Today is Saturday; 22nd of the Iranian month of Aban 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 12th of the Islamic month of Safar 1438 lunar hijri; and November 12, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1336 lunar years ago, on this day in 102 AH, Yazid Ibn Muhallab Ibn Abu Suffra Zalim ibn Suraaq al-Azdi, the powerful former governor of Khorasan, was killed in battle in Iraq with the forces of Yazid Ibn Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan, the 9^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime. The Omayyads chased, captured and killed all grown-up male members of the Muhallab clan. Of Omani origin, Yazid Ibn Muhallab’s father, Muhallab, despite being the son of Abu Suffra, one of the staunch followers of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) First Infallible Successor, Imam Ali (AS), had sided with the Omayyad usurper Mu’awiyya Ibn Abu Sufyan, who sent him to Khorasan, where he ravaged the lands between Kabul and Multan. After Mu’awiyya, Muhallab stayed away from the movement of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husain (AS), left the Omayyads to side with Abdullah Ibn Zubayr against Mukhtar Thaqafi (Avenger of the blood of the Martyrs of Karbala) and then rejoined the Omayyads when Abdul-Malik Ibn Marwan’s tyrannical governor, Hajjaj Thaqafi, eliminated Ibn Zubayr. Muhallab was awarded with the governorship of Khorasan, and was succeeded by his son, Yazid Ibn Muhallab, who was later dismissed, imprisoned and tortured by Hajjaj. He escaped from prison, fled to Palestine, and after Hajjaj’s death was made governor of Iraq and subsequently of Khorasan, before being dismissed by the new caliph, Yazid Ibn Abdul-Malik, and meeting death in combat when he revolted in Basra. Such was the fate of those who desert the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt for worldly riches.

660 lunar years ago, on this day in 778 AH, the acclaimed Iranian poet, Khwajah Jamal od-Din Salman Saveji, was born in the city of Saveh, southwest of modern Tehran. His father was a patron of literature and had an administrative job at the Mongol Ilkhanid court. He became an accomplished scholar and earned reputation as a prominent poet. He has composed poems in different styles. His poetical talents were such that the renowned Persian Poet, Hafez, has praised his poetry. A glance at Salman’s poetry makes one realize that he also had mystic tendencies. His Divan includes religious poems in praise of Almighty God and Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

378 lunar years ago, on this day in 1059 AH, Iran’s Safavid Empire retook the strategic border city of Qandahar in what is now Afghanistan from Daulat Khan the governor of the Mughal Empire of the subcontinent. Qandahar was the bone of contention between the two otherwise friendly empires, and was mostly under Iranian rule.

287 solar years ago, on this day in 1729 AD, French navigator and scientist, Louis Antoine de Bougainville was born in Paris. He was also a man of action who fought in the Seven Years War and explored the Pacific Ocean. Accompanied by naturalists and astronomers, he made a voyage around the world from 1767 to 1769. He visited many of the islands of the South Pacific and compiling a scientific record of his findings. The largest of the Solomon Islands is named after him, as is the colourful tropical climbing plant bougainvillaea. He died on 31^st August 1811 at the age 81.

250 solar years ago, on this day in 1766 AD, British colonialists led by Colonel Calliaud, imposed a treaty on Nizam Ali Khan Asaf Jah II of Haiderabad-Deccan, to occupy the districts of Elur, Chikakol, Guntur, Rajahmundry, and Muzaffarnagar on the Bay of Bengal coast, thus depriving India’s premier Muslim kingdom of access to international waters. The dubious treaty in order to involve Indian Muslim states in internecine warfare, allowed Nizam Ali Khan to attack Bangalore which was under the rule of Haider Ali Khan of Mysore. Until 1823, the Asaf Jahi dynasty actively claimed this region (known today as Andhra), which, along with the Rayalseema which first came under Muslim rule in 1471 during the eastward expansion of the Bahmani Empire of Iranian origin, and was later part of the Qotb-Shahi kingdom – also of Iranian origin.

176 solar years ago, on this day in 1840 AD, the acclaimed sculptor, Auguste Rodin, was born in Paris. In the following years, he created beautiful masterpieces, gaining fame as a major sculptor. He died in 1917.

123 solar years ago, on this day in 1893 AD, the treaty of the Durand Line delineating the border between present day Pakistan and Afghanistan was signed by Sir Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat in British India, and the Afghan Amir Abdur-Rahman Khan. The Durand Line has gained international recognition as an international border between the two nations, although the Pashtun tribes inhabiting either side of the border, dispute it as a colonialist design to divide them.

120 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, Indian ornithologist, Saleem Moiz od-Din Abdul Ali, popularly called the “Birdman of India,” for his conservation of India's biological diversity, was born in Bombay in a family of Ismaili Shi'ite Muslims. His love of birds began at age 10, when he started writing his observations. Eventually, he undertook professional education in ornithology. In 1930 he began a bird survey of the semi-independent state of Hyderabad-Deccan. By 1976, he had published several popular regional field guides of Indian birds for which he is famous. These surveys were based on extensive travels throughout India and Pakistan. The title of his autobiography “The Fall of a Sparrow” recalls the first sparrow that drew his interest as a boy. He died in 1987 at the age of 91.

108 solar years ago, on this day in 1908 AD, Bulgaria, which was separated from the Ottoman Turkish Empire by the Russians and Europeans, thirty years earlier in 1878, was declared fully independent after over five centuries of Muslim rule. After World War II, Bulgaria became a socialist satellite state of the Soviet Union, and carried out a systematic persecution of its large Muslim population. After the end of communism, it adopted a capitalist system and became part of the European Union. Bulgaria covers an area of 111000 sq km, and is located in the Balkan region, in southeastern Europe. It shares borders with Romania, Republic of Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, and Turkey. Its capital is Sofia.

104 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, Ayatollah Shaikh Abdullah Mazandarani, passed away at the age of 72. He travelled to Iraq and in the holy city of Karbala he studied under the celebrated Ayatollah Shaikh Zain al-Abedin Mazandarani, and later at the seminary of holy Najaf he attained the status of Ijtehad. On the victory of the Constitutional Movement in Iran, he formed a 3-member leadership council at the Najaf Seminary, along with Akhound Mullah Mohammad Kazem Khorasani and Grand Ayatollah Mirza ‘Khalil’ Hussain Hussaini, issuing directives for guidance of the Iranian people.

101 solar years ago, on this day in 1915 AD, the Iranian national parliament was dissolved before completing its 3rd round, upon the orders of the last Qajarid king, Ahmad Shah. This unwarranted measure was taken after Ahmad Shah’s meeting with the British and Russian ambassadors to Iran. At the time, Russia and Britain were trying to drag Iran into World War I against Germany. British forces were deployed in southern Iran, while Russian forces controlled the north. Following the movement of Russian forces toward Tehran, several Iranian parliamentarians formed the National Defence Committee in protest to the violation of Iran's territorial integrity. But, they fell short of any major accomplishment because Iran’s national sovereignty was at its lowest ebb due to the inefficiency of officials. Following the revolution in Russia in 1917, Russian forces withdrew from northern Iran, but the British forces replaced them, and continued their stranglehold on the country until removal of the Qajarid dynasty and installing of the Pahlavis as their new agents.

98 solar years ago, on this day in 1918 AD, Austria was declared a republic, following the defeat and collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I.

60 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Zionist troops committed another massacre in the Palestinian refugee camp in the city of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. This slaughter continued for several days even after announcement of ceasefire in the war Israel had imposed on Egypt in league with Britain and France. In this ruthless massacre, 110 Palestinian women, men, and children were martyred and almost 1,000 others injured.

60 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, the largest iceberg on record was sighted by the USS Glacier, a Navy icebreaker, about 150 miles west of Scott Island in the Southern Hemisphere. It had broken from the Ross Ice Shelf in the Antarctic. Its size was about the size of Belgium – that is, 335 km long and 96 km wide. This record iceberg was many times larger than any seen in the Northern Hemisphere, where the largest iceberg on record was encountered near Baffin Island in 1882.

51 solar years ago, on this day in 1965 AD, the acclaimed Iranian literary figure, author, and researcher, Professor Sa'eed Nafisi, passed away at the age of 71. Following completion of high school, he went to France to learn law and political science. On return to Iran he lectured at the country's universities. He was a permanent member of Iran's Cultural House. He has left behind more than 180 compilations and translations and authored “The Politico-Social History of Contemporary Iran”. Sa'eed Nafisi also compiled the “French-to-Persian Comprehensive Dictionary”.

47 solar years ago, on this day in 1969 AD, Iskander Mirza, Pakistan’s 1st President of Pakistan died in London at the age of 70 years. In 1958 he was deposed in a bloodless coup by General Ayub Khan, who was his own appointee as martial law enforcer 20 days earlier. Iskander Mirza belonged to the ruling family of Iranian origin of Murshidabad in Bengal. His body was brought to Iran and buried in the mausoleum of Seyyed Abdul-Azim al-Hassani in Rayy, near Tehran.

47 solar years ago, on this day in 1969 AD, during the Vietnam War, independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh broke the My Lai story Massacre, over a year and a half after the massacre was carried out. Of the 22 cowardly US soldiers involved in sadistic savagery at My Lai village on 16^th March 1968, only Lt. William Calley was charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the cold-blooded killing of 109 Vietnamese men, women and children, including infants. Some of the bodies were later found to be mutilated and many women raped prior to the killings. The massacre prompted global outrage when it became public knowledge in 1969. The massacre also increased domestic opposition to the US involvement in the Vietnam War. Three US servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and protect the wounded were denounced by several US Congressmen as traitors in an attempt to cover up the massacre. They received hate mail and death threats. The three were later widely praised and decorated by the army for their heroic actions. As for the chief culprit William Calley, he was originally given a life sentence, but only served three and a half years under house arrest before being released, which shows the highly flawed nature of justice in the US.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, the prominent authority on ancient Iranian languages, Dr. Mehrdad Bahar, passed away. He was the son of the celebrated Iranian Poet Laureate (Malik osh-Sho'ara), Mohammad Taqi Bahar, and grew up in a cultural and literary environment. He completed his academic studies at London University. On returning to Iran, he started working at the Iran Culture Foundation and lectured at the university. He conducted numerous studies and researches on Iran's ancient languages, and has left behind a number of valuable books, including one on Iranian mythology.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1996 AD, Ayatollah Seyyed Morteza Pasandideh, passed away at the age of 100. Son of the scholar Seyyed Mostafa al-Hindi of Khomein, he was the elder brother of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Ruhollah Khomeini (RA). He studied at the Isfahan seminary mastering jurisprudence, literature, logic, theology and astronomy, before returning to Khomein, where he became Imam of a mosque and established a seminary. His role as guardian of his younger brother and sisters increased when their mother and aunt died within a year of each other. He taught his brother at his school for four years in Islamic theology and jurisprudence, and encouraged him to perfect his skill as a wrestler – Imam Khomeini eventually became the village champion. In 1929, he took the surname “Pasandideh” (‘Pleasing’ in Persian) when the Pahlavi regime imposed surnames on all Iranians, while his younger brother took the surname “Khomeini” after their hometown. After his brother's exile from Iran in 1964, Ayatollah Pasandideh was a central figure in the network of ulema opposing the Pahlavi regime, and was subsequently summoned to the court several times, and banished to remote parts of the country. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution he continued his life of teaching at the Qom seminary.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1996 AD, A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collided in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 people. It is the deadliest mid-air collision to date

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, Iran successfully test-fired the Sajjil, a new generation of long range surface-to-surface missile using solid fuel, making them more accurate than its predecessors. It has a range of about 2,000 km.

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