Today is Wednesday; 26th of the Iranian month of Aban 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 16th of the Islamic month of Safar 1438 lunar hijri; and November 16, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

497 lunar years ago, on this day in 941 AH, Isma'il Adel Shah of the Bijapur Dynasty of Iranian origin of the Deccan (southern India), died, and was succeeded by his son Mallu, who on account of his vices was after six months blinded, deposed and replaced by his younger brother, Ibrahim Adel Shah I. The Dynasty was founded by Yusuf Adel Khan of Saveh (near Tehran) in 1492 and was conquered in 1686 by Aurangzeb the Mughal Emperor. The Adel Shahi rulers maintained excellent diplomatic and cultural relations with Safavid Iran, and many of them followed the Shi’a Muslim creed. The court language was Persian, and Isma’il Adel Shah was an accomplished Persian poet.

484 solar years ago, on this day in 1532 AD, Francisco Pizarro and his Spanish marauders ambushed and captured Inca Emperor Atahualpa at the great plaza of Cajamarca in what is now Peru, killing counsellors, commanders and thousands of unarmed attendants, following months of espionage and subterfuge. Pizarro, who was born out of wedlock, treacherously executed Atahualpa despite receiving ransom for release of the Inca emperor that filled a room with gold and two rooms with silver, which he split amongst his closest associates after setting aside a share for the Spanish king. The Spaniards indulged in the mass rape of Inca women, and Pizzaro forced Atahualpa's wife to become his mistress, while distributing among his men women of the Incan nobility. Atahualpa’s death effectively ended the Inca resistance, empire and the flourishing native culture.

373 solar years ago, on this day in 1643 AD, Jean Chardin, French-English jeweler and traveler who frequented the courts of Iran and India, was born in Paris. A jeweler’s son with an excellent education, he traveled with a merchant to Iran and India in 1665. At Iṣfahan, he enjoyed the patronage of Shah Abbas II. He visited the Deccan or southern India by landing at Surat on the coast of Gujarat, before proceeding to the court of King Abdullah Qotb Shah in Golkandeh-Hyderabad, where famous diamond mines were situated. On returning to France via Iran in 1670, he published in 1671 his eyewitness account of the coronation of Shah Soleiman Safavi, titled “Le Couronnement de Soleiman Troisième”.  While in Isfahan, a learned nobleman, Mirza Safi, had taught him the Persian language, and assisted him in this work. Towards the end of 1671 he again set out for Iran by traveling through Turkey, Crimea, and the Caucasus. He reached Iṣfahan nearly two years later. He remained in Iran for four years, revisited India, and returned to France in 1677 via the Cape of Good Hope. Fleeing French persecution of the Huguenots in 1681, he settled in London, where he became court jeweler and was knighted by King Charles II. In 1683 he represented the East India Company in Holland. He mastered the Persian language and travelled all over Iran, selling jewels to the elites, besides the Safavid Emperor. He became an authority on Iran and the Persianate kingdoms of the Deccan, writing accounts of his travels, meeting with dignitaries, and adventurers. The complete account of his travels first appeared in 1711 in Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin (“Journal of the Travel of Cavalier Chardin”). His ten-volume book in English “The Travels of Sir John Chardin” is regarded as one of the finest works of early Western scholarship on Iran and the Subcontinent in general. Chardin's style of writing is simple and graphic, and he gives a faithful account of what he saw and heard. His work received praise from a number of thinkers of his age, among them Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon. Latter-day scholars of Iran also vouch for his importance. According to John Emerson, "his information on Safavid Persia outranks that of all other Western writers in range, depth, accuracy, and judiciousness." He died in London at the age of 70.

132 solar years ago, on this day in 1884 AD, William Wells Brown, African-American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian, died in Massachusetts at the age of 70. His novel “Clotel”, published in 1853, is considered the first novel written by an Afro-American.

119 solar years ago, on this day in 1897 AD, Choudhry Rahmat Ali, who created the name Pakistan, was born in a Gujjar Muslim family in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, India. In 1933 AD, the name Pakistan was coined by him and accepted by the Muslims of the northwestern parts of the Indian Subcontinent who campaigned for a separate country. He is the author of the famous 1933 pamphlet titled "Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever," also known as the “Pakistan Declaration”. The pamphlet started with the famous statement:

"At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN – by which we mean the five Northern units of India, namely: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan."

In a subsequent book, Rahmat Ali discussed the etymology in further detail, saying:

“PAKISTAN is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our South Asia homelands; that is, Punjab, Afghania (or Pashtun-speaking areas of the Subcontinent), Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan. It means the land of the Pak – or the spiritually pure and clean.”

In 1947, at the birth of the country he had envisaged, he was unhappy over a Smaller Pakistan than the one he had conceived in his pamphlet.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, in the wake of French colonial troops' bid to reoccupy Vietnam after the Japanese defeat in World War 2, the struggle for independence of the Vietnamese people began under Ho Chi Minh, who went on to inflict a major defeat on the French forces in 1954. Later the US interfered and messed up matters in Vietnam, until it was defeated and driven out in 1976, after massacring hundreds of thousands of innocent people and ruining the country.

70 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, artificial rain was invented by American meteorologist, Dr. Craig by impregnating clouds with chemical components. However, due to its high costs, it has never become common in any part of the world.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, Professor Mohammad Taqi Modarres Razavi, the prominent Iranian literary figure, author, and researcher, passed away at the age of 95. He was born in the holy city of Mashhad, in Khorasan, northeastern Iran. He settled in Tehran and mastered the French language. He groomed numerous students and cooperated with Professor Ali Akbar Dehkhoda in preparing the voluminous Dehkhoda Lexicon of the Persian Language. He was also well versed in jurisprudence, logic, and philosophy. He has left behind a large number of valuable works. Among the books edited by him, mention could be made of “Diwan-e Anwari” (collection of poems of the Persian poet of the later Seljuqid era, Auhad od-Din Ali Anwari) and a manuscript of “Tarikh-e Bukhara” (History of Bukhara), translated into Persian by Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Nasr al-Qubavi in 1128 AD from the original Arabic of Mohammad bin Ja'far Narshaki, who presented it around 948 AD to Nuh Ibn Nasr of the Samanid Dynasty of this important region of ancient Iran which now forms the republic of Uzbekistan.

A year ago, on this day in 2015 AD, Rahim Moeini Kermanshahi, Iranian poet, painter and historian, passed away in Tehran at the age of 89. Born in Kermanshah, western Iran, he left his hometown at a young age for Tehran to pursue painting. Among his famous paintings is the charcoal of Prophet Jesus (PuH) blessing a group of children. His talent and creativity in poetry made him one of the greatest lyricists, poets and historians of Iran. His masterpiece is an eighteen volume versified history of Iran after the advent of Islam till the present day, in the form of beautiful Persian classical poetry titled “Shahkar”, which contains over 200,000 lines of poetry in about 7800 pages. In 2007 he was honoured by the National Organization of Iranian Poets, Musicians, Artists, Historians, Philosophers and Litterateurs. During his 60 years dedication to Persian literature and poetry he published over 20 books and wrote the lyrics of about 500 songs. His musical works are being used by various artists in different countries, mostly in Iran.

AS/ME