Today is Sunday; 2nd of the Iranian month of Mehr 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 3rd of the Islamic month of Muharram 1439 lunar hijri; and September 24, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

Over 3,504 lunar years ago, on this day, Prophet Joseph (Yusuf), while an under-teen boy, was rescued from the well into which his brothers had thrown him, after initial deliberation to kill him, because of their jealousy towards him for the deep love and affection of their father Prophet Jacob (Ya’qub) for this pious and extremely handsome son. Joseph was sold as a slave and ended up in Egypt, where Divine Providence, after having again tested his firm faith, patience, and wisdom, through ordeals that included a lengthy prison term, granted him a lofty ministerial rank in the court of the monotheistic Pharaoh. Surah Yusuf of the holy Qur’an details his interesting account – including the magnanimity he showed to his brothers – and calls it “Ahsan al-Qasas” (the Most Excellent of Accounts).

1432 lunar years ago, on this day in 7 AH, the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), sent letters to the world’s kings and emperors, officially inviting them to the truth of the universal religion of Islam. According to historians he sent some twenty-six letters to the then world leaders spread across the face of the earth, including the emperors of Rome, Iran, and China. Obviously, the Prophet’s approach in this regard shows that Islam speaks with logic and reasoning in its invitation to righteousness. A few years following these official invitations, Islam spectacularly spread across the major part of the known world.

1378 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, the Omayyad commander, Omar ibn Sa’d arrived in Karbala with a force of 4,000 armed men to surround the small band of Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Omar was sent by the oppressive governor of Kufa, Obaidullah ibn Ziyad, to demand oath of allegiance from the Prophet’s grandson for the ungodly rule of Yazid, or bring him to his court. The Imam refused to yield to injustice, and for the next few days thousands of more forces converged on Karbala. Finally, on the 10th of Moharram, Imam Husain (AS), bravely courted martyrdom in an unequal battle that has made his stand and cause immortal, inspiring people in every age against oppression.

1249 solar years ago, on this day in 768 AD, Charlemagne was crowned the first King of the Franks at the age of 26, on the death of his father, Pepin the Short. A warlike figure he set about expanding his realm and after conquering the Lombard kingdom, he was declared as the king of Italy as well in 774. In 800, after more conquests and subjugation of central Europe, he was crowned by Pope Leo III as the first emperor in Western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier – an imperial title that would eventually evolve into what would become known as the Holy Roman Emperor by the twelfth century. Throughout his long 45-year reign, he was brutal in his suppression of opposition to his rule, but his attempts to expand his dominion into Muslim Spain met with defeat and a historical retreat that resulted in the complete destruction of his rearguard by the Basques in the Pyrenees. When a clock was sent to him from Baghdad by the scientifically advanced Muslims (along with an Asian elephant named Abu’l-Abbas), Charlemagne and the French, who like the rest of the European Christians were living in the dark ages, were for long suspicious of the mechanical object and thought that a genie was inside it, showing the time of the day and the passing hours.

1187 lunar years ago, on this day in 252 AH, Musta'in-Billah the 12th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime was deposed by his masters, the powerful Turkic guards that had installed him as ruler in Samarra, after the suspicious death of his cousin, Muntasir-Billah. During his 4-year rule, Musta'in suffered two disastrous defeats at the hands of Christians in Armenia. His only success was his killing in unequal combat near Kufa, of the Prophet's descendant, Yayha Ibn Umar Ibn Yahya Ibn Hussain Ibn Zayd the Martyr – a son of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) the 4th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).The cause of his downfall was his quarrel with the Turkish guards, who released Mu'taz, the son of the murdered Mutawakkil-Billah from prison and declared him the 13th Abbasid caliph. Musta'in, the son of Wathiq-Billah, the 9th Abbasid caliph – whose corpse lay in negligence with eyes eaten by rats as his brother Mutawakkil immediately celebrated his own rise to power as the next caliph with festivities – was further humiliated by humbly paying homage to the new caliph, who imprisoned him in Baghdad and soon had him murdered. When the severed head was brought before Mu'taz who was playing chess, he said: "lay it aside, till I have finished the game." Then having satisfied himself that it was really the head of his cousin, he commanded 500 pieces of gold to be given to the assassin as reward. These events occurred during the last days of the 34-year imamate of the Prophet’s 10th Infallible Heir, Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS), who in 254 AH was martyred through poisoning by Mu’taz in Samarra while under house arrest.

1081 solar years ago, on this day in 936 AD, Adhud od-Dowla Daylami, the greatest ruler of the Iranian Buwaiyhid dynasty of Iran-Iraq-Bahrain-Oman, was born in Shiraz and named Fana Khosrow by his father Amir Rokn od-Dowla. He became ruler of Fars on the death of his childless uncle, Amir Emad od-Dowla. He was sent by his father to crush a rebellion by his cousin Ezz od-Dowla, on whose defeat he claimed the emirate of Iraq for himself. On his father’s death, as senior Amir of the Buwaiyhid family, Adhud od-Dowla chose as his capital, Baghdad, which was suffering from violence and instability due to sectarian sedition by the Hanbalis. In order to bring peace and stability, he banned public demonstrations and polemics. He patronized scholars such as the celebrated Shaikh Mufid, and renovated the holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala. He undertook several scientific projects, such as the observatory in Isfahan, and the dam known as “Band-e Amir” between Shiraz and Istakhr to irrigate some 300 villages. He also ordered digging of the Haffar Canal joining the Karun River to the Arvand Roud at the confluence of the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. He embellished Baghdad with several buildings including the famous public hospital known as “Bimaristan-e Adhudi”, where the great Iranian physician Zakariyya ar-Razi used to practice. Adhud od-Dowla passed away in Baghdad and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS) in Najaf.

806 solar years ago, on this day in 1211 AD, the famous biographer of Kurdish origin, Shams od-Din Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Khallikan was born in Arbil in northeastern Iraq. He studied in Aleppo, Damascus, and Mosul before settling in Cairo, where he served as assistant to the chief judge of Egypt. Later he became the chief judge of Damascus where he passed away at the age of 71. His most renowned work is the biographical dictionary entitled "Wafayaat al-Ayaan wa-Anba Abna az-Zamaan" (Deaths of Eminent Men and Accounts of the Sons of the Epoch), which took eighteen years to complete. This book does not include biographies of individuals already sufficiently covered, such as the Prophet and the caliphs. It was translated into English by William McGuckin de Slane.

366 solar years ago, on this day in 1651 AD, the fort of Gandikot, in Cadapa in what is now Andhra was captured by the Iranian adventurer, Mir Mohammad Ardistani entitled “Mir Jumla” for Sultan Abdullah Qutb Shah of the Deccan (southern India). Born in Isfahan to an oil merchant, he set out for the Deccan on a business trip under a diamond merchant to the Qutb-Shahi Sultanate of Iranian origin of Golkandah-Haiderabad, where he started his own business and rose to become the prime minister. Soon friction with the court made him seek service with the Mughal Empire of Hindustan (northern subcontinent), where Emperor Shahjahan made him governor of Bengal. Mir Jumla started his conquest of the remote northeast and brought under control Assam and other regions, before death overtook him.

353 solar years ago, on this day in 1664 AD, the Dutch Republic of North America ended with its occupation by the British and seizure of its capital on Manhattan Island, named New Amsterdam, which was renamed New York in honour of the Duke of York, who was later crowned James II. New York is the largest city of the US.

334 solar years ago, on this day in 1683 AD, King Louis XIV expelled all Jews from French possessions in America. The Jews, while they enjoyed all rights in the Muslim lands, were despised by Christians for their negative characteristics like miserliness and usury, in addition to their blasphemous slandering of the Virgin Mary and Prophet Jesus (peace upon them).

198 lunar years ago, on this day in 1241 AH, the second Russo-Iranian war started. The cause was the continued hostility of Russia that had seized the northwestern territories of Iran in the Caucasus. Despite the courage displayed by Prince Abbas Mirza, who achieved initial success and pushed back the Russians, the Iranian army was defeated because of lack of supply and support from Tehran, where King Fath-Ali Shah was immersed in inefficiency and pleasures. The disgraceful Turkmenchai Treaty was forced upon Iran, which had to cede to Russia the region of Daghestan west of the Caspian Sea, and areas north of the River Aras, including what is now called the Republic of Azerbaijan.

176 solar years ago, on this day in 1841 AD, the Sultan of Brunei was forced to cede Sarawak on the large Borneo Island to the British invaders, who installed a certain James Brooke as the White Rajah, and whose descendants ruled this land till 1946, a few years before the independence of Malaysia. Sarawak is a province of Malaysia.

147 solar years ago, on this day in 1870 AD, French chemist and engineer, Georges Claude, who invented the neon light, as the forerunner of the fluorescent light, was born. He was the first to apply an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon gas, around 1902 to make a neon lamp (“Neon” from the Greek word “neos”, meaning new gas). He displayed the neon lamp on 11 December 1910 in Paris at a motor show.

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, German planes pounded the Polish Capital, Warsaw for three days on the eve of World War II, killing over 15,000 people, and forcing Poland to surrender to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi forces.

43 solar years ago, on this day in 1974 AD, Guinea-Bissau in West Africa declared independence from Portuguese rule. It was part of the Mali Muslim Empire, before its occupation by Portugal, which enslaved the people and sent hundreds of thousands of them to the Americas as slaves. In the mid-1960s, the uprising of the people against the Portuguese intensified and in 1970, the independence seekers took control of two-thirds of this land. In 1974, Portugal was forced to grant independence. Over 65 percent of the people are Muslim in Guinea-Bissau which covers an area of 36,000 sq km. It has coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean, sharing borders with Guinea and Senegal.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, on instructions from the Shah's regime, the repressive Ba'th minority regime of Iraq, besieged the home of the Father of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), in holy Najaf, to pressure him to refrain from interviews with reporters, issuance of declarations, and delivery of speeches and sermons on the tyrannical nature of the Pahlavi despot. Imam Khomeini told them that he was fulfilling his legitimate Islamic duty and has no regrets. Soon the Ba'thists forced the Imam to leave Iraq, who after obtaining a visa from the Kuwait embassy in Baghdad, headed towards that Persian Gulf sheikhdom in a car, but was prevented entry at the border. As a result, he was forced to obtain a visit visa from the French embassy and flew to Paris, where he became more accessible to the media in the events leading to the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, workers at the Abadan oil refinery went on indefinite strike in protest to the repressive policies of the British-installed and American-backed Pahlavi regime. As a result petroleum prices shot up by a record fifty percent, slowing down the economy and bringing about the fall of the cabinet of the despotic Shah’s newly appointed premier, Ja’far Sharif Emami.

31 solar years ago, on this day in 1386 AD, prominent Iranian poet, Ali Akbar Khoshdil Tehrani, passed away at the age of 72. After mastering Arabic grammar, jurisprudence, rhetoric, logic and philosophy, he spent 30 years travelling all over Iran and regional lands such as Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Hijaz, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. He performed the Hajj pilgrimage four times. He composed all styles of classical Persian poetry including ghazals, but excelled in elegies and eulogies on Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams. Most religious gatherings start with his moving poems. He has left behind a divan of Persian poetry.

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1988, the famous Urdu poet of the subcontinent, Raees Amrohi, was martyred in Karachi at the age of 74 by Takfiri terrorists. Born in Amroha in India, his name was Seyyed Mohammad Mahdi, which indicates his descent from Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He migrated to Pakistan on 19 October 1947 and was known for his unique style of “qatanigari” (disjointed rhymed verses) and “ruba’iyaat” (quatrains). For several decades his quatrains were published in Pakistan's leading Urdu daily “Jang”. A staunch supporter of Urdu as language of unity for Pakistani Muslims, he established an institution Raees Academy where writers were trained. During the conflict in the 1970s with the Sindhi-speakers, he wrote his famous poem Urdu satirical poem “Urdu ka janaza hai zara dhoom say niklay” (It is the funeral of Urdu, carry it out with fanfare). He also published a number of books on the topic of metaphysics, and meditation. His poetical works include “Paas-e Ghubaar”, “Hikayaat”, “Ba-Hazrat-e Yazdaan”, and “Malboos-e Bahaar”. Books written by him include “Alam-e Barzaq”, "Jinnaat" (2 volumes), and “Ana min al-Husain”

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, the Iranian painter and miniaturist, Ali Karimi, passed away at the age of 74. He was a student of Hadi Tajvidi, and in turn groomed numerous students, who are highly skilled painters.

AS/ME