Today is Thursday; 17th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 8thof the Islamic month of Rajab 1438 lunar hijri; and April 6, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

767 solar years ago, on this day in 1250 AD, the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt defeated the Seventh Crusade launched on Muslim lands by European powers, and captured King Louis IX of France in the Battle of Fareskur. The Christian invaders suffered a resounding defeat as some thirty thousand French and other European soldiers fell on the battlefield while thousands of others were taken prisoners, along with King Louis IX who was captured in the nearby village of Moniat Abdullah (now Meniat an-Nasr), while trying to escape. He was chained and confined in the house of Ibrahim IbnLoqman, under the care of the eunuch, Sobih, while the king's brothers, Charles d'Anjou and Alphonse de Poitiers, were made prisoners at the same time, and carried to the same house with other French nobles. A camp was set up outside the town to shelter the rest of the prisoners. Louis IX was ransomed for 400,000 dinars. After pledging not to return to Egypt, he surrendered Damietta and left with his brothers and 12,000 war prisoners whom the Egyptian Muslims agreed to release. The Battle became a source of inspiration for Muslim writers and poets. One poem ended with the following verses:

"If they (the Franks) decide to return to take revenge or to commit a wicked deed, tell them:

The house of IbnLoqman is intact, the chains still there as well as the eunuch Sobih".

697 solar years ago, on this day in 1320 AD, Scotland declared its independence in the Declaration of Arbroath. In a letter to the Pope they said: “As long as only one hundred of us remain alive we will never on any conditions be brought under English rule.”

564 solar years ago, on this day in 1453 AD the Ottoman Sultan Mohammad II began his siege of Constantinople, the capital of Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) which fell on May 29 to the Muslims and was renamed Islambol. It is known as Istanbul today and is Turkey's largest city.

497 solar years ago, on this day in 1520 AD, Italian painter, Raphael Sanzio, who painted the “The Sistine Madonna” in the Vatican, died on his 37^th birthday. His works include "The Veiled Lady" and a set of cartoons that were woven into 10 tapestries as "Acts of the Apostles".

437 solar years ago, on this day in 1580 AD, Portugal was annexed by its Iberian rival Spain, mainly because of Portuguese colonial gains in South America and sub-Saharan Africa. Most of Portugal’s colonies were seized by Spain and its subsidiary, Holland. In 1640, the Portuguese people staged an uprising to drive out the Spanish and regain independence. It is worth noting that for several centuries both Spain and Portugal formed part of the Islamic world, until their seizure by European Christians, who converted mosques into churches, and forced almost entire populations to become Christians, leave the country, or be killed.

405 lunar years ago, on this day in 1033 AH, the renowned theologian and hadith scholar, Shaikh Abu Ja’far Mohammad ibn al-Hassan ibn Ali ibn al-Hussain al-Ameli al-Mashghari, popularly known as al-Horr al-Ameli, was born in the village of Mashghara in the JabalAmel region of southern Lebanon. His early education began with a family of teachers that included his father, his paternal uncle, his maternal grandfather ShaikhAbdus-Salaam ibn Mohammad, and one of his father's maternal uncles, Shaikh Ali ibn Mahmoud. He also studied under Hussain ibn Hassan ibnYunus Zaher and Hassan ibnZain od-Din Ameli, who was the great-grandson of the Second Martyr. Husain Zaher was the first to give him the ijaza or permission to teach and transmit hadith. He remained for the first forty years of his life in his homeland, performing the Hajj to Mecca twice and pilgrimage to the holy shrines in Iraq. He eventually journeyed to Mashhad, Iran, and settled there for the rest of his life as Shaikh al-Islam at the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Before arriving in Mashhad he stayed for a while in the Safavid capital, Isfahan, where he became acquainted with the famous Allamah Mohammad BaqerMajlisi. The meeting between these two scholars left an impression on both of them and Majlisi introduced Horr al-Amili to the Safavid Emperor, Shah Sulaiman. He passed away in Mashhad at the age of 81 and was laid to rest in one of the portals of the holy shrine, where his grave is still the site of pilgrimage. He wrote numerous books including “Wasa'el ash-Shia”, which is a vast but concise compilation and classification of Hadith that took him 18 years to complete. Among his other famous works is “al-Jawaher as-saniyafi'l-Ahadith al-Qudsiya”, and “Amal al-Amel fi UlamaJabal al-Amel”, which is a biographical dictionary of Shi'ite Muslim scholars who originated from the JabalAmel region.

305 solar years ago, on this day in 1712 AD, the New York Slave Revolt began near Broadway, when black people from Africa forced into slavery in North America, rose against the oppression by the whites. The Anglo-Saxons brutally crushed the uprising captured, jailed and tortured some hundred black persons and executed 21 of them after a kangaroo trial.

247 lunar years ago, on this day in 1191 AH, the prominent Islamic scholar, Seyyed Hussain son of Seyyed Ja’far Khwansari, passed away. He groomed numerous students; some of whom became the leading ulema of their day, such as Allamah Bahr al-Oloum. He has left behind numerous books including commentaries on the Ziyarat-e Ashura of Imam Husain (AS) and the famous supplication of the month of Ramadhan, known as Dua Abu HamzaThumali that was taught by Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) to his disciple of the same name.

131 solar years ago, on this day in 1886 AD, Osman Ali Khan, Asef Jah VII, the Last Muslim ruler of the Deccan in southern India was born in Hyderabad. He became king in 1911 and transformed the realm into a centre of learning. He ruled for 37 years, until his surrender to the Indian forces in September 1948 following a three-pronged attack to end the last independent Muslim state in India. A patron of learning, beside building libraries, hospitals, universities, and religious centres, he was an accomplished poet in Persian, Urdu, and Turkish. He died in 1967.

121 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, in Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games was celebrated, 1,503 years after the ancient pagan Greek games were banned in 393 AD, by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. Earlier in 380, Theodosius I, along with co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, had issued the infamous Edict of Thessalonica, forcing all Roman citizens to convert to the Trinitarian form of Christianity, or else be branded as heretics, subject to punishment. This weird concept of ‘godfather’, ‘godson’ and the ‘holy ghost’ – an invention of Paul the Hellenized Jew who was a staunch opponent of Prophet Jesus (AS) during his mission on earth and after him feigned to be his follower – was designed to suit the polytheist beliefs of European pagans, in opposition to the monotheist message of the Virgin-born Messiah.

110 lunar years ago, on this day in 1328 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Abdullah Behbahani, who was a leading religious figure of the Constitutional Movement, was martyred by terrorists at the age of 68. Born in holy Najaf, in Iraq, to Seyyed Ismail Mojtahed Behbahani, he completed his education there under such senior ulema as Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari, and Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi – famous for fatwa against tobacco consumption. At the age of 35, after attaining the status of ijtehad, he came to Iran and involved himself in the struggle against the despotic rule of the Qajarid Dynasty, along with Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq Tabatabai. He played a pivotal role in the victory of the Constitutional Revolution, making utmost efforts to this end, which led to his martyrdom.

100 solar years ago, on this day in 1917 AD, the US Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany and entered World War I on the Allied side.

87 solar years ago, on this day in 1930 AD, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leader of India's independent struggle, raised a lump of mud and salt in Gujarat, in protest to the British ban on Indians producing salt, and declared, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." He said he adopted his non-violent struggle by studying the life of Imam Husain (AS), the Martyr of Karbala and the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD during World War 2, the attack of Japanese suicide pilots, known as Kamikazes, began on US warships, following Japan’s retreat from southeast Asia. Although the Japanese warplanes inflicted heavy damages on American warships, the US forced Japan into surrendering by criminally dropping atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, resulting in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, Sudanese president, Ja’far Numayri, was overthrown after a 16-year rule by General Abdur-Rahman Swar-adh-Dhahab. Numayri, who himself had seized power through military coup in 1969, moved towards implementation of Islamic law in the 1970s after initially pursuing socialist and Pan-Arabist policies.

23 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, the Rwandan Genocide began when an aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down. The gory battle between the two major tribes of Hutu and Tutsi led to the massacre of more than 800,000 people in three months, while more than two million people became homeless. The dispute was fanned by West European colonial powers.

17 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, Tunisian politician Habib Bourqiba, who in 1957 a year after the country’s independence from France overthrew the Hussainid monarchy to become president, and ruled with an iron fist for the next three decades, died under house arrest, 13 years after his overthrow by his own protégé, Zain al-Abedin bin Ali. Though born in a Muslim family he was anti-Islamic.

12 solar years ago, on this day in 2005 AD, in India police beat up hundreds of people protesting against the razing of their homes by the government in the country's financial hub, Bombay. Authorities flattened an estimated 90,000 shanties in the city early in January. The slum clearance drive has left more than 300,000 people homeless.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, noted Pakistani scholar of Urdu, Persian, Sindhi and Arabic, Nabi Baksh Khan Baloch, passed away at the age of 94. He wrote many books on Sindh's History and 42 volumes on Sindhi Folklore. In addition, he compiled Sindhi dictionary in five volumes. He wrote books prolifically in Sindhi, Urdu, English and Persian. These include the editing of the ancient text of “Chach-Namah” and its translation into English, “Baqiyaataz Kalhora” in Persian, “Beglar-Namah” of the Persian poet Idraaki Beglari, and “Takmilat-ut-Takmilah”, which is an addendum to the Persian books of Qania's “Maqalat -ush-Shu’ara” and Mohammad Ibrahim Khalil’s “Takmila”.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, thousands of protesters in the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain demanded release of ailing jailed human rights activist, Abdul-Hadi al-Khwajah, but the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, using force dispersed the peaceful rally and imprisoned the activist’s daughter, Zainab.

AS/ME