Today is Sunday; 10th of the Iranian month of Bahman 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 30th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1438 lunar hijri; and January 29, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1356 solar years ago, on this day in 661 AD (corresponding to 21st Ramazan 40 AH of the Islamic lunar calendar), the only instance in history of the government of social justice ended with the martyrdom of the Commander of Believers, the Leader of the Pious, the Symbol of Justice, the Epitome of Valour, and the Gateway of the City of Knowledge, Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb (AS). Two days earlier on the 19^th of Ramadhan, while in the state of the morning ritual prayer in the main mosque of Kufa, he was fatally struck on the head by the poisoned sword of the renegade, Abdur-Rahman Ibn Muljam. He was laid to rest in nearby Najaf, which today is one of the foremost centres of pilgrimage with its golden domed shrine. Imam Ali (AS) as the cousin, ward, son-in-law, and divinely-decreed vicegerent of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), needs no introduction. His model government of social justice, which no administration anywhere in the world has ever succeeded to match, continues to be an inspiration for the seekers of truth. As the unrivalled master of eloquence and wisdom, his sermons, letters and maxims, have been collected in book forms for more than a millennium and two centuries, with the “Nahj al-Balaghah” or Highway of Eloquence, being the most famous. Interestingly, all Sufi or mystical orders trace their origin to his ascetic way of life, while even Sunni Muslims, despite regarding him as the 4th caliph in the order of political succession, consider him to be superior to all and everybody else after Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

1260 solar years ago, on this day in 757 AD, An Lushan, a general of Sogdian-Turkic ethnicity who had risen in the court of the Tang Emperor of China, and had launched his revolt against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing two years earlier in 755 after several years of preparation, was assassinated by his own son, An Qingxu, following which the state of Yan continued to spiral into a turmoil that eventually led to its collapse in 763. The rebellion spanned the reigns of three Tang emperors and involved a wide range of regional powers, including Arab and Persian Muslims, Iranian Sogdian forces, and the pagan Gogturks. The 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.

975 lunar years ago, on this day in 463 AH, the Spanish Muslim scholar, Yousuf ibn Abdullah, popularly known as “Ibn al-Abdul-Bir”, passed away at the age of 95 in Shateba – currently called Xativa. Born in Qortaba, a city in Spain which is called Cordova today. A leading Sunni jurist, he initially adhered to the Zaheri School of jurisprudence founded by the Iranian Dawoud ibn Ali az-Zaheri of Isfahan, but later in life became a follower of the Malekite School. In his work, “al-Ist’aab fi Ma’rifat al-Ashaab” or “The Comprehensive List of Names of the Companions”, he has considered as a ‘companion’ any person who even once in life met Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Nonetheless, he has acknowledged the unrivalled merits of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt or Blessed Household, especially Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). His other works include “al-Aql wa’l-Uqala” or Reason and the People of Wisdom, and “al-Qasd wa’l-Umam fî Nasab al-Arab wa’l-Ajam” or Endeavors and the Nations: Genealogies of the Arabs and Non-Arabs.

759 solar years ago, on this 1258 AD, first Mongol invasion of Dai Viet or northern Vietnam occurred resulting in the defeat of the Mongols at the Battle of Dong Bo Dau, and their forcing to withdraw to China. The next two Mongol invasions of Vietnam that occurred in the years 1285 and 1287 also met with failure, but led to the acceptance by the Vietnamese of the Yuan Mongol Khanate of China as the paramount power.

281 solar years ago, on this day in 1736 AD, British philosopher and American political activist, Thomas Paine, was born in Thetford, England, in Norfolk County. In 1774, he migrated to New England in what is now the US, arriving just in time to participate in the rebellion of the 13 American colonies against the British crown. Through his writings, notably “Common Sense”, an incendiary pamphlet, he advocated independence from Britain. His sixteen “Crisis” papers, published between 1776 and 1783, helped to inspire the colonists during the ordeals of the war. He was an active advocate of the French Revolution as well. In his work "Rights of Man", written in reply to Edmund Burke's criticism of the French Revolution, he dismissed monarchy. He opposed slavery and was among the early advocates of social security. In his works, Paine emphasized on faith and monotheism.

197 solar years ago, on this day in 1820 AD, Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle at the age 82, ending a reign that saw the occurrence of both the American and French revolutions. He was succeeded by his son George IV, who as Prince of Wales had been regent for 9 years during his father’s insanity. In 2005 scientists reported high levels of arsenic in the hair of King George III and said the deadly poison might have been the cause of the bouts of apparent madness he suffered during his long 60-year reign that saw the 13 New England colonies rebel against the British crown to form the United States of America (USA), because of his repressive policies.

154 solar years ago, on this day in 1863 AD, the Bear River Massacre took place in present-day Idaho when the United States Army cowardly attacked Amerindian natives of the Shoshone tribe, killing in cold blood over 500 men, women, and children. The Anglo-Saxon aggressors were led by Colonel Patrick Edward Connor, who after killing most of the men and many of the children, ordered his soldiers to assault and rape the women. In some cases, US soldiers held the feet of infants by the heel and brutally beat their brains out on any hard substance they could find. Women who resisted the soldiers were shot and killed. Many soldiers pulled out their pistols and shot several Shoshones at point blank range. The soldiers burned the Shoshone dwellings and supplies; they killed anyone they found in the shelters, as part of the genocide launched by the white-skinned occupiers of America to exterminate the native people.

147 solar years ago, on this day in 1870 AD, was born in Diyarbakr the eminent Ottoman Turkish poet, author and politician, Suleyman Nazif, who authored the two famous articles; that is, a letter to Prophet Jesus against the crusader mentality of Europe and the supposed reply of the Messiah disassociating himself from Christians and their crimes against humanity. Son of poet and historian Sa’eed  Pasha, and brother of renowned poet and politician Faiq Ali Ozansoy, in addition to his native Turkish, Suleyman mastered Arabic, Persian, and French languages. He worked as a civil servant in Diayarbakr. After moving to Istanbul, he started contributing articles to the literary magazine “Servet-e Funoun” ("Wealth of Knowledge") until it was censored by the government in 1901 for his articles against Sultan Abdul Hamid II and his sympathizing with the ideas of the reformist group “Young Turks”. He fled to France, where he stayed eight months. When he returned home, he was forced to work at a secretary post in the Governorate of Bursa between 1897 and 1908. In 1908, Suleyman Nazif moved to Istanbul again, joined the Committee of Union and Progress and started journalism. He also co-founded a newspaper “Tesvir-e Afkar” (“Picture of Thoughts”), together with the journalist Abu Ziya Tovfiq. Although this newspaper had to close soon, his articles made him a well-known writer. After Sultan Abdul-Hamid restored constitutional monarchy following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, Nazif served as governor of Ottoman provinces Basra (1909), Kastamonu (1910), Trabzon (1911), Mosul (1913) and Baghdad (1914). In 1915 he resigned to continue his profession as a writer. He opposed the Armenian massacre as well as the occupation of Istanbul during World War 1 by the French and British forces. He was exiled to the island of Malta. Twenty months later following the Turkish War of Independence, he returned to Istanbul and continued to write. Nazif, ever critical of the European imperialist powers, attracted once more their hostility when he wrote his famous article "Hazrat-e Isa'ya Acık Mektup" (or Open Letter to Prophet Jesus) in which he complained against the crimes perpetrated by Christians. Two weeks later he published "The Reply of Jesus" in which he, in the words of Jesus, refuted the charges, saying the Virgin-born Messiah is not responsible for the crimes of Christians or their beliefs. These two letters became widely popular. He died of pneumonia on January 4, 1927.

96 solar years ago, on this day in 1921 AD, the British invaders after crushing the uprising of Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim majority, installed Faisal, the son of Sharif Hussein of Hejaz, as king in Baghdad, as a reward for his treason against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Britain had earlier promised to make Sharif Hussein the Sultan of Arabia, but it switched sides by giving a green signal to its other agent, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud of Najd, to attack, plunder and desecrate the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and its holy shrines as well as the commercial centres of Jeddah and Ta’ef. Before creating the spurious state of Saudi Arabia for Abdul-Aziz, the crafty British, as part of their divide-and rule policy, first placed Faisal as king in Damascus and created a fake state called Jordan for Sharif Hussein’s another son, Abdullah. The French, who had occupied Syria, opposed the British decision and four months later Faisal was driven out of Damascus. Then, London appointed Faisal as king of Iraq, which he ruled until his death in 1933 and was succeeded by his son Ghazi. In 1958, Ghazi’s son, Faisal II was overthrown and killed in the military coup staged by General Abdul-Karim Qassem, thus ending foreign imposed dynastic rule in Iraq.

91 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, Pakistani physicist and Nobel Prize laureate, Abdus-Salaam, was born in Santokdas in the Sahiwal District of Punjab. He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physics with Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Lee Glashow. Each had independently formulated a theory explaining the underlying unity of the weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force. His hypothetical equations, which demonstrated an underlying relationship between the electromagnetic force and the weak nuclear force, postulated that the weak force must be transmitted by hitherto-undiscovered particles known as weak vector bosons, or W and Z bosons. Weinberg and Glashow reached a similar conclusion using a different line of reasoning. The existence of the W and Z bosons was eventually verified in 1983 by researchers using particle accelerators at CERN.

75 solar years ago, on this day in 1942 AD, following Iran’s invasion by British and Soviet forces in 1941 in violation of Iran’s neutrality in World War II, a trilateral treaty was signed between the three countries, according to which the Pahlavi regime agreed to put Iran’s ground, air, and sea routes at the disposal of Allied Powers in the war against Germany. Moscow and London pledged to leave Iran, at the most, eight months after termination of World War 2. The occupation of Iran by Britain and the Soviet Union inflicted irreparable damages on this country. After end of World War 2, the crafty British withdrew their troops but controlled the Shah and his regime, while the Soviet Union refused to leave Iran and tried to disintegrate the country by planting puppet regimes in the provinces of Azarbaijan and Kurdistan. The plot, however, failed and the Red Army was forced to leave Iran’s soil.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, American poet, Robert Frost, died at the age of 89. He initially worked as a journalist, but his talent in writing poems led him to publish his first collection of poems in at the age of 20. He won the Pulitzer Literary Prize, four times.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, in the wake of the sit-in of ulema at the Tehran University Mosque, teachers and other strata of the community announced their solidarity and joined the protest against the Pahlavi regime. While the number of strikers rose every moment, Shapour Bakhtiar, the prime minister of the fugitive Shah, was forced to lift the obstructions he had placed at the airports to prevent the return home from exile of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). The welcoming committee announced that the beloved leader would arrive in Tehran on February 1, 1979, at 9 a.m. Meanwhile, with the opening of Tehran airport, the US military planes flew the Americans out of Iran.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, the 14-year-old Bahraini martyr, Ali Jawad Sheikh, was born on Sitra Island. On August 31, 2011 after the Fajr or early dawn prayers, the youth while participating in a peaceful protest rally was brutally targeted by forces of the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime and attained martyrdom later in the day in the hospital. The savage way in which the teenager was attacked and killed by the regime shocked the civilized world, and spurred protests in Bahrain. For the past four years, the Persian Gulf island state is in the grip of a peaceful struggle for restoration of the birthrights of the overwhelming majority of people and end to the Aal-e Khalifa dictatorship, which is backed by the Americans, the British, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Scores of people have attained martyrdom in the process.

AS/ME