied: We shall be patient. Three days later, Ali al-Abed passed away, while in prostration to God. Abdullah thought he was asleep and when he tried to wake him up, he realized that the soul had flown to the ethereal heavens. Soon, the bloodthirsty caliph killed the imprisoned Sadaat by felling the roof of the dungeon upon them. In 148 AH, Mansur martyred through poisoning the Prophet’s 6^th Infallible Heir, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS).

1047 solar years ago, on this day in 969 AD, Byzantine general Michael Bourtzes seized part of the fortifications of the Muslim Syrian city of Antakiyya (Antioch) and three days later completed the conquest of the entire city by driving away the Abbasid forces. It had been liberated by Muslims three centuries and 31 years earlier in 637 from the yoke of the Eastern Roman Empire. In 1084 Antakiyya and its surroundings were retaken by Muslims under Sulaiman ibn Qutulmish Seljuqi who had rebelled against his overlord Malik Shah I of the Isfahan-based Great Seljuq Empire. In 1094, two years after the death of Malik Shah, Antakiyya was lost by Qilij-Arsalan Seljuqi ibn Sulaiman to the Crusader invaders from Europe, who held it under fluctuating fortunes for the next 174 years until May 1268 when it was liberated Sultan Zahir od-Din Baibars of the Mamluk Dynasty of Egypt-Syria. Ever since, Antakiyya, which in 1937 was illegally transferred to Turkey by the French occupiers of Syria, has been part of the Muslim World.

524 solar years ago, on this day in 1492 AD, Christopher Columbus landed on the eastern coast of Cuba with the help of Muslim navigators from Spain who were familiar with the sea routes of the Atlantic Ocean to what later became known as the American continent. The Spanish slaughtered and enslaved the local people of Cuba and plundered its natural resources. The Cubans deeply resented colonial rule, which centuries later was replaced by US imperialism, following Spain's defeat in the 1898-1902 war. Cuba became truly independent in 1959 under Fidel Castro, who started a revolution in 1956 to end the US exploitation of his country.

500 solar years ago, on this day in 1516 AD, the Battle of Khan Yunis occurred in Gaza, resulting in the defeat of the Turkic Mamluk (Slave) Dynasty of Egypt-Syria by Sinan Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. The wars between the two Turkic powers had started in 1485 in southern Anatolia, when Bayazid II instead of concentrating on European campaigns turned eastwards to annex the lands of fellow Muslims, much to the relief of Spanish Christians besieging the Emirate of Granada, the last stronghold of Muslims in Iberia or Andalus, which fell in 1492 and whose ruler had appealed to the Mamluks for help. Thus in August 1516, Selim, two years after his narrow victory at Chaldiran in Azerbaijan over the Shah of Persia, Ismail I, invaded Syria, since he greatly feared that the Iranians might reorganize and counterattack in view of the widespread influence of the Safavids in Syria and Anatolia (modern day Turkey), and their recent sending of an embassy to the Republic of Venice, through Mamluk ports in the Levant. The invading Ottoman forces soon swept into Egypt where in January 1517 at the decisive Battle of Ridhania near Cairo, they defeated and killed the Mamluk Sultan, Tuman Bay.  As a consequence, the Ottoman state, from a realm at the margin of Islamic lands mainly located in Asia Minor and south-western Europe, was transformed into a huge empire encompassing the historical cities of Cairo, Damascus, Bayt al-Moqaddas and Aleppo, as well as the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, since the Sharif of Hejaz, pledged allegiance to Sultan Selim. Although this marked the end of the 267-year Mamluk sovereignty over Egypt, the Ottomans contented themselves with the appointment of a viceroy, leaving the internal Mamluk apparatus intact.

485 solar years ago, on this day in 1531 AD, in the Battle of Amba Sel, Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi of the Adal Sultanate of the Horn of Africa again defeated the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia. The southern part of Ethiopia fell under Muslim control.

415 lunar years ago, on this day in 1023 AH, the Iranian scholar and scientist, Shaikh Mullah Abdullah Ibn Hussain Tostari, passed away. A student of the celebrated Moqaddas Ardabili of holy Najaf, after attaining Ijtehad, he taught at Isfahan’s seminary and groomed numerous students, including Mullah Mohammad Taqi Majlisi, the father of the famous Allamah Mohammad Baqer Majlisi. He authored such books as “Khawas al-Qur’an” and "Jam'e al-Fawa’ed".

312 solar years ago, on this day in 1704 AD, English philosopher-physician, John Locke, died at the age of 72. He spent over 20 years developing the ideas he published in 1690 in his most significant work “Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, which analysed the nature of human reason, and promoted experimentation as the basis of knowledge. He established primary qualities (solidity, extension, number) as distinct from secondary qualities identified by the sense organs (colour, sound). Thus the world is otherwise silent and without colour. Locke recognised that science is made possible when the primary world mechanically affects the sense organs, thereby creating ideas that faithfully represent reality.

270 solar years ago, on this day in 1746 AD, the Peruvian cities of Lima and Callao were demolished by a severe earthquake that claimed 18,000 victims, in addition to leaving thousands of people homeless.

182 solar years ago, on this day in 1834 AD, the Battle of Pinjarra was fought in the Swan River Colony in present-day Pinjarra, Western Australia, resulting in the cold-blooded massacre of 40 Aborigines by British soldiers.

140 lunar years ago, on this day in 1298 AH, the Iranian poet, Mirza Mohammad Hussein Adib Azad, was born in Tabriz. After studying the sciences of the day, he learned Arabic language and literature, and started composing poems in both Persian and Arabic. His collection of poems includes beautiful and delicate odes.

98 solar years ago, on this day in 1918 AD, following the end of World War 1, Czechoslovakia was founded as one of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as per the Treaty of Versailles. It consisted of the present day territories of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. Its territory included some of the most industrialized regions of the former Austria-Hungary. After World War 2, it became a socialist satellite state of the Soviet Union. In 1990, the word "socialist" was removed and replaced by "federal". In 1992, because of growing nationalist tensions, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved by parliament. On 1 January 1993 it formally separated into two completely independent countries: the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,860 sq km and shares borders with Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Austria. Slovakia is made up of 49,000 sq km and shares borders with the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria, and Poland.

90 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, prominent leader of Iran's Constitutional Movement, Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Modarres, escaped an assassination attempt against him by Reza Khan of the British installed Pahlavi regime. Two years later, the Ayatollah, who in 1925 had unsuccessfully opposed the dissolution of the Qajarid dynasty, was arrested along with his family and friends and exiled to Khaf and then to Kashmar, where in 1937 he was fatally poisoned on the orders of Reza Khan and achieved martyrdom at the age of 67. A product of the seminaries of Isfahan and holy Najaf in Iraq, in 1910, he was chosen by Najaf's ulema and sent to Tehran to supervise the laws passed by the Majlis (parliament), to make sure they are not against the rules of shar’ia. In 1914, he was elected as a Majlis representative of Tehran. In 1916, during World War I, he moved to Iraq, Syria, and Turkey together with some political figures, and served as the Minister of Justice in a cabinet formed in exile by Nezam os-Saltaneh. After returning to Iran, he was elected in the Majlis elections a few more times. Modarres fought against the presence of British forces in Iran, vigorously opposing the proposed 1919 agreement that would have transformed Iran into a British protectorate. His martyrdom anniversary (December 1) is marked in the Islamic Republic of Iran as Majlis Day (Day of the parliament). Ayatollah Modarres was among the teachers of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), and his portrait is depicted on the obverse of the Iranian 100 rials banknote.

68 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, during the first war of the usurper state of Israel against Arabs, Zionist troops mass murdered the residents of ad-Dawayima Village in occupied Palestine. The attack on the village's mosque alone, martyred 75 Muslims in the state of prayer. The Zionists also slaughtered 35 Palestinian families, who had sought shelter in a cave, outside this village. They then razed to the ground the entire village. In 1984, when UN officials asked Israel's representative at the General Assembly about the incidents, he even denied the existence of such a village in a bid to conceal the crimes of the Zionist entity.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1962 AD, on the orders of Soviet Leader, Nikita Khrushchev, who agreed to call back ships carrying atomic weapons, the Cuban missile crisis ended. Cuba lies around 90 kilometers from the US soil and constantly exposed to US pressures.

43 solar years ago, on this day in 1873 AD, the prominent literary figure and rather controversial author of Egypt, Dr. Taha Hussein, died at the age of 84. He went blind in childhood, but given his high intelligence, studied hard and obtained PhDs at Egyptian universities and later in France at the universities of Montpellier and Sorbonne. Thereafter, he became engaged in cultural activities and rendered valuable services in the fields of literature and culture, including the foundation of the University of Alexandria. He was appointed to senior cultural posts and briefly served as Egypt’s minister of education. He authored several books such as “History of Arabic Literature” “Ibn Khaldoun’s Philosophy” and “al-Fitnat-al-Kubra” – The Great Sedition that deals with the sorry state of affairs of the caliphate after the passing away of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). He also wrote “Hafez and Shawqi”, which is a comparison between two great poets of the Persian and Arabic language – Iran’s Khwaja Hafez Shirazi and Egypt’s Poet Laureate, Ahmad Shawqi.

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, Iranian scholar and poet, Hojjat al-Islam Hussain-Ali Rashed, passed away at the age of 75. Born in the northeastern city of Torbat-e Haideriyyeh in Khorasan, at the age of 16 he moved to Mashhad where for ten years he studied at the seminary under prominent scholars, including Adib Naishapuri. He later studied under the ulema of Najaf, Isfahan, and Tehran and became a prominent preacher. In 1946, he became a lecturer at Tehran University and also taught Islamic sciences at the Madras-e Sepah Salar (Madrasa-e Aali Mutahhari). During this period, Radio Iran started broadcasting his ethical and religious discourses. His works include “Fazilat-hai Rashed”, “Two Philosophers of the East and West”, and “Collection of Rashed’s Discourses”.

AS/SS