Today is Wednesday; 2nd of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 23rd of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1438 lunar hijri; and March 22, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1231 lunar years ago, on this day in 207 AH, Taher ibn Hussain, the Iranian general of the Abbasid regime, also known as “Dhu'l-Yaminayn”
 (The Ambidextrous), and “al-A’waar” (The One-Eyed"), was poisoned to death on the orders of the self-styled Abbasid caliph, Mamoun, shortly after he had omitted the caliph’s name from the Friday Prayer sermons and declared the independence of Greater Khorasan – covering what is now western Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kirghizstan, parts of Turkmenistan, and most of Uzbekistan. Born in Pushang, a village near Herat, he rose into prominence during the rule of Haroun and after him served the cause of Mamoun for the caliphate against the rule of Amin in Baghdad. In the decisive Battle of Rayy he scored a surprise victory over the formidable army of Ali ibn Isa ibn Mahan, and after killing him, led the armies into Iraq to defeat and kill Amin and proclaim Mamoun as the sole caliph. He is considered the founder of the short-lived Taherid dynasty of Khorasan that was overthrown by the Saffarids, who were also Iranians.

762 lunar years ago, on this day in 676 AH, the great Islamic scholar and researcher, Shaikh Abu'l-Qasim Ja'far bin Hasan al-Hilli, who has earned lasting fame as Muhaqqiq Hilli, passed away. He was maternal uncle of the immortal scholar Allamah Hilli as well as his tutor. He wrote several books on Fiqh. The most important among them are: “ash-Shara'e”, “Ma'arij, Mu'tabar”, “al-Mukhtasar an-Naf'e” etc. Muhaqqiq Hilli was a student of the students of great scholars such as Ibn Idris Hilli. He is acknowledged as the greatest amongst the Fuqaha, and whenever the term "Muhaqqiq" (Reserarcher) is used, it refers to him alone. The great philosopher and mathematician, Khwajah Naseer od­Din Tousi speaks highly of Muhaqqiq whom he met in Hilla, and attended his classes of Fiqh. Muhaqqiq Hilli's book "ash-Shara’e" is still a part of curriculum in most Islamic seminaries today in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain, India, and Pakistan.

623 solar years ago, on this day in 1394 AD, Mohammad Ulugh Beg, the Timurid ruler of Transoxiana, and an accomplished astronomer and mathematician, was born in Soltaniyeh in northwestern Iran. Grandson of the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur, he was deputy and eventually successor of his father, Shahrukh Mirza, in Central Asia and later parts of Khorasan and Afghanistan. His mother was the virtuous lady, Gowharshad, who built the grand mosque in Mashhad at the shrine of Imam Reza (AS) – the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – which still bears her name. Ulugh Beg patronized art, literature and science. In 1428 he built the famous observatory at his capital Samarqand in cooperation with the famous Iranian astronomer, Ghiyas od-Din Jamshid. In his observations he discovered a number of errors in the computations of the 2^nd century Greco-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy, whose figures were still being used. His map of 994 stars was the first one since Hipparchus. The crater “Ulugh Beg” on the Moon was named after him by the German astronomer, Johann Heinrich von Madler, on his 1830 map of the Moon. He also measured the solar year, starting with the Spring Equinox or Nowrouz at 365 days 5 hours, 49 minutes and 15 seconds, making it more accurate than what Copernicus would later estimate. He also determined the Earth's axial tilt as 23.52 degrees, which remains the most accurate measurement to date – more accurate than later measurements by Copernicus and Tycho Brahe, and precisely matching the currently accepted figure. In mathematics, Ulugh Beg wrote accurate trigonometric tables of sine and tangent values correct to at least eight decimal places. His works were written in Arabic and Persian and translated into Latin in 1665.

305 solar years ago, on this day in 1712 AD, Edward Moore, English poet and playwright was born. He was the author of “The Trial of Selim the Persian”, a lengthy drama in verse, as well as the domestic tragedy of “The Gamester”, on which his fame rests.

304 solar years ago, on this day in 1713 AD, the Tuscarora War came to an end with the fall of Fort Neoheroka, effectively opening up the interior of North Carolina to European occupation. On March 1, the British, Dutch, and Germans had started the siege of Fort Neoheroka in North Carolina against the local Amerindians, and its fall 17 days later resulted in the slaughter of almost a thousand Amerindians of the Tuscarora nation and the imprisonment of hundreds of women and children, who were sold into slavery in the Caribbean so they could not return to their homeland. The year before, the white men had killed over three hundred Tuscarora people and sold into slavery over a hundred women and children. The 4-year Tuscarora War (1711-to-1715) which led to the slaughter of thousands of Amerindians was the bloodiest conflict in North America. When the first Europeans arrived in North Carolina in the 1650s, the Tuscarora had lived in peace with them, at a time when nearly every other colony in America was actively involved in some form of conflict with Native Americans. However, the white settlers increasingly encroached on Tuscarora land, raided villages to take slaves, and introduced epidemic diseases. After their defeat, most of the Tuscarora migrated north towards what later became New York where they were joined by their Iroquoian cousins, before their ultimate annihilation by the Europeans. The US has a bleak and bloody record of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

278 solar years ago, on this day in 1739 AD, the untoward incident of the killing of some residents of Delhi occurred when a group of Indians, spreading rumours of Nader Shah Afshar's death, attacked and killed several Iranian soldiers. Weeks earlier after defeating the Moghul army at the Battle of Karnaal, Nader Shah had entered Delhi in dignity, along with Mohammad Shah. He soon returned to Iran after restoring the inefficient Mohammad Shah to power, when the able Mughal prime minister, Nizam ul-Mulk Asef Jah (Founder of the Haiderabad-Deccan State), politely turned down the offer to be Emperor of India. Nader Shah took with him the famous Koh-e Noor diamond, the Peacock Throne and the Tent of Pearls.

252 solar years ago, on this day in 1765 AD, Britain enacted the Stamp Act to raise money from the New England American Colonies. This was the first direct British tax on the colonists. The Act led to intense resentment among the colonists and had to be repealed the following year. It covered just about everything produced by the colonists and began the decade of crisis that led to the uprising of the New England colonists and birth of the United States of America (USA).

185 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, the famous German poet, writer, and scientist, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, passed away at the age of 82 in Weimar. Born in Frankfurt, he studied law, music, painting, and different languages, as well as botany and geology. He coined the term morphology to describe the systematic study of the structure of living things. His deep interest in Persian and Arabic literature, especially the poems of the renowned Iranian poet, Hafez, made him study Islam and the holy Qur'an. He noted: “The miracle of Islam par excellence is the Qur’an, through which a constant and unbroken tradition transmits to us news of an absolute certainty. This is a book which cannot be imitated. Each of its expressions is a comprehensive one.” Goethe’s most famous books include the “West-Eastern Divan” (inspired by the lyrics of Hafez), “Faust”, and “Iphigenie”.

136 solar years ago, on this day in 1881 AD, the international football union was established to supervise matches between world countries. Known currently as FIFA, it drafted football laws. The first official international football match was between England and Germany in 1901.

101 solar years ago, on this day in 1916 AD, the last Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicated the throne, thus ending some three centuries of rule by the Qing dynasty. China, which was the centre of science and civilization when Europe was in the dark ages, thus became a republic.

98 lunar years ago, on this day in 1340 AH, the Islamic scholar, Ayatollah Mullah Habibollah Sharif Kashani, passed away at the age of 78. He reached the status of Ijtehad at the young age of 18. In addition to focusing on scientific and ethical issues, he also participated in political affairs. He has left behind a large number of compilations, including “Asrar al-Aarefin”.

74 solar years ago, on this day in 1943 AD, World War II: the entire population of Khatyn in Belarus was burnt alive by German occupation forces. Some 5,295 settlements were destroyed by the Nazis, often with all their inhabitants, during their 3-year occupation that killed 2 million people in Belarus.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, the Arab League was formed upon the proposal of the Egyptian king, Farouq, and its endorsement by Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. The goal behind the Arab League was to maintain the territorial integrity and independence of member states and to establish close political, economic, and cultural relations between the members. The Arab League today has become an impotent body, serving the interests of the US by creating disunity and seditions among Arab states.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, the British withdrew from Jordan, which they had created in 1921 by dividing up Syria and placing Abdullah, the son of their Meccan agent, Sharif Hussain, as king, in return for his treacherous role in World War I against the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Jordan, which is a US client state and subservient to the illegal Zionist entity, Israel, covers an area of more than 90,000 sq km. It shares borders with Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Occupied Palestine. Over 75 percent of its people are Palestinians.

61 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Belgian-American chemist and historian, George Sarton, who is considered the founder of the discipline of history of science, died at the age of 72. His most influential work is “Introduction to the History of Science”, in three volumes. His goal was to achieve an integrated philosophy of science that provided a connection between the sciences and the humanities, which he referred to as "the new humanism"

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, the Pahlavi regime desecrated the sanctity of the Faiziyyeh Islamic Seminary in the holy city of Qom, since it was one of the important bases of the Iranian people's Islamic movement. In this barbaric attack, a large number of ulema and students were battered, beaten, and thrown down from rooftops. Several of them attained martyrdom. This incident was a prelude to the historic uprising of June 5, 1963, and finally the victory of the Islamic Revolution in February 1979.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, the heroic "Fath ol-Mobin" operations were launched by the Iranian Muslim combatants to drive out Saddam's invading army. These operations led to liberation of parts of southwestern Iran from Ba'thist occupation, and ended the military threats against the Iranian cities of Dezful, Andimeshk, Shoush, and hundreds of villages. Over 25,000 invading Ba'thist troops were killed and wounded and 15,000 others taken captive, while a large number of enemy equipment was destroyed or seized.

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, less than a week after his brutal chemical bombardment of Halabche in Iraqi Kurdistan, Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, sent jets to bombard the Kurdish town of Sewsenan, with a variety of chemical weapons.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, communism ended in Albania, as the Democratic Party of Albania won a decisive majority in the parliamentary election.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2004 AD, religious scholar and leader of the Palestine Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yasin, was assassinated by the illegal Zionist entity. After performing the early morning prayers at a mosque in Gaza Strip, he was targeted by helicopter gunships and attained martyrdom in the company of ten other Palestinians. Born in 1938, he started his struggles against the Zionist entity while at high school and was detained on several occasions. In 1987, he founded the Hamas Movement, and two years later he was detained and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1997, however, he was swapped with two Zionist spies during the exchange of captives. He suffered from blindness and physical disability. The martyrdom of Sheikh Yasin once again manifested the barbaric state terrorism of the Zionist entity.

AS/MG