Today is Friday; 2nd of the Iranian month of Tir 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 28th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1438 lunar hijri; and June 23, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1166 lunar years ago, on this day in 272 AH, the prominent Iranian-Islamic astronomer, philosopher and hadith scholar, Abu Mash’ar Ja'far ibn Mohammad al-Balkhi, passed away in Waset, Iraq, at the ripe old age of 102. Born in Khorasan in the city of Balkh, which is presently in Afghanistan, he flourished at the Abbasid court in Baghdad as the greatest astronomer of the era and the subsequent centuries. He wrote a number of practical manuals on astrology that profoundly influenced Muslim intellectual history, and through Latin translations of his works, left a profound impact on Western Europe and Byzantium. He was well versed in Persian, Arabic, Greek and Sanskrit languages, and according to the famous Persian poet of the subcontinent, Amir Khosro Dehlavi, he came to Benares in India to study astronomy. Abu Ma'shar, who was Latinized by medieval Europe as Albumasar, Albusar, or Albuxar, wrote several books including "Kitab al-Mudkhal al-Kabir ila Ilm Ahkaam an-Nujjum", "Kitāb al‐Milal wa’l-Duwal" and "Kitāb Taḥawil Sini al‐Mawālīd” (Book of the Revolutions of the Years of Nativities). These and other works were translated into Latin and Greek and had profound effect on western philosophers and scientists such as Albert, Roger Bacon, Pierre d'Ailly, and Pico Della Mirandola.

737 solar years ago, on this day in 1280 AD, the Spanish Muslim defenders of the Emirate of Granada decisively defeated an invasion by European Christian mercenaries at the Battle of Moclin. Amir Mohammad II personally led the attack on the Castilian and Leonese invaders around the city of Moclín, inflicting heavy casualties. In addition to the common foot soldiers, over 2,800 Castilian-Leonese knights, most of the knights in the service of the Order of Santiago, were defeated and killed by the Muslim forces.

481 solar years ago, on this day in 1536 AD, French priest, John Calvin formally raised his objections in Geneva, Switzerland, against the beliefs of the Catholic Church, as part of the Protestant Movement founded earlier by Martin Luther. He set up a council of priests to administer Geneva as per his beliefs which he elaborated in a book, in which he rejected the power of the Pope and the Church. Calvinism, as his belief is known, erred in ascribing predestination to God Almighty, alleging that good or bad deeds committed by human beings have no impact on their fate in afterlife. This wrong belief led many Christians to freely commit all sorts of abominable sins on the false assumption that Jesus will save them in the Hereafter. Calvin was burnt alive in 1564 by the orders of the Catholic Church for distorting the teachings of the Bible.

452 solar years ago, on this day in 1565 AD, Ottoman naval commander, Turgut Ra’ees, died during the Siege of the Mediterranean island of Malta by the Turks. Born into a Greek family, he had converted to Islam at an early age, and grew up into an expert gunner and sailor, whose services were utilized by the Ottomans during the conquest of Mamluk Egypt. He subsequently served as admiral in the Mediterranean Sea, and for over forty years subjugated and captured many islands and the coastal areas of the Italian kingdoms and Spain, never allowing the Genoese, the Venetians, and the Spanish fleets to dominate the region or setting foot on the north African coast.  He freed the Libyan sea port of Tripoli from the 21-year occupation of the Christian Knights. He liberated the fort of Jerba near Tunis from Spanish occupation after a 63- day siege, and earlier he took control of the Mediterranean island of Corsica and the city of Catania in Malta to free some seven thousand Muslim captives. For his services, Sultan Sulaiman appointed him Beglarbeigi of Algeria and later promoted him to Pasha (governor) of Tripolitania. He greatly adorned Tripoli and made it the most beautiful of the Mediterranean coast. He also built Tunis and made it into a leading trade centre. At the time of his death, he was serving as supreme Ottoman naval commander of the Mediterranean, having succeeded to the post in 1546 on the death of the famous Khayr od-Din Pasha (Barbarosa or Redbeard).

260 solar years ago, on this day in 1757 AD, the Battle of Plassey took place in Bengal between the forces of Nawab Mirza Mohammad Siraj od-Dowlah and the British, who with the help of traitors like Mir Ja’far, Rai Durlabh and Omichand, defeated the Indian forces. The young Siraj od-Dowlah, who was of Iranian origin was caught and murdered, and Robert Clive, the commander of the British forces, installed Mir Ja’far – also of Iranian origin – as the new Nawab of Bengal, after extracting huge concessions from him. With this battle the British established their foothold in India and would over the next half-century take control of most of the Subcontinent.

109 solar years ago, on this day in 1908 AD, Iran’s first parliament following the victory of the Constitutional Movement, was attacked by the Qajarid king, Mohammad Ali Shah and closed down. On the Shah’s orders, the Cossack brigade, led by Russian Colonel Vladimir Liakhov, besieged the parliament resulting in a confrontation with the constitutionalists. Several Iranian freedom fighters were martyred, while many others were incarcerated or sent into exile. Among those hanged by the king were the prominent preacher Malik ul-Motakallemin and Mirza Jahangir Khan Shirazi, the editor of the daily “Soor-e Israfeel”.

86 lunar years ago, on this day in 1352 AH, the scholar Seyyed Mohammad Sharif Taqavi Vanaki, passed away at the age of 82, and was laid to rest in the Chehl Akhtaran Cemetery of holy Qom in the mausoleum of Imamzadah Musa al-Mubaraqqa – son of Imam Mohammad at-Taqi al-Jawad (AS), the 9^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Vanak near Tehran, he initially studied under his scholarly father, before leaving for Isfahan at the age of 12, to pursue higher religious studies at what was then Iran’s prominent seminary. At the age of 17, he went to holy Najaf in Iraq, where he stayed for twelve years mastering different branches of Islamic sciences under prominent ulema, such as Ayatollah Shaikh Zayn al-Abedin Mazandarani, Ayatollah Fazel-e Irvani, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi (famous for his fatwa against tobacco to save Iranian economy from British manipulation). On his return to Iran as a fully qualified mujtahed, he settled in Shiraz to teach at the Fars Seminary. He was active in the Constitutional Movement for end of Qajarid despotism, but following its infiltration by British agents and the martyrdom of Ayatollah Fazlollah Noori, he boldly campaigned for the implementation of Islamic laws, and wrote the famous book “Kashf al-Maraam fi Qanoun al-Islam”. When pressure mounted, he moved to holy Najaf where he briefed the prominent ulema about the deviation of the Constitutional Movement. Because of failing health, he returned to Iran and stayed in Isfahan for ten years. In Tehran, while on his way to holy Mashhad for pilgrimage to the shrine of the Prophet’s 8^th Infallible Heir, Imam Reza (AS), he breathed his last.

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, the French colonialists illegally handed over to Turkey the Syrian port city of Iskenderun, along with the historical city of Antakya (Antioch) and what is now called the Hatay Province, as reward to Kamal Ataturk for his anti-Islamic policies. This led to flare up of anti-French sentiments in Syria, which has not given up its claim to this region, which has now become the base of terrorists operating against the government of Syria with the support of Turkey, France, Britain, the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

56 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, during the Cold War, the Antarctic Treaty, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity on this continent of the South Pole, came into force.

39 lunar years ago, on this day in 1399 AH, Qods International Day rallies were held for the first time throughout Iran on the Last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadhan, following the decision taken four days earlier by the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (God bless him), for mobilizing world Muslims for liberation of Bayt al-Moqaddas and Palestine. Since then, every year, millions of people in Iran and world countries stage rallies calling for the end of the illegal Zionist entity.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, a bomb planted by Sikh terrorists aboard Air India Flight 182 brought down the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard. The flight was on its way from Montreal, Canada to Delhi, India, with a stopover in London.

28 solar years ago, on this in 1989 AD, the Syrian Christian Michel Aflaq, who founded the terroristic Arab Ba’th Party, died in Baghdad at the age of 79. He was a personal friend of the tyrant Saddam, but was derided by the Syrian Ba’th Party which expelled him from Syria and called him a thief who actually stole the ideas of the Alawite Arab nationalist Zaki al-Arsuzi. Aflaq and the Ba’thists believed in violent measures in seizing power and brutally crushing any resistance to their chauvinistically seditious designs. Saddam had built a turquoise-domed mausoleum for Aflaq, but today his heavily-damaged tomb, after being used by US troops as a temporary barracks, has been turned into a shopping mall, with the grave disappearing under a supermarket stacked with a variety of goods, such as foodstuff, track suits, and DVDs hailing the freedom of Iraq from the 35-year reign of terror of the repressive Ba’th minority regime.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, Egypt’s prominent religious scholar, Sheikh Hassan Shehata, was brutally martyred by a gang of Takfiri terrorists in the village of Abu Mussalam in Giza Province, in the early morning hours after holding night prayers and supplications on the auspicious eve of 15^th Sha’ban, the birth anniversary of the Lord of the Age, Imam Mahdi (AS), the 12^th and Last Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). The Takfiris, who are the avowed enemies of the Blessed Household of the Prophet of Islam, burst into the house and dragged Shehata and four other Muslims, beating them violently until they died. Unfortunately, Egypt’s first ever democratically elected president, Mohammad Morsi, despite his claims of Islamic unity, turned a blind eye to this horrible act of terrorism, and was overthrown in a US-Saudi backed military coup ten days later.

AS/ME