Today is Friday; 26th of the Iranian month of Azar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 16th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1438 lunar hijri; and December 16, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1438 lunar years ago, on this day, a few days after his Hijra or migration from Mecca, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), held the first-ever public Friday Prayer. This landmark congregation was held on the outskirts of Medina at Qoba, where on the Prophet’s instructions the construction of the first-ever mosque had started on Rabi al-Awwal 12. The Prophet had halted at Qoba to await his dear cousin, Imam Ali (AS), who on his instructions had agreed to sleep on his bed the night of Hijra so that he could migrate undetected from the assassins hovering around the abode of divine revelation. The Prophet had also instructed the Imam to return to the people of Mecca the things they used to keep as safe-custody with him as “Amin” (or Trustworthy). After three days, the Imam, for whose selfless risking of life on the night of Hijra, God Almighty revealed to the Prophet ayah 207 of Surah Baqarah, left Mecca and a few days later arrived in Qoba with the ladies of the Bani Hashem clan, including his mother, Fatema bint Asad (peace upon her), and his future wife, the Prophet's Immaculate daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon her). The Prophet's holding of the first-ever Friday Prayer is indicative of the religious, social, cultural, and political importance of this congregational ritual, which Muslims have been recommended to perform every week.

1261 solar years ago, on this day in 755 AD, Aan Lushan, a general of Sogdian-Turkic ethnicity who had risen in the court of the Tang Emperor of China, launched his revolt against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing. The rebellion spanned the reigns of three Tang emperors before it was quashed in 763, and involved a wide range of regional powers, including Arab and Persian Muslims, Iranian Sogdian forces, and the pagan Gogturks. The rebellion and disorder resulted in a huge loss of life and large-scale destruction. It significantly weakened the Tang dynasty at a time when it was all set to defeat the Tibetan Empire, and led to the loss of the western regions. As a matter of fact, the western expansion of the Tang Empire was checked four years earlier in 751 by the victory of the Muslims over a large Chinese army in the Battle of Talas in the Ferghana Valley, following the defection of the Karluk Turks during the midst of the battle. Aan Lushan was given control over the entire area north of the lower reaches of the Yellow River, including garrisons about 164,000 strong. He took advantage of various circumstances, such as popular discontent with an extravagant Tang court, the Iranian-involved Abbasid Rebellion against the Omayyad Dynasty, and eventually the absence of strong troops guarding the palace. In 756, over 22,000 Arab-Iranian Muslims were sent by the Abbasid caliph to aid the Tang. They stayed in China after the war and intermarried with the Hui Chinese – who are predominantly Muslim till this day. During the rebellion the port of Canton (present day Guangzhou, near the mouth of the South China Sea) was pillaged in 758 by sea-borne Arab and Persian forces.

1092 lunar years ago, on this day, the noted Islamic historian and geographer, Ali bin Hussain al-Mas’oudi, passed away in Egypt at the age of 62. Born in Baghdad in an Arab family descended from Abdullah ibn Mas’oud, the prominent companion of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), like his ancestor he was a staunch follower of the Ahl al-Bayt. He is sometimes referred to as the Herodotus of the Arabs, and was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, as is evident in his famous book “Morouj az-Zahab wa Ma’adan al-Jawaher” (The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems), which is an encyclopedic history of the world. Mas’oud widely travelled and his journeys took him to most of the Persian provinces, Armenia, Georgia and other regions of the Caspian Sea; as well as to Arabia, Syria and Egypt. He also travelled to the Indus Valley, and other parts of India, especially the western coast; and he voyaged more than once to East Africa. He also sailed on the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and the Caspian. It is said that Sri Lanka and China were also among the lands he visited, as is evident by the precise information he has provided to readers over a millennium ago. Among theother writings of Mas’oudi mention could be made of “at-Tanbih wa’l-Ishraaf” (The Book of Admonition and Revision).

542 solar years ago, on this day in 1474 AD, the theologian, astronomer and mathematician, Ala od-Din Ali Ibn Mohammed, known as Ali Qushji or Qushju-Zadeh (Son of Falconer), passed away in Istanbul at the age of 71. Born in Samarqand, he was of Iranian origin and played a prominent intellectual role in the court of the astronomer-king Ulugh Beg, after studying under such famous scientists as Qazi-Zadeh Roumi, Ghiyas od-Din Jamshid Kashani and Moin od-Din Kashi. He rejected Aristotelian physics and separated natural philosophy from astronomy, allowing it to become a purely empirical and mathematical science. Long before Copernicus, he provided evidence of the Earth's rotation in his treatise, titled: "Concerning the Supposed Dependence of Astronomy upon Philosophy". He contributed to Ulugh Beg's famous work "Zijj-e-Sultani" and authored several scientific books. He moved to Kerman in southern Iran where he conducted researches on the storms in the Gulf of Oman. In Kerman he completed the book "Hall-e Ishkal-e Qamar" (Explanations of the Periods of the Moon) and also "Sharh-e Tajrid", which is an explanation of the famous Iranian theologian-scientist, Khwaja Naseer od-Din Tousi's "Tajrid al-Kalaam". It is considered one of the important works on physics, optics, metaphysics, and mathematics. In Herat, he taught astronomy to the Persian poet, Mullah Jami. After Ulugh Beg’s assassination, Qushji went to Tabriz, where around 1470 the Aq Qoyunlu ruler, Uzun Hassan, sent him as a delegate to the court of the Ottoman Sultan, Mohammad II, for whom he wrote in Persian the treatise on astronomy titled "Risalah dar Hayy’at".

418 solar years ago, on this day in 1598 AD, the decisive victory of China and the Korean allied forces over Japan in the Battle of Noryang ended the Seven-Year War. Fought between the invading Japanese navy on one side and the combined fleets of the Korean Joseon Kingdom and the Chinese Ming Dynasty on the other side, the allied force of 150 ships attacked and either destroyed or captured more than half of the 500 Japanese ships. The battered Japanese survivors limped back to Pusan and a few days later, left for Japan

367 lunar years ago, on this day in 1071 AH, the prominent jurist and scholar, Mullah Abdullah Touni Basharwi, known as Fazel Touni, passed away in Kermanshah, western Iran. A product of the seminary of Isfahan, he wrote several books, including "al-Wafiyah" on the fundamentals of faith.

243 solar years ago, on this day in 1773 AD, as prelude to the revolt of the American colonies against Britain, the famous event known as the “Boston Tea Party” occurred, when rebels disguised as Mohawk Amerindians climbed ships in the Boston port, and dumped hundreds of crates of tea into the sea, as a protest against the Tea Act. The plot was to put the blame on the natives.

241 solar years ago, on this day in 1775 AD, British novelist Jane Austin, novelist, was born in Hampshire. Her works include “Sense and Sensibility” “Pride and Prejudice”, and “Emma”.

99 solar years ago, on this day in 1917 AD, noted Pakistani scholar of Urdu, Persian, Sindhi and Arabic, Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch, was born in Leghari village, Sanghar District of Sindh. Educated at Bombay, Junagarh and the US, he served as Professor at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, and later vice-chancellor. Before his death in Hyderabad, Sindh, at the age of 94, he wrote many books on Sindh's History and 42 volumes on Sindhi Folklore. In addition, he compiled Sindhi dictionary in five volumes. He wrote books prolifically in Sindhi, Urdu, English and Persian. These include the editing of the ancient text of “Chachnama” and its translation into English, “Baqiyaat az Kalhora” in Persian, “Beglar-Naama” of the Persian poet Idraaki Beglari, and “Takmilat-ut-Takmilah”, which is an addendum to the Persian books of Mir Ali Shir Qania's “Maqalaat-ush-Shu'ara” and Mohammad Ibrahim Khalil’s “Takmilah”.

104 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD during the First Balkan War, the Greek navy defeated the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Elli (Turkish: Imroz Deniz Muharebesi) near the mouth of the Dardanelles. It was the largest sea battle of the Balkan Wars. The retreating Turkish navy left the Aegean Sea to the Greeks who were now free to occupy the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Lemnos and Samos. It also prevented any transfer of Ottoman troop reinforcements by sea and effectively secured Ottoman defeat on land.

96 solar years ago, on this day in 1920 AD, the Haiyuan earthquake with a magnitude of 8.5 degrees rocked the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000 people.

66 solar years ago, on this day in 1950 AD, the people of Cyprus started their movement for ending British colonial rule. Cyprus, the 3rd largest island in Mediterranean, came under Ottoman Turkish rule in 1570, after almost six centuries of the end of the first phase of partial Muslim rule. In 1878, during the Ottoman-Russian war, the British were allowed to set up a naval base on Cyprus. In 1914, following start of World War I, Britain annexed the island on the pretext of the Ottoman alliance with Germany, and in 1925 declared it as its colony. Since then, clashes between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot started. On August 14, 1960, Cyprus gained independence, but the confrontation between the two communities continued. In 1974, following a coup staged by Greek Cypriots to join the island with Greece, Turkey seized the northern part, which is home to Turkish-speaking Muslim Cypriots. The crisis has remained unsolved.

45 solar years ago, on this day in 1971 AD, the third war between India and Pakistan ended with the separation of East Pakistan and its renaming as the independent country of Bangladesh. The Bengalis had long complained of discrimination by West Pakistan, and in 1970 under leadership of Shaikh Mujib ur-Rahman of the Awami League, they called for secession which led to brutal crackdown by the central government in Islamabad. India utilized the situation to provide military assistance to the Bangladesh Liberation Front, and when war broke out, sent its army into East Pakistan and gained a swift victory. Lt.-Gen A. A. K. Niazi, of the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender this day.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, the body of the martyred Iranian Oil Minister Mohammad Javad Tondgoyan was returned to Iran by the Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, which had captured him at the oil installations in Khuzestan in the initial days of the 8-year war imposed on the Islamic Republic by Saddam on the orders of the US. Baghdad continued to deny any information about him to the International Red Cross but subjected him all the time to imprisonment and torture against the clauses of the Geneva Convention.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, Kazakhstan became independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kazakhs are Muslims of Turkic-Mongol ethnicity and were subjugated in the mid-18^th century by Russia. Following the seizure of power in Moscow by the communists, Kazakhstan was made an autonomous republic. It covers an area of 2.7 million sq km and has borders with China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. Its capital is Astana. The land called Kazakhstan was originally inhabited by Indo-Iranians, like the rest of Central Asia. The best known of those groups was the nomadic Scythians. The Turkic people began infiltrating in the 5th century AD. With the advent of Islam, the people became Muslims, especially due to the efforts of the Iranian Samanid Dynasty of Bukhara which controlled the important silk route city of Taraz – the oldest city of Kazakhstan. Even after the Mongol onslaught of the 13th century and the Turkification of the area, sizeable communities of Persian speakers existed, until their gradual absorption by the Turkic language.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, the Paris Court of Appeals unjustly fined and sentenced to jail the French Muslim Philosopher, Roger Garaudy, because of his documented exposure of the collaboration of the Zionists with the German Nazis during World War II. He noted that the Zionists tried to magnify the crimes of Nazi Germany as part of their propaganda for setting up an illegal Jewish state in the Muslim land of Palestine. He dismissed the figure of six million Jews killed by Germany as a highly exaggerated claim, because the total number of Jews at that time did not reach six million in all of Europe. Under Zionist pressure, this Muslim French philosopher was victimized by France despite its claim to freedom of speech.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, in a historic decision, the Egyptian court declared the Baha’is as “pro-Zionist apostates” who have no right to state their religion on official documents. The heretical cult was founded in Iran in the late 19th century by a British agent named Bahaollah, who after being expelled from Iran, died in Haifa in what is now occupied Palestine, where the cult has its headquarters under Zionist patronage. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has also declared the Baha’is as well as the Qadiyanis of Pakistan as non-Muslim cults.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, Indian student, 18-year old Jyoti Amge, measuring just 62.8 centimeters (less than two foot, one inch), was confirmed as the world's shortest living woman.

AS/ME