Today is Saturday; 8th of the Iranian month of Aban 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 27th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1438 lunar hijri; and October 29, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2555 solar years ago, on this day in 539 BC, Iran’s monotheist Achaemenian Emperor, Cyrus the Great, after conquering the Babylonian Empire, allowed the Israelites to return to their homeland from which they had been forcibly brought to Mesopotamia by the polytheist tyrant, Nebuchadnezzar, and kept in bondage from almost 70 years in what is now Iraq. The Israelites had suffered for their disobedience of the laws of Moses and their killing of several prophets of God. Many of the monotheistic Israelites chose to stay in the Achaemenian Empire, and God raised prophets amongst them such as Daniel, whose shrine in the southwestern Iranian city of Shoush, is a centre of pilgrimage for Muslims. Of the liberated Israelites who returned to their homeland, most of them continued their wicked ways and five centuries later when God raised Prophet Jesus in their midst, they ganged up against him and tried to kill him and betray him to their polytheist overlords, the Romans, but the Virgin-Born Messiah was lifted alive to the heavens, while his betrayer, Judas Iscariot, was crucified

1374 lunar years ago, on this day in 64 AH, the holy city of Mecca was besieged by the Omayyad forces of the Godless Yazid under the leadership of Haseen bin Numayr, one of the notorious culprits of the tragedy of Karbala, who desecrated the sanctity of the sacred Ka'ba – the symbolic house of the Unseen but Omnipresent Creator – by hurling blazing naphthalene balls on Islam's most holiest site. A month earlier on the 28^th of Zilhijja, this very same Omayyad army led by the blasphemous general, Muslim bin Uqba al-Marri, had pillaged Medina, desecrated the shrine of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), massacred some 10,000 persons in the Battle of Harrah including several hundred companions of the Prophet, and for three days mass-raped the women of the city, resulting in the birth of thousands of illegitimate children who had no clue about their fathers. Ibn Numayr took command of the ungodly Omayyad army when, while proceeding for the attack on Mecca, Muslim bin Uqba suddenly died and ended up in the bowels of hell. The main target of the Omayyad army was the crafty Abdullah ibn Zubayr. The siege of Mecca ended and bloodshed in the sacred precincts of Masjid al-Haraam halted, over a month-and-a-half later when news reached of the ignominious death in Syria of the tyrant Yazid. During his 3-and-a-half-year reign the ungodly Yazid committed three of the most sacrilegious acts – the killing of the Prophet's grandson Imam Husain (AS) at Karbala, the sack of Medina, and the storming of the holy Ka'ba.

512 solar years ago, on this day in 1504 AD, Korean artist, writer, calligraphist, and noted poet, Shin Saimdang was born and raised in Gangneung. Her artwork is known for delicate beauty; insects, flowers, butterflies, orchids, grapes, fish and landscapes were favorite themes. Approximately 40 paintings of ink and stonepaint colours have survived, although many others are assumed to exist. Unfortunately, not much of her calligraphy is left but her style was greatly praised in her time, with high-ranking officials and connoisseurs writing records of her work. As the mother of the Korean Confucian scholar Yi I, she is often held up as a model of Confucian ideals. Among her poems is “Thinking of Parents”, which she has dedicated to her mother. She died in 551 AD at the age of 48, shortly after moving to Pyongan. Shin Saimdang is the first woman to appear on a South Korean banknote, the 50,000 won note, first issued in June 2009.

132 lunar years ago, on this day in 1306 AH, the renowned scholar, Ayatollah Mullah Ali Kani, passed away in Tehran. He mastered Arabic literature and learned Islamic sciences, especially theology at the seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, under the celebrated Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Ansari. On attaining Ijtehad – or independent reasoning on the basis of the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith on modern issues – he returned to Iran, and took an active role in the struggle against the despotism of Qajarid kings. He wrote several books.

93 solar years ago, on this day in 1923 AD, with the formal dissolving of the 400-year old Ottoman caliphate, and the 623-year old Ottoman Dynasty, Turkey was declared a laic and secular republic by the western-oriented Mustafa Kamal Pasha, who styled himself as Ata Turk (Father of the Turks). For 15 years, Ata Turk blindly aped the West and tried to uproot the cultural, religious, and spiritual values of Turkish Muslims, to the extent that he abolished Islamic rules, forbade the recitation of the Azaan and the holy Qur'an, imposed European dress, banned women from wearing the hijab, and changed the beautiful Arabic-Persian script of the Turkish language to Latin. After his death in 1938, Turkey started the painfully slow progress of rediscovering its Islamic religious and cultural identity, and today, thanks to the people's awakening, the country is trying to get back again into the Islamic fold. Turkey, known as Anatolia or Asia Minor to the Greeks, was an integral part of the Achaemenian Persian Empire until the invasion of Alexander of Macedonia. Later after the advent of Islam and liberation of Anatolia from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, mainly by Turkic Muslim tribes from Central Asia, this land became part of the Iran-based Seljuqid and Ilkhanid Empires. The Ottomans brought this region under their complete domination only after 1500, following their conquest of several independent fellow Turkic principalities of Anatolia, invading and occupying the southwestern that were traditionally under the sway of the Mamluks of Egypt-Syria, and finally their narrow victory over Iran’s Shah Ismail Safavi at Chaldiran in 1514. Turkey covers an area of 780,000 sq km, and borders Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Greece.

68 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, Zionist troops stormed the Safsaf village in the Jaliliyeh (Galilee) region, and massacred over 70 Palestinian men, women, and children. The victims were tied and shot in cold blood and some of the women were raped by the Israeli criminals.

60 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Zionist troops invaded the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, following the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian president, Jamal Abdun-Nasser. The usurper state of Israel intended to occupy the Gulf of Aqaba at the rear end of Red Sea for movement of its ships. Two days later, Britain and France, in support of the illegal Zionist entity, stationed their paratroops around Suez Canal. The goal behind this trilateral attack was to force Egypt into relinquishing the nationalization of this canal, which links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, and was controlled by France and Britain till then. After a few months occupation, the invaders withdrew from Egyptian soil in March 1957 under pressure from world public opinion and many world governments. This incident is known as the Suez War.

60 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Zionist forces committed another atrocious crime, slaughtering the residents of Kafr Qasim Village. After announced curfew in the village, without prior notice, Israeli terrorists attacked it, and martyred at least 49 innocent Palestinian men, women, and children, besides wounding scores of others. A few months later, the people of Palestine staged demonstrations in protest to this carnage, and the usurper state of Israel was forced into holding a make-belief trial for the perpetrators of this barbaric crime. All the culprits were acquitted later and set free.

52 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, formed months before in April following seizure of Zanzibar by President Julius Nyerere was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania. It is worth recalling that a thousand years ago, Islam had been brought to east Africa by Iranians from Shiraz, whose descendants are still found in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and Kenya.

36 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, the courageous Iranian boy, Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Fahmideh, who had just stepped into his teens, attained martyrdom in the port city of Khorramshahr at the age of 13 during the initial days of the 8-year war imposed on Iran by the US through Saddam. Born in the holy city of Qom, he went to the warfronts to confront the cowardly Ba'thist enemy. In a bid to stop Iraqi columns from advancing, he tied a few grenades around his waist and fearlessly threw himself into the path of a tank, destroying it and attaining martyrdom in the process. Consequently the 8th of Aban is marked in Iran as Day of Youth and Day of Student Basijis. The Father of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) lauded this young martyr, saying: "Our leader is that 12-year-old child, who attained martyrdom while blowing up an enemy tank."

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Iranian revolutionary and committed poet, Qaysar Aminpour passed away at the age of 48. Born in the vicinity of the southwestern city of Dezful, he came to Tehran after completion of his primary and high school studies, got his PhD in Persian Language and Literature from Tehran University. As of the early days after the victory of Islamic Revolution, he composed revolutionary poems and helped set up literary and art associations. His works include “Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Poetry” and "Noon of the Tenth Day".

3 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, the Marmaray Rail Tunnel under the Bosphorus Strait, the world's first sea tunnel connecting two continents and the deepest submerged tunnel, was opened for public travel and over 300,000 people travelled through it on the 90^th anniversary of the Turkish Republic. A 1.4-km stretch of the tunnel lies 50 meter below the seabed. The 13-km project linking Kazlicesme in Europe and Ayrılıkçesme in Asia is part of what will be a total 77-km cross-city surburban service above and below ground when construction is finished.

AS/ME