Today is Tuesday; 18th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 19th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1439 lunar hijri; and October 10, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1378 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, the Caravan of the Captives of Karbala, headed by Hazrat Zainab and Imam Zain al-Abedin (peace upon them) – the sister and son of Imam Husain (AS), was hastily dispatched towards Damascus in Syria to the court of the self-styled caliph, Yazid ibn Mu’awiyyah, by the tyrannical governor of Iraq, Obaidullah ibn Ziyad, who feared that the presence in Kufa of the bereaved womenfolk and children of the Prophet’s Household would result in uprising against Omayyad rule. The Prophet’s granddaughter reprimanded the Kufans for their weak faith and double crossing, saying they had invited Imam Husain (AS) and then deserted him to be tragically martyred; and that many of them had participated in the shedding of his innocent blood, which will remain till the Day of Resurrection an ugly blot upon them, since they have badly hurt the Prophet’s soul. She would have continued this highly eloquent sermon if her nephew Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) had not stepped forward and requested her to have patience. When brought to the court of the tyrant Obaidullah ibn Ziyad, who mocked at the severed heads of the martyrs of Karbala, Hazrat Zainab (SA) boldly addressed him:

“We are the sisters of Husain (AS), the grand daughters of Mohammad (SAWA) whom you acknowledge as your Prophet. You and the other henchmen of Yazid have, for the sake of worldly gains, flouted all the principles of Islam, have desecrated the dead bodies of the martyrs, despite the fact that it is strictly forbidden by religion… Today you are gloating over your success and rejoicing; today you are thinking that you can insult and humiliate us to your heart’s content because there is nobody to say a word to you on our behalf, because you see us in this helpless state with no one to befriend us, none to protest against the treatment you are meting out to us. But O tyrant! Let me warn you that you will find your success ephemeral and very soon the wrath of God will descend on you and on those whose cause you espouse. Very soon the nemesis will overtake you and all the others who have ruthlessly killed my brother and other members of my family without the least compunction, simply because they stood steadfast in their belief; because they refused to surrender their principles or compromise their ideals; because they refused to accept Yazid, whose stooge you are, as the caliph of Muslims on account of his being a known profligate, who had flouted all principles of Islam, trampled all ethical concepts and reduced all human beings to an abject state.”

A stunned Ibn Ziyad, sensing dangers of uprising if the captives of Karbala remained in Kufa, sent them hastily towards his mentor Yazid in Syria, but through circuitous routes so that the people of the remote towns through which they pass would not know their identity.

1347 solar years ago, on this day in 680 AD (as per the Georgian Calendar), occurred the fateful Day of Ashura or the 10th of Moharram in the year 61 AH, on which the heartrending tragedy of Karbala took place in Iraq, resulting in the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3rd Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Immortal Saga of Imam Husain (AS) continues to inspire Muslims and all conscientious people in every age and place, and throughout history has been the catalyst for reform and revolutionary movements against tyranny and injustice.

1289 solar years ago, on this day in 728 AD, the Iranian ascetic, Hassan al-Basri, passed away at the age of 86 in the Iraqi port city of Basra, where he lived most of his life. He is considered a progenitor by the Sufis, as well as by the Sunni sect, although neither the term “Sufi” existed in his times, nor the sect which the 2nd Abbasid caliph, Mansour Dawaniqi, created as “Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah” sometime around 150 AH (around 765 AD) to divide the general public from Shi’ite Muslims (staunch followers of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt), had yet evolved. Born in Medina to Peroz, a freed Persian captive and his wife Khaira – a Persian maid of Omm Salama, one of the wives of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – he was a controversial character, who gave rise to dubious narrations. He grew up in Omm Salama’s house, knew the status of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, and held Imam Ali (AS) in high esteem, but erred in differing with him by following his own deviant opinion. Despite respect for the Prophet’s grandsons, Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS), he failed to support them, and in the next generation was rebuked by the Prophet’s 4th Infallible Heir, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), for his confusion to discern between free will and compulsion. During the era of Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), he showed inclination towards the tyrannical Omayyad regime and gathered followers around him. In short, unsupported statements of the law make up the greater bulk of quotations from him, and proved troublesome for even the Sunni jurists that emerged a generation later. The famous biographer Ibn Sa’d in his book “Tabaqaat” quotes Hassan Basri as acknowledging that only some of what he told people was based on what he had really heard from the Prophet’s companions, as opposed to his own opinions. This suggests he had less information available to him about the norms laid down by the Prophet. Ibn Sa’d, himself a Sunni, states that what Hasan Basri expressly related from the Prophet through a named Companion is reliable, whereas what he related directly from the Prophet (considerably more) is unreliable. The “Tabaqaat” notes that he paraphrased hadith rather than repeat them verbatim, lengthening or shortening them as per his whim. He is thus an example of an ascetic, a worshipper, and a scholar gone off the track.

1285 solar years ago, on this day in 732 AD, the Battle of Tours, near Poitiers in France, southwest of Paris, ended in the defeat of the Omayyad forces and killing of their commander, Abdur-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, the governor of the Spanish region of Cordoba, by a huge army of Franks and Germans. The Christians were led by Charles Martel (an illegitimate son of the German chief, Pepin), whose barbaric nature as marauder of the frontiers of the Roman Empire, the Muslims failed to properly estimate. Another reason for defeat of the Arabs was preoccupation with war booty, as well as squabbles between various ethnic and tribal factions. Al-Ghafiqi, who had been appointed by the Omayyad tyrant of Damascus, Hisham Ibn Abdul-Malik, as commander in France in 730, after the death of Samh Ibn Malik in the Battle of Toulouse in 721 and of Anbasa Ibn Suhaym in the Battle of Gaul in 726, crossed the Pyrenees mountain range with 50,000 cavalry. He swiftly took Bordeaux and Aquitaine and poised for a decisive victory when Tours turned out to be a debacle that also claimed his life. This Battle is considered a strategic win for the Christians, since their defeat would have led to the conquest of all France and Germany by the Muslims and the possibility of their crossing the English Channel for subjugation of the British Isles. The debacle at Tours did not stop the Muslim advance elsewhere in Europe. Muslim presence continued in southern France for over a century. In 734, the Muslims took Arles, St. Remy, Avignon, and retook Lyons and Burgundy. Successful raids were conducted on the western (Atlantic) coast of France throughout the 8th and 9th centuries. In 889 the Muslims established a presence in western Switzerland, which lasted almost two centuries. During the reign of Abdur-Rahman III of Spain, Fraxinetum, Valais, Geneva, Toulon and Great St. Bernard were taken by Muslim armies who then swung around Lake Geneva in 956 and established themselves in the mountain passes leading into northern Italy. At the same time, Sicily and parts of southern Italy were firmly in the hands of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’ite Dynasty of North Africa. Thereafter, Muslim military power began to decline, not because of the superiority of Europeans but due to infighting. Taking advantage of this chaos, Christian armies ejected the Muslims from southern France, Italy and the Mediterranean islands during the early Crusades (in 1050), persecuting, massacring and enslaving the population.

1073 lunar years ago, on this day in 366 AH, the Buwaiyhid ruler of northern and central Iran, Hassan Ibn Buya Daylami, titled Rukn od-Dowlah, passed away. The federation of Buwaiyhid Amirs, who were Iranian Muslims and followers of the school of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt, ruled most of Iran and Iraq for over a hundred years. They rebuilt the holy shrines of the Infallible Imams in Iraq and patronized a great many scholars, in addition to building schools, hospitals, bridges and other public works. Rukn od-Dowlah was the father of the famous ruler of Iraq and Iran, Fana Khosrow Adhud od-Dowlah.

750 lunar years ago, on this day in 689 AH, Kai-Qobad, the 10^th and last sultan of the Mamluk (Slave) Dynasty of Hindustan (Northern Subcontinent), was murdered after a 3-year reign at the instigation of his prime minister, Jalal od-Din Khalji, who after enthroning and soon dethroning his 3-year orphan, Shams od-Din Kiamurs, took the title of Ferouz Shah to set up the short-lived Khalji Dynasty. Kai-Qobad had succeeded his grandfather, the powerful Sultan Ghiyas od-Din Balban, on the refusal of his own father Naseer od-Din Bughra Khan the governor of Bengal to take the crown of Delhi. Soon Kai-Qobad’s inefficiency and pleasure-loving ways made the father march against his son. The two armies met on the banks of Saryu River in North Bihar, but due to the love for his father, Kai-Qobad ran towards Bughra and embraced him, while in tears. No battle took place and a peace treaty was agreed between Bengal and Hindustan. The famous poet Amir Khosrow, who was a contemporary, has versified this unusual event in the Persian Mathnavi titled “Qiran os-Sa’dain” (Meeting of the Two Auspicious Stars). The court language of the Subcontinent during Muslim rule was Persian.

437 solar years ago, on this day in 1580 AD, after a three-day siege, the English Army brutally beheaded over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, Ireland.

315 lunar years ago, on this day in 1124 AH, the 7^th Mughal Emperor of the Subcontinent, Qotb od-Din Mo’azzam entitled Shah Alam Bahadur Shah I, died in Lahore at the age of 71, while making alterations to the famous Shalimar Gardens. During his brief 5-year reign he managed to keep intact the vast empire of his father, Aurangzeb – from Kabul in Afghanistan to the southern tip of peninsular India and from Baluchistan in the west to the borders of Burma in the east. As had been the sorry state of affairs, since the death of Jahangir in 1627, he had risen to the throne after defeating and killing his brothers, Azam and Kam Bakhsh. His four sons likewise disputed the succession and battles ensued in which Azim osh-Shan, Rafi osh-Shan, and Jahan Shah were killed, while the remaining Mo'iz od-Din Jahandar Shah ascended the throne, only to be overthrown eleven months later by his nephew Farrokhsiyar, with the help of the “kingmakers”, the two Seyyed Brothers, Abdullah Khan and Husain Ali Khan.

286 solar years ago, on this day in 1731 AD, the English philosopher and biologist, Henry Cavendish, was born in the French city of Nice. He turned into an authority on physics, chemistry, and biology. He was the first European to prove that hydrogen is lighter than air and the objects that are filled with hydrogen can ascend. He died in 1810.

237 solar years ago, on this day in 1780 AD, the Great Hurricane swept across the Caribbean islands killing 20,000-to-30,000 people. It is probably the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, with winds possibly exceeding 320 km per hour or 200 miles per hour.

115 solar years ago, on this day in 1902 AD the first session of International Arbitration Court was held in Hague, Netherlands. Founded in 1899 upon the demand of Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, this court is one of the oldest international judicial bodies and operates under UN supervision.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, the Wuchang Uprising led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty and founding of the Republic of China in February 1912, following a railway crisis that resulted in the Xinhai Revolution. On this day, 17 years later in 1928, Chiang Kai-Shek became Chairman of the Republic of China, but lost the country to the communist leader, Mao Zedong in 1949.

104 solar years ago, on this day in 1913 AD, the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans commingled in the Panama Canal after US engineers blew up the Gamboa Dam and water began to fill the Culebra Cut. By the summer of 1913, the locks and the Culebra Cut (culebra means snake) had been finished. The struggle to dig the Culebra Cut had lasted seven years. On 26 September water was first turned into the locks. This act also marked the final stage in the creation of Lake Gatun, 85 ft above sea level, the largest man-made lake at that time.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, 800 Gypsy children were murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp by Nazi German soldiers, who during World War 2 killed tens of millions of European Christians in the holocaust, which the Zionists and their backers in the West today wrongly claim to be directed against the negligible minority of European Jews.

47 solar years ago, on this day in 1970, Fiji gained independence from 90 years of British rule, and was declared a republic. The Fiji Archipelago covers an area of 18,274 square km and is situated in the Pacific Ocean. Almost 40 percent of the 850,000 population is made up of descendants of Indians brought by the British as contract labourers in the 19th century. Muslims number 85,000 or 10 percent of the national population, while Shi’ites or followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt are estimated around 30,000.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, Iranian linguist and Persian language expert, Dr. Mostafa Moqarrabi, passed away at the age of 88. Born in Tehran, as a member of “Farhangistan-e Zabaan”, he contributed to the preparation of school textbooks, and was active in the compilation and publishing of the Persian Language Encyclopedia. In 1953, he joined the prominent scholar Iraj Afshar and his team of scholars such as Mohammad Taqi Daneshpazhuh, Abbas Zaryab Khoei, and Manouchehr Sotudeh, to publish the journal “Farhang-e Iranzamin”, which focused on publishing manuscripts of treatises and short books. He has left behind several works including translation of “History of the World” for school students, and compiled the book “17 Discourses”.

AS/MG