Today is Tuesday; 16th of the Iranian month of Azar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 6th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1438 lunar hijri; and December 6, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1254 solar years ago, on this day in 762 AD, Mohammad “Nafs Zakiyya” (Pure Soul), the great grandson of Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred at the age of 53 near the holy city of Medina during a battle against forces sent by Mansur Dawaniqi, the second self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime.  His father was Abdullah al-Mahadh – a son of the survivors of the tragedy of Karbala, Hassan al-Muthanna and Fatema, the daughter of the Prophet's younger grandson, Imam Husain (AS). Known for his commanding oratory skills, amiable demeanor, and impressive build, years earlier during the rule of the Godless Omayyad regime, the persecuted Abbasid brothers – Ibrahim al-Imam, Abu'l-Abbas Saffah and Mansour Dawaniqi – had sworn allegiance to him at the famous gathering of the Hashemite clan at Abwa. On the fall of the Omayyads, the Abbasid brothers deserted him, broke their promise to return rule of the Islamic state to the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt, and established their own dubious rule. For years, Nafs Zakiyya disguised himself and traveled incognito, so as not to arouse suspicion from the regime, and was eventually able to raise a sizable army to take over the city of Medina. He took over Mecca and Yemen in 145 AH. Before that he had sent his son, Abdullah, to Sindh (in present day Pakistan) to mobilize support. Meanwhile, his brother Ibrahim, in coordinated action, launched his uprising in Basra and within two months had liberated the whole of southern Iraq and Iran from the Abbasids, thereby cornering Mansour in his capital Hirah in central Iraq (Baghdad was not yet built). While Ibrahim advanced towards Kufa, and Mansour was on the verge of defeat, Nafs Zakiyya was deserted by most of his army and was martyred in combat. This emboldened the Abbasids and in the decisive battle near Kufa, an arrow pierced Ibrahim’s neck and he was immediately unhorsed and decapitated by the wretch, Hamid bin Qahtaba, who sent the head to Mansour's nephew Isa bin Musa – the cowardly killer of Nafs Zakiyya in the Hijaz. It is worth noting that Imam Ja'far Sadeq (AS), as the 6th Infallible Heir of the Prophet, sensed the plot, stayed away from the political tussle and even spurned the offer of caliphate by burning the sealed letter sent by a victorious commander of the anti-Omayyad uprising, since his right was God-given and beyond the power of politicians. Imam Sadeq (AS) was martyred through poisoning in 148 by Mansour, who is notorious for shedding of the blood of the Prophet's progeny, especially the offspring of Imam Hasan (AS).

1170 solar years ago, on this day in 846 AD, as per the Gregorian calendar, Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), the 11^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was born in Medina. He later moved to Samarra to join his father, Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS), who was forced to come to the Abbasid capital in Iraq by Mutawakkil, the self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. The mantle of Imamate or divinely-decreed leadership of mankind came to rest on the shoulders of Imam Askari (AS) at the age of 22, following the martyrdom of his father through poisoning by the treacherous caliph, Mu'taz. For the next six years, the 11^th Imam guided the ummah, until his own martyrdom in the prime of youth as a result of poisoning by the caliph, Mu’tamed. During this period, his son and successor, Imam Mahdi (AS) was born and brought up in secrecy, safe and secure from the Abbasid spies. The 12^th Imam, who is in occultation by God’s Will, is expected to emerge in the end times as the Redeemer of mankind to cleanse the earth of all vestiges of corruption and oppression by establishing the global government of peace, prosperity and justice.

834 lunar years ago, on this day in 604 AH, the famous Persian poet and mystic, Jalal od-Din Mohammad Balkhi Rumi, was born to Iranian parents in Wakhsh, a town located on the river of the same name in Balkh, Greater Khorasan. Wakhsh is now in Tajikistan while Balkh is in Afghanistan. The most important influences upon him, besides his scholarly father Baha od-Din Walad who was connected to the spiritual lineage of the Iranian Gnostic Najm od-Din Kubra, were the Persian poets Attar Naishapuri and Sana’i Ghaznavi. He was hardly ten years when the family had to flee Khorasan towards Iraq because of the barbaric Mongol invasion. After a sojourn in Baghdad and travel to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, followed by a brief stay in Damascus, he settled in Konya in Anatolia which was under the Persianate Seljuq Sultanate of Roum – hence his title Rumi. At the age of 67, he passed away in Konya, where he produced his magnum opus the “Mathnawi”, and where his shrine has become a place of pilgrimage for Sufis. Known also as “Mowlavi” and “Mowlana”, his poems have been translated into many of the world's languages including English. His “Mathnawi” remains one of the literary glories of the Persian language. In addition to Persian literature, his poetry has influenced Urdu, Punjabi, Turkish, Pashto, Chaghatai, Bengali and Sindhi languages. In his poems he has paid homage to the unsurpassed merits of Imam Ali (AS), the divinely-decreed vicegerent of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

831 solar years ago, on this day in 1185 AD, Afonso Henrique, who rebelled against over five-and-a-half centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula and occupied the emirates of Lisbon and Badajoz, by renaming them as Portugal and styling himself King Afonso I, died after a 46-year rule. His success against Muslim was due to a chanced victory in the Battle of Ourique over Ali ibn Yusuf of the al-Murabetun Dynasty,

776 solar years ago, on this day in 1240 AD, Mongol armies of Batu Khan invaded the principality of Rus, occupied Kiev and destroyed it. For several centuries the Russians and Ukrainians acknowledged the Mongols and their Muslim Tatar successors as overlords.

312 solar years ago, on this day in 1704 AD, a battalion sent by Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb under command of Iranian general, Mirza Askari Wazir Khan, routed the Sikhs at the Battle of Chamkaur in the Punjab, but failed to arrest Guru Gobind Singh, who was escorted by Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan to Jatpur where he was received by the local Muslim chieftain. He later went to Dina, where he wrote “Zafarnama” (Epistle of Victory) in Persian, in 111 verses, and mockingly sent it to Aurangzeb. According to another version, Gobind Singh wrote the “Zafarnama” the next year following the Battle of Muktsar on 29 December 1705. Wazir Khan, who was governor of Sirhind in Punjab was captured by the Sikhs in the Battle of Chappar-Chiri in 1710 and killed.

238 solar years ago, on this day in 1778 AD, French chemist and physicist, Joseph Gay-Lussac, was born. The invention of a type of alcoholometer, and densimeter, and identification of chlorine as an element, are some of his achievements. His most important scientific activities are laws on expansion of gases, which have been named after him. He died in 1850.

214 solar years ago, on this day in 1802 AD, Paul-Emile Botta, was born in Italy to historian Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta. The family moved to Paris, where he grew up and became a scientist. He was assigned as French consul to Mosul in Iraq, where his interest in archaeology led to the discovery in 1843 of the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II (721 to 705 BC) at Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad).

193 solar years ago, on this day in 1823 AD, Friedrich Max Muller, the German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life, was born in Dessau. He was one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Muller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology. “The Sacred Books of the East”, a 50-volume set of English translations, was prepared under his direction. He displayed an aptitude for classical languages, learning Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. He also promoted the idea of a Turanian family of languages and Turanian people to include Turks, Mongols and east Europeans. Max Muller, in his writings, shows enmity to Islam, and is also criticized for his anti-Christian views.

148 solar years ago, on this day in 1868 AD, August Schleicher, German linguist and academic, died at the age of 47. His famous work was “A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European Languages”, in which he attempted to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European language. He was fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and Persian.

99 solar years ago, on this day in 1917 AD, Finland emerged independent with a republican system following the fall of the Russian monarchy. Throughout history this land was divided between Sweden and Russia. Finland covers an area of over 338,000 sq km. It shares borders with Russia, Sweden, and Norway.

94 solar years ago, on this day in 1922 AD, The Irish Free State was established as a Dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations under the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed by British and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand. As expected, Northern Ireland immediately exercised its right under the Treaty to remove itself from the new state. The Irish Free State effectively replaced both the self-proclaimed Irish Republic (founded 21 January 1919) and the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State. The Free State came to an end in 1937, when the citizens voted by plebiscite to adopt a new constitution. Under the new constitution the Irish state was named Ireland.

63 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, three Iranian students were shot and martyred by the Shah’s forces at Tehran University for protesting the visit to Iran of the then US vice-president, Richard Nixon, three-and-a-half months after the US-coup that toppled the government of Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq and restored the fugitive Shah to power. The day after this tragic incident, Nixon was shamelessly awarded an honorary PhD by the regime at Tehran University. This day is thus marked as Student’s Day in Iran.

60 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, leader of India’s so-called ‘Untouchable Caste’, economist, and the main architect of the national constitution, died at the age of 65. Two months before his death he had converted to Buddhism, along with 385,000 of his followers, because of oppression and discrimination by the so-called upper caste Hindus. Over a decade earlier, Ambedkar, along with his followers, had planned to convert to Islam, but was dissuaded by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who fearing a dramatic increase in the Muslim population of India, coined the deceptive term ‘harijan’ or ‘children of God’ for the untouchables. Ambedkar called those of his race who had not converted as “Dalit” or the oppressed, a term which is still in use for over 30 percent of India’s population which are original habitants of the Subcontinent before the Aryan invasion and imposition of the Hindu creed.

24 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, to the shock of the civilized world, the historic Babri Mosque in Faizabad, India, was desecrated and razed to the ground by anarchic elements. The mosque built in 1528 by Mir Baqi Tashqandi, the Persian minister of Zaheer ud-din Mohammad Babar, the Founder of the Mughal Empire in the Subcontinent, was an architectural masterpiece topped by three domes and exquisite Persian and Arabic inscriptions. A whisper from the “mehrab” or prayer niche could be heard clearly at the other end, 200 feet away and through the length and breadth of the central court. The deployment and projection of voice from the pulpit was such that modern architects have attributed this intriguing acoustic feature to a large recess in the wall of the mehrab and several recesses in the surrounding walls which functioned as resonators; this design helped everyone to hear the speaker at the mehrab. The sandstone used in the Babri Mosque also had resonant qualities which contributed to the unique acoustics. A passive environmental control system comprised the high ceiling, domes, and six large grille windows, which helped keep the interior cool by allowing natural ventilation as well as daylight. Mir Baqi, who as Governor of Awadh helped the fledgling Mughal Empire subdue and pacify the region, had built the Babri Mosque for Shi’a Muslims, but in the subsequent centuries it was taken over by Sunni Muslims. In 1936 during the British era, Shi’a Muslims had filed a lawsuit for return of the Babri Mosque to them on the basis of historical documents, but the petition was rejected. It is worth mentioning that Hindus had no claim to this place of worship of the One and Only Creator, until over three centuries after its construction, the Babri Mosque was mischievously registered as a monument built on the ruins of a temple, by a British official, following the fall of the Shi’ite-Muslim kingdom of Awadh of Iranian origin to the colonialists, despite the fact that no Rajput history written by Hindus had made such a claim, such as “Ramcharit Manas” of Tulsidas (1574). Several decades later, seditious groups, intent on harming national unity, stealthily installed idols in one of sections of the mosque, and the court battle that followed led to the unjust division, and later the lock-up of the Babri Mosque. Finally anarchic elements, exploited by unprincipled politicians, alleging that it was the site of birth of a pre-historic figure called Ram, destroyed it and unleashed clashes all over the country, resulting in the death of over 2000 people, mostly Muslims. Although the Archeological Survey of India failed to find any traces of previous construction, let alone temple relics at the site of the destroyed mosque, the court issued a controversial verdict allotting only a third of the place for construction of a mosque – the rest to be reserved for a temple – a decision which India’s 240 million Muslims have rejected and filed appeal at the Supreme Court for restoration of the whole site for the worship of the One and Only God.

23 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, Javad Ma’roufi, one of the most notable composers of Persian classical music and one of the first pianists who wrote Persian pieces for the piano, passed away in his hometown Tehran at the age of 82. Son of musician Musa Ma’roufi, student of the renowned music master Darvish Khan Darvish Khan, he was taught the tar and the violin by his father. At the age of fourteen he enrolled at the Academy of Music where he learned to play the piano, in addition to Persian classical music under its director, Ali-Naqi Vaziri. In 1940 he took up service at Radio Tehran. Amongst his celebrated pieces are “Khabha-ye Tala'I” (Golden Dreams) and “Jila”.

AS/MG