Today is Sunday; 21st of the Iranian month of Azar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 11th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1438 lunar hijri; and December 11, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1155 solar years ago, on this day in 861 AD, the Godless tyrant Mutawakkil, who styled himself as the 10^th caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, was murdered while drunk and asleep, by his son, Muntasir, with the help of the Turkish guards, at the age of 39 after a reign of 14 years. Born to Qaratis, a Greek concubine of Mu’tasim, he became caliph on the suspicious death of his brother Watheq, whose body lay neglected with mice eating away his eyes, while Mutawakkil held festivities for several days. Immediately he unleashed a reign of terror, especially on the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He persecuted the Prophet’s progeny, instructed judges to always give the verdict against them, forbade them to ride horses in Egypt, forcibly brought the Prophet’s 10^th Infallible Heir, Imam Ali an-Naqi (AS), to Samarra to be placed under house arrest, and destroyed the holy shrine of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala.

1047 solar years ago, on this day in 969 AD, Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, who had seized the throne and married Empress Theophano, the wife of deceased Emperor Romonos II after bypassing the latter’s young sons, was assassinated by this same wife and her lover – his own nephew (sister’s son), John I Tzimiskes, who now styled himself emperor. A notorious enemy of Muslims, Nikephoros Phokas, during his 6-year reign and before that as an army commander, seized the Muslim emirate of the island of Crete, and led frequent raids into Syria against Sayf od-Dowla of the Hamdanid Shi’ite Muslim dynasty of Aleppo. Several times he was beaten with heavy losses. On the western front, after renouncing his payments of tribute to the Shi’ite Muslim Fatemid dynasty of North Africa, he attacked, but was forced by defeats on land and sea to evacuate the island completely. In 967 he had to make peace with the Fatemids.

895 solar years ago, on this day in 1121 AD, al-Afzal Shahanshah, the famous vizier of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite Dynasty of Egypt-North Africa-Syria-Hijaz, who brought about the split into the Musta'li and Nizari sects that still persists, was assassinated at the age of 55. Born in Acre in Palestine, he was the son of Badr al-Jamali, an Armenian convert to Islam who was vizier of the Fatemids for 20 years until his death in 1094, when Afzal succeeded him. The 8^th ruler and 18^th self-styled caliph, Ma'ad al-Mustansir-Billah, died soon afterwards, and Afzal by-passing the elder son Nizar, installed as caliph, the younger son al-Musta'li, who was a child. Nizar revolted and was defeated in 1095. His supporters fled eastwards. In Iran, the Cairo-trained Iranian Ismaili missionary, Hassan Sabbah (close confidant of Nizar during his stay in Egypt), established in mountainous Alamout the Nizari community – whose present leader is Karim Agha Khan who lives in Europe and styles himself the 49^th Imam. At this time Fatemid power in the Levant had been reduced by the arrival of the Seljuq Turks. In 1097, Afzal captured Tyre from the Seljuqs and in 1098 retook Bayt al-Moqaddas, thus restoring most of Palestine to Fatemid control. A year later in 1099 the Fatemids lost Bayt al-Moqaddas to the Crusader invaders from Europe, whom Afzal Shahanshah misunderstood to be Byzantine mercenaries. This misperception, coupled with his slow march from Cairo with a large army of Egyptians, Berbers, Iranians, Turks, Armenians, Kurds, and Ethiopians, resulted in the loss of the Battle of Asqalan, although the Fatemids continued to hold this city, which is near Gaza. The death of Afzal Shahanshah started the decline of the Fatemid Empire, which fifty years later, was seized by the Kurdish adventurer Salah od-Din Ayyubi. The Musta’li religious leadership which moved to Yemen split into the Sulaymani and Dawoudi sub-sects; the former is based in the Yemeni region of Najran (currently under Saudi occupation), and the latter is based in Mumbai, India.

866 lunar years ago, on this day in 572 AH, Qilij Arslan II, the Seljuqid Sultan of Roum defeated Byzantine Emperor Manuel Komnenos at the Battle of Myriokephalon. The defeat marked the end of Byzantine attempts to recover the Anatolian plateau, which was now lost to the Turks forever and today forms the center of the Republic of Turkey. Qilij Arslan died in 1192 after a reign of 36 years. He promoted Persian culture and was succeeded by Kaykhosrow.

297 solar years ago, on this day in 1719 AD, the first recorded sighting of the Aurora Borealis took place in New England in what is now the USA. The report said a mysterious face seemed to appear in the atmosphere. It caused considerable alarm, as being regarded by many as a precursor of the Last Judgment. Most aurora borealis displays occur in September and October and again in March and April. The green, red, and frost-white light displays occur most frequently when there is a great deal of sunspot activity. An eyewitness account says: "This evening, about eight o'clock, there arose a bright and red light in the east of northeast like the light which arises from a house on fire ... which soon spread itself through the heavens from east to west, reaching about 43 or 44 degrees in height, and was equally broad."

184 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, during the Egyptian–Ottoman War, Turkish forces were decisively defeated in the Battle of Konya, just outside the city of the same name in modern-day Turkey. The Egyptians were led by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mohammad Ali Pasha, the Ottoman appointed Albanian Khedive of Egypt. The Egyptians after rapidly taking Bayt al-Moqaddas and the coastal regions of Palestine and Lebanon, overran Syria and advanced into Anatolia. Konya was Ibrahim's greatest victory. He lost 262 dead and 530 wounded, while the Ottomans lost 3,000 dead and over 5,000 taken prisoner, including many senior officers. Nothing remained between Ibrahim's army and the Turkish capital, Istanbul, after the battle. Political parleys, however, led to the signing of the Peace Treaty of Kutahiya, whereby the Ottoman Sultan ceded Greater Syria to Mohammad Ali for his lifetime, and ceded Egypt's rule to Mohammad Ali's dynasty in perpetuity, with nominal allegiance to the self-styled Turkish caliph. Seven years later, the Ottoman Sultan Mahmoud abrogated the Treaty of Kutahiya and attacked the Egyptian forces, but was again routed by the Egyptians at the Battle of Nizib, on the frontier between the Ottoman Empire and Syria, on June 24, 1839. Ibrahim Pasha had earlier distinguished himself in Arabia, where he penetrated into the Najd to nab the Wahhabi desert brigand, Abdullah ibn Saud, and sent him to Istanbul for public execution, for having desecrating the holy shrine of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) grandson, Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala.

173 solar years ago, on this day in 1843 AD, German bacteriologist and discoverer of the cause of tuberculosis, Robert Koch, was born in Clausthal, Hanover. He conducted research on the reasons behind cholera and anthrax as well. He visited South Africa, Egypt, and India for researches on ailments such as malaria. In 1905, he was awarded the Nobel Prize and died in 1910.

145 lunar years ago, on this day in 1293 AH, the great scholar and bibliographer, Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Mohammad Mohsin, popular as Aqa Bozorg Tehrani, was born in Tehran. His father Haji Ali was active in the tobacco boycott campaign of 1891 and later wrote a book on the history of the movement to thwart British exploitation of Iran’s economy, thanks to the historic fatwa of Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi. After preliminary education in his hometown Tehran, at the age of 26 he migrated to Holy Najaf for higher studies, and spent the rest of his life in Iraq, with the exception of four brief return visits to Iran and two short journeys to Syria, Egypt, and the Hejaz – for the Hajj pilgrimage. Among his teachers were Akhund Mullah Mohammad Kazem Ḵhorasani, Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi, Sheikh ash-Shari’a Isfahani and Mohaddith Mirza Hussain Noori. In turn he groomed several outstanding ulema including Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hussaini Sistani – the current marja’ in Najaf. At the age of 40, he went to Samarra to join the circle of the revolutionary scholar Mirza Mohammad-Taqi Golshan Shirazi. During his 24-year stay in this city, before returning to Najaf, he conceived, and began to execute, the plan of a comprehensive bibliographical survey of all classes of literature produced by Shi’a Muslim authors. His original intention was to refute a statement by the Christian Arab litterateur, Jorji Zaydan, belittling the Shi’a contribution to Arabic literature. However, the masterpiece that Aqa Bozorg produced in almost 30 volumes, titled “adh-Dhari’a ila Tasaneef ash-Shi’a”, became a major contribution to Islamic scholarship. In this encyclopedic work, the titles of all books written by Shi’a authors are listed alphabetically, together with a brief indication of authorship and content, as well as place and date of publication in the case of printed works, and location in the case of manuscripts. He also compiled a biographical encyclopedia of Shi’a Muslim scholars as a companion to “adh-Dhari’a”, titled “Tabaqaat A’laam ash-Shi’a”, but each section, pertaining to the scholars of a given century, also has a separate title. Aqa Bozorg Tehrani’s influence was not limited to the admiration elicited by his decades of industrious scholarship. He exchanged numerous “ijazaat” (permissions of transmission) with the scholars of Hadith, both Shi’a and Sunni, whom he met in the course of his travels – a practice he consciously sought to revive as vital to the cultivation of Islamic scholarship. He was also widely regarded for his piety and asceticism: He regularly led congregational prayer at several mosques in Najaf, and on Tuesday afternoons, used to walk from Najaf to Kufa to pray at Masjid Sahla which was the house of Prophet Idris (Enoch) and will be headquarters of the Prophet’s 12th and Last Infallible Heir, Imam Mahdi (AS) during his global government of peace, prosperity and justice. He passed away in Najaf in 1389 AH at the age of 96 and was laid to rest in his own library.

91 solar years ago, on this day in 1925 AD, the British agent Reza Khan Pahlavi forced the Iranian parliament to set up a so-called constitutional assembly to change clauses of the constitution for formally deposing Ahmad Shah Qajar and declaring himself the next king of Iran. In this manner, the 131-year rule of the Qajarids ended and the 53-year rule of the tyrannical Pahlavi regime started. The common features of the Qajarid and Pahlavi rulers were their autocratic and despotic policies; lack of essential qualifications, including popular support; and submission to foreign powers. An illiterate petty officer, Reza Khan, had earlier staged a coup with British backing to impose himself as prime minister on the incompetent Ahmad Shah Qajar. . In 1941 the British dethroned Reza Khan for his sympathies with Nazi Germany during World War 2 and installed on the Peacock Throne his 21-year old indolent son, Mohammad Reza. In 1953, Mohammad Reza had to flee Iran to escape the people’s wrath but was restored to power the same year through a joint US-British coup. He again fled Iran in January 1979 and in less than a month, following the return to Iran from exile of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), the Pahlavi regime was thrown into the dustbin of history.

84 lunar years ago, on this day in 1354 AH, the prominent scholar and one of the renowned lecturers of the Najaf seminary, Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Sadr passed away. He was an outstanding jurisprudent who had attained the status of Ijtehad while quite young. At the age of 16 he went to holy Najaf to study under the leading ulema and nine years later moved to holy Samarra to study under the celebrated scholar, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi (famous for his fatwa against tobacco consumption in Iran). He returned to Kazemain seventeen years later and soon became the leading mujtahed. He groomed many scholars, and wrote several books, including "Ta'sees ash-Shi'a", “Role of Shi’a Scholars in Development of Islamic Sciences”, “The Shi’a Muslims and Promotion of Islamic Arts”, and a refutation of the absurd viewpoints of the pseudo Syrian scholar Ibn Taimiyya.

70 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Education Fund), was set up in New York to take care of children afflicted by World War II. Its duties were expanded to meet the needs of, and educate, disadvantaged children across the globe.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, Iranian author and translator, Dr. Ali Asghar Soroush, passed away at the age of 74. In addition to translation of several books from French into Persian, he was also fluent in English and Arabic. His translated books include the “Ancient Civilizations of the Near East”.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, the poet Gholam-Reza Qodsi-Nejad Mashhadi passed away at the age of 64 in Mashhad and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). A student of the famous scholar Adib Naishapuri, he mastered religious sciences and started writing poems at the age of 16. He made several trips to India and Pakistan in search of Persian manuscripts. He was politically active against the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime and following victory of the Islamic Revolution became lecturer at the College of Literature of Mashhad University.  

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, Russian forces attacked the Muslim Republic of Chechen in the Caucasus for its declaration of independence. The Russians were forced to retreat after a war lasting a year and a half, and an accord was signed to postpone the autonomy of the Chechen Republic till the year 2001. In the second half of 1999, the Russians again attacked Chechen and occupied it. Although war has long ended, activities of Chechen independence seekers shows Russia is yet to completely control the situation in this oil rich Muslim region, which along with Daghestan, Armenia and the eastern parts of Georgia, used to be a part of the Safavid Empire of Iran and was seized by the Czars from the weak Qajarid dynasty.

3 years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, Hojjat-ul-Islam Shaikh Mohammad Musa Sharifi, passed away at the age of 71 in Chanchik in Kargil District of the Jammu & Kashmir State of India, and was laid to rest in Chutumail the day after. More than 25,000 people attended his funeral. Sharifi, on completion of basic religious courses in Kargil, left for holy Najaf in Iraq for higher studies. He stayed in Najaf for 20 years and served there as a religious teacher (mudarris). He returned to India in 1971 and continued his religious services as a teacher. He was associated with the Islamia School Kargil and was principal of the seminary for about a decade, serving at the same time as Imam of Kargil’s Jamia Masjid. Owing to his scholarly repute, he commanded respect from people all over the Ladakh region, where he was popular for the usage of the local Balti language for delivering sermons, especially in the mourning months of Moharram and Safar for the immortal martyrs of Karbala.

AS/ME