Today is Tuesday; 15th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 6th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1438 lunar hijri; and April 4, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1829 solar years ago, on this day in 188 AD, the treacherous and bloodthirsty Roman Emperor, Caracalla, was born in what is now Lyon in France. Of mixed Punic and Syrian descent, he was named Lucius Septimius Bassianus on his birth to Emperor Septimius Severus – a ruthless pagan, who after his bloodied seizure of the Roman throne, persecuted monotheists, especially the followers of Prophet Jesus (PuH), and waged war against Iran’s Parthian Empire in Iraq. Of mean character, on the death of his father in what is now York in Britain, Caracalla was proclaimed joint emperor with his brother, Publius Septimius Antoninus Geta, whom he soon treacherously murdered in front of his mother. The historian Edward Gibbon in his book “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, calls Caracalla "the common enemy of mankind". Caracalla was assassinated after a 6-year reign by his guards while urinating at a roadside in Edessa in northern Mesopotamia (presently in Turkey), a year after he tricked the Iranians into believing that he was sincere in his peace and marriage proposal to the daughter of Parthian Emperor, Artabanus V (Ardavan in Persian), but then had the bride and guests massacred at the wedding celebrations at the royal palace in Arabela or present day Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. A contemporary account of Caracalla’s massacre of the Iranians says that a huge gathering had stood about casually, eager to see the bridegroom and expecting nothing out of the ordinary. Then the signal was given by the Roman emperor to his army to attack and massacre all. Totally astounded at this onslaught the people fled – wounded and bleeding. Artabanus managed to escape with a few companions, while the rest of the Parthians, lacking their indispensable horses, were cut down – for they had sent the horses out to graze. The Roman army then carried out a campaign of massacres in northern Mesopotamia and around Media, where Caracalla dug open the royal tombs of the Parthians, and scattered their bones. The Iranians, however, soon regrouped and fought the Romans to a bloody standstill at the Battle of Nisibis (in today’s southeastern Turkey), making them pay war reparations of 200 million sestertii.

1049 solar years ago, on this day in 968 AD, the famous Arabic poet, statesman, and warrior, Harres bin Sa’eed, known as Abu Firas al-Hamdani, was killed in a battle in Sadad, 60 km south of Homs in Syria at the age of 36. He was a cousin and brother-in-law of the Hamdanid ruler of Aleppo and northern Syria, Sayf od-Dowlah, and was one of commanders in the campaigns against the Byzantine Empire. Like the rest of the Hamdanids, he was a devotee of the Ahl al-Bayt, and wrote his odes describing the injustices committed by the caliphs against the progeny of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). The reputation of Abu Firas owes much to his personal qualities. Handsome in person, of noble family, brave, generous, and extolled by his contemporaries as “excelling in every virtue”, he lived up to the Islamic Arab ideal of chivalry which he expressed in his poetry. His poems are popular till this day, especially the “ar-Roumiyaat”, written during his 4-year captivity by the Byzantines or eastern Romans before he was freed through ransom. His diwan was edited with a commentary (largely from the poet himself) shortly after his death by his tutor, the famous Iranian grammarian of Arabic language, Ibn Khalawaiyh, who lived in Syria at the Hamdanid court.

955 lunar years ago, on this day in 483 AH, the strategically located castle of Alamut near Qazvin in Iran was taken over without bloodshed (perhaps bought) by the Ismaili Nizari missionary, Hassan Sabbah, two years after he had identified it and infiltrated it through the growing number of converts to his creed. The almost inaccessible fort stood guard over a valley that was about fifty kilometers long and five kilometers wide. For the next 35 years until his death in 518 AH, the fort served as headquarters for spread of Ismaili teachings in the Seljuqid Empire from Iran till Syria by Hassan Sabbah, who was born in Qom and after coming under the influence of missionaries of the Fatemid caliphate of Egypt – sent by Caliph al-Mustansir’s Chief Missionary [Bab al-Abwab], the Iranian Hibatullah Mu'ayyad fi'd-Din Shirazi – had travelled to Cairo, where he stayed for three years to become a full-fledged missionary. Hassan Sabbah had to return to Iran after being imprisoned and expelled for supporting Nizar, the elder son of Mustansir, as the next Imam rather than Ahmad Musta’l the younger son – resulting in the split of the Ismaili creed into Nizari and Musta’li sects. Several years later, following Nizar’s death in prison, his son Hadi came to Alamut and was recognized by Hassan Sabbah as the 20^th Ismaili Imam (dynastic rule that ended in 654 AH when the fortress fell to the Mongol invader Hulagu Khan). In a major departure from tradition, Hassan Sabbah declared Persian to be the language of holy literature for Nizaris, a decision that resulted in all the Nizari Ismaili literature from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Central Asia to be transcribed in Persian for several centuries. From this point on, his community and its branches spread throughout Iran and Syria and came to be called Hashshashin or Assassins. The present self-styled Imam of the Nizaris (known as Khojas), is the Europe-based Karim Agha Khan.

922 lunar years ago, on this day in 516 AH, the famous Arabic literary figure, Mohammad al-Qasim ibn Ali al-Hariri, passed away. Born in Basra in Iraq, which was then part of the Iran-based Seljuqid Empire, he is best known for writing “Maqamat al-Hariri” (Assemblies of al-Hariri), consisting of 50 anecdotes written in stylized prose, which was once memorized by heart by scholars. He wrote this masterpiece of Arabic literature for Amid od-Dowla, who although a Shi’a Muslim, served for a time as Abbasid vizier and was son-in-law of the celebrated Iranian statesman and Seljuqid prime minister, Khwaja Nezam ol-Molk Tousi.

733 solar years ago, on this day in 1284 AD, Alfonso X of Castile died at the age of 63. Born in the occupied Islamic city of Toledo in Spain, he had succeeded his father, Ferdinand III, to the throne in 1252. During his 32-year rule, although he was successful against Portugal and managed to occupy the Muslim regions of Murcia and Cadiz, he suffered shattering defeats at the hands of Spanish Muslims when he tried to invade the Nasrid emirate of Granada. Twice his armies were defeated, especially 1275 in the Battle of Ecija, in which he lost his sons in battle. The important work undertaken by him was the study and translation of Arabic scientific books into the Castilian and Latin languages, in order to acquire knowledge from Muslims and break out from the dark ages into which the Christian Church had plunged Europe.

656 lunar years ago, on this day in 782 AH, al-Ashraf Sayf od-Din Qaytbay assumed power in Cairo as the eighteenth Borji Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria. A Circassian by birth from the Caucasus, he was purchased by the 9th Borji ruler Sultan Barsbay (also a freed Circassian slave), before being manumitted by the 11^th ruler, Sultan Jaqmaq, who appointed him executive secretary. Under the Sultans, Inal, Khushqadam, and Yilbay, he was promoted through the Mamluk military hierarchy, eventually becoming commander of a thousand troops. Under Sultan Timurbugha, he was appointed “Atabak”, or field marshal of the entire army. When Timurbugha was dethroned in a palace coup, the Mamluk council chose Qaitbay as Sultan. During his 29-year rule, he stabilized the Mamluk state and economy, consolidated the northern boundaries of the Sultanate on the Syrian-Anatolian border with the rising Ottoman Empire, engaged in trade with other contemporaneous polities, and emerged as a great patron of art and architecture. In fact, although he fought sixteen military campaigns, he is best remembered for his charity and the spectacular building projects that he sponsored in the holy cities of Mecca, Medina, and Bayt al-Moqaddas, as well as Damascus, Aleppo, Alexandria, and throughout Cairo. During his Hajj pilgrimage, appalled by the pecuniary condition of the people of the two holy cities, Qaytbay initiated public welfare schemes, in addition to carrying out extensive renovation projects, including the rebuilding of Holy Shrine and Mosque of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). 

The position of Mamluk in Islam should not be confused with the oppressed state of slaves and bonded labour in the Christian West or other non-Muslim cultures. According to the dynamic laws of Islam, as was evident in the different lands the Muslims ruled and the societies they formed, purchases of human beings were made for emancipating them from oppression, and providing them education and training in various vocations. The Mamluk were viewed as adopted children, even eligible for marriage with the offspring of the person who purchased them, and this explains for their rise as governors and even kings.

400 solar years ago, on this day in 1617 AD, Scottish mathematician and occultist writer, John Napier, who originated the concept of logarithms as a mathematical device to aid in calculations, died at the age of 67.

112 solar years ago, on this day in 1905 AD, a 7.8 degree earthquake devastated the Kangra Valley in what is now Himachal Pradesh States in northern India, killing 20,000 people and destroying some 100,000 buildings in Kangra, McLeod-Ganj and Dharamshala. Some 53,000 domestic animals were lost. There was major damage to the network of hillside aqueducts that fed water to the affected area.

98 solar years ago, on this day in 1919 AD, the Portuguese boy, Francisco Marto, who along with two other rural children had claimed to have seen the apparition of a ‘Radiantly Virtuous Veiled Lady’ with a rosary in her hand outside the village of Fatima in Portugal, reportedly died at the age of 11. The apparition is known as "Our Lady of Fatima" and "Our Lady of the Rosary". Francisco, his sister Jacinta and cousin, Lucia Santos, spoke of seeing a lady "more radiant than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal ball filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the rays of the sun." The three were jailed by the local Christian authorities of the Catholic sect and threatened with painful death. They were reportedly released, although it cannot be confirmed whether or not they were the same children. Within a year of Francisco’s death, his sister Jacinta also died, while Lucia Santos was confined to convents as a nun until she died in 2005 at the age of 97. The Vatican acted as her spokesman by releasing what it called the "Three Secrets of Fatima", though scholars suspect deliberate distortion of the whole event, and what was actually predicted or told to the children. First and foremost, nowhere in Christian texts has the Virgin Mary been ever called Fatima, or was associated with the rosary. As researchers point out, the name of the town in Portugal, "Fatima" is Arabic, and it was founded by the Muslim rulers of the Iberian Peninsula. The name "Fatema" is popular and venerated among Muslims because of it being the name of the daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), who is also called "az-Zahra" (the Most Radiant). Another interesting fact that scholars note is the association of the Prophet's daughter with the rosary or prayer beads, which she first made out of clay, and which subsequently became famous as "Tasbih Fatema" when her father taught her the glorification of the Lord Most High on the prayer beads. Hence Hazrat Fatema (peace upon her) is known as the “Lady of the Rosary”. The most important factor to note is that in 1571 AD, Pope Pius V held a feast of what he called "Our Lady of Victory" in honour of the Virgin Mary, after the Christians had managed to hold back Turkish Muslim armies from overrunning Western Europe; but in the subsequent years, following fresh Turkish victories, Pope Gregory XIII changed the name of the feast to "Our Lady of Rosary" since victory was not possible against the Turks. It is not known what prompted the Pope to associate the word Rosary with Mary, or whether it was part of the Catholic propaganda to counter the trend among the growing number of Muslims in southeastern Europe to recite the Rosary of Hazrat Fatema (peace upon her). Thus, the most likely answer for the apparition that the three children saw was of the Prophet's daughter – perhaps prophesying the conversion of Europe to Islam in the future.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD during World War II, the first bombardment of the Hungarian capital Bucharest by Anglo-American forces left over 3000 civilians dead and destroyed the city’s infrastructure. On the pretext of targeting German forces, the British and the Americans savagely killed unguarded Hungarian men, women and children, is their blatant crime against humanity.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD during World War II, the Soviet Army took control of Hungary from the retreating German Nazi forces, thereby saving the people from a possible general massacre by the Allied US-British forces. In 1947, Hungary, under Moscow’s influence, opted for the communist system of government, which lasted till 1989 when socialism collapsed in Eastern Europe.

68 solar years ago, on this day in 1949 AD, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed by member states of the Treaty of Brussels i.e. Belgium, France, Luxemburg, Holland, and Britain, along with Italy, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada and the US, resulting in the setting up of the military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). A product of the Cold War era to check the spread of communism and Soviet influence in Europe and the West, its charter stipulated that an attack on any member state would be treated as an attack on all, thereby warranting collective military action. Later, after the USSR and its East European Allies –East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia – set up the Warsaw Pact in response to the West’s military threat, West Germany, Greece, Turkey and Spain joined NATO. In 1960, US domineering policies made France briefly pull out its forces from the NATO Command Unit. With the collapse of East Europe’s socialist republics in 1989 and disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved, which meant NATO had no justification to exist. However, in violation of all international norms, NATO has not only expanded to include new members, but has illegally been involved in the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, the bombing of Kosovo and the overthrow of Libya’s Mo'ammar Qadhafi regime.

57 solar years ago, on this day in 1960 AD, France agreed to grant independence to the Mali Federation, formed on this date a year before as a union of Senegal and the French Sudan, which is now the Republic of Mali. The two countries, along with other West African lands were part of the Muslim Empire of Mali, which was gradually encroached upon by invaders from Europe, starting with the Portuguese and ending in 19^th century with the French who looted the natural and human resources of this area. With the weakening of France during World War II, independence was finally granted on June 20, 1960. Shortly afterwards on 20 August 1960, the federation collapsed, when Senegal withdrew. Landlocked Mali and Senegal – which has a large coastline on the Atlantic Ocean – are two separate independent sovereign states in West Africa, and both predominantly Muslim.

49 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, the Afro-American leader of the movement against racial discrimination, Martin Luther King, was assassinated at the age of 39 by a gunman at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, exactly a year after he delivered his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church. He resented by the White supremacists including the government of the US. A certain James Earl Ray was framed up as his assassin and sentenced to 99 years in jail, but soon mysteriously died in prison, thereby closing the case. According to evidence, the notorious US spying agency, CIA, was behind his murder. Active against racial discrimination, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to fulfill the rights of Afro-Americans.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, President and later Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto, was executed by coup leader, General Zia ul-Haq, who ironically had been promoted as chief of staff of the armed forces over senior officers by Bhutto. Zia soon turned against his benefactor and ousted him in a coup in 1977. He accused Bhutto of murder and hanged him after trial in a kangaroo court. Zia was an American agent and inflicted irreparable harm on Pakistan through his pro-Saudi Arabia policies that led to the emergence of Salafi terrorist groups, who have wrecked the harmony and stability of the country. Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto, who was a member of reputed Sindhi family of undivided India, was the founder of Pakistan People’s Party and was elected president in 1971, following the war with India that saw East Pakistan secede as the new country of Bangladesh.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, the acclaimed Iranian author and translator, Ahmad Aram, passed away at the age of 94. He studied medicine and conducted researches in philosophy, history, Qur’anic sciences, and mathematics. Fluent in Persian, French, Arabic, and English, he spent a lifetime, writing, compiling and translating 140 books and 60 scientific articles.

AS/MG