Today is Wednesday; 25th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 16th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1438 lunar hijri; and March 15, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2061 solar years ago, on this day in 44 BC, Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by a group of senators, apprehensive of the totalitarian powers he had assumed in the wake of his elimination of all rivals in the civil wars that had followed his victories in Gaul (France) which had emboldened him to violate the law against the crossing of the River Rubicon into Italy with armed legions – to challenge Pompey for supreme power. Caesar was killed, while planning to invade the Iranian Parthian Empire to avenge the disgraceful defeat in the Battle of Carrhae (Harran in upper Mesopotamia and presently in modern Turkey) nine years earlier in 53 BC when General Surena had routed a mighty Roman army led by General Marcus Licinius Crassus, who along with Caesar and Pompey had formed the First Triumvirate. A person of lose morals, Julius Caesar, like all other pagans was a sadistic barbarian, who in his official ‘triumphs’ (or public celebrations on Rome’s streets and amphitheatre) used to stage live battles and watch with delight as prisoners of war divided into groups brutally killed each other. His death transformed the republic into the Roman Empire under his designated heir, grandnephew Ocatavius, who after elimination of his main rival Mark Antony, assumed the imperial title of Emperor Augustus Caesar. Julius Caesar is mostly remembered for his replacement of the Roman lunar calendar with the Egyptian solar calendar of 365.25 days, by adding a leap day at the end of February every fourth year. The month of Quintilis was renamed July in his honour and thus, the Julian calendar (also named after him), opened on 1 January 45 BC. It was used in Europe until 1582 AD when it was replaced by the current Gregorian.

1054 solar years ago, on this day in 963 AD, Byzantine emperor, Romanos II, died at the age of 25 after a 4-year reign, during which his general  Nikephoros Phokas, occupied the Muslim island of Crete after a 9-month siege and sacked Aleppo the capital of the Hamadanid Shi’a Muslim emirate. Romanos II is believed to have been poisoned to death by his wife, Theophano, who soon married her husband’s victorious general, Nikephoros Phokas and declared him emperor.

1017 lunar years ago, on this day in 421 AH, the famous Spanish Muslim poet, Ahmad ibn Mohammad Ibn Darraj al-Qastalli, passed away at the age of 74 in his native Spain. He was from Castile as is clear from his surname 'Qastalli', and played a vital role in promotion of Arabic poetry in the Iberian Peninsula with his new style. His poems, in addition to their high literary and artistic value, are a reliable source of developments in Islamic Spain. These have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, English and other languages as the Arabic heritage of Europe.

870 solar years ago, on this day in 1147 AD, the Muslim fortress of Santarem, -- Shantarin in Arabic – which was an important Islamic cultural centre in the Iberian Peninsula, was treacherously attacked and seized by Afonso I of Portugal, who slaughtered the whole population. Afonso used it as a base to launch attacks on Lisbon the main Muslim city of the region, which he occupied later that year. The most notable ruler of the al-Muwahhedoun dynasty of Muslim Spain, Abu Yaqub Yusuf (patron of the philosophers Ibn Roshd and Ibn Tufail), died in Santarem while trying to recapture it during his unsuccessfully siege of 1184.

531 solar years ago, on this day in 1486 AD, the Ottoman army was again defeated before Adana. Qaragoz Mohammad fled the field, while the general Hersekzade Ahmed was taken captive, and Cilicia in what is now south-central Turkey returned to the control of the Turkic Mamluk Dynasty of Egypt-Syria. The series of internecine Muslim wars between the two major Turkic powers were the result of intrigue by the Pope and West European Christian states, following the end of the Byzantine Empire and fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, when it appeared that it was matter of time before Islam could spread all over Europe. It was unfortunate of the Ottomans to halt their drive into Europe and turn towards the east against fellow Muslims in Anatolia and Syria, at a time when the beleaguered Spanish Muslims of Granada were desperately calling for help from the Muslim World, and the Mamluks had prepared a large army in what is now Libya for stopping the Christian aggressors in the Iberian Peninsula. This same seditious policy of the Ottomans in Muslim lands was the cause of the Battle of Chaldiran against the Safavid Empire of Iran that allowed much-needed respite to Europe to reorganize militarily and culturally (Renaissance) for eventually pushing back the Ottomans and gradually ending their supremacy in the Muslim lands of southwest Europe that were forcibly Christianized after centuries of Islamic rule and culture.

515 lunar years ago, on this day in 923 AH, Hejaz came under the authority of the Ottomans when Sharif Barakaat II sent the keys of the Holy Ka’ba in Mecca and the Prophet’s Holy Shrine in Medina to Sultan Selim I, following the victory of Turkish troops over the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt, which had hitherto held suzerainty over Hejaz, and Syria as well. Selim, who three years earlier, had managed to turn into a narrow victory a certain defeat of the Ottomans by the Safavids of Iran at the Battle of Chaldiran, prior to which he had carried out a general massacre of Shi'ite Muslims in Anatolia and deported thousands of them to the Balkans for fear of their siding with Shah Ismael Safavi, now decided to attack Syria because of the growing Iranian influence there. He won an easy victory and then marched all the way to Egypt, the news of which, prompted Sharif Barakaat of Hejaz to switch allegiance from the defeated Mamluks to the victorious Ottomans. For four centuries the Turks ruled Hejaz until the Ottoman defeat in Second World War and dismemberment of their empire by the British and their local agents, including Sharif Hussain of Hejaz, two of whose sons were made kings and granted new countries as kingdoms – Abdullah in Jordan, and Faisal in Iraq. The crafty British then allowed the Wahhabi desert brigand from Najd, Abdul-Aziz Aal-e Saud, who was on their payroll, to attack Hejaz in 1924, drive out Sharif Hussain (who since 1917 had styled himself as king), massacre tens of thousands of Muslims, desecrate the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina, and establish the spurious state called Saudi Arabia, on condition of endorsing the plan for creation of the illegal Zionist entity called Israel in Palestine, by settling tens of thousands of European Jews.

488 lunar years ago, on this day in 950 AH, the Ottoman Turks concluded a treaty with France to run the French Mediterranean port of Toulon. The Ottoman flag was hoisted in Toulon as almost all the French left the port. The Ottomans introduced the Azan for the five-times-daily prayers in this port, and turned the cathedral into a mosque during their 8-month stay. In this period under the command of the famous Turkish admiral, Khair od-Din Pasha (known as Barbarossa or Redbeard to the Europeans), the Ottoman navy, equipped with 30,000 troops raided the Spanish and Italian coasts and defeated the combined attacks by Spanish-Italian navies. The Ottomans left after King Francis I of France paid a sum of 800,000 in the currency of those days and released all Turks and Arabs who were forced to work on French galleys. Khair od-Din Pasha died two years later, but Toulon was again used as a safe harbour for several months, some three years later by another Ottoman admiral, Turgut Raees.

279 solar years ago, on this day in 1638 AD, Shunzhi Emperor of China was born. At the tender age of 5 he was crowned emperor in Beijing as the third ruler of the Qing Dynasty, following collapse of the Ming Dynasty, and thus became the first Qing Emperor to rule all over China. On reaching adolescent and taking over the reins of government, he tried, with mixed success, to fight corruption and to reduce the political influence of the Manchu nobility. In late 1646, forces assembled by a Muslim leader, known in Chinese sources as Milayin, revolted against Qing rule in Ganzhou (Gansu). He was soon joined by another Muslim named Ding Guodong. Proclaiming that they wanted to restore the Ming, they occupied a number of towns in Gansu, including the provincial capital Lanzhou. Both Milayin and Ding Guodong were captured and killed in 1648, and by 1650 the Muslims had been crushed in campaigns that inflicted heavy casualties. In the 1650s, he faced a resurgence of Ming loyalist resistance, but by 1661 his armies had defeated their last enemies, seafarer Koxinga (1624–1662) and the Prince of Gui (1623–1662) of the Southern Ming dynasty. The Shunzhi Emperor died at the age of 23 of smallpox.

163 solar years ago, on this day in 1854 AD, German bacteriologist, Emil Adolf von Behring, who is considered the founder of the science of immunology, was born. He continued the researches of the French chemist, Louis Pasteur, and in 1890 working with S. Kitasato, he discovered that immunity against tetanus and diphtheria could be produced by injecting serum from an animal that had recovered from the disease. He coined the word antitoxin for such substances. In 1901 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology for his work on serum therapy.

139 solar years ago, on this day in 1878 AD, the British-installed Pahlavi tyrant, Reza Khan Savadukhi, was born in the village of Alash in Savadukh County, Mazandaran, in an obscure peasant family to a Muslim refugee woman named Noushafarin Ayromlou, from the Russian-occupied Iranian parts of the Caucasus land of Georgia. It is said, his father was a certain Abbas Ali Khan, a petty military officer, who died when the boy was only 8 months old. His mother soon remarried and entrusted the child to her brother, who after sometime handed him to a military man named Vartan Gorg-e Koohi, who as the surname suggests means “mountain wolf” in Persian. The boy who had a harsh upbringing, was apparently exploited and abused, resulting in his acquirement of brutal characteristics, including treachery, disloyalty, faithlessness, etc. that would last throughout his life. At the age of sixteen he joined the Cossack Brigade and his skill with the artillery made him known as “Reza Maksim”. He was promoted through military ranks, mainly because of the favours shown by the armed forces commander, the Qajarid prince, Abdol Hussein Mirza Farmanfarma, whom he was to eventually betray, imprison and kill his sons. The crafty British saw in the brutal, immoral and Godless Reza Khan a potential stooge to tighten their colonial hold on Iran, and in 1921 they imposed this illiterate soldier on the inefficient king, Ahmad Shah Qajar, as war minister and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, with the titles of Mirpanj and Sardar Sepah. Later the British made him prime minister to the Shah, and in 1925 placed him on the Peacock Throne as the new king of Iran. He immediately launched a reign of terror, suppressing the people, confiscating their property, censoring the media, mistreating the ulema, banning religious gatherings, imposing the European dress code on the Iranians at the expense of their traditional attire, destroying the national culture, and forcing the women to unveil in public. When World War 2 started, he tried to cozy up to the German Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, a move that made his masters the British depose him, replace him with his son, Mohammad Reza, and send him into exile on Mauritius island, and then to South Africa, where he died in 1944.    

129 solar years ago, on this day in 1888 AD, the Anglo-Tibetan War started following the end of deadline set by the British for withdrawal of Tibetan forces from Sikkim. Fought in the high Himalayan mountain ranges, the Tibetans were forced to withdraw and sign the Calcutta Accord in 1890, renouncing all claims to suzerainty over Tibet.

110 solar years ago, on this day in 1907 AD, the famous Iranian poetess, Parvin E’tesami, was born in the northwestern city of Tabriz in an academic family. Her father, Yusuf E’tesam ol-Molk, was an acclaimed translator and author who frequented the company of prominent poets and literary figures, such as the Poet Laureate Malik osh-Sho’ara Mohammad Taqi Bahar, and the Lexicographer Allamah Ali Akbar Dehkhoda. She learned Iranian and Arabic literature from her father and showed her talents for writing poems as of childhood. On graduation from high school she started teaching in Tabriz. She accompanied her father on his journeys around Iran and abroad, gaining valuable experiences and reflecting them in her poetry. Her Divan includes odes, elegies, and other styles of poetry. A realistic poetess she maintained strong ethical and religious beliefs. Parvin E’tesami passed away at the young age of 35 years in 1941.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, the valiant Iranian commander, Mahdi Bakeri, attained martyrdom at the age of 30 at the fronts of the war imposed on Iran by Saddam of the repressive Bath minority regime at the behest of the US. Born in Miandoab in northwestern Iran, he was active since high school against the despotic British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime, whose agents had earlier martyred his elder brother. After victory of the Islamic Revolution he joined the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on its formation, and in view of his ability served as prosecutor at the revolutionary court and later as mayor of Oroumiyeh, the capital of West Azarbaijan Province. On the invasion of the country, he marched to the warfronts and after demonstrating his battle prowess was promoted to commander of the Ashura Brigade. Several times he was injured and recovered from his wounds, before attaining martyrdom during the Badr Operations.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, US President Bill Clinton, in a blatant act of hostility against the Islamic Republic of Iran, issued an executive order formally blocking a $1 billion contract between Conoco and Iran to develop a huge offshore oil tract in the Persian Gulf. Washington’s intention was to hurt Iranian economy, but it actually axed its own feet, resulting in multi-million losses for American oil companies.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, thousands of Bahraini people held a peaceful protest rally in the capital Manama, against the repressive policies of the Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, on the first anniversary of the invasion of this Persian Gulf island state by Saudi forces.

AS/ME