Today is Thursday; 21st of the Iranian month of Bahman 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 11th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1438 lunar hijri; and February 9, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1056 lunar years ago, on this day in 382 AH, the Mu’tazalite theologian, Ali ibn Eisa ar-Rummani, passed away. Among his most important works is the book: “E’jaz al-Qur’an” on the Living Miracle that the holy Qur’an is. Here it would not be out of context to mention his encounter with the famous Shi’a Muslim scholar, Shaikh Mohammad bin Nu’man and the reason he conferred upon him the title “Shaikh al-Mufid” (Most Beneficial Scholar). The Shaikh’s tutor sent him to attend the theology lessons of Rummani, along with a letter of introduction. The Shaikh says: I entered his class, and was impressed by the great number of students. I sat at the end of the crowd, managing to creep forward as some members of the assembly left. Then I saw a person enter, saying: "(O Master), there is someone at the door from Basra who insists on being admitted to your presence." On permission the man from Basra entered and after a long conversation, asked Rummani: "How do you view the event of “Ghadeer” (the day the Prophet, on God’s commandment, proclaimed Imam Ali [AS] as his vicegerent on 18th Zilhijja, 10 AH while returning from his Farewell Hajj pilgrimage) and the report of “Ghar” (incident of the cave in which Abu Bakr accompanied the Prophet on the night of Hijrah)?" Ar-Rummani replied that "the report of al-Ghar was a recognised event, while al-Ghadeer was just a narration; and a narration is not as mandatory as a recognised event." The man from Basra left without making any reply. The Shaikh says: Then I came forward and said: "I have a question." Ar-Rummani said: "Ask." I said: "What do you say about the one who fights a Just Imam?" He said: "Such a person would be an infidel." Then, after a pause, he rectified himself and said: "He would be a transgressor." I asked: "What do you say about the Commander of the Faithful, Ali bin Abi Taleb (AS)?” He said: "I believe he was an Imam." So I asked: "Then what do you say about the Day of Jamal and Talha and Zubair?" Ar-Rummani retorted that both of them had repented. I said: "The Battle of Jamal is a recognised event, while their repentance is a mere narration." Upon this, he said: "Were you present when the man from Basra put his question?" I said "yes." Then he asked: "What is your name and who is your tutor?" I said: "I am known as Ibn al-Mu’allem, and my tutor is Abu-Abdallah al-Jual." He said: "Stay where you are." Then he entered his room and came out with a letter, instructing me to hand it over to my tutor. When I gave the letter to my tutor, he read it and laughed, saying: "What transpired between you in his class? He has asked me to confer upon you the title “al-Mufid”.

1050 solar years ago, on this day in 967 AD, Emir Saif od-Dowla, the Hamdanid ruler of Aleppo and most of Syria, passed away. Named Ali, he was the son of Abu'l-Hayja Abdullah bin Hamdan, and was a staunch follower of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt. He was the younger brother of Nasser od-Dowla the Emir of Mosul. He distinguished himself in battles against the Byzantines and could be called the Warden of the Marches of the Islamic frontier of those days by checking the bid by the Christians to plunder Syria. Saif od-Dowla was a man of letters and surrounded himself with prominent intellectual figures, notably the great Arabic poets, al-Mutanabbi and Abu Firas Hamdani, as well as the noted Iranian Islamic philosopher Abu Nasr Farabi. Saif od-Dowla himself was a poet; his delicate short poem on the rainbow shows high artistic ability.

841 lunar years ago, on this day in 597 AH, the famous Iranian Islamic theologian and scientist, Mohammad ibn Hassan, known as Khwaja Naseer od-Din Tousi was born in the city of Tous, near the holy city of Mashhad in Khorasan. He was an outstanding philosopher, scientist, mathematician and astronomer who made valuable contributions to the development of science and civilization. Even the Mongol invaders acknowledged his genius and Hulagu Khan, appointed him as his scientific advisor. Naseer od-Din Tusi built the famous observatory at Maraghah in 1262. It had various instruments such as a 4-meter wall quadrant made from copper and an azimuth quadrant which was his unique invention. Using accurately plotted planetary movements, he modified Ptolemy's model of the planetary system based on mechanical principles. The observatory and its library became a centre for a wide range of work in science, mathematics and philosophy. About the real essence of the Milky Way, Ṭusi in his book on astronomy “at-Tadhkirah fi Ilm al-Hayyah”, wrote three centuries before Galileo: “The Milky Way, i.e. the galaxy, is made up of a very large number of small, tightly-clustered stars, which, on account of their concentration and smallness, seem to be cloudy patches. Because of this, it was likened to milk in colour.”

He wrote some 80 books in both Arabic and Persian on various subjects including “Tajrid al-Eʿteqad” on theology, “Akhlaq-e Naseri” on ethics, “Sharh al-Isharaat Ibn Sina” on philosophy, and “Kitab ash-Shakl al-Qatta” on mathematics, etc. It is to be noted that a 60-km diameter lunar crater located on the southern hemisphere of the moon is named after him as "Naseereddin". A minor planet discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1979 is named after him “10269 Tusi”. Naseer od-Din Tusi died in Iraq and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), the 7^th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

576 solar years ago, on this day in 1441 AD, the Amir Ali Shir Navai, the acclaimed Central Asian politician, mystic, linguist, painter, and poet, was born in the Khorasani capital, Herat, which is currently in western Afghanistan. He is considered the Father of Chagatai Turkic literature, and was a prolific author. He also wrote and composed poems in Persian under the penname “Fani”, and has excellent compilations in this language as well to his credit. He studied in Mashhad, Herat and Samarqand, and when his childhood friend, Sultan Husayn Bayqarah became the principal Timurid ruler of Khorasan, he joined his service and for almost 40 years devoted his efforts to cultural developments including fine arts and the building of public utility works like schools, mosques, caravanserais and hospitals. In Mashhad, he carried out extensions in the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS). He is regarded as a national hero in the modern republic of Uzbekistan and is famous all over the Turkic-speaking world. He passed away at the age of 63 in his hometown Herat and his body was taken to Mashhad for burial in the porch he had built at the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

531 solar years ago, on this day in 1486 AD, the Mamluks of Egypt defeated the Ottoman general, Qaragoz Mohammad, near Adana in  Cilicia in what is now south central Turkey, following an invasion of Anatolia by Sultan Bayezid II, who started the 6-year war with the Egyptians. A stronger force dispatched from Istanbul was again defeated by the Mamluks in March and Cilicia returned to Egyptian control. The relationship between the Ottomans and the Mamluks was adversarial as both states vied for control of the spice trade and domination of Syria. The two empires were, however, separated by a buffer zone occupied by Turkmen states such as Qaramanids, Aq Qoyunlu, Ramadhanids and Zulqadarids, which regularly switched their allegiance from one power to the other. The war ended in 1491 with the boundaries remaining unchanged. Some 26 years later, the Ottomans overran Syria and Egypt and ended the fellow Turkic Mamluk Empire.

377 solar years ago, on this day in 1640 AD, Murad IV, the 17th Ottoman Sultan and the 9th self-styled Turkic caliph, died in his capital Istanbul at the age of 28 after a reign of 17 years during which he killed four of his own brothers. His order on his deathbed to kill his only surviving but mentally unsound brother was not carried out, and thus the Ottoman line was saved from extinction, when he was succeeded by Ibrahim Deli (the Deranged). Murad IV has earned lasting notoriety for his treacherous and brutal nature. In 1635, a year after his disastrous war with Poland, taking advantage of the weakness of Shah Safi in Isfahan, he intensified the intermittent war raging with the Safavids since 1623 by marching into Azarbaijan and seizing Tabriz before invading Iran-ruled Iraq. In 1638, he occupied Baghdad through a ruse after a 40-day siege, following heavy losses inflicted by the Iranian defenders on his troops including the death of Grand Vizier Mohammad Tayyar on the final day. Murad then had the bulk of the population of Baghdad butchered in despite the promises he had made to spare them on surrender. His generals arranged a sort of tableau, in which the heads were struck off one thousand captives by one thousand headsmen at the same moment, while Murad enjoyed the gruesome sight. He sadistically remarked: "Trying to conquer Baghdad was more beautiful than Baghdad itself." Met with fierce Iranian resistance, Murad IV had to end the protracted war through conclusion of the Qasr-e Shirin Treaty in 1639 which returned Tabriz and Azarbaijan to Iran, but Baghdad remained under the Ottomans, while the Caucasus was divided between the two powers, in which eastern Armenia, eastern Georgia, and Daghestan stayed Persian, and western Georgia and western Armenia came under Ottoman rule. Of dubious nature, in his domestic policies Murad IV banned alcohol in Istanbul and ruthlessly killed all those found drinking wine, but was a habitual drinker himself. This self-styled Turkic caliph has admitted to this fact in his couplets: "Even if the rivers became wine, they wouldn't fill my glass." In another poem he has said: "The wine is such a devil that I have to protect my people from it by drinking all of it".

368 solar years ago, on this day in 1649 AD, the parliament abolished the monarchy and declared England a republic under Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, following his victory in the civil wars and execution of King Charles I on charges of treason. Cromwell died in 1658 and was succeeded by his son, who was forced to resign following a nine-month reign, under pressure from army commanders. The monarchy was restored and Charles II was recalled from exile in Europe and crowned king in 1660.

124 solar years ago, on this day in 1893 AD, Suez Canal builder, Frenchman Ferdinand De Lesseps, and his associates were sentenced to prison for fraud in the incomplete Panama Canal project of Central America that was completed a decade later by the US.

61 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, the prominent Iranian scholar Abbas Eqbal Ashtiani died in Tehran at the age of 59. He was a great researcher and linguist who after completing his education in Tehran graduated from France's Sorbonne University in Paris. He was a lecturer at Tehran University, and as editor of a Persian magazine was critical of the policies of the British-installed and American-supported Pahlavi regime. He wrote several books including "The Contribution of Iranians to World Civilisation", "The History of Iran from the Advent of Islam to the Mongol Period", and "The Nowbakhti Family". The last named is a valuable work on the famous Iranian scholarly family that lived in Baghdad in the 3rd and 4th centuries AH, and produced scientists, ministers, and theologians, including Husain Ibn Rouh – one of the four Nawwab or Representatives of the 12th Infallible Imam of the Prophet's Household during the Minor Occultation. He also published "Yadegar" Magazine which carried critical articles about the dire status of the Iranian nation during the reign of Shah's despotic regime.

52 solar years ago, on this day in 1965 AD, the prominent Bengali Muslim scholar of pre-partition India, Khan Bahadur Ahsarullah, passed away in Nalta Sharif, Satkhira District of East Pakistan – as Bangladesh was then known – at the age of 92. He was an educator, litterateur, Islamic theologist and social reformer. He completed his MA in Philosophy from Presidency College, Kolkata in 1895, and went on to serve as first Muslim Headmaster of Rajshahi Collegiate School. In 1911, he was elected a member of the Royal Society (MRSA) of London. He served as a Senator of the University of Calcutta, and was especially active in the movement to establish the University of Dhaka after establishment of Pakistan. The Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology of Bangladesh is named after him.    He wrote around 100 books on different contents. Among his notable works are: “Teachers’ Manual”, “History of the Muslim World” and “Prophet Mohammad (SAWA)”.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1977 AD, Russian Soviet aircraft designer, Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushin, who created the famous Il-2 Stormovik armoured attack aircraft, the most used and the most produced plane during WWII by the Soviet Union Air Force, died at the age of 83 in Moscow. After the war he worked for a short time on jet bombers and designed one of the most successful planes of that time, Il-28. In the 1950s he stopped working on warplanes and concentrated his studies on turboprop and turbojet powered passenger and transport planes. The civil aircraft he designed include: the Il-12 twin-engine passenger aircraft (1946), the Il-18 Moskva four-engine turboprop transport (1957), the Il-62 turbojet passenger carrier (1962), and the Il-86 airbus, which made its first flight in 1976.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the fugitive Shah's generals extended the martial law following the abortive attack of the regime's forces on an airbase in Tehran in retaliation for the pledge of allegiance of its personnel to the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). The aim of the generals was to crush the people's aspirations, to arrest the Imam and other revolutionary leaders, and if possible to assassinate them. Imam Khomeini, however, showed his foresight by calling on the people to ignore the illegal martial law and to come out in great numbers on the streets in order to thwart any mischief by the Shah's generals. Millions of Iranians took to the streets and clashed with the remnants of the tottering Pahlavi regime in Tehran and other cities. As a result the rank and file of the armed forces refused to obey the orders of the officers and many of them joined the people. In frustration, the Shah's premier, Shapour Bakhtiar, made his last attempt to save his illegal cabinet from total collapse, by presenting a bill to the unelected Senate to dissolve the dreaded SAVAK torture apparatus with promises to try its personnel, thereby admitting the widespread oppression and corruption of the British-installed and US-supported tyrannical Pahlavi regime against the Iranian nation. The next day the Islamic Revolution finally triumphed following severe clashes between the regime's forces and the masses, in what is known as the Battle of Tehran.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, following the landslide victory of Islamic groups in the parliamentary elections in December 1991, the Algerian military rulers, on the orders of the West, annulled the election results and banned the victorious Islamic Salvation Front as illegal. This measure sparked violence in the country that claimed numerous lives over the following years.

14 solar years ago, on this day in 2003 AD, China announced that its scientists had discovered a massive underground lake, containing some 35 billion cubic feet of water, in the arid northwest beneath the Taklimakan Desert of the Uighur Muslim populated Xinjiang Province.

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