Today is Saturday; 26th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 17th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1438 lunar hijri; and April 15, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1220 lunar years ago, on this day 218 AH, the 7^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, Abdullah al-Mamoun, died near Tarsus in what is now southwestern Turkey, during a campaign against the Byzantine Empire, at the age of 48 years, after a 24-year reign, four of which were involved in civil war with his step brother, Amin, the rival caliph in Baghdad whom he eventually ordered killed. Born to the tyrant Haroun's Iranian concubine Marajel, his capital was initially the Khorasani city of Merv, which is currently in the Republic of Turkmenistan. He earned lasting damnation for forcing Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), to come to Merv from distant Medina, as part of his plot to isolate the Ahl al-Bayt from the ummah. When the Imam's popularity tremendously grew among the people during his two-year sojourn in Khorasan, the crafty Mamoun martyred the Prophet's rightful heir in Tous through a fatal dose of poison.

735 lunar years ago, on this day in 703 AH, the renowned Muslim worldwide traveler, Shams od-Din Mohammad bin Abdullah, popularly known as Ibn Battuta, was born in the northwest African city of Tangiers, which is now in Morocco. As a young man he started his initial journey to perform the Hajj, but after pilgrimage to Mecca, he kept on travelling, visiting over a period of thirty years, most of the Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands in the three continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. His journeys including trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, and to West Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China, cover a total of 75,000 miles (121,000 km), surpassing by threefold the travels of his near-contemporary Marco Polo of Venice. In Iraq, he visited the holy shrine in Najaf of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), and although a Sunni, he has admitted how people from far and near seek intercession with God through the First Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny) and are cured of their ailments. He then travelled all over Iran, and later, after visiting the Byzantine Empire, Europe and Russia, he arrived in India, where he was appointed the Qazi of Delhi by Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq. On his return to his homeland Morocco, again served as Qazi. He dictated to scribes the details of his travels in his book titled "ar-Rehla", and died at the age of 66.

622 solar years ago, on this day in 1395 AD, Amir Timur (Tamerlane) defeated Tokhtamysh, the ruler of the vast Golden Horde Khanate of Eurasia, at the Volga in the Battle of Terek River, during the bloody 16-year struggle between the two, known as the Tokhtamysh–Timur War. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, was razed to the ground and Amir Edigu, installed on the throne. Tokhtamysh escaped to Lithuania, where with help from Duke Vytautas, he made a bid to regain his throne, but the combined forces were defeated in the Battle of the Vorskla River in 1399 by Edigu and Timur’s general, Khan Temur Qutlugh. In the late 1370s, Timur had helped Tokhtamysh to assume supreme power in the White Horde against the latter's uncle Urus Khan. Tokhtamysh united the White and Blue Hordes to form the Golden Horde, and launched a massive military campaign between 1381 and 1382 to re-establish Turko-Tartar Muslim suzerainty over Russia. In 1383, after defeating Lithuania, Tokhtamysh thirsted for territorial ambitions in Iran and Central Asia, by turning against his ally, Timur, who resolved to punish him. After a series of defeats, Tokhtamysh was pursued and killed in Tyumen, Siberia, in 1406.  

565 solar years ago, on this day in 1452 AD, the Italian painter, sculptor, architect and engineer, Leonardo da Vinci, was born. He designed buildings, bridges, canals, forts and war machines. He kept huge notebooks sketching his ideas. Among these, he was fascinated by birds and flying, and his sketches include such fantastic designs as flying machines. These drawings demonstrate a genius for mechanical invention and insight into scientific inquiry. He is regarded as one of the greatest painters of all times, best known for such masterpieces as “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper”. He died in 1519.

548 solar years ago, on this day in 1469 AD, the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak, was born in what is now Nankana Sahib, Punjab, near Lahore in Pakistan. On growing up he became disillusioned by the weird practices of the Hindus such as idol-worship, the divisive caste system, etc. He travelled widely, as far as Baghdad and holy Mecca, and as is clear from his teachings, he became profoundly impressed by the egalitarian teachings of the divine message of Islam. He thus taught that God is One, is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, without shape and form, not bound by time, and cannot be perceived by the physical eye of creatures. According to him the Sikhs should have control over their internal vices and adhere to the virtues clarified in their religious book, the Guru Granth Sahib. He died in 1539 at the age of 70. Among prohibitions in Sikhism are idol-worship and superstition, ban on consumption of all sorts of intoxicants (alcohol, drugs, and even tobacco), abstention from adultery and extra marital relations, and refraining from cutting hair. The Sikh population is estimated to be 30 million worldwide, with the majority of them living in India, especially in Punjab State.  

528 solar years ago, on this day in 1489 AD, the Ottoman master architect, Me’mar Sinan, was born in Cyprus to Greek Christian parents. At the age of 22 he converted to Islam and joined the Sultan’s court in Istanbul, where he became the chief architect and civil engineer for Suleiman the Magnificent, Salim II, and Murad III. He designed and built over three hundred major structures, including mosques, bridges, caravanserais, etc, in Istanbul, Damascus, Aleppo and other cities. His masterpieces include, the beautiful Suleimaniyyah Mosque Complex in Istanbul. He is often compared to the Italian Sculptor, Michelangelo.

317 lunar years ago, on this day in 1121 AH, the prominent Bahraini scholar, Shaikh Sulaiman ibn Shaikh Abdullah al-Bahrani al-Mahuzi, passed away at the age of 46. He is the author of “al-Me’raj”, which is an explanation to the famous bibliographical work “al-Fehrist” of Shaikh at-Ta’efa Tusi, the Iranian Islamic jurisprudent and founder of the Islamic Seminary of holy Najaf. He also authored the book “al-Balaghah fi’r-Rijal” which is a critical biographical work of transmitters, narrators, and scholars of Hadith.

310 solar years ago, on this day in 1707 AD, Swiss mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, Leonhard Euler, was born. He made discoveries in mechanics and has left behind valuable notes about the changes in planets. He authored several books in chemistry and metaphysics. At the age of 60, he went blind and died in 1783.

261 solar years ago, on this day in 1755 AD, British writer Dr. Samuel Johnson published his “Dictionary of the English Language”, a selective English lexicon, after 9 years of work. The 1^st edition had 42,773 entries.

252 solar years ago, on this day in 1765 AD, Russian poet and literary figure, Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, died at the age of 54. Through extensive research, he standardized the Russian literary language and is known as Father of Russian Literature.

167 lunar years ago, on this day in 1271 AH, the prominent Islamic scholar, Seyyed Abu-Torab Khwansari, was born in the central Iranian city of Khwansar. He was an authority on theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, and exegesis of Holy Qur'an. He has left behind numerous compilations, which prove his profound knowledge. Among his works, mention could be made of “Qasd as-Sabeel”, and “Mesbaah al-Salehin”. He passed away in 1346 AH at the age of 75.

152 solar years ago, on this day in 1865 AD US President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a few days after victory of the Unionists in the Civil War against the Confederates and the end of slavery.

105 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, two hours and 40 minutes after colliding with an iceberg, the luxury British ocean liner “Titanic” sank in the North Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland with the loss of about 1,522 lives. Only 705 passengers and crew survived the disaster.

81 solar years ago, on this day in 1936 AD, the 3-year long "Great Arab Revolt" against British occupation of Palestine and the illegal migration of European Jews to this Muslim land, started, five months after martyrdom of the famous combatant, Ezz ed-Din Qassam. His death at the hands of the British generated widespread outrage as huge crowds accompanied Qassam's body to his grave in Haifa. The revolt consisted of two phases. The first phase was directed primarily by the urban and elitist Higher Arab Committee (HAC) and was focused mainly on strikes and other forms of political protest. The uprising was brutally suppressed by the British Army and its armed Zionist agents, who killed over 2,000 Palestinians. However, the figure is far higher as recently disclosed by the Walid Khalidi estimates which put the number of casualties for the Arabs at 19,792, with 5,032 dead. Of these 3,832 Palestinians were directly killed by the British, while the remaining 1,200 were killed by Zionist terrorist gangs. In addition, over 14,760 Palestinian men, women and children were wounded. In other words, over ten percent of the adult male Palestinian Arab population between the ages of 20 and 60 years was killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, Ayatollah Shaikh Mohammad Taqi Bafqi passed away at the age of 72 in Qom, and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Hazrat Fatema al-Ma’soumah (SA), the daughter of Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) – the 7^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Bafq in Yazd Province, he completed his higher studies in the seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq under such eminent scholars as Akhound Khorasani and Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi. On his return to Iran nineteen years later, he settled in Qom to assist Ayatollah Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri in reviving the seminary of this holy city. He was a staunch defender of the Shar’ia and when in 1928 the British installed Pahlavi potentate, Reza Khan, tried to insult Islamic sanctities by entering the holy shrine of Ma’soumah (SA), along with unveiled women, he personally rebuked the dictator, who whipped him in public and exiled him to Rayy near Tehran. While in Rayy, Ayatollah Bafqi was shocked at the forced unveiling of Iranian women on the orders of the Pahlavi dictator. In 1935, he suffered a stroke and some of his limbs became paralyzed on learning of the desecration of the Gowharshad Mosque in Mashhad, adjacent to the holy shrine of the Prophet’s 8^th Infallible Heir, Imam Reza (AS), and the massacre of pilgrims by the regime. He returned to Qom in 1941 when Reza Khan was removed from the throne by his British masters and taken out of Iran.  

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, French existentialist philosopher, novelist and dramatist, Jean-Paul Sartre died in Paris at the age of 74. His work included "Being and Time" and "Nausea".  He won the 1964 Nobel Prize for literature. 

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, , Khalid Ahmad al-Islambouli, the 27-year old Egyptian army officer who executed Egypt's President Anwar Sadaat in revolutionary style during the annual 6th October victory parade in 1981 for having signed in 1978 the treasonous Camp David Accord with the illegal Zionist Entity, was martyred after a sham trial by a military tribunal, along with his three fellow revolutionaries – Junior Sergeant Abdul-Hameed Abdus Salaam, Corporal Ata Tayel Hameeda Raheel, and Corporal Hussain Abbas. During the trial Khalid Islambouli proudly told the audience: O People! We have killed the Pharaoh. 

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, the US attacked the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, on the pretext of an alleged Libyan bomb explosion in a restaurant in Germany that killed three US soldiers. The US air raid left several innocent Libyans martyred and wounded.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, Afghan Mujahedeen overthrew the Communist regime of President Najibullah in Kabul three years after the Soviet withdrawal from this Muslim country.  

23 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, an agreement was signed in Morocco to set up the World Trade Organization (WTO) by member countries of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which now became moribund. The US and certain Western states exploit WTO to make world countries bow to their illegal interests. Economists believe that the removal of trade tariffs is to the benefit of Western states and to the detriment of Third World Countries.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, Cambodian dictator Pol Pot died of a heart attack in Anlong Veng, northern Cambodia at the age of 73. It was later reported that he killed himself with malaria pills and tranquilizers after learning that an aide planned to hand him over to the US. The combined effects of executions, forced labour, malnutrition and poor medical care caused the deaths of approximately 25 percent of the Cambodian population during his rule – in all, an estimated 3 million people, out of a population of slightly over 8 million.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, Iranian scientists at the Royan Research Institute cloned a goat and planned future experiments for treatment for stroke patients. The female goat, named Hana, was born in the city of Isfahan in central Iran.

AS/ME