Today is Monday; 2nd of the Iranian month of Mordad 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 29th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1438 lunar hijri; and July 24, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1512 lunar years ago, on this day, 72 years before hijra (corresponding to 549 AD), Imran Ibn Shayba (Abdul-Muttaleb), known as Abu Taleb, the beloved uncle and guardian of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) was born in Mecca. As consanguineous brother of the deceased Abdullah (the Prophet’s father), he took charge of his 8-year orphaned nephew on the death of his own father, Abdul-Muttaleb. He became head of the noble Bani Hashem clan following the death of his elder brother, Zubayr Ibn Abdul-Muttaleb. He subsequently became known as “Shaikh al-Bat-ha” (Senior-Most Chief of Mecca). As a follower of the monotheistic creed of his ancestor, Prophet Abraham (PuH), he firmly believed in the message of Islam when God formally appointed his 40-year old nephew as the Last and Greatest Messenger to mankind. He thereafter protected the Prophet against the taunts and plots of the pagan Arabs. When the Meccans imposed the socio-economic boycott on the Prophet, he took his nephew and the whole neo-Muslim community under his protection to the safety of the gorge outside Mecca which is still called “She'b Abi Taleb”. The greatest contribution of Abu Taleb to Islam were his faithful and steadfast sons, Ja'far, Aqeel, and especially the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), whom God appointed as vicegerent to the Prophet. The marriage of Imam Ali (AS) with Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA) meant that along with the Prophet, Abu Taleb became the grandfather of Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) and subsequently the noble ancestor of the Ahl al-Bayt and all Seyyeds. His death at the age of 70, over two years before hijra, emboldened the pagan Arabs to plot against the Prophet, who on the command of God Almighty migrated to Medina.

1094 lunar years ago, on this day in 341 AH, Ma'adh Abu Tamim al-Mu'iz le Din-Allah, assumed power as the fourth caliph of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’ite Muslim dynasty of North Africa in his capital Mahdiyya in what is now Tunisia. He reigned for 22 years during which he conquered Egypt, where in 362 AH, he shifted his capital to the newly built city “al-Qahera” (Cairo), built by his loyal Sicilian general, Jowhar as-Saqali. Jowhar, an ethnic Greek who embraced the truth of Islam and became a devout follower of the Ahl al-Bayt, also built in Cairo the grand al-Azhar Mosque, which derives its name from “az-Zahra” the famous epithet of Hazrat Fatema (SA), the daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Fatemids restored the full form of the “Azan” from the minarets of al-Azhar and other mosques, by bearing testimony to the vicegerency of Imam Ali (AS) after the mission of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The phrase "hayya ala khayr il-amal" (hasten to the best of deeds), which was dropped from the “Azan” by caliph Omar ibn Khattab, after the passing away of the Prophet, was also revived.

869 solar years ago, on this day in 1148 AD, European Christian invaders started the siege of Damascus during the Second Crusade, but thanks to the stiff resistance of the Muslim defenders and the timely arrival of fresh forces led by the Turkic ruler, Noor od-Din Zangi, they were decisively defeated five days later, resulting in the disintegration of the crusade that was led by King Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany.

599 lunar years ago, on this day in 839 AH, Taj od-Din Mohammad Shah, the 3^rd ruler of the Ghorid kingdom of Malwa in central India, was murdered only 4 years after succeeding his famous father, Husam od-Din Hoshang Shah, by his vizier, Mahmoud Khalji, who took the title of Ala od-Din Mahmoud Shah and established the Khalji dynasty that ruled the small kingdom for the next 96 years till its annexation by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. Shadiabad (now called Mandu), the capital of Malwa is famous for its Islamic style architectural wonders, built by the Ghorids, Khaljis, and later under the brief rule of Baz Bahadur. Malwa was a Persianate society throughout its 170-year history as an independent kingdom under three separate dynasties, with its rich contribution to Persian arts and literature.

512 solar years ago, on this day in 1505 AD, Portuguese marauders on their way to India, after discovering the sea route round the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of southern Africa with the help of Muslim navigators, whom they treacherously killed, sacked the flourishing Muslim city-state of Kilwa on the eastern coast of Africa (in what is now Tanzania), and killed the sultan for refusing to pay them enough money.

234 solar years ago, on this day in 1783 AD, expansionist Russia, taking advantage of the internal power struggle in Iran between the Zand Dynasty and Qajar warlord, Agha Mohammad Khan, duped Georgia in the name of Christianity to renege its age-old traditional ties with the Persian Empire, by imposing the Treaty of Georgievsk. The humiliating treaty stipulated that Georgia will not have any diplomatic ties with any country without the approval of Russia, and that every new Georgian ruler would require the confirmation of the Czar. The results of the Treaty of Georgievsk proved disastrous for the Georgians. In 1795, a year after crowning himself Shahenshah of Iran, Agha Mohammad Khan asked Georgia to return to the Iranian fold. King Erekle on the assumption of Russian support, assembled an army to fight, but was soundly defeated in the Battle of Krtsanisi that saw his capital Tbilisi, along with the west Georgian kingdom of Imereti, surrender to the Iranian forces. In 1796, Catherine II sent an army to Transcaucasia, but her death the same year ended any Russian challenge to Iran. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, using Qarabagh as his base, launched a wide scale campaign to end Russian influence in Georgia, but his assassination in 1797 by a fellow Iranian ended his moves. In December 18, 1800, taking advantage of the weak-willed pleasure loving Fath Shah Ali’s rule in Tehran, Russia formally annexed Georgia and deposed the Bagratid Dynasty that had signed the Treaty of Georgievsk. Georgia, which regained its independence in 1991 following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, has made the fatal mistake of falling into the orbit of the US and Western Europe, while large parts of the country are virtually outside the control of the government in Tbilisi, such as the ethnic Turkic Muslim Abkhazia, and South Ossetia which is populated by ethnic Iranic Christians.

234 solar years ago, on this day in 1783 AD, the famous South American revolutionary, Simon Bolivar, was born in the capital of present day Venezuela, Caracas. He liberated many South American lands from Spanish colonial rule, and was elected president of the Federation of Greater Colombia that included present day Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador. Soon Bolivar led the revolutionaries to liberate Peru, followed by the land named today in his honour as Bolivia. He dreamt of unity of South America within a federation but failed to fulfill his goal. He died in 1830.

233 lunar years ago, on this day in 1205 AH, the great scholar, Mohammad Baqer ibn Mohammad Akmal, popular as “Waheed-e Asr” (Unique of the Age) and also known as Allamah Waheed Behbahani, passed away at the age of 90 in Karbala in Iraq and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Imam Husain (AS). Born in Isfahan, he was the grandson (that is, daughter’s son) of the celebrated scholar, Allamah Mohammad Baqer Majlisi. On the occupation of Safavid Iran by the Afghans he moved to Behbahan near the Persian Gulf, before migrating to Iraq, where he headed the Usuli intellectual challenge to the Akhbari dominance led by Yusuf al-Bahrani. Waheed Behbahani, at first tentatively challenged the neo-Akhbari tendencies, before building up followers and scholastic confidence to lead the Usuli revival. The Akhbaris believed that the sole sources of law were the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith, in particular the Four Books accepted by Shi’a Muslims, maintaining that everything in these sources was in principle reliable, and outside them there was no authority competent to enact or deduce further legal rules. The Usuli believed that the Hadith collections contained narrations of very varying degrees of reliability, and that critical analysis was necessary to assess their authority. On this view, the task of the “faqih” (or jurisprudent) is to establish intellectual principles of general application, known as usul al-fiqh, from which particular rules may be derived by way of deduction: accordingly, “ijtihad” or legal scholarship has the tools in principle for resolving any situation. Known as “Ostad-e Koll” (or Master of All), and “Muhaqqiq Thalith” (or 3^rd Great Researcher), Allamah Waheed Behbahani groomed a large number of scholars and wrote several books, such as “al-Ijtehad wa’l-Akhbar”, “Masabih az-Zalam” (in 11 volumes), “ar-Rasa’el al-Usuliyyah”, “Tanbih al-Ghafeleen wa Ayqaz al-Raqedeen”, “at-Tuhfat al-Husainiyyah”, and Persian translation of the holy Qur’an.

215 solar years ago, on this day in 1802 AD, French author, Alexandre Dumas, was born. He wrote numerous novels on the French Revolution and history based on the memoirs of his father, who was an army general. Among his books, mention can be made of “The Three Musketeers”, and “The Count of Monte Cristo”. He was also a highly skilled playwright and has written a number of famous plays. He died in 1870.

210 lunar years ago, on this day in 1228 AH, the Golestan Treaty was imposed on Qajarid Iran by Czarist Russia in the village of the same name in the Caucasus, following ten years of warfare that led to the loss of vast areas of northwestern Iran. As per the treaty that was mediated by the crafty British, the Russians occupied what are now the republics of Daghestan and Georgia, as well as Baku in northern Azerbaijan. Thirteen years later in 1241 AH, Russia once again invaded Iran, and occupied other regions, such as Armenia, Nakhchivan and what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas" was rediscovered by American historian Hiram Bingham. It was the place in Peru where the last Incan Emperors found refuge from the Spanish invaders of South America.It is situated on a mountain ridge through which the Urubamba River flows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). The Incas built the estate around 1450, but abandoned it a century later. Machu Picchu is now an important tourist attraction. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of what the structures originally looked like. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.

96 solar years ago, on this day in 1921 AD, The League of Nations arbitrarily handed over to Britain the mandate to govern the former Ottoman provinces of Palestine, Iraq, and Transjordan, while France was given control of Syria and Lebanon, as per the plan drawn to traumatize the fate of Muslim lands after World War 1 and to finally implant in the region the illegal Zionist entity called Israel.

94 solar years ago, on this day in 1923 AD, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in Switzerland and imposed upon Turkey to settle the conflict that had originally existed between the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire, the French Republic, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Greece, and the Kingdom of Romania since the onset of World War I. It replaced the failed Treaty of Sevres, which was signed by all previous parties but later rejected by the Turkish national movement which fought against its terms and the loss of territory. The Treaty of Lausanne defined the borders of the modern Turkish Republic, which gave up all claims to the remainder of the Ottoman Empire and in return the Allies recognized Turkish sovereignty within its new borders. The treaty divided the Kurdish-populated Ottoman region among Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they wished in commerce, public and private meetings, and publications. The treaty specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities, while the former Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were lumped together to form Iraq. Turkey and Greece agreed to a massive exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported from Turkey to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. The treaty came into force on 6 August 1924, when the instruments of ratification had been officially deposited in Paris, France by all the parties.

75 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, Operation Gomorrah was launched by the Allied air forces against the hapless German city of Hamburg during World War 2, with the British and Canadian planes bombarding at night and the American aircraft bombarding in the day. By November, over 9,000 tons of explosive were dropped, killing thirty thousand men, women, and children, and destroying two hundred and eighty thousand (280,000) buildings. The barbarism of the victorious Allied forces, especially the Americans, in Germany and Europe, has been hushed up in order to conceal the mass massacres of the people and wide scale rape of women, while in order to mislead world public opinion, western propaganda has been directed at Nazi crimes.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, following the illegal imprisonment of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) by the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime, leading ulema of the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad converged on Tehran and released a statement acknowledging his religious authority as Marja’ or Source of Emulation for Muslims. The regime, in a bid to pacify the protesting masses, shifted the Imam from prison to a house where he continued to be kept under detention. The people and ulema, however, refused to be deceived and continued their protests. The regime panicked and sent the Imam into exile to neighbouring Turkey, from where a year later he moved to holy Najaf in Iraq.

47 lunar years ago, on this day in 1391 AH, Ayatollah Moḥammad Taqi Amoli passed away in his hometown Tehran at the age of 85 and his body was taken to Mashhad for burial in the mausoleum of Imam Reza (AS). After initial studies under his scholarly father, he went to holy Najaf in Iraq for higher religious studies. His teachers were such great scholars as Ayatollah Mirza Hussain Na'ini, Ayatollah Aqa Ziya od-Din Iraqi, and Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, in Bosnia, Serb prison guards at a former ceramics factory of Keraterm, fired machine guns through metal doors of "Room 3" where over 200 Muslim prisoners were held. The carnage continued for hours. In 2001 Dusko Sikirica the former Serb camp commander, along Dragan Kolundzija and Damir Dosen was tried at the International Criminal Court in Hague for the slaughter. Sikirica was sentenced to a mere 15 years in prison for the mass murder, while Dosen and Kolundzija were let off with more lighter 5 and 3 year sentences. Around 3,000 detainees, mainly Bosniak Muslims, passed through the Keraterm concentration camp located outside the city of Prijedor. The detainees, who lived in an atmosphere of terror and constant fear, were subjected to daily physical violence, constant humiliation, degradation, inhumane conditions, and fear of death. Severe beatings were commonplace. All manner of weapons were used during these beatings, including wooden batons, metal rods, baseball bats, lengths of thick industrial cable that had metal balls affixed to the end, rifle butts, and knives. The 15-to-60 year old Muslim detainees were subject to killings, beatings, sexual assaults, and other cruel and humiliating actions.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2001 AD, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, was sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, becoming the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, in Iran, a pair of US-Zionist agents firing from a motorcycle martyred 35-year Dariush Rezaei-Nejad, an electronics masters’ student at Khwajeh Naseer University in Tehran. He was driving home with his wife (Shohreh Pirani) after picking up their daughter from kindergarten. His wife was also wounded in the attack. Rezaei-Nejad was the fourth scientist killed by bomb, gunshot or poisoning by US-Israelis funded terrorists since 2007. The pair of terrorists, riding a motor cycle had actually been assigned to assassinate Dariush Rezaei, a physics professor whose area of expertise was neutron transport, but targeted Rezaei-Nejad instead. On August 2, 2011, German news website Spiegel Online published an article titled "Mossad behind Tehran Assassinations.”

AS/ME