Today is Sunday; 19th of the Iranian month of Dey 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 9th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1438 lunar hijri; and January 8, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1222 lunar years ago, on this day in 216 AH, the Arabic grammarian, philologist, and religious scholar, Sheikh Abu’l-Baqa Abdullah ibn Hussain Baghdadi al-Ukbari, passed away. Though blinded by smallpox, he authored some 60 books on various subjects such as literature, theology, and exegesis of the Holy Qur’an.

1147 lunar years ago, on this day in 291 AH, the cruel and corrupt vizier, Wali od-Dowla Qasim ibn Obaydullah, who for three-and-a-half years served al-Muktafi, the 17thself-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, died, making people rejoice. A member of the Banu Wahb family of Nestorian Christian origin that had served in the caliphal bureaucracy since late Omayyad times, he was notorious for ordering the executions of anyone who displeased him or presented a potential challenge. Among the prominent persons killed by him were the Saffarid Emir of Sistan and most of Iran, Amr ibn Layth, the distinguished general Badr al-Mu’tadidi and the half-Iranian half Roman Shi’ite Muslim poet, Ali Ibn Abbas Ibn ar-Roumi. The powerful finance secretary Ali ibn al-Furat, who later became vizier, was saved from a similar fate only by Qasim's illness and death. His death ended the Banu Wahb's hold on power.

828 lunar years ago, on this day in 610 AH, the Iranian physician and pharmacist, Najib od-Din Abu Hamed Ali ibn Omar Samarqandi, was killed during the Mongol attack on the Khorasani city of Herat (currently in Afghanistan). He is author of the book “al-Asbaab wa’l-Alamaat” (Causes and Symptoms), which is a comprehensive manual of therapeutics and pathology. His treatises were widely read and often commentaries were written on them.

693 solar years ago, on this day in 1324 AD, Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, died at the age of 69. He was seventeen years old when he started his long journey to China, along with his father and uncle, visiting several Asian lands, including Iran, both on the way and while returning. During his return journey he escorted Princess Kokachin sent by Kublai Khan from China as a bride for his grandnephew, Arghun Khan, the Ilkhanid Mongol ruler of Iran-Iraq. It took two years for Marco Polo and the bridal party to reach Hormuz by sea from southern China, and when they arrived in Maraghah, the then capital of Iran, the Khan had died and was succeeded by his son, Ghazaan Khan, who married the princess and on conversion to Islam changed his name to Mahmoud. When Marco Polo finally returned to his hometown, Venice in 1291, it was after 24 long years, but with many riches and after travelling some 24,000 kilometers. He related his memoirs to Rustichello da Pisa while both were prisoners of the Genova Republic, mentioning his observations at the court of China’s Mongol Emperor, such as use of paper money, in addition to his observations in other Asian cities and lands, including Iran.

375 solar years ago, on this day in 1642 AD, the Italian scientist, astronomer, and physicist, Galileo Galilei, died at the age of 78. Born in Pisa, he studied literature until the age of 19 before turning to physics and mathematics. With the usage of lens, invented by the famous Muslim astronomer, Ibn al-Haytham, he developed a telescope for observing stars. With this instrument, and with the aid of the writings of Islamic scientists, he wrote that the surface of moon has plains and altitudes and each galaxy is made of small and large stars. He also claimed as his own, the discoveries of Islamic scientists that the Sun is at the centre of the Solar System and other planets, including Earth, revolve round it. These discoveries were already made several centuries earlier in the Islamic world by the renowned Iranian astronomer, Abu-Rayhan Birouni (a follower of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt), who had proved the orbit of the Earth around the Sun as it rotates on its axis. Following the publication of Galileo’s theory on the movement of earth and other planets of the solar system round the sun, the Roman Church charged him with blasphemy, forcing him to renounce his views or risk execution.

336 solar years ago, on this day in 1681 AD, the Treaty of  Radzin ended the five-year war between the Ottoman Empire and the allied countries of Russia and Poland. The Turks were forced to recognize Russia’s sovereignty over much of Ukraine including the capital Kiev and its adjacent districts. Russia was also granted access to the Black Sea, although the Muslim populated Crimean Peninsula remained in Ottoman hands.

237 solar years ago, on this day in 1780 AD, an earthquake of estimated magnitude 7.7 hit the city of Tabriz, Iran, killing about 80,000 people and causing major damage.

165 solar years ago, on this day in 1852 AD, the highly efficient Iranian Prime Minister, MirzaTaqi Khan Amir Kabir, was killed on the orders of the Qajarid king, Nasser od-Din Shah in the “hammam” (bathhouse) of the famous garden-pavilion of Feen in the city of Kashan, where he was exiled, after dismissal from his post, following court intrigues by local agents of foreign powers, on loss of their illegal interests, because of his political and administrative reforms. He had risen from the lower rungs of the society through hard work, honesty, and voracious appetite for knowledge and eagerness to learn new techniques. His achievements include the vaccination of Iranians against smallpox; economic development of the fertile Khuzestan Province; foundation in Tehran of the Dar ol-Fonoun Academy (for teaching medicine, surgery, pharmacology, natural history, mathematics, geology, and natural sciences to train the civilian and military staff); cancellation of the one-sided treaties with the Russians and the British; launching of a newspaper; crackdown on the seditious Babi-Bahai plot against Islam and the country; and execution of the heretic Mohammad Ali Bab. With Amir Kabir died the prospects of an independent Iran led by meritocracy.

140 solar years ago, on this day in 1877 AD, native Amerindian Chief, Tasunke Witko, whom the Anglo-Saxon occupiers of America, called 'Crazy Horse', fought his last battle against the US Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory, before he was tricked into surrendering, and some months later cowardly shot to death. He took up arms against the US regime to fight encroachments on Amerindian territories and way of life of the Lakota people by the white-skinned occupiers of his homeland. In June 1876 he had defeated the better armed US army at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The US, which was originally made up of the 13 'New England' colonies established by the British occupiers of North America, has almost wiped out the native Amerindians, as part of its expansionist policy of genocide.

134 lunar years ago, on this day in 1304 AH, Ayatollah Haj Mirza Abdur-Rahim Nahavandi, passed away. Born and brought up in Nahavand in western Iran, he went to holy Najaf in Iraq for higher studies, attending the classes of prominent ulema, especially the celebrated Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli. He educated numerous scholars in Iraq and Iran.

91 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, chieftain of a Wahhabi clan from Najd, declared himself king of Hejaz after destroying the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina, and massacring tens of thousands of Muslims in the two holy cities, as well as in Jeddah and Ta’ef. A salaried servant of the British Empire for destabilizing Ottoman rule in Arabia and paid in India currency thropugh the Bombay Presidency, in the 1920s he expanded his territories at the expense of fellow British agent, Sharif Hussein of the Hejaz. He also occupied parts of Yemen and seized the oil-rich lands of the Sh’ite Muslim tribal chiefs on the eastern, Persian Gulf coast of the Arabian Peninsula. In 1932, the British decided to gift him with a kingdom called Saudi Arabia, for his promise to facilitate the planting of the Zionist entity, Israel, in Palestine. The most blasphemously criminal act of Abdul-Aziz was destruction of the sacred cemeteries of Jannat al-Mo’alla in Mecca that housed the holy tombs of family members of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and of Jannat al-Baqie in Medina that housed the holy shrines of Four of the Prophet’s Twelve Infallible Heirs – Imam Hasan al-Mojtaba, Imam Zain al-Abedin, Imam Mohammad al-Baqer and Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (peace upon them).

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, the first mass rally was held in the holy city of Qom against the despotic regime of the British-installed and US-supported Pahlavi Shah, some 15 years after the June 5, 1963 uprising. The huge rally, attended by the ulema, students, businessmen and people of walks of life, was in protest to the publication of an insulting article in the Persian daily, Ettela'at, against the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). It demanded the end of monarchial rule and once again proved the devotion of the Iranian nation for their beloved leader, who was in exile in holy Najaf, in Iraq. The regime’s forces attacked the peaceful demonstrators, martyring and wounding a large number of them. In its aftermath, many ulema were banished to remote areas of the country, but this failed to dampen the spirit of resistance of the people, who would stage similar mass rallies in other cities of Iran until the return home from exile of Imam Khomeini and the ultimate victory of the Islamic Revolution over a year later in February 1979.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, "Operations Karbala-5" was launched during the 8-year Holy Defence by Iran's Muslim combatants, east of the Iraqi city port city of Basra against the invading forces of Saddam’s repressive Ba’th minority regime. In view of the importance of the region, Saddam had erected numerous barricades that seemed impossible to surmount. Iran's courageous defenders through their trust in God, overcame the obstacles and dealt a heavy blow to the Ba'thist war machine, to the extent that the enemy forces lost more than 80 warplanes and 700 tanks, while thousands of Iraqi soldiers were killed, wounded, and captured. The operations showed that despite the support of the Capitalist West and the Communist East for Saddam, as well as his backing by the oil-rich Persian Gulf Arab regimes, the armed-to-the-teeth B’athist army was no match for Iran’s brave Islamic combatants.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, Pakistan formally acknowledged that at least 50,000 Pakistanis were being kept as slaves by powerful landlords in the Sindh Province. The acknowledgement was made by Governor Moinuddin Haider. Pakistan is among the countries with the highest number and highest percentage of forced labour. According to the latest figures from Pakistan, about two million people are in bonded labour, mostly in the Sindh and Punjab provinces, particularly in brick kilns, carpet-making, agriculture, fishing, mining, leather tanning, and production of glass bangles;

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2001 AD, the Taliban militia massacred over 300 unarmed Shi’ite Muslims of the Hazara ethnic group in Yakalang in Afghanistan. Created from among Afghan Pashtun refugees in Pakistan, with Saudi money and weapons supplied by the US, the savage militia seized power in Afghanistan and terrorized the country and the people by implementing inhuman medieval European laws in the guise of Islam, until its ouster by the Americans in 2001. The Taliban, like similar terrorist groups, such as al-Qa’eda, Boko Haram, ISIL, and Lashkar-e Jhangavi, preach and practice hatred, violence, and brutal killings of Muslims, as part of the Zionist-Salafi-Imperialist plot to tarnish the image of Islam.

AS/ME