Today is Wednesday; 29th of the Iranian month of Dey 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 19th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1438 lunar hijri; and January 18, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1791 solar years ago, on this day in 226 AD, following the death of the last king of kings (Shahanshah) of the Parthian Empire, Ardavan V – called Artabanus by the Romans – the dynasty collapsed after 473 years of rule over Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, parts of Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Caucasus, and parts of Central Asia. He was killed in the uprising of Ardeshir Babakan of Fars, the founder of the Sassanid dynasty, which retained the Parthian capital Cteisphon or Madaen (near modern Baghdad) in Iraq, as its own capital for the next four centuries, until it was captured by Muslims. The Parthians, who came to power after defeating the Greek Seleucid successors of Alexander, were ethnic Iranians from the northeast, and revived Iranian culture.

1021 solar years ago, on this day in 896 AD, Khomarawayh bin Ahmad Tuloun, the rich and powerful ruler of Egypt and Syria, was murdered by his servant at the age of 32. Born in Samarra, Iraq, to Ahmad bin Toloun, a Persianized Turkic slave-soldier of the Abbasid caliphate who on becoming governor of Egypt made it independent from Baghdad, he squandered the wealth of the Tulounid Dynasty during his 12-year rule, thereby contributing to its eventual collapse in less than ten years after his death. He build numerous palaces for himself and his favourites, besides engaging in displays of extravagance, such as a quicksilver-filled basin in which he was rocked to sleep on top of air-filled cushions, or the million-dinar dowry of his daughter – considered the most sumptuous wedding gift in medieval Muslim history, accompanied by lavish marriage ceremonies which remained the stuff of folk legends in Egypt for six centuries until well into the Ottoman period.

775 lunar years ago, on this day in 663 AH, the prominent philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, Atheer od‐Din al‐Mufadhal Samarqandi al‐Abhari, also known as al‐Munajjim or the Astronomer, passed away in Shabestar, in northwestern Iran. He studied and taught at various schools in Khorasan, Baghdad, and Arbil, living for some time in Sivas in what is now Turkey. He was a student of Kamal od‐Din ibn Yunus, and also studied under the famous scholar Fakhr od‐Din ar‐Raazi. His works on astronomy are titled “Risala fī'l-Hayya” and “Kashf al‐Haqa'eq fī Tahrir ad‐Daqa'eq”, where he accepts the view that the celestial bodies do not change and maintains that stars have volition and it is the source of their motion. In the field of mathematics, he wrote “al-Islah” which is Correction of the Greek Euclid, and is an attempt to prove the parallel postulate. In philosophy he wrote “Hidayat al-Hikmah”.

447 lunar years ago, on this day in 991 AH, the Safavid dynasty of Iran suffered a setback with the loss of a key battle in the Caucasus against the Ottoman Turks at Mashalat Lir for control of Sherwan, which is presently in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Iranians later liberated these lands.

328 solar years ago, on this day in 1689 AD, the French philosopher, Charles de Montesquieu, was born. His views highly influenced the French Revolution and he was the first European to present the theory of separation of the three branches of government. His important book is “The Spirit of the Laws”, published in Geneva in 1748 in which he has attempted to discuss the evolvement of different forms of government during history. His other important books include “Persian Letters” –a novel on the travel through France of two Iranian noblemen from Isfahan. It was used by him as a biting satire on the theories of Scottish economist, John Law. He died in 1755.

258 lunar years ago, on this day in 1180 AH, the prominent religious scholar of Isfahan, Ayatollah Mohammad Ibrahimi Khorasani, popularly known as “Karbasi”, was born. He completed his higher studies at the Najaf Seminary in Iraq, and on returning to his hometown, lived a life of piety. He wrote numerous valuable works and passed away in Isfahan in 1261 AH.

102 solar years ago, on this day in 1915 AD, a secret pact was signed by France, Britain, and Russia during World War I against the Ottoman Empire, following its joining of the Axis powers, namely the German and the Austro-Hungarian Empires. To weaken the Turks, the Allied Powers attacked the Dardanelles Strait, which links the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.

98 solar years ago, on this day in 1919 AD, the Paris Conference opened at the Versailles Palace attended by representatives of 27 countries, after the end of World War I. The defeated Axis powers were further humiliated at the conference, with Germany forced to pay huge compensation, while the Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire were occupied by Britain and France.

81solar years ago, on this day in 1936 AD, Rudyard Kipling, English author, and Nobel Prize laureate died in London at the age of 71. Born in Bombay, he travelled widely over the English-speaking world, and is chiefly remembered for his tales and poems of British soldiers in India, as well as his tales for children, such as “Jungle Book”, and “Kim”. He was an unabashed supporter of British imperialism.

65 lunar years ago, on this day in 1373 AH, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadr od-Din Sadr, passed away at the age of 74 in holy Qom. Son of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ismail Sadr and grandson of Grand Ayatollah Sadr od-Din bin Saleh after whom the Sadr Family of well-known scholars is named, he was born in holy Kazemayn in Iraq. At the age of 29 he enrolled at the famous seminary of holy Najaf to complete higher religious studies under such prominent ulema as Akhound Khorasani, Ayatollah Seyyed Kazem Yazdi, and Ayatollah Mirza Hussain Na’ini. At the age of 40 he moved to holy Mashhad in Iran where he married the daughter of Grand Ayatollah Hussain Qomi and stayed for 6 years, before settling in holy Qom at the invitation of Ayatollah Shaikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri, the Reviver of the Qom Seminary. He later became Head of the Qom Seminary, and among his books mentioned could be made of “Khulasat al-Fosoul” and Annotation (Hashiya) on the “al-Kifaya”. He son was the renowned scholar Imam Musa Sadr who uplifted the social, economic and political conditions of the Shi’a Muslims of Lebanon, before being treacherously martyred by Libya’s military dictator Mo’ammar Qadhafi at whose official invitation he was visiting Tripoli. The Sadr family, whose ancestor had migrated to Iran from the Jabal Amel region, has produced numerous Islamic scholars in Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq, including Martyr Seyyed Mohammad Baqer Sadr of Najaf.    

62 solar years ago, on this day in 1955 AD, the famous Urdu novelist, Sa'adat Hassan Manto, passed away in Lahore, Pakistan, at the age of 43. He was born in Ludhiana in what is now India's Punjab state. He is best known for his short stories, such as 'Bu' (Odour), "Khol Do" (Open It), "Thanda Gosht" (Cold Meat), and his magnum opus, "Toba Tek Singh". For a while he lived in Bombay and wrote film scripts, before migration to Pakistan in 1948. In his short life, Manto published twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, two collections of personal sketches.

41 solar years ago, on this day in 1976 AD, Lebanese Christian militias overran the Karantina sector of Beirut, and massacred at least 1,000 Muslims.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, scholar, critic, writer, and linguist of Urdu, Mohammad Hassan Askari, passed away in Karachi, at the age of 59. Born in 1919 in Bulandshahr District of what is now Uttar Pradesh, India, he worked for All India Radio before migrating to Karachi on the creation of Pakistan in 1947. He lectured at Islamia College, and by 1955 became wholly involved in the transition to and formulation of Pakistani national culture. "Jadidiyat" is one of his premier works. He translated western literary, philosophical and metaphysical work into Urdu, especially from English, French, and Russian. He also translated Arabic mystic literature and Buddhism into Urdu. He introduced to Indian and Pakistani Muslims the works of western metaphysical scholars such as René Guénon Abdul-Wahid Yahya of France, the Swiss-German Islamist Frithjof Schuon and the British Martin Lings Siraj od-Din. Before his death, he was working on an English translation of the Qur'anic exegesis titled "Ma'arif al-Qur'an", and finished a little more than one chapter.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the Iranian people through their trust in God and solidarity staged a huge demonstration against the remnants of the Shah’s despotic regime. The protesters demanded the ouster of Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiyar and establishment of the Islamic system of government. On this day, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), in his message to the Iranian nation from exile, said: “Insha Allah (God-Willing), I will soon join you, so that with your courageous efforts we would resolve problems, and through the unity of all strata of the nation, we would make every effort in the path toward independence and freedom of Iran.”

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, renowned Iranian musician and physicist Mahdi Barkeshli, passed away at the age of 75 in his hometown Tehran. After graduating from Tehran University he completed his higher studies in France and on his return home, although a physicist by profession, he devoted his career to definition of Persian classic music. In 1940, he defined Persian music intervals within a 22 tone scale, basing his theory on the works of masters of the past such as Abu-Nasr Farabi and Safi od-Din Ormavi, in whose eras the Pythagorean intervals of Limma and Comma were the basis for fretting the musical instruments. For example, the octave contained two tetra-chords plus a whole tone; each tetra-chord consisted of five pitches and four intervals, and the five pitches were named after the open string by the name of the fingers which press the string of the Oud. Mahdi Barkeshli did a series of tests among the reputable musicians. He recorded some songs in various modes and analyzed them. From the results he concluded that the whole tone and semi tone intervals in Persian music are stable and they are the same Pythagorean intervals. On the basis of his expertise as a physicist, he wrote several articles on music in Persian, French and English. Barkeshli also translated into Persian from Arabic Farabi’s famous book “Kitab al-Mosiqi al-Kabeer”, and wrote the valuable work “Development of Musical Instruments in Iran”.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, the illegal Zionist entity, Israel, was forced to halt its 22-day holocaust on the besieged Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, after failing to overthrow the elected Hamas-led government. Over 1,400 Muslim men, women, and children, were martyred and almost 5,500 others injured in this 22-day holocaust, which inflicted 2-billion dollars damage on the infrastructure. The Zionist army’s despicable crimes forced the UN to launch investigation, and its well-documented report, called the Zionist ringleaders war criminals. It was approved by the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly, but because of US support, Israel continues its crimes against humanity, including the siege of Gaza.

AS/ME