Today is Thursday; 12th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 3rd of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1438 lunar hijri; and March 2, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1427 lunar years ago, on this day in 11 AH, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), the venerable daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was tragically martyred, leaving behind in a state of mourning her bereaved husband, Imam Ali (AS), and four little children – sons Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS); and daughters Hazrat Zainab (SA) and Hazrat Omm Kolsoum (SA). She was the daughter of the Mother of True Believers, Omm al-Momineen Hazrat Khadijah (SA). Hazrat Fatema (SA), is regarded as the noblest ever lady of all times, even surpassing in merits the Virgin Mary (SA), the mother of Prophet Jesus (AS). God Almighty has vouchsafed her spotless purity in the holy Qur’an. She remains a model-par-excellence for all virtuous women, and her progeny, the Saadaat, plural of Seyyed, has today spread around the world and is held in esteem by all Muslims. We extend our heartfelt condolences on her tragic martyrdom, which was the result of the hurling upon her of the burning door of her house by a roguish group of her father’s companions, who had seized her patrimony of the orchard of Fadak, and had usurped the political rule of the Islamic state from her husband, Imam Ali (AS), the divinely-decreed heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

964 solar years ago, on this day in 1053 AD, Farrokhzad Jamal od-Dowlah ascended the throne of Ghazni as the 9th sultan, having escaped the massacre of Ghaznavid princess by Toghrul the Usurper. Son of Mas’oud I and grandson of the famous Sultan Mahmoud, his 6-year reign was one of benevolence, prosperity and tranquility, free from the chaotic turbulence of palace slaves who had destabilized the rule of his predecessors. A devout Muslim, he used to fast during Rajab, Sha'ban and Ramadhan, and reinstated as vizier the able Iranian administrator, Abdur-Razzaq Maymandi, who had formerly served his brother Maudud and uncle Abd ur-Rashid. He also freed from imprisonment the celebrated Iranian scholar, Abu’l-Fazl Bayhaqi, who wrote his famous history in Persian (Tarikh-e Bayhaqi), which is one of the most credible sources about the Ghaznavid Empire. Chagri Beg Seljuq launched an invasion soon after Farrokhzad’s ascension, but was defeated. Around 1058, Farrokh invaded Tukharistan in hopes of removing the Seljuqs to whom his father Mas’oud had lost Khorasan and parts of Transoxiana in the Battle of Dandanaqan in 1040. His army was initially successful, capturing the Seljuq Atabeg Qotb od-Din Kul-Sarigh. However, Alp Arslan counter-attacked and defeated the Ghaznavid army. A subsequent peace treaty, drawn up by Abu’l-Fazl Bayhaqi allowed for exchange of prisoners and a mutual non-aggression pact. Depressed and sickened after an attempt on his life by palace slaves, Farrokhzad withdrew from worldly affairs and died on 4 April 1059 at the age of thirty four.

519 solar years ago, on this day in 1498 AD, Vasco da Gama, the murderous Portuguese navigator and Christian missionary landed on the Muslim-ruled island of Mozambique, after having rounded with the help of Muslim navigators the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of the African continent – the first European to do so. Since the island and the nearby African coast were ruled by Sultan Musa Ali Bique, the Portuguese corrupted the name to Mozambique. Vasco da Gama disguised as a Muslim gained audience with the Sultan, who was a vassal of the Kilwa Empire of Iranian Shirazi origin of east Africa. Soon the local Muslim populace became suspicious of the Portuguese and forced them to flee the island 27 days later on March 29. Vasco da Gama, while fleeing, indiscriminately fired his cannons into the city, killing and wounding many men, women, and children. He next landed at Mombasa in the heartland of the Kilwa sultanate, where he was an unwelcome visitor. Then with the help of Muslim navigators he reached Calicut on the western coast of India. Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese struck the Muslim-ruled eastern coast of Africa with vengeance, sacking Mombasa in 1500 and by 1507 seizing Mozambique and destroying the centuries-old flourishing Indian Ocean trade of the Arabs and Persians. For his crimes against Muslim lands and piracy on the high seas, in 1502 Portugal awarded him the title of “Almirante dos mares de Arabia, Persia, India e de todo o Oriente”, which means Admiral of the Seas of Arabia, Persia, India and all the Orient". Vasco da Gama now embarked on one of the most gruesome massacres when he and his crew terrorized Muslim ports up and down the African east coast, and at one point, set ablaze a Muslim ship returning from Mecca, killing the several hundreds of people on board, including women and children. In the Cannanore port in southwestern India he committed a similar crime, by attacking a Muslim merchant ship, seizing its cargo, and burning to death around 400 passengers, including women and children. Over four-and-a-half centuries later in 1975 Mozambique became independent. Today some 20 percent of the population is Muslim, since the Portuguese occupiers forcibly converted the local people to Christianity and destroyed the rich Islamic Arabic and Swahili culture. Vasco da Gama who died in Kochi in 1524 in India, at the age of 65 and was buried in Lisbon, Portugal, slaughtered thousands of Muslims and enslaved thousands of Africans.

492 solar years ago, on this day in 1525 AD, Budapest, the capital of Hungary was taken by the Ottoman Turkish army. The Turks had earlier defeated the Hungarian king in the Battle of Mohacs and in this manner the boundaries and borders of Ottoman Empire reached the Austrian Capital, Vienna.

330 solar years ago, on this day in 1687 AD, Prince Muhammad Mu'azzam was charged with treacherous conduct during the Mughal sieges of the Deccan sultanates of Iranian origin of Bijapur and Golkandah-Haiderabad, and imprisoned for seven years on the orders of his father, Emperor Aurangzeb. Earlier in the year he had defeated the Qutb-Shahi forces at Malkhed in what is now Karnataka State, but the Qutb-Shahis put up strong resistance from the impregnable Golkandah fortress till September of the same year, when through deceit and treachery the 170-year old dynasty founded by Sultan Quli, the Qara Qoyounlu adventurer from Hamedan in western Iran, collapsed. On Aurangzeb’s death, Mu’azzam rebelled against his brother Azam Shah (descended on his mother’s side from the Safavid emperors of Iran), who as the heir-apparent had crowned himself emperor, and after defeating and executing him, seized the throne with the titles of Shah Alam I and Bahadur Shah I. He died five years later.

220 solar years ago, on this day in 1797 AD, Horace Walpole, English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician, died at the age of 80. In 1754 AD, by playing with Persian words, he had coined the word “Serendipity” meaning a “fortuitous happenstance” or “pleasant surprise”. In a letter to a friend he explained an unexpected discovery he had made by reference to a Persian tale titled “The Three Princes of Serendip”, who were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.” “Serendip” was the ancient Iranian name for Sri Lanka. In its modern vernacular, “Serendipity” is commonly associated with luck and accidental discovery. The notion of serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of scientific innovation such as Alexander Flemming's accidental discovery of Penicillin in 1928, and the invention of the microwave oven by Percy Spencer in 1945, to name but a few. In contrast, “Bahramdipity” is derived from the 15th Sassanid Emperor of ancient Iran, Bahram Gur, and means suppression of serendipitous discoveries or research results by powerful individuals.

181 solar years ago, on this day in 1936 AD, German orientalist and Islamic scholar, Theodor Noldeke, was born in Harburg. He studied in Göttingen, Vienna, Leiden and Berlin, mastering several languages including Arabic and Persian. In 1859 his history of the holy Qur'an won for him the prize of the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and in the following year he rewrote it in German (Geschichte des Qorâns). In 1861 he began to lecture at the university, where three years later he was appointed extraordinary professor. In 1868 he became ordinary professor at Kiel, and in 1872 was appointed to the chair of Oriental Languages at Strassburg, which he resigned in 1906. His range of studies was wide and varied, but the main focus of his work has followed the two lines indicated by his prize essay, Semitic languages, and the history and civilization of Islam. While a great deal of his work (e.g. his translations from the Arabic of the history of Tabari, 1881–1882) is meant for specialists, many of his books are of interest to the general reader. Noldeke’s articles dealing with Iran were republished in a German volume, titled “Aufsätze zur Persischen Geschichte” in Leipzig in 1887. He died in 1930.

165 lunar years ago, on this day in 1273 AH, the Muslim scholar and researcher, Mir Seyyed Hassan Modarres Isfahani, passed away at the age of 63. He was born in Isfahan and attended the classes of prominent ulema of his era, soon mastering theology, jurisprudence, and other sciences. He started holding classes of his own in Isfahan and his fame attracted students from all over Iran. He authored several books, including a commentary on the famous work titled “Shafaa”, of the Iranian-Islamic genius, Abu Ali Sina.

144 solar years ago, on this day in 1873 AD, George Smith, British Assyriologist, arrived at the ruins of Nineveh outside Mosul in Iraq. Over the next few weeks he found tablets referring to more pieces of the Gilgamesh story, a record of kings in the Babylonian dynasties, as well as lists of cuneiform symbols.

121 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, French physicist, Henri Becquerel, discovered the radiation feature of radioactive material in uranium. The discovery won him the Nobel Prize for Physics in the year 1905; five years prior to his death.

61 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Morocco gained independence from French colonial rule. In 1912, after decades of meddling by European powers, France had declared this Muslim country as its protectorate. The same year the Moroccan people, under the leadership of Abdul-Karim Rifi, started the liberation struggle and managed to free the mountainous parts of the country, until they were defeated in 1926 by the French.

54 lunar years ago, on this day in 1384 AH, prominent Iranian researcher, writer and translator, Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim Ayati, passed away at the age of 51 in what was claimed to be a road accident. Born near Birjand in Khorasan, he studied in holy Mashhad under prominent scholars, such as Adib Naishapuri, Shaikh Hashem Qazvini, and Shaikh Mojtaba Qazvini, and for a decade taught and preached in his hometown. He then enrolled at Tehran University, obtained PhD in philosophy and for years taught at the same university for years. As a conscious religious scholar, aware of the political conditions of the time, he became a close assistant of two of the prominent ulema of the era – Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Taleqani, and Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari. Dr. Ayati, who played a key role in the monthly journal “Goftar”, has left behind valuable works, such as “A Probe into the History of Ashura”, and “History of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA)”. He also edited the exegesis of the holy Qur’an written by Sharif Lahiji, in addition to translating several books into Persian.   

39 lunar years ago, on this day in 1399 AH, the great contemporary Iranian Islamic thinker, Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, was martyred at the age of 61 by the Forqan terrorist outfit. Born in Fariman in Khorasan, northeastern Iran, at the age of 12 years he enrolled at the Islamic seminary in holy Mashhad, and later left for holy Qom for higher studies. In Qom, he attended the classes of such prominent ulema, as Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabatabaei, and the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). Along with his studies he became an activist of the Islamic Revolution Movement, as one of the close allies of Imam Khomeini. As of the year 1955, Ayatollah Motahhari started lecturing at the Faculty of Theology of Tehran University for 23 years and groomed numerous students. He had a profound understanding of the social, political, and cultural topics of importance of the contemporary era. This brilliant Islamic thinker changed thoughts and attitudes by focusing on the dynamism of Islam for salvage of mankind in accordance with the progress in scientific and other fields. His speeches, articles, and books in different domains elaborate on Islamic topics and have been translated into different languages, including English, such as “Rights of Women in Islam”, “Anecdotes of Pious Men”, “Epic of Imam Husain (AS)”, “A Journey through Nahj al-Balagha”, “A Journey through the Conduct of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA)”, “Divine Justice”, “Islam and Iran: A Historical Study of Mutual Services,”  “Future of the Islamic Revolution”, and “A Critique of Marxism”.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, in the wake of the defeat of the Iraqi army in Kuwait by the US-led coalition, Iraqi people started their popular uprising against the repressive rule of Saddam’s Ba’th minority regime, as the long suppressed Shi’a Arab majority rose in the south, while the ethnic Kurd minority rose in the north. After initial gains, when the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala had been liberated and the noose was being tightened around Baghdad, the US allowed Saddam to use missiles and fixed-wing aircraft to brutally crush the popular uprising and to desecrate the holy shrines. The result was catastrophic. Saddam massacred at least seven hundred thousand Shi’a Arabs, and forced some two million Kurds to seek refuge across the borders in Iran and Turkey.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, the Iranian lady scholar of the holy Qur’an, Banu Kowkab Pour-Ranjbar, passed away at the age of 88. Born in Shiraz, at the age of 16 she completed her Islamic studies and started her career as a teacher that led to her collection of copies of the holy Qur’an and correction of several of its manuscripts prepared in the Subcontinent. At the age of 27 after becoming blind she miraculously regained her eyesight on seeing in her dream Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA) the Immaculate Daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Thereafter she devoted her life to the teaching of the holy Qur’an. She revolutionized the teaching of the holy Qur’an for children by adopting simple methods to teach this heavenly scripture.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2001 AD, in Afghanistan the Taliban terrorists began the destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan despite international protests. The pair of Buddha statues was not the object of worship to be destroyed. These were relics of the skill of craftsmen of the ancient past who had hewn mountains to carve them. The Taliban used dynamite, anti-tank missiles, and artillery fire to destroy the two statues.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2004 AD, the holy cities of Karbala and Kazemain were rocked by several terrorist attacks, in which at least 180 people were martyred and 500 others injured. These attacks were carried out by the Takfiri terrorists on the Day of Ashura (10^th of Moharram) – the martyrdom anniversary of the Prophet's grandson Imam Husain (AS) – when millions of devotees were attending mourning processions for the first time after the fall of Iraq's US-installed dictator, Saddam. The terrorists were never identified, but believed to be the agents of the US and Saudi Arabia.

AS/ME