Today is Sunday; 29th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 20th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1438 lunar hijri; and March 19, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1782 solar years ago, on this day in 235 AD, Roman Emperor Alexander Severus, who suffered a series of disastrous defeats in the Levant and Armenia at the hands of the rising power of the Sassanid Dynasty of Iran, was assassinated, along with his mother Julia Mamaea, by legionaries near modern Mainz in Europe. 

1446 lunar years ago, on this day, some nine years before Hijra, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) was blessed with the radiant daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), who is referred by God Almighty in the holy Qur’an as “Kowsar” or the Perennial Fountain of Abundant Munificence. The birth of this noblest-ever lady, after the Prophet’s sons had died in infancy, ensured the continuation of the blessed progeny of the Almighty’s Last Messenger to mankind. She was the perfect daughter, the perfect wife for the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS) and the perfect mother for sons Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS), and daughters Hazrat Zainab (SA) and Hazrat Omm Kolsoum (SA). There are several ayahs in the holy Qur’an referring to the unsurpassed merits of the Pride of the Virgin Mary, including the Verse of Purity, and the Verse of Mobahela, on whose revelation, she accompanied her father, husband and two small sons to the historical debate with the Christians of Najran that made the truth of Islam triumph. Her birth anniversary is marked as Mother’s Day and the start of the Women’s Week in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the years Muslims in several other countries have begun to hold such gatherings in order to more clearly tread the path of Fatema (SA), the daughter at whose threshold the Prophet used to salute and stand to his feet whenever she entered his presence, so as to give a practical demonstration of the rights and dignity of women in Islam.

1064 solar years ago, on this day in 953 AD, Ismail al-Mansur Billah, the third Caliph of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’a Muslim dynasty of Ifriqiya, or what is known today as Tunisia, and parts of Algeria and Morocco, died at the age of 40 after a 7-year reign. Born in Raqqada near Kairouan he had succeeded his father Abu’l-Qasim al-Qa’im at a time when the Fatemid realm found itself deep in crisis due to the revolt of Kharejites or renegades from Islam – the predecessors of modern day Takfiri terrorists. Ismail managed to put down the revolt with the help of the Berber Zirids. Following this victory he took the epithet al-Mansur, and built a new residence at al-Mansuriyyah near Kairouan. He concerned himself with the reorganisation of the Fatemid state until the end of his reign. He resumed the struggle with the Omayyads of Cordoba in Morocco, and reconquered the island of Sicily, from where he made incursions into Italy to spread Islam. Rule in Sicily was reinforced through the installation of the Kalbids as Emirs. Al-Mansur was succeeded by his son al-Mu’izz, who greatly expanded the realm by conquering Egypt and establishing Cairo as the new Fatemid capital.

738 solar years ago, on this day in 1279 AD, a Mongolian victory at the Battle of Yamen ended the Song Dynasty in China, and established the Yuan Dynasty that lasted till 1368. Its greatest ruler was Kublai Khan, a grandson of the fearsome Mongol marauder Chengiz Khan.

611 solar years ago, on this day in 1406 AD, the Muslim historian and historiographer, Abdur-Rahman ibn Mohammad Ibn Khaldun, passed away in Cairo at the age of 74. Born in Tunis into an affluent Spanish Arab family that had settled in North Africa because of Christian onslaughts, he is regarded as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology, and economics. He travelled widely around Egypt, North Africa and Spain, where the Muslim ruler of the emirate of Granada sent him on a mission to the Christian King of Castile, Pedro the Cruel. He returned to Egypt, whose Mamluk sultan sent him to negotiate with the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur, during the siege of Damascus. In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldun has mentioned his discussions with Timur, who asked him in detail about North Africa and Spain. Among his many works is a voluminous universal history, but his fame rests on the detailed "Muqaddemah" or Introduction, which is considered a unique work in itself.

368 solar years ago, on this day in 1649 AD, the prominent Hanafi jurist of Syria, Abdul-Ghani al-Nabulsi, was born in Damascus. A prolific writer who wrote several books, he was a member of both the Qaderiyya and Naqshbandi Sufi orders. Once, after visiting the shrine of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) granddaughter, Hazrat Zainab (SA) on the outskirts of Damascus, he expressed doubts on whether this was actually the holy site at which the Heroine of Karbala had been laid to rest. No sooner did he leave the place he fell from his mount and broke his leg. He realized his error and in that very condition of pain he dragged himself towards the blessed tomb in a state of repentance with the following rhymed phrases on his lips:

      “Zainab bint Haider, ma’dan al-‘ilm wa’l-huda,

      ‘Indaha Bab Hitta, fa adkhulu al-baab sujjada.

      “(Zainab the daughter of Haider, the Mine of Knowledge and Guidance,

       Her threshold is Door of Repentance, so enter it [head bowed] in prostration.)”

At that very moment Shaikh Abdul-Ghani Nabulsi felt his broken leg miraculously cured and he stood up relieved of pain as if nothing had happened to him. Among his books is “Shifa as-Sadr fî Fadha'il Laylat-an-Nisf min Sha'ban wa Laylat-al-Qadr” (Curing the heart on the Virtues of the Night of 15^th Sha'ban and the Night of Qadr). He passed away at the ripe age of 90 and was buried in Damascus. 

278 solar years ago, on this day in 1739 AD, the defeated, captured, and subsequently released Moghal Emperor, Mohammad Shah, entered Delhi, followed the next day by the victor of the Battle of Karnal, Iran’s Nader Shah Afshar. A few days later an insurrection broke out in the city and led to the killing of several Iranian soldiers by miscreants, prompting Nader Shah to order a bloody massacre that was stopped when the sagacious Moghal Vizier, Qamar od-Din Khan Nizam ul-Mulk Asef Jah (founder of the Asef Jahi Dynasty of Haiderabad-Deccan) intervened and urged the Iranian monarch to stop the senseless bloodletting. Nader Shah returned to Iran with considerable booty including the famous Peacock Throne, the Koh-e Noor Diamond and the Tent of Pearls.

140 solar years ago, on this day in 1876 AD, British archaeologist, John Hubert Marshall, who was director general of the Indian Archaeological Survey (1902-31), was born in Chester, England. He began excavations  in British India that revealed Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, the two largest cities of the previously unknown Indus Valley Civilization, which he firmly believed was comparable in every way with the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. His aim was to bring to life Indian culture in the past by uncovering all possible details of her cities, tools, ornaments, laws and customs. In the 1920's, Marshall excavated Taxila, Vaisali, Nalanda, Rajagriha and Sarnath; enacted the Ancient Monuments Act (1904), built up a library, re-organised publications and recruited Indians to high positions in the Survey.

134 solar years ago, on this day in 1883 AD, the English chemist, Norman Haworth, was born. He conducted extensive scientific research about hydrocarbons and succeeded in presentation of a new design for the molecular structure of sugar, which was named after him. He conducted major studies on Vitamin C, whose molecular structure is similar to sugar, and prepared its industrial type, naming it Ascorbic Acid. Due to these studies and discoveries, he won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1937. He passed away in the year 1950.

118 lunar years ago, on this day in 1320 AH, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) was born in the city of Khomein, on the auspicious birth anniversary of his blessed ancestress, Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA). From childhood he was immersed in the study of Islamic sciences, and at the same time was aware and conscious of the political developments around in those days of Iran’s subservience to the British and the Russians. When he entered manhood, and was already a scholar of repute in hadith, philosophy and other subjects, he saw the British replace the Qajarid dynasty with an illiterate soldier named Reza Khan, who assumed the surname Pahlavi and unleashed oppression on the people and the ulema through his anti-Islamic policies. Reza Khan forcibly unveiled Iranian women, and banned men from wearing the traditional Iranian dress by imposing upon them European style of clothing. In 1941, Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini saw the British replace Reza Khan with his son, Mohammad Reza on the Peacock Throne, and this new self-styled king was even more submissive to his masters. In the early 1950s, the oil nationalization movement took shape and the Shah fled but was restored to power in the August 1953 CIA coup by the Americans, his new masters. In 1963, the Imam openly spoke against the anti-Islamic policies of the corrupt Pahlavi regime, for which he was imprisoned and then exiled – initially to Turkey and thereafter to Iraq, where he spent 14 years in holy Najaf, beside the shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), grooming a large number of scholars. His guidelines generated the Islamic Revolution, and in February 1979, after a brief three-month stay in Paris, he returned to Iran to found the Islamic Republic. He thus delivered the country, not just from domestic despotism but foreign hegemony. It was his astute guidance that saved Islamic Iran from the intricate plots of the Great Satan (the US) including the 8-year war imposed by the American stooge Saddam. Imam Khomeini, who led the worldwide Islamic revival, was a prominent Mujtahid and a Gnostic of the highest order, who wrote several books. His concept of “Wilayat-e Faqih” or Governance of the Supreme Jurist in the absence of the Infallible Imam is indeed unique and the keys to the steadfastness and success of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the face of heavy odds. His speeches and messages are gathered in the 21-volume book “Sahifa-e Noor” or the Scripture of Light. He has also left behind a diwan of Persian poetry.

117 solar years ago, on this day in 1900 AD, the French physicist and chemist, Frederic Joliot, was born in Paris. Following the completion of his academic studies, he worked as the assistant of the physicist and discoverer of radium, Marie Curie. He married to Marie Curie’s daughter Irene, and with the assistance of his wife managed to find out the makeup of the new radioactive materials.

83 solar years ago, on this day in 1934 AD, the religious scholar, poet, journalist and political activist of the Constitutional Movement of Iran, Seyyed Ashraf od-Din Hussaini, passed away in Tehran at the age of 62. Born in Qazvin, he grew up in poverty following the early death of his father, but nonetheless went to the holy cities of Karbala for religious studies. On his return to Iran, he continued his religious studies in Tabriz. He then went to Rasht in Gilan Province, where his interaction with activists of the Constitutional Movement resulted in his publishing of the newspaper “Nasim-e Shomal”, through which his satirical poems on Iran’s political and social situation made the paper highly popular for its defence of the people’s rights. Following the fall of Tehran to the Constitutionalists in 1911, he brought out “Nasim-e Shomal” from the capital as a widely circulated paper. The paper was subjected to bouts of closure by the regime, since Seyyed Ashraf od-Din’s sharp pen used to target the enemies of Islam and the traitors serving the interests of colonialists. On the desecration and demolition of the sacred cemetery of Baqie in holy Medina, he sharply attacked the Wahhabi heretics through his paper and poems, and campaigned for rebuilding of the destroyed shines of Imam Hasan Mojtaba, Imam Zain al-Abedin, Imam Mohammad Baqer, and Imam Ja’far Sadeq (peace upon them) in the Baqie Cemetery.   

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, Palestinian Christian activist, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, who in a revolutionary style execution shot dead US presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, in Los Angeles, was born in Bayt al-Moqaddas. A staunch opponent of the illegal Zionist entity, he had decided to shoot Kennedy for pledging to send 50 advanced bombers to the illegal entity called Israel, in order to further terrorize and kill Palestinians, on becoming president. Sirhan had moved to the US after a life in refugee camps on usurpation of his homeland by illegal Zionist migrants from Europe. He is serving a life sentence in the US, and his supporters defend his killing of Kennedy as a justified act in support of his occupied homeland.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) declared the annual Nowrouz as a period of mourning in protest to the anti-Islamic and anti-national policies of the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime. This timely and farsighted move made people throughout Iran observe mourning and shun the Nowrouz frivolities of the Shah, thereby exposing him as an anti-national stooge of the Americans. On the second day of the New Year, March 22, the regime’s military forces attacked religious seminaries in holy Qom, martyring and injuring several students.

33 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, the prominent Iranian poet, Mohammad Ali Riyazi, passed away at the age of 72. He was a devotee of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). His excellent poems on the merits of the Infallible Imams adorn mosques, husseiniyahs, and tombs of the Prophet’s descendants, including the holy shrine of Hazrat Fatema al-Ma’souma (peace upon  her) in Qom.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, the last member of the generation of modern physics founders, Louis de Broglie, died at the age of 95. He catapulted to fame with presentation of the theory about the particle-wave nature of light. With the presentation of this theory, major accomplishments were made in the science of physics. He managed to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in the year 1929.

AS/MG