Today is Friday; 23rd of the Iranian month of Tir 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 19th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1438 lunar hijri; and July 14, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1360 solar years ago, on this day in 657 AD, the Battle of Siffin was started by the Omayyad rebel, Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, following his refusal to step down on his dismissal from the governorship of the Province of Syria by the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), the First Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The war that lasted four months was fought in the region called Siffin, besides the River Euphrates in what is now the Reqqa District in Syria, a short distance from the city of Aleppo. In the final battle of the Siffin War, when Mu’awiyah was on the verge of defeat, his comrade-in-crimes, Amr Ibn al-Aas, ordered the Omayyad troops to raise on spear-points, what he claimed to be copies of the holy Qur’an, in order to deceive the people and sue for peace. Despite the warnings of Imam Ali (AS), many among the Iraqi forces were deceived and refused to continue the battle against the demoralized enemy troops. These gullible people forced the Imam to enter into arbitration with Mu’awiyah, and when the result turned out against their nefarious desires, they openly rebelled against the Prophet’s rightful successor. These misled people called Khwarej or renegades are considered outside the pale of Islam. It is an irony of Islamic history that Mu’awiyah, who had reluctantly accepted Islam to save his life at the fall of Mecca to Muslims two years before the passing away of the Prophet, was made governor of the newly conquered Christian majority province of Syria by those that had seized political power in Medina through a coup. Here, through propaganda and forging of hadith, he built a strong base against the Ahl al-Bayt. After the martyrdom of Imam Ali (AS), he seized the caliphate from Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS) through deceit, thus laying the groundwork for the Godless Omayyad Dynasty that terrorized Muslims for 91 years.

1261 solar years ago, on this day in 756 AD, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty of China fled the capital Chang'an as the forces of An Lushan advanced toward the city. A general of Sogdian-Turkic ethnicity at the Tang court, An Lushan launched his revolt against Chancellor Yang Guozhong in Yanjing. The rebellion spanned the reigns of three Tang emperors before it was quashed in 763, and involved a wide range of regional powers, including Arab and Persian Muslims, Iranian Sogdian forces, and the pagan Gogturks. The rebellion and disorder resulted in a huge loss of life and large-scale destruction. It significantly weakened the Tang dynasty at a time when it was all set to defeat the Tibetan Empire, and led to the loss of the western regions. As a matter of fact, the western expansion of the Tang Empire was checked four years earlier in 751 by the victory of the Muslims over a large Chinese army in the Battle of Talas in the Ferghana Valley in Central Asia, following the defection of the Karluk Turks during the midst of the battle. An Lushan was given control over the entire area north of the lower reaches of the Yellow River, including garrisons about 164,000 strong. He took advantage of various circumstances, such as popular discontent with an extravagant Tang court, the Iranian-involved Abbasid Rebellion against the Omayyad Dynasty, and eventually the absence of strong troops guarding the palace. In 756, over 22,000 Arab-Iranian Muslims were sent by the Abbasid caliph to the aid of the Tang. They stayed in China after the war and intermarried with the Hui Chinese – who are predominantly Muslim till this day. During the rebellion the port of Canton – currently called Guangzhou, near the mouth of the South China Sea – was pillaged in 758 by sea-borne Arab and Persian forces.

1173 lunar years ago, on this day in 265 AH, the Iranian adventurer, Yaqoub Ibn Layth Saffar, founder of the short-lived Saffarid Dynasty, died in Jondi Shapour in Khuzestan at the age of 39, due to severe stomachache, and was succeeded by his brother Amr. A coppersmith by profession, he led an ascetic life and gradually started gathering fighting men around him in Sistan in the town of Zaranj, which is currently in Afghanistan, to annihilate the “khwarej” (renegades) in the region. This earned him fame, and he soon brought the whole of Sistan under his control. He turned to the east and after taking Bost, captured Kabul, before turning west to seize Herat from the fellow Iranian dynasty of Tahirids, who ruled Khorasan. In 868 he set out for Kerman, and soon wrested Shiraz from the control of the Abbasids, but continued to call himself a vassal of the caliph. In 869, he returned to Zaranj, his capital, and in 871, during the caliphate of Mo’tamid, he again descended on Shiraz and advanced towards Khuzestan. The caliph was able to prevent him from invading Iraq by appointing him the Abbasid governor of Balkh, Fars, Kerman, Sistan and Sind. In 873, Yaqoub bin Layth brought all of Khorasan under his control by seizing its capital, Neishabour, from where he marched to Gorgan and Tabarestan (present-day Mazandaran) and then as far as Chalous, before withdrawing to Rayy after collecting taxes of the Caspian region. This brought him offers from Caliph Mo’tamid of the governorship of Khorasan, Tabaristan, Gorgan, Rayy, and also the position of security-chief in Baghdad. Proud of his victories, Yaqoub bin Layth rejected the offer and invaded Khuzestan, but at Dayr al-Aqoul, some seventy km from Baghdad, he was defeated by the Abbasid forces and returned to Khuzestan, to prepare for another attack, when he died. There are conflicting reports about Yaqoub’s religious beliefs, with claims that he had Ismaili Shi’ite tendencies.

1004 lunar years ago, on this day in 434 AH, the Arabic scholar of Iranian stock Abu Zakariya ibn Abdul-Wahhab Ibn Mandah, was born. As an expert on hadith he is held in high esteem by Sunni Muslims. He wrote several books including one on the biography of the famous Hadith scholar Tabarani, who among the merits of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), has recorded the famous incident of “Radd ash-Shams” or the miraculous return of the sun, on the supplication of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), after it had set. He passed away in Isfahan at the age of 78.

228 solar years ago, on this day in 1789 AD, the infamous Bastille Prison was seized by tens of thousands of Parisian and a large section of it was destroyed during the French Revolution. Built in 1369 for military purposes, Bastille was a symbol of tyranny of the hated monarchial system.

201 solar years ago, on this day in 1816 AD, French novelist, diplomat and travel-writer, Joseph Arthur, Comte de Gobineau, who was an unabashed racist, believing in the supposed superiority of the white-skinned people, especially the so-called Aryans, and right of the aristocrats to rule over the masses, was born. Influenced by the absurdly rigid caste system of the Hindus, he propounded the theory of the Aryan master race and tried to legitimize racism and racial demography that was later picked up by German dictator Adolf Hitler and his Nazis. In the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1848, Gobineau wrote a 1400-page book, titled “An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races”, in which he claimed that aristocrats were superior to commoners and that they possessed more Aryan genetic traits because of less inbreeding with inferior races including the Alpines and the Mediterranean people. His writings were praised by white supremacist, pro-slavery Americans like Josiah C. Nott and Henry Hotze, who translated his book into English but omitted around 1000 pages, since parts of it negatively described Americans as a racially mixed population. His writings also influenced prominent anti-Semites such as Richard Wagner, the Romanian far-right politician professor A. C. Cuza and leaders of the Nazi Party. Gobineau served as a diplomat and was initially posted to Iran, before being assigned to Brazil and other countries. He reflected his disdain for ordinary people, claiming that French aristocrats like himself were the descendants of the Germanic Franks who conquered the Roman province of Gaul in the 5th century AD, while common French people were the descendants of racially inferior Celtic and Latin peoples. He derided Chinese culture as “without beauty and dignity”, and maintained that the Jews had polluted Europe. He was extremely hostile towards Slavic peoples, especially Russians. He called the people of southern and western Iran a “degenerative race”, and was sympathetic to the heretical Babi cult, some of whose writings he translated into French.

156 solar years ago, on this day in 1861 AD, the first machinegun was built by US industrialist, Kott Link. His weapon was not automatic, but later the technology was perfected and machineguns were used in wars.

150 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, Swedish chemist, Alfred Bernhard Nobel, demonstrated use of dynamite for the first time at a quarry in Redhill, Surrey, Britain. In 1866 he had produced what he believed was a safe and manageable form of nitroglycerin called dynamite for quarrying minerals and building roads in mountainous terrains. Earlier in 1864, an explosion at his plant had killed his younger brother and four other workers. Deeply shocked by this event, he now worked on a safer explosive and in 1875 came up with gelignite. Other inventions followed, including ballistite, a form of smokeless power. Nobel was dismayed when his invention was misused by European regimes for sabotage and killing of fellow humans. In view of this, he set aside a huge sum as Trust for awarding a peace prize every year to a person who strives most for global peace and security. After him the Trust decided to increase the number of Nobel Prizes every year for outstanding persons in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, and literature – in addition to peace. Unfortunately, because of US hegemony, these prizes, especially the ‘peace prize’, have lost their meaning, and are awarded to mass murderers and agents of the West in Muslim and other countries who subvert their own societies in the interests of foreign powers.

143 solar years ago, on this day in 1874 AD, the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, Abbas II, was born. Named Abbas Hilmi Pasha, he was a great-great-grandson of Mohammad Ali Pasha, the founder of Egypt’s Albanian Muslim Dynasty, and in 1892 succeeded his father, Towfiq Pasha, as ruler. Because of his opposition to British meddling and his sympathies with the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, he was deposed in 1914, and replaced by his uncle Hussain Kamel, whom the British granted the title of Sultan and formally declared Egypt as their ‘protectorate’, thus ending nominal Ottoman suzerainty. The 150-year rule of the Mohammad Ali Pasha Dynasty, ended in 1952 with the ouster of King Farouq in the military coup led by General Mohammad Najib and Colonel Jamal Abdun-Nasser, whose uniformed heirs continue to deny the Egyptian Muslim people their democratic right, as was evident on 3^rd July 2013 by the US-backed military’s overthrow of President Mohammad Morsi, the head of the year-long first ever freely elected government of Egypt.

59 solar years ago, on this day in 1958 AD, the British installed monarchy of Iraq was overthrown by popular forces led by the Kurdish general, Abdul-Karim Qassem, who became the nation's new leader. Iraq was declared a republic after the end of the 37-year monarchial system that the British had imposed in 1921 against the wishes of the Iraqi people by installing Faisal of Mecca as king in Baghdad, after crushing the popular uprising of the Iraqi people led by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Shirazi and Ayatollah Kashef al-Gheta. In the coup, Faisal II, his uncle the former regent Prince Abdullah, and the pro-British premier, Noori as-Sa'eed were killed, while trying to flee.

49 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, Afghanistan’s prominent jurisprudent and reformist, Seyyed Ismail Balkhi, was martyred under suspicious circumstances at the age of 49 in Kabul. Born in Balkhab District of Sar-e Pol Province, he was a member of the Persian-speaking Shi’a Muslim Hazara community. An innovative poet, Gnostic, and charismatic political leader, after early education in Afghanistan, he travelled to Iraq for higher studies in Islamic theology and jurisprudence at the famous seminary of holy Najaf.  On return to his homeland, he had to spend fourteen years in prison under the trumped up charges of conspiring to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic. He believed in political change but never embraced any armed movement. His patriotism and love for his country are evident in a number of poems he composed whilst in prison, giving Afghans a message of freedom and democracy.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1983 AD, Iran’s Assembly of Experts started its first 8-year term following nationwide elections. The 86-member body is made up of Ayatollahs with the rank of mujtahid and possessing political acumen, coupled with awareness of current issues. Elected directly through people’s votes, it is in charge of supervising the functions and performance of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution. It has the power to elect and dismiss the Leader. In the event of his resignation, dismissal or death, the Assembly of Experts shall take steps within the shortest possible time to choose the new Leader – as it did in June 1989 by electing Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei following the passing away of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). 

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, the acclaimed Iranian poet, researcher, and author, Dr. Mahdi Hamidi Shirazi, passed away at the age of 72. He had PhD in Persian Language and Literature. He wrote books on history of literature, the different poetical styles and genres, and critiques of poets. Among his books of poetry are “Behesht-e Sukhan” and “Darya-e Gohar”.

24 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, the prominent Iranian historian, Dr. Abdul-Hadi Ha'eri, passed away at the age of 58. He was born in the holy city of Qom and was a grandson of the famous Reviver of the Qom Seminary, Ayatollah Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha'eri. Following the completion of preliminary studies in theology, Dr. Ha'eri traveled to Canada for higher studies. He was an expert on the Constitutional Revolution and the role played by Ulema in this movement. The outcomes of his extensive research have been stated in the valuable book, titled: “The Ulema and Constitutional Movement”, which has been published in both Persian and English.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, the world's last telegram was sent in India. It was the last major country to shut down telegram service. India's 163-year-old telegram service was no longer needed as e-mail and texting had replaced bicycle telegram messengers. In Britain, telegram delivery ceased in 2008, while in the US, Western Union's dwindling service was terminated on 27 January 2006. The first formal telegram was sent by Samuel Morse in Washington to his business partner Alfred Vail in Baltimore, on 24 May 1844. Soon, wires were strung across the US and other countries, which eventually were connected by a Transatlantic cable under the ocean and more submarine cables.

AS/ME