Today is Tuesday; 2nd of the Iranian month of Azar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 22nd of the Islamic month of Safar 1438 lunar hijri; and November 22, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1086 lunar years ago, on this day in 352 AH, the Arabic poet, Abu'l-Qassem Ali ibn Ishaq al-Baghdadi, passed away at the age of 42. Incidentally, he was born on this same day of 20th of Safar. Most of his poetry is on the unrivalled merits of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams. He lived for some time at the court of Amir Saif ad-Dowlah Hamdani in Aleppo and has praised this gallant ruler for his love of the Ahl al-Bayt, as well as his exploits against the Byzantines.

809 lunar years ago, on this day in 629 AH, the Sunni Hanbali narrator of hadith, Abu Bakr Ibn Noqtah, died in Baghdad. He travelled widely over Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt to gather hadith, and is the author of the book “at-Taqyeed”. Among his students is the well-known religious scholar and historian, Ibn Asaker, the author of the voluminous book History of Damascus, who has recorded in his work the details of 400 ayahs of the holy Qur'an that God revealed to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) on the merits of his vicegerent, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

769 solar years ago, on this day in 1247 AD, Robin Hood, the heroic outlaw in English folklore, died according to the 1400 ballad “A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode”. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, the legend of Robin Hood, often portrayed as robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, is believed to extend into antiquity.

519 solar years ago, on this day in 1497 AD, Portugal’s Vasco da Gama, with the help of Muslim Arab navigators, became the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope of the southernmost tip of Africa, and discover the sea route to India. A treacherous and murderous person, on landing in Calicut (presently Kozhikode), he indiscriminately massacred Hindus and Muslims, including the Arab navigator who had guided him. Later, when 800 Arab merchants landed on the southern Indian coast for buying rice, he seized them; tortured them to death by cutting their hands, ears, and noses, and burned their ships.

442 solar years ago, on this day in 1574 AD, the Juan Fernandez Islands off the coast of Chile were discovered by Spanish sailor Juan Fernandez, who was sailing south between Callao and Valparaíso, hundreds of miles west of the coast of Chile to avoid the northerly Humboldt Current. Situated 670 km off the coast of Chile, they are composed of three main volcanic islands: Robinson Crusoe, Alejandro Selkirk and Santa Clara. The islands, which in the past centuries had earned notoriety as pirate hideouts and later become penal colonies, are primarily known for having been the home to the marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk for more than four years from 1704, which may have inspired Daniel Defoe to write the popular novel, “Robinson Crusoe”.

399 solar years ago, on this day in 1617 AD, the Ottoman ruler, Sultan Ahmad I, died after a reign of 14 years, during which he suffered setbacks both in Europe and against the Safavid Empire of Iran. Shah Abbas I and his famous general Allahverdi Khan shattered the Ottoman forces in Azarbaijan and regained Georgia and the parts of the Caucasus occupied by the Turks, forcing Damad Nasuh Pasha, the Grand Vizier of Ahmad I to sign the treaty recognizing Iran’s rights and settling the border between the two empires. Ahmad I is remembered mainly for the construction of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque), one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture in Istanbul.

265 solar years ago, on this day in 1751 AD, the Maratha army was decisively defeated by the forces of Salabat Jang Asef od-Dowla of Hyderabad-Deccan in the first of three such victorious encounters that forced the Peshwa, Balaji Rao, to end his raids and agree to peace. Salabat Jang’s troops were supported by French artillery units under Marquis De Bussy, who was given the titles Saif od-Dowlah Umdat ol-Mulk by the Muslim ruler. Sa’eed Mohammad Khan Salabat Jang was the 4th Nizam ul-Mulk and the 3rd son of the founder of the dynasty, Asef Jah I. He was deposed in 1762 by his younger brother, Nizam Ali Khan, who took the title Asef Jah II, and during his 41-year rule stabilized the kingdom, whose court language was Persian and which lasted for 224 year till 1948 when it was invaded and annexed by India. 

242 solar years ago, on this day in 1774 AD, British soldier of fortune, Robert Clive, who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal, died in London at the age of 49. He reportedly committed suicide. A highly controversial and unprincipled character, whom historians have dubbed a “psychopath”, he secured through hook and by crook for Britain, a large swath of what are now Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, and the wealth that filled British coffers, in addition to amassing a personal fortune. A regular troublemaker at schools, as a teenager he led a gang to establish a protection racket that vandalised the shops of uncooperative merchants in Market Drayton. Arriving in India in 1744 as a clerk, he spent two years as assistant shopkeeper, before circumstance thrust military command upon him in the petty battles with the French and their allies in the southern Deccan of Peninsular India. He now resorted to treachery to undermine Muslim rule – first in the Deccan where the death of the powerful ruler Asaf Jah Nizam ul-Mulk gave the British an opportunity to interfere, and then in Bengal and northeast India, where the ruler Nawab Siraj od-Dowlah of Iranian origin, was betrayed and executed. Through foul means, Clive secured from the weak Mughal emperor of Delhi, the governorship of Bengal for the East India Company, which enabled the British to establish a firm foothold on Indian soil that would pave the way a century later for gradual subjugation of the whole subcontinent and establishment of the British Empire. He has been criticized by historians for his atrocities, for high taxes, and for the forced cultivation of crops which exacerbated famines, especially the Great Famine of Bengal from 1770 to 1773 that left at least ten million people dead.

212 lunar years ago, on this day in 1226 AH, the scholar Mirza Baqer Khwansari was born in Khwansar near Isfahan to the prominent religious leader Mirza Zayn al-Abedin Khwansari. He became a leading jurisprudent, hadith expert, litterateur, and researcher of his time. As head of the Isfahan seminary, his classes were attended by such scholars of repute as Shaikh ash-Shari’ah Isfahani, Seyyed Abu Turab Khwansari, Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi and others. He authored several books including “Qurrat-al-Ayn” and “Rowdhaat al-Jannat fi Ahwal al-Ulema wa’s-Sadaat” – the latter being a biographical encyclopedia of scholars in several volumes.

197 solar years ago, on this day in 1819 AD, English writer Mary Ann Evans, who wrote under the masculine penname “George Eliot”, was born. Her books included “Silas Marner” and “Middlemarch”. She was driven out of England with her companion, G.H. Lawrence, for a while for living an adulterous life without being married.

135 lunar years ago, on this day in 1303 AH, the prominent Iranian Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ja’far Shushtari, passed away. His power of speech, piety, and strong memory was known to all. He was an accomplished jurisprudent and spent all his life, guiding people and carrying out religious duties. He groomed a large number of students and has left behind numerous books, including “Usoul ad-Din” (Fundamentals of Religion)

126 solar years ago, on this day in 1890 AD, Charles Andre Joseph de Gaulle, French general, writer and statesman was born in the industrial region of Lille in the Nord department. He joined the army and distinguished himself during the First World War. He rose to the rank of general and was leader of Free France during 1940–44, finally, and headed the Provisional Government of the French Republic (1944–46). In 1958, he founded the Fifth Republic and was elected as the 18th President of France, until his resignation in 1969. He gauged the seriousness of the Algerian people’s struggle for freedom and granted Algeria independence in 1962 against the wishes of the army which favoured annexing of this Arab Muslim North African country to France. He later gradually granted independence to other French colonies. As a military officer who saw action in both the First and Second World Wars, later as president of France during the Cold War Era, de Gaulle initiated his "Politics of Grandeur", asserting that France as a major power should not rely on other countries, such as the United States, for its national security and prosperity. To this end, he pursued a policy of "national independence" which led him to withdraw from NATO's military integrated command and to launch an independent nuclear development program that made France the fourth nuclear power. He restored cordial Franco-German relations in order to create a European counterweight between the "Anglo-Saxon" (American and British) and Soviet spheres of influence. He used to say that the Anglo-Saxons have always exploited France and the rest of Europe for their own vested interests, and twice he vetoed Britain's entry into the European Community. He also openly criticised the US intervention in Vietnam and the "exorbitant privilege" of the US dollar, in addition to supporting an independent Quebec, which should not be part of English-speaking Canada. Many French political parties and figures continue to claim the Gaullist Legacy. He died in Paris at the age of 80.

111 solar years ago, on this day in 1905 AD, the solidarity pact known as “Seyyedain Sanadain” was sealed in Tehran between two prominent ulema, Seyyed Abdullah Behbahani and Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabai, for confronting oppression and despotism of the Qajar regime until victory of the Constitutional Movement. The move followed the failure of the government to respect people’s sentiments and breach of promises by Mozaffar od-Din Shah. The two religious scholars, who were excellent preachers and models of virtue, guided the people till the materialization of their demands.

100 solar years ago, on this day in 1916 AD, American author, journalist, and social activist, Jack London, died in Glen Ellen, California at the age of 40, of a kidney disease, gastrointestinal uremic poisoning. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone. He wrote 50 books, produced 200 short stories, 400 nonfiction articles and 20 novels. Some of his famous works include “The Call of the Wild” and “White Fang”, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, and the wolves in the area. His short stories include “To Build a Fire”, and “An Odyssey of the North”. He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as “The Pearls of Parlay” and “The Heathen”, and of the San Francisco Bay area in “The Sea Wolf”. A passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers, he wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel “The Iron Heel”, his non-fiction exposé “The People of the Abyss”, and “The War of the Classes”. As a war correspondent, London was sent to Korea to cover the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 for the daily San Francisco Examiner.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1943 AD, World War II: Cairo Conference – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1943 AD, Lebanon was separated from Syria and declared independent by the French colonialists, who had seized Syria from the Ottoman Empire after the defeat of the Turks in World War 1. The French intended to make Lebanon a stronghold of the Christians but could not succeed in view of the strong presence of Muslims in the country, especially the Shi'ite Muslims, who today form the largest single group, accounting for over 40 percent of the population. Lebanon covers an area of 10400 sq km, and its capital is Beirut.

53 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, President John F. Kennedy of the US was assassinated during a visit to Dallas in the State of Texas. It has never been known who his real assassin was, since a certain Lee Harvey Oswald, accused of firing the shot, was killed on the spot by Jack Ruby, who also soon died in prison, because of alleged cancer – if US officials are to be believed.

53 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, British author, Aldous Leonard Huxley, died at the age of 67. He was a product of Oxford University, and became acquainted with eastern Gnosticism during his visit to India. He visited the US and was highly critical of radical hedonism in that country. A prolific writer, he penned 47 books, including "Shakespeare and Religion". In the view of Huxley, the highly advanced technology will lead mankind toward material pleasures, but will deprive humanity of spirituality and ethics.

49 solar years ago, on this day in 1967 AD, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 242 on the chronic issue of the Zionist-usurped land of Palestine. This resolution, which has never been implemented because of US backing for Israel, calls on Zionist troops to withdraw from all those Arab territories occupied in the June 1967 war, including a fair solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, Iranian musician, Mahdi Khaledi, died at the age of 71. He was highly talented in music and taught new methods for playing the violin, which are currently put to use by the musicians.

17 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, the Iranian researcher and translator, Dr. Mohammad Hassan Lotfi Tabrizi passed away at the age of 80. Born in Tabriz, he graduated from Tehran University and took his PhD from Germany. An expert in English, German and French languages, after a career as attorney, he spent the rest of his life in translating into Persian the works of western scholars on Plato, Socrates, and the Renaissance in medieval Europe.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, scientists discovered the first orchid known to flower at night. Named Bulbo-Phyllum-Nocturnum, it is found in the coastal areas of Papua New Guinea.

AS/MG