Today is Thursday; 25th of the Iranian month of Azar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 15th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1438 lunar hijri; and December 15, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1290 lunar years ago, on this day in 148 AH, the scholar Sulaiman Ibn Mehran Kufi al-A'mash passed away in Kufa. He had a sharp memory and had memorized a great number of hadith. A follower of the Infallible Imams of the Household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), he was greatly respected by all other Muslims. He was said to be from Damavand, northeast of Tehran. Two days before his death he was visited by several scholars including Ibn Abu Layla and Abu Hanifa – the founder of the Hanafi School of jurisprudence. The discussion turned to hadith, and the famous statement of Imam Ali (AS): "I am the distributor of heaven and hell". A'mash enlightened the assembly saying that Abu Mutawakkil Naji had told him on the authority of Abu Sa'eed Khudri, who heard the Prophet saying:

"On the Day of Judgement, God will make me and Ali sit on the Sirat with instructions to allow into heaven whoever acknowledged my mission and the friendship of Ali, and to cast into hell whoever denied my mission and was hostile to Ali." The Prophet then added: "None have true faith in God except those who acknowledge my mission, and none have really acknowledged my mission except the one who sincerely believed in Ali."

It is worth noting that this particular hadith has been narrated through various other sources as well.

1264 lunar years ago, on this day in 174 AH, Abdullah bin Lahiyya, the chief judge of Egypt passed away. He was considered a reliable narrator of hadith by most of the Sunni scholars, and among his narrations are many which expose Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan as a criminal and murderer of Muslims, including the companions of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) such as Hujr Ibn Adi, who was martyred near Damascus for being a staunch follower of Imam Ali (AS). Recently Hujr’s tomb was desecrated by Takfiri terrorists, who stole the body that had remained fresh despite passing a millennium and three centuries.

1115 lunar years ago, on this day in 323 AH, Obaidullah Mahdi died. He claimed to be a descendant of Ismail, the son of Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS), the 6th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He rejected the Abbasids and all preceding caliphs as usurpers of the political rights of the Prophet’s divinely-appointed successor, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). He declared himself caliph in the Maghreb or North Africa, in what is now Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and founded the Fatemid Dynasty, which later shifted its capital to Egypt, ruling for a total of 274 years.

991 solar years ago, on this day in 1025 AD, the Byzantine Emperor, Basil II, died at the age of 67 after a reign of almost 50 years, during which he somewhat extended the shrinking borders of the Eastern Roman Empire by crushing the Bulgars, taking control of southern Italy and regaining from the Abbasid caliphate some of the territories lost in Anatolia and northern Syria. He, however, came into conflict with the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’ite Dynasty of Egypt-North Africa-Hijaz-Syria, resulting in inconclusive wars in Syria that led to a 7-year truce, followed by a ten-year truce. The terms of the truce were exchange of prisoners, the recognition of the Byzantine emperor as protector of the Christians in lands under Fatemid rule, and the recognition of the Fatemid Caliph as protector of the Muslims living in lands under Byzantine control, as well as the replacement of the Abbasid Caliph's name by that of the Fatemid Caliph in the Friday prayer in the mosque of Constantinople. It is not known whether the Azaan  or call to the daily ritual prayer at the mosque of Constantinople replaced the Baghdad version with the version of Cairo, where the Fatemids had restored the phrase of the Prophet’s days “hayya ala khayr-il-amal” (that is, hasten to the best of deeds), in addition to bearing testimony to the God-given wilyah or authority of Imam Ali (AS), after testifying the monotheism of the One and Only God and the mission of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

944 solar years ago, on this day in 1072 AD, Alp Arslan, the third Sultan of the Iran-based Turkic Seljuq dynasty, died at the age of 43. His realm extended all over Iraq, Afghanistan, parts of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkey and Syria. His name in Turkish means Brave Lion. The most decisive battle he fought was Manzikert in what is now Turkey, where the Byzantine Army was completely defeated and Emperor Romanov IV taken prisoner and later released.

855 solar years ago, on this day in 1161 AD, during the Jin–Song wars in China, military officers conspired against Emperor Hailing of the Jin dynasty after a defeat at the Battle of Caishi, and assassinated him at his camp.

760 solar years ago, on this day in 1256 AD, Hulagu Khan captured and destroyed the Hashshashin stronghold of the Ismaili Nizari sect at Alamut, some 200 km west of Tehran. The almost impregnable fortress surrendered without a fight, by accepting a deal that spared the lives of the people. Among those freed was the prominent Iranian theologian and scientist, Khwaja Naseer od-Din Tousi, who was held against his will at the court of the Ismail ruler, Da’i an-Nasser, and for whom he had to dedicate the famous book "Akhlaq-e Nasseri" on ethics and scientific issues. The Nizari-Musta’li split had occurred in Fatemid Egypt in 1095, following the death of Ma'ad al-Mustansir-Billah and the installation of his younger son al-Musta’li as successor by the vizier al-Afzal Shahanshah who by-passed the claim of the elder son Nizar. After the defeat of Nizar’s revolt, his followers fled east towards Syria and Iran, where his close confidante, the Cairo-trained Iranian Ismaili missionary, Hassan Sabbah, chose the inaccessible fortress of Alamout as the Nizari headquarters. The present leader of the Nizaris (known as Khojas), is the Europe-based Karim Agha Khan, while the chief of the Musta’lis, (known as Bohras), was until recently the Mumbai-based Da’i Sayf od-Din.

500 solar years ago, on this day in 1516 AD, the Spanish invaders seized the coastal areas of Argentina in South America. Spain's colonial rule over Argentina ended in the year 1916. Argentina is currently a republic, and covers an area of 2780000 sq km. It lies on the coastlines of Atlantic Ocean and shares borders with Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia.

334 solar years ago, on this day in 1672 AD, Ali Adel Shah II of the Bijapur kingdom of Iranian origin of the Deccan (or southern India), was struck with paralysis and a died a few days later after a reign of 16 years. The regent Khawas Khan, in violation of the deceased king’s will, placed on the throne the 4-year-old Sikandar, who fourteen years later was defeated and captured by Aurangzeb the Mughal Emperor. The curtain thus came down on 190 years of the rule of the dynasty founded by the Iranian adventurer, Yusuf Adel Khan of Saveh. The reign of Ali II is marked by developments in Persian and Deccani literature and fine arts, and some good works of history were also produced under his patronage.

184 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, French engineer, Gustave Eiffel, who specialized in metal structures, known especially for the Eiffel Tower in Paris, was born. He built his first of his iron bridges at Bordeaux (in 1858) and was among the first engineers to build bridge foundations using compressed-air caissons. His work includes designing the rotatable dome for Nice Observatory on the summit of Mont Gros (in 1886), and the framework for the Statue of Liberty now in New York Harbour. After building the Eiffel Tower (in 1887-9), which he used for scientific research on meteorology, aerodynamics and radio telegraphy, he also built the first aerodynamic laboratory at Auteuil, outside Paris.

164 solar years ago, on this day in 1852 AD, French physicist and discoverer, Henri Becquerel, was born in Paris. Following the discovery of X-ray by German Physicist, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, he tried to discover objects that emit X-rays. In 1896, he succeeded in determining elements which are radioactive and produce X-rays. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1902 and died in 1908.

157 solar years ago, on this day in 1859 AD, the Polish physician, and linguist, Dr. Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, was born. He thought of finding a common international language in order to bridge the gaps amongst world nations. The result was Esperanto, which means Hope, and in which words and sentences are written as pronounced by different speakers, without any grammatical rules or concern for spelling. It fell far short of the ambitions of Dr. Zamenhof, who died in 1917.

144 lunar years ago, on this day in 1294 AH, the scholar Mohammad Qazvini was born in Tehran. His talents emerged in his adolescent years in both literature and theology, and he soon became an authority in these fields. He spent some years in Europe where he made copies of valuable Persian manuscripts in museums and libraries. Of the books he wrote "The Era of Hafez" is regarded as his masterpiece. At the age of 75 he passed away, and was laid to rest in Rayy, south of Tehran.

126 solar years ago, on this day in 1890 AD, US forces, cold-bloodedly killed Amerindian leader of Hunkpapa Lakota tribe, Sitting Bull, on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre, during which over 250 Amerindian men, women, and children were massacred.

99 solar years ago, on this day in 1917 AD, notable Urdu poet, journalist, broadcaster, translator, researcher, linguist and lexicographer, Shan ul-Haq Haqqee, was born in Delhi. He obtained a Master's in English literature from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, wrote short stories, and translated from Persian into Urdu the Divan of the famous Iranian poet, Hafez Shirazi with the title “Tarjuman ul-Ghaib”. He also compiled an Urdu lexicon.

50 solar years ago, on this day in 1966 AD, the famous American showman, animator and producer of children’s cinema and cartoons, Walt Disney, died at the age of 65. He was of Irish origin, and held a PhD in Arts from Harvard University. He created world famous cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, and on several occasions won academy awards. Disney had an aversion towards the racist ideology of Zionism. In view of this, pro-Israeli Jewish groups tried to accuse him of anti-Semitism, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Semites are Arabs and not the Jews of European origin, who are in fact ethnic Khazars – a Turkic people converted to Judaism and with no connection to the soil of Palestine, where the illegal entity Israel has been set up.

41 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, the Spanish occupiers left Western Sahara which they had seized in 1884. The cause was the guerrilla warfare launched by the Muslim revolutionary groups operating under the Polisario Front. A few days after the complete withdrawal of Spanish forces, Polisario announced formation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), but Morocco invaded it by laying claims to the region. Unfortunately, the UN, under pressure from the US and the West, has failed to hold the referendum it had promised for determining the fate of this northwest African land that has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. Morocco continues to occupy over 70 percent of this Arab-Muslim land that covers an area of 284,000 sq km and shares borders with Morocco, Mauritania, and Algeria.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, thousands of Iraqis took to the streets to demand the release of the journalist Muntazar Zaidi, who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush at a news conference in Baghdad the previous day, and was arrested. People across the Muslim World hailed Zaidi as a hero and praised his action as a proper send-off to the unpopular and bloodthirsty US president.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, security forces of Bahrain’s repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, used tear gas and stun grenades to try to disperse thousands of peaceful protesters marching along a highway leading to Manama, the capital. The regime arrested prominent human rights blogger Zainab al-Khwaja, who was later released. As the daughter of noted Bahraini human rights activist, Abdullah al-Khwaja, who is languishing in prison, she has intermittent bouts of imprisonment, and is currently serving a long term prison sentence for refusing to yield to the regime’s tyranny. Her sister Maryam is also a prominent human rights activist.  

3 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, prominent Pakistani Shi’a Muslim preacher, Allamah Nasser Abbas, was shot dead in Lahore by Taliban terrorists. The 42-yeard old martyr was the leader of Tehreek Nifaz Fiqh-e Jafaria, or movement for implementation of the Ja’fari school of jurisprudence.

AS/ME