Today is Thursday; 9th of the Iranian month of Dey 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 29th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1438 lunar hijri; and December 29, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1838 solar years ago, on this day in 178 AD, the Roman city of Izmir on the Aegean Sea coast of Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey, was flattened due to a major quake. This quake killed almost half of the city’s pagan population, while making numerous others homeless. Izmir was later rebuilt by Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius.

1251 solar years ago, on this day in 765 AD (as per the Gregorian calendar) is the birth anniversary of Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Medina on the 11^th of Zilqa’dah 148 AH, he was 35 years old when the divinely-decreed mantle of Imamate came to rest on his shoulders following the martyrdom in Baghdad of his infallible father, Imam Musa Kazem (AS), as a result of poisoned food in the dungeon of Haroun Rashid, the 5^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. For the next 20 years he ably guided the ummah and as a result his popularity spread throughout the Muslim World and beyond. This alarmed Mamoun, the 7^th self-styled Abbasid caliph, who forced the Imam to leave Medina and come to distant Khorasan where the city of Merv was his capital. Here the Prophet's Heir was declared against his will the Heir Apparent of Mamoun. The plan was to confine the Imam to the court and thereby drive a wedge between him and the ummah. However, to the bewilderment of the caliph, when the Imam held memorable debates with the scholars of other religions and philosophical schools of thoughts to convince them of the truth of Islam, his popularity increased. Mamoun treacherously martyred the Imam through a fatal dose of poison at the age of 55. Imam Reza (AS) was laid to rest in the suburbs of the city of Tous, which soon grew into Mashhad-ar-Reza or the Martyrdom Place of Imam Reza (AS), and is a world famous centre of pilgrimage today in Khorasan, northeastern Iran.

854 lunar years ago, on this day in 584 AH, the Iranian scholar Taj od-Din Mohammad bin Abdur-Rahman Khorasani, passed away in Damascus. He was an authority on Hadith and Arabic lexicography. Among his works is a commentary on the famous literary masterpiece “Maqamat Hariri”.

756 lunar years ago, on this day in 682 AH, the Spanish Muslim scientist, Mohammad Mohi od-Din Maghrebi, passed away. He learned jurisprudence in Andalusia or Islamic Spain, and mastered astronomy and mathematics as well. He travelled widely and spent some years at the Maragheh Observatory in northwestern Iran under the supervision of the famous Iranian Islamic genius, Khwajah Naseer od-Din Tousi. “Shakl al-Qate'” and “Tahrir Usool Oqlidas fi’l-Ashkaal al-Hindesa” can be mentioned as his prominent works.

508 solar years ago, on this day in 1508 AD, Portuguese naval commander, Francisco de Almeida, attacked the port of Dabhol on the Konkan coast of India, and massacred its inhabitants, both Muslims and Hindus, to avenge the death of his marauding son, Lorenzo de Almeida, who was killed earlier in the year in the Battle of Chaul, which was won by a joint Egyptian-Indian naval force, led by Mir Hussain Kurdi, the admiral of the Mamluk Dynasty, and the Zamorin of Kerala's Muslim ambassador, Mayimama Marakkar. Dabhol (also known as Dabul) was the main Arabian Sea port of the Bahmani Empire of Iranian origin of the Deccan, and later fell under the jurisdiction of the Adel-Shahi kingdom of Bijapur – also of Iranian origin.

203 solar years ago, on this day in 1813 AD, British soldiers burned Buffalo, the second largest city in New York State, during the War of 1812.

181 solar years ago, on this day in 1835 AD, the Treaty of New Echota was imposed on Amerindians by the white Anglo-Saxon government in Washington that forced the Cherokees to cede all the lands east of the Mississippi River to the United States America. The US has a bleak, black and bloody history of genocide against the natives, who were almost exterminated and their homelands seized.

171 solar years ago, on this day in 1845 AD, the United States annexed the Republic of Texas, which had been independent since the Texas Revolution of 1836, and thereupon made it the 28^th state. Texas was a Spanish and consequently Mexican state in which the US first instigated a rebellion to set up an independent republic and then annexed it as part of its expansionist policies.

126 solar years ago, on this day in 1890 AD, the Wounded Knee Massacre, the last major conflict of the Amerindian War, occurred on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, resulting in the cold-blooded massacre of over 300 men, women, and children of the Lakota tribe of the Sioux Nation by the 7^th Cavalry Regiment of the US commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside. To pour salt on the wounds of the natives, the US army awarded twenty Medals of Honor, its highest commendation, to officers of the 7^th Cavalry – similar to the Medal of Honor given to Captain Will Rogers of the Vincennes for his cowardly shooting down of the Iranian passenger plane with some 300 men, women and children on board. In 2001, the National Congress of Amerindians passed two resolutions condemning the awards and calling them “Medals of Dishonor”. It has demanded that the US government withdraw these medals.

107 lunar years ago, on this day in 1331 AH, the prominent poet and calligrapher Mir Seyyed Mohammad Baqa’ passed away at the age of 74. He was known as “Ashraf al-Kuttab” for calligraphy skills, and has left behind a divan of Persian poetry.

102 solar years ago, on this day in 1914 AD, the famous Bengali painter, Zain ul-Abedin, was born in Kishoreganj in what is now Bangladesh. Much of his childhood was spent near the scenic banks of the Brahmaputra River, which would later appear in many of his paintings as a source of inspiration all throughout his career. He shot into prominence in 1938 winning the gold medal while studying art in Calcutta, and got the breakthrough in 1944 with his Famine Series paintings of 1943 on the great famine that afflicted Bengal. On the partition of the subcontinent, his hometown Kishoreganj became part of East Pakistan, which in 1971 became Bangladesh. An artist of exceptional talent and international repute, he is rightly considered the Father of Bangladeshi Art. He passed away at the age of 62

93 lunar years ago, on this day in 1345 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hussaini Firuzabadi Najafi, passed away at the age of 80 in the holy city of Samarra in Iraq, and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) in Najaf. Born in Firuzabad near Yazd in Iran, after preliminary education in Yazd, he travelled to Iraq for higher studies at the seminary of holy Karbala under the famed jurist Sheikh Mohammad Hussain Fazel Ardakani. He then went to Samarra to study under Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hassan Shirazi – famous for his historic fatwa against tobacco consumption in Iran in order to save the national economy from British exploitation. Ayatollah Firuzabadi later moved to holy Najaf to attend the classes of Akhound Mullah Mohammad Kazem Khorasani and Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Tabatabaie Yazdi. He attained the status of ijtehad and groomed several scholars including Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hojjat Koh-Khamarei and Ayatollah Mirza Mahdi Ashtiyani. Ayatollah Firuzabadi was a firm supporter of the Constitutional Movement in Iran against the despotic rule of the Qajar dynasty, and later opposed the deviation of the movement by agents of British imperialism. He authored several books.  

86 solar years ago, on this day in 1930 AD, the famous poet-philosopher of the Subcontinent, Mohammad Iqbal Lahori, in his address in Allahabad as President of the Muslim League, outlined a vision for the creation of Pakistan, by joining together the overwhelmingly Muslim majority northwestern parts of the Subcontinent. He said: "I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan (all overwhelmingly Muslim regions) amalgamated into a single state... the formation of a consolidated Northwest Indian Muslim state appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims (of these areas).” Iqbal also considered Kashmir to be part of his vision of Pakistan, although he did not make any specific comment on the other Muslim majority areas of India like Bengal and parts of United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh). He rejected secularism and nationalism, and was also critical of his Muslim League colleague, Mohammad Ali Jinnah (the future Founder of Pakistan), for politicizing the issue of the rights of Muslims throughout India.

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1937 AD, the accord for independence of the Irish Republic from British occupation was signed. However, on the pretext of outbreak of World War II two years later in 1039, the British regime did not implement the accord. In 1949, four years after the end of World War II, the Irish Republic officially announced its independence from Britain. The independence was the result of eight centuries-long struggle of the Irish people against Britain, which continues to occupy the six northern counties of Ireland on the pretext that the Protestant sect of Christianity has a relative majority in these areas. Catholics, however, have refused to acknowledge British rule, and continue their struggle for the exit of British forces and nationals.

44 solar years ago, on this day in 1972 AD, Operation Linebacker II ended after the most intensive US bombing campaign of the entire Vietnam War with over 100,000 bombs dropped on Hanoi and Haiphong. Fifteen of the 121 B-52s participating in the air raid were shot down by the North Vietnamese defenders. Some 1318 men, women, and children were killed by the US bombing that failed to dent the resolve of the defenders who eventually triumphed in the long drawn war. 

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, following the failure of the military cabinet of General Gholam Reza Azhari to suppress the popular Islamic uprising in Iran, the Shah named Shapour Bakhtiar as Prime Minister. The people called Bakhtiar a stooge of foreign powers. In his message from exile, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), declared Bakhtiar’s cabinet as illegitimate and called on people to continue their struggle for overthrow of the British-installed and US-supported Pahlavi regime

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, millions of Tehranis gathered on the roads and streets adjoining Tehran University Campus, while millions more held rallies in various towns and cities of Iran, to denounce sedition and renew allegiance to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, following his call for demonstration of national unity in the face of the plots of the internal and external enemies of Iran, in the aftermath of the presidential elections held on June 12. This grand display of national solidarity exposed the seditionists in their true colours and frustrated the plots of Global Arrogance.

AS/ME