Today is Saturday; 13th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 8th of the month of Ramadhan 1438 lunar hijri; and June 3, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1250 solar years ago, on this day in 767 AD, the Iranian Sunni Muslim Jurisprudent, Noman ibn Sabet ibn Zuta ibn Marzuban, known as Abu Hanifa, passed away in Baghdad at the age of 68 in the prison of the 2nd self-styled Abbasid caliph, Mansour Dawaniqi. Born in Kufa in a family of Zoroastrian origin from Kabul, he learned the holy Qur’an and hadith, and after only two years of incomplete study under Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS), the 6th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), he founded a jurisprudential school of his own, known as Hanafi. In contrary to the clear definition of Ijtihad, based on the holy Qur’an and the genuine hadith of the Prophet, Abu Hanifa resorted to "qiyas" (analogy or speculation) regarding legal issues, despite warnings from Imam Sadeq (AS) that the first one to indulge in "qiyas" was Iblis the Satan.

1007 lunar years ago, on this day in 431 AH, Mohammad Ibn Mikaeel Ibn Seljuq, known as Toghril Beg, won the Battle of Dandanaqan, and seized Khorasan from the Ghaznavid Empire, thereby heralding the rise of the Seljuq Turks of Central Asia as a new power in Iran, and eventually Anatolia (Turkey), Syria, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf coastline of the Arabian Peninsula. Highly Persianized in culture and language, the Seljuqs who ruled for over a century-and-a-half, played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition, even exporting Persian culture to Anatolia.

983 lunar years ago, on this day in 455 AH, the Seljuqid ruler, Mohammad ibn Mikaeel ibn Seljuq, popular as Toghril Beg, died at the age of 75 in Rayy, south of Tehran, where his grave in a conical mausoleum still stands. He established the vast Seljuqid Empire, by seizing Khorasan from the Ghaznavids and subsequently occupying Baghdad on the secret invitation of the scheming Abbasid caliph, al-Qa’em-Billah, to end the 110-year rule of the Iranian Buwaihid Dynasty of Iraq-Iran. To legitimize his rule and expand his empire, he forced the figurehead Abbasid caliph to give him his daughter in marriage, and to sign decrees for wars against the Byzantine Christian Empire in Anatolia and the Syrian territories of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’ite Muslim caliphate of Egypt-Syria-Hijaz-North Africa. Born in Central Asia in what is now Kazakhstan to the chief of the Oghuz, he strove to unite the Turkic tribes of the vast Eurasian Steppes into a confederacy. Along with his elder brother, Chaghri Beg, he rose to prominence in the service of the Khaqan of the Qara-Khanid Dynasty of Bukhara that had displaced the Iranian Samanid Dynasty in Central Asia. He turned against the Qara-Khanids and in 1040 defeated the Ghaznavids of Khorasan-Afghanistan at the Battle of Dandanqanan. His hordes gradually swept across the Iranian Plateau before marching into Anatolia and Iraq. In 1058, he lost Baghdad to the Fatemids but recaptured it two years later. On his death in Rayy at the age of 73 the childless Toghril was succeeded after a brief struggle between the two sons of his deceased brother, Chaghri, by his surviving nephew Alp Arsalan – perhaps the greatest ruler of the Seljuq Dynasty. The Seljuqs who ruled for over a century-and-a-half, became Persianized and played a vital role in the development and spread of the Persian language and culture in Anatolia, where a branch of them ruled until 1307 as the Seljuq Sultanate of Roum.

763 lunar years ago, on this day in 675 AH, Najm od-Din Ali Dabiraan Qazvini al-Katebi, the prominent Iranian astronomer, philosopher, logician, theologian and chemist, passed away. He was part of the scientific team assembled by his teacher, Iranian-Islamic genius Khwaja Nasir od-Din Tousi, at the famous observatory of Maragha, and wrote numerous books on various topics, including “Jame’ ad-Daqa’eq”. His work on logic, titled “ar-Risala ash-Shamsiyya”, was commonly used as the first major text on logic in madrasahs, until the twentieth century and is perhaps the most studied logic textbook of all time. His logic was largely inspired by the formal Avicennian system of temporal modal logic of the famous Iranian-Islamic polymath Abu Ali Ibn Sina, but is more elaborate and departs from it in several ways. While Ibn Sina considered ten modalities and examined six of them, Katebi considers many more modalized propositions and examines thirteen which he considers 'customary to investigate'.  Great scholars such as Allamah Hilli and Qotb od- Din Mahmoud Shirazi studied in his presence.

515 solar years ago, on this day in 1502 AD, the Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama, massacred people in the port of Calicut, southern India. Calicut, which is now called Kozhikode, was the first location occupied by Vasco da Gama in 1498, after he discovered the sea route to India via the southern coast of Africa, with the help of Muslim Arab navigators, whom this treacherous Portuguese killed. Vasco da Gama was a murderous person, and on one occasion, when 800 Arab merchants landed on the southern Indian coast for buying rice, he seized them; tortured them to death by cutting their hands, ears, and noses, and burned their ships.

360 solar years ago, on this day in 1657 AD, English physician, William Harvey, who by studying the translations of Islamic scientists, became the first European to discover the true nature of the circulation of the blood and of the function of the heart as a pump, died at the age of 79. Harvey's methods were to set the pattern for research in biology and other sciences for succeeding generations.

350 solar years ago, on this day in 1667 AD, the first human blood transfusion in the history of medicine and surgery was performed by French physician, Jean-Baptiste-Denys. In his first experiment, he injected the blood of a lamb to a patient. Later on human blood was injected to patients.

160 solar years ago, on this day in 1857 AD, French geologist, archeologist, and orientalist, Jean-Jacques de Morgan, who carried out extensive excavation works in Egypt, Iran and other lands, was born. On graduating in mineral engineering with interests in entomology and prehistory in 1882, he was appointed to head a survey expedition to Scandinavia and subsequently conducted surveys in Britain's Stonehenge, Germany, Austria, Turkey, India, and as far away as the kingdom of Perak in what is now West Malaysia. He next went to the Caucasus, visiting Armenia and Georgia, and his interest in the eastern origins of civilization eventually led him to Iran, where he focused on the significance of Shush (ancient Susa), the capital of the Elamite Empire, to retrace the routes of the Assyrian campaigns. Entrusted by France with his first official mission to Iran, en route he paused to explore the necropolis at Telovan near Tbilisi, then went on to Tehran, whence he paid visits to Mazandaran, Gilan, and Talesh, in order to study dialects. He then traveled south across Kurdistan and Luristan, combining both geological and archeological investigations. He was the first to recognize at Qasr-e Shirin the presence of oil in the vast fold system of the Zagros mountain chain, but neither France nor Iran showed any interest in this important discovery. He published his “Mission Scientifique en Perse”, with four volumes of geological studies; two volumes of archaeological studies on tombs and other monuments; one volume dedicated to Kurdish dialects and the languages of northern Iran; one volume of Mandaean texts; and two volumes of geographical studies. From 1892 to 1897, he was assigned to Egypt, where he saved the temple of Kom Ombo from destruction; set up the museum of Greco-Roman antiquities at Alexandria; undertook publication of a general catalogue of the monuments and inscriptions of ancient Egypt; and, laid the cornerstone for the Cairo Museum of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities. His exploration of the pyramids of Memhis and Dashur brought to light the royal treasures of the Middle Kingdom. He was back again in Shush in Iran and his important finds included the famous Stele of Naram-Sin, brought as war booty by the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte, as well as masterpieces of Babylonian civilization, captured by the Elamites, intermingled with masterpieces of Elamite metalwork and sculpture. The discoveries were crowned by the appearance of the stele bearing the law code of Hammurabi. These were published, starting in 1900, in “Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse”. Unfortunately, in 1900, the inefficient Iranian king, Mozaffar od-Din Shah Qajar, signed a treaty granting to France all the antiquities discovered at Shush. In 1902 De Morgan declared: “In the Nile valley I developed the conviction that the first civilizations, from which the Egyptian empire arose, came from Chaldea (in Iraq) and that the Mesopotamian plains had therefore been the cradle of human progress.”

93 solar years ago, on this day in 1883 AD, Franz Kafka, a prominent German-language writer of novels and short stories, died at the age of 40 in Klosterneuburg, Austria. Given that he had a tough childhood, Kafka, who was born in a Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had a pessimistic viewpoint of life. He was a nihilist, which is completely evident in his books, which include, "The Trial", "Contemplation", and "A Country Doctor". He was uneasy about his Jewish heritage and opposed Zionism.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, the famous Turkish poet, Nazim Hikmet Ran, died at the age of 61. He started writing poems at the age of 12 years. Because of his leftist inclinations he went to Moscow for higher studies, and on returning to his homeland, wrote revolutionary and anti-capitalist poems, slamming the westernized and suppressive system imposed on Turkey by Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. His poems were warmly welcomed by the people as well as the Turkish army, frightening the officials, and leading to his incarceration. After serving twelve years in jail, this famous Turkish poet was released, and because of danger to his life, went to the Soviet Union. On revocation of his nationality by the Turkish government, he remained in the Soviet Union until his death. Nazim Hikmet is the founder of a new style in Turkish contemporary poetry.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (God bless him), while commemorating the anniversary of Ashura or 10^th Moharram, marking the tragic martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala, castigated the British-installed and American-supported Shah for his anti-Islamic policies. In his address in Qom, to a large gathering of people, students and religious scholars, the Imam exposed the treasons of the Pahlavi regime to the Muslim Iranian nation. He pointed out: “They are against the foundations of the divine religion of Islam and the ulema and aim to destroy Islam and the ulema. People; you should know that our Islam and country are threatened. We are deeply concerned about the situation of Iran and the state of the Shah’s despotic regime.”

33 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, the Indian government launched the military offensive “Operation Blue Star” at famous Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs in Amritsar, to flush out militants of the Khalistan separatist movement of Indian Punjab. The operation continued until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000. Later, on October 31 the same year, two Sikh bodyguards of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated her in revenge for desecration of their sacred temple.

AS/SS