Today is Tuesday; 9th of the Iranian month of Azar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 29th of the Islamic month of Safar 1438 lunar hijri; and November 29, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1121 lunar years ago, on this day in 317 AH, the famous Muslim astronomer, astrologer, and mathematician,  Abu Abdullah Mohammad bin Jaber al-Battani, known as Albatenius to medieval Europe, passed away near Samarra in Iraq at the age of 81. Born in the upper Mesopotamian Syrian city of Harran (presently under Turkish occupation), he was initially educated by his scientist father Jaber Ibn San’an al-Battani. He then moved to Raqqa, situated on the banks of the Euphrates, where he received advanced education and flourished as a scholar. Later he migrated to Samarra, where he worked till the end of his life. He introduced a number of trigonometric relations, and his “Kitab az-Zij” was frequently quoted by many medieval astronomers, including Copernicus. He catalogued 489 stars. He showed that the position of the Sun’s apogee, or farthest point from the Earth, is variable and that annular (central but incomplete) eclipses of the Sun are possible. The thorough observation of the movement of the stars and the revolution of the earth around the sun, enabled Islamic scientists to fix the length of the solar year, and thus the Islamic calendar was born. As its lunar counterpart, it was also based on the auspicious migration of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina. Al-Battani determined the solar year as being 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds. Some of his measurements were even much more accurate than ones taken by Copernicus many centuries later. The Islamic calendar is more precise than the modern western calendar, and it was perfected by the Iranian Islamic astronomer, Omar Khayyam Neishapouri, who compiled the Jalali Calendar, on whose basis the Nowrouz or exact time of the Spring Equinox continues to be determined in Iran and other eastern Islamic lands till this day. Al-Battani’s principal written work, a compendium of astronomical tables, was translated into Latin in about 1116 and into Spanish in the 13th century. The crater Albategnius on the Moon is named after him. The indebtedness of Copernicus to al-Battani is well known. He quotes him fairly often, especially— as does Peurbach—in the chapters dealing with the problems of solar motion and of precession. Much more frequent references to him are found in Tycho Brahe’s writings and in Kepler’s; while Galileo is also all praise for him.

1113 solar years ago, on this day in 903 AD, Hussain ibn Hamdan at-Taghlibi, as commander of the Abbasid army under Mohammad ibn Sulayman al-Kateb, played the leading role in the crushing defeat of the Qarmatians at the Battle of Hama, fought some 24 km from the city of the same name in Syria. The leadership of the Qarmatians (a deviationist cult which desecrated the holy Ka’ba and resorted to brute measures to achieve its goals like modern-day Takfiri terrorists), especially Yahya ibn Zikrwaiyh known as Saheb ash-Shama – Man with the Mole – was captured and later executed in Baghdad. This weakened the Qarmatian presence in northern Syria, which was finally eradicated after the suppression of another revolt in 906. More importantly, it paved the way for the Abbasid attack on the Tulunid dynasty and the reincorporation of its domains in southern Syria and Egypt into the Abbasid Caliphate. Hussain ibn Hamdan, who established himself and his family as the leader of the Arabs and Kurds of the Jazira (northern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey), leading his troops to successful campaigns against the Qarmatians, Dulafids and Tulunids, was a staunch follower of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He later became governor of the Jibal area in central Iran, where from his bases in Qom and Kashan, he subdued all sedition. As uncle of the future famous Shi’a Muslim emirs of Aleppo and Mosul – Sayf od-Dowla and Nasser od-Dowla – he used his administrative and military qualities to enhance the position of the Hamdanid family at the court of the Abbasid caliphs, who later treacherously murdered him. The Hamdanid Dynasty, which ruled for 115 years, patronizing ulema and scientists, such as al-Farabi, and promoting the culture of the Ahl al-Bayt, were a bulwark against Byzantine ambitions to infiltrate the Muslim world.

590 lunar years ago, on this day in 848 AH, Mirza Ispand, the governor of Baghdad, passed away. In 840 AH, he invited prominent ulema of all denominations of Islam to hold a debate, in which the Shi'ites or followers of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt triumphed through their rational discourse on the basis of the holy Qur'an and the Prophet's Hadith. Mirza Ispand thereby declared the School of the Ahl al-Bayt as the official creed of the state.

496 solar years ago, on this day in 1520 AD, the Spanish sailor, Ferdinand Magellan, in his voyages around the South American landmass passed through the strait, which is known today as the Strait of Magellan, and links the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

404 solar years ago, on this day in 612 AD, the Battle of Swally, off the coast of Suvali, a village near the city of Surat, Gujarat, India, ended in victory for four English East India Company galleons over four Portuguese naus and 26 barks. This relatively small naval battle, which went unnoticed by the powerful Mughal Empire, is historically important for the emerging European colonialists, since it marked the beginning of the end of Portugal's commercial monopoly over India, and the beginning of the ascent of the English East India Company's presence in India. This battle convinced the English East India Company to establish a small navy to safeguard their commercial interests from other European powers, and eventually establish their hegemony over the Subcontinent a century and a half later.

371 lunar years ago, on this day in 1077 AH, the Maratha rebel Shivaji Bhosle panicked and fled from the guesthouse where he was lodged in Agra, on learning that Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, was planning to send him and his guerilla forces to the northwestern frontier for the campaign to retake Qandahar (in what is now Afghanistan) from the Safavid Empire of Iran. Back in the Deccan, Shivaji continued his marauding of the territories of the Mughals as well as that of the Adel-Shahi and Qutb Shahi kingdoms of Iranian origin, from his base in Raigarh. He molded the Maratha people, who had previously served the Nizam-Shahi and Adel-Shahi kingdoms, into a warlike group that became dominant in India for the next century, and even changed the kings of the declining Mughal Empire in Delhi, until their shattering defeat at the 3rd Battle of Panipat by Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan.

203 solar years ago, on this day in 1813 AD, the discovery of Iodine – a new substance – was announced at the French Institute by Nicolas Clement, in the name of its discoverer, Bernard Courtois. In 1811, Courtois had observed violet crystals with a metallic lustre that condensed from the vapour rising from the mother liquor of seaweed ash being leeched in sulfuric acid at his family's saltpetre business in Dijon. Although he made a preliminary investigation of this substance, he lacked the resources to fully research it. For this he turned to C.B. Desormes and Nicolas Clement. They suspected the substance was similar to chlorine, but confirmation of its nature as an element was made independently by Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac.

152 solar years ago, on this day in 1864 AD, US forces led by Colonel John Chivington of the Colorado militia attacked and mercilessly destroyed a village of peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Amerindians, massacring and mutilating an estimated at least 163 defenceless people, about two-thirds of whom were women and children. This was part of the genocide of the original inhabitants of what is called the US, by the European Anglo-Saxon occupiers of North America.

152 lunar years ago, on this day in 1286 AH, the prominent Iranian religious scholar, Mullah Hussain-Ali Toiserkaani, passed away in the central Iranian city of Isfahan. He conducted researches and studies and was highly knowledgeable in sciences such as theology and jurisprudence. He lectured for long years and groomed many students. One of his most important books in theology is "Kashf al-Asraar", which has been compiled in eleven volumes. He has left behind other books, such as “Osoul-e Aqaayed”, and “Makaarem al-Akhlaaq”.

144 solar years ago, on this day in 1872 AD, as part of the US-Amerindian Wars, the Modoc War began with the Battle of Lost River. The skirmish, which was fought near the Lost River along the California-Oregon border, was the result of an attempt by the US 1^st Cavalry Regiment to force a band of the Modoc tribe to relocate to the Klamath Reservation. In the subsequent war, Amerindian Captain Jack of the Modoc and 53 warriors bravely held off over 1000 white US soldiers for 7 months.

131 solar years ago, on this day in 1885 AD, the Third Anglo-Burmese War ended with the end of the Burmese monarchy after battles lasting 22 days, although sporadic resistance and insurgency continued into 1887. It was the final of three wars fought in the 19^th century between the Burmese and the British colonialists. The war saw the loss of sovereignty of an independent Burma under the Konbaung Dynasty, whose rule had already been reduced to the territory known as Upper Burma – the region of Lower Burma having been annexed by the British in 1853, as a result of the Second Anglo-Burmese War. Following the war, Burma came under the rule of the British Raj as a province of India. From 1937 the British governed Burma as a separate colony. After World War II Burma achieved independence as a republic in 1948.

69 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, during the First Indochina War, the French colonialist forces, as part of their bid to re-establish control over Vietnam, carried out a cowardly massacre of civilians at My Trach village in Quang Bình Province, from 12 pm to 2 am. The French burnt down 326 houses, raped many women before killing them, and murdered over 300 civilian residents, of which 170 were women and 157 children. Many entire families were killed. The victims were forced to the foot of the bridge and lined up before being killed with machine gun fire. Every year, 29 November is mourned in Vietnam as “Hatred Date” of the residents in this village.

69 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, the UN General Assembly, in an unjust move, voted with a narrow majority on division of Palestine into two separate, Arab and Jewish states. This unfair and illogical decision was adopted under pressure of Western regimes. The Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas was declared an international enclave. The Palestinians refused to accept the division of their homeland, but Britain, which had occupied Palestine, worked in tandem with the illegal Zionist settlers from Europe, and on May 15, 1948, while leaving Palestine, handed power to the Zionists, who resorted to terrorism to set up the illegal state called Israel.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1996 AD, a UN court sentenced Bosnian Serb army soldier Drazen Erdemovic to 10 years in prison for his role in the massacre of 1,200 Muslims -- the first international war crimes sentence since World War II. The Serbs massacred tens of thousands of Muslims during the civil war in the Balkans as Europe chose to ignore the genocide of its native Muslim population.

AS/MG