Today is Thursday; 20th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 21st of the Islamic month of Muharram 1439 lunar hijri; and October 12, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2556 solar years ago, on this day in 539 BC, as per the Julian Calendar, the historical city of Babylon, in what is now Iraq, was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Iran, the Founder of Achaemenian Dynasty. In order to break through the impregnable fortifications of the city, which was once the centre of science, culture and civilization, Cyrus ordered his troops to divert the waters of the River Tigris that ran through Babylon, and through the now waterless canal his troops entered the city and accomplished the conquest. Cyrus borrowed the rich cultural and scientific heritage of Babylonia and Mesopotamia, which was the cradle of human civilization, to lay the foundations of the Persian Empire, as the first world power that would span parts of the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. For the next two centuries until the invasion of Alexander of Macedon, Babylon and Iraq were part of the Persian Empire. Later around 150 BC, the capital of the Parthian Empire of Iran was established in Iraq near Babylon in the city of Ctesiphon (in the vicinity of modern Baghdad), and continued to be the seat of power of the next Iranian dynasty, the Sassanid till the year 637 AD.

1009 lunar years ago, on this day in 430 AH, the Iranian Shafei hadith scholar and historian, Ahmad Ibn Abdullah, known as Hafez Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani, passed away in his hometown Isfahan. Initially taught by his scholarly grandfather and father, he later studied under leading scholars, including the famous hadith authority of Syria, at-Tabarani, who had settled in Isfahan. Abu Nu’aym Isfahani travelled widely, as far as Islamic Spain. He authored scores of books and treatises including “Dala’el an-Nubuwwa” (Proofs of Prophethood), “The History of Isfahan”, and the 10-volume work “Hilyat al-Awliya”, which is a biography of 650 pious figures, including six of the 12 Infallible Imams of the Prophet’s Household. Abu Nu’aym Isfahani was the ancestor of the famous Imami scholar, Allamah Majlisi, who says his forbear was a devout follower of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt and because of the repressive atmosphere of the times, he lived in a state of dissimulation (taqiyya).

713 lunar years ago, on this day in 726 AH, the renowned theologian Hassan Ibn Yousuf Ibn Ali Ibn Mutahhar al-Hilli, passed away at the age of 78 in his hometown Hilla and was laid to rest in Najaf in the holy mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS). Renowned as "Allamah Hilli", he was a child prodigy, and after initial education under his qualified father, and acquiring of fiqh from his famous maternal uncle "Muhaqqiq Hilli", he proceeded to study from other masters of his era, including the celebrated scholars of Iraq, Seyyed Ali bin Tawus and Seyyed Ahmad bin Tawus, as well as Maytham al-Bahrani of Bahrain and the Iranian Islamic genius, Khwaja Naseer od­Din Tusi, who taught him philosophy and logic. Later, he held debates with scholars of the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence – Hanbali, Hanafi, Maleki, and Shafei. During one such debate in the Ilkhanid court, his rationality convinced the Buddhist-born and Christian-baptized Mongol Emperor of Iran-Iraq, Oljeitu Khodabanda, to become a Muslim and a staunch follower of the Ahl al-Bayt. Allamah Hilli's works include at least a hundred books and treatises on various subjects such as jurisprudence, theology, logic, philosophy, hadith, exegesis of the holy Qur'an and Rijal or evaluation of hadith narrators. Each book of this great mujtahid is enough to portray his precocity and genius. Among his works are "Ma'arej al-Fahm", "Qawa'ed al-Ahkaam", "Tadhkirat ul-Fuqaha" and "Tabsirat ul-Mutallimeen", the last being studied by seminary students till this day. He also wrote on proofs from the holy Qur'an, the hadith, and the intellect, on the right to caliphate of Imam Ali (AS) after the passing away of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). This famous book is titled "Nahj al-Haq wa Kashf as-Sidq". Allama Hilli was succeeded by his worthy son, Mohammad, who is acclaimed as “Fakhr al­Muhaqqiqeen” (Pride of Researchers).

535 solar years ago, on this day in 1492 AD, Italian navigator Christopher Columbus’ Spanish-funded expedition across the Atlantic Ocean, with the help of Spanish Muslim navigators, who knew the routes to the ‘New World’, made landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in an island of the Bahamas which he named San Salvador, but which was called Guanahani by the local Taino people, whom the Spaniard Christians exterminated. Columbus seriously underestimated the size of the Earth – never dreaming that two great continents blocked his path to the east. Even after four voyages to America, he believed until the end of his life in 1506 that he had discovered an isolated corner of Asia.

485 solar years ago, on this day in 1532 AD, Spanish invaders, led by Francisco Pizarro, attacked Peru in South America, destroying the advanced Inca Empire and massacring the native people.

437 lunar years ago, on this day in 1002 AH, ambassadors of the sultanates of the Deccan (southern India) conveyed the refusal of the Nizamshahi, Adelshahi and Qotbshahi sultans to acknowledge Jalal od-Din Akbar Shah, the Mughal Emperor of Hindustan (northern subcontinent), as their overlord. Akbar was furious and sent armies to attack them, but did not succeed in subjugating the three Persianate sultanates which followed the creed of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, and considered the Safavid emperor of Iran as their overlord, reciting his name in the Friday sermons in their respective capitals – Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golkandah-Haiderabad.

204 solar years ago, on this day in 1813 AD, 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 in the Caucasus. 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 Azarbaijan. Thirteen years later, Russia again invaded Iran, and occupied other Iranian regions, such as Armenia, Nakhchivan and what is now the Republic of Azerbaijan.

195 solar years ago, on this day in 1822 AD, Prince Pedro proclaimed Brazil as an independent country and himself an emperor on his 24^th birthday, over a year after the return to Lisbon of his father King Joao VI, who in 1807 had shifted to Brazil the entire royal court following Portugal’s invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte of France. Portugal had seized this part of South America in 1500 with the landing of a fleet led by Pedro Alvares Cabral. The Portuguese almost drove into extinction the local Amerindians and forcibly Christianized other natives. They then kidnapped hundreds of thousands of black people from Africa to work as slaves on plantations and farmlands. On 29 August 1825, Portugal formally recognized the independence of Brazil. In 1831 Pedro I abdicated the throne of Brazil in favour of his minor son, Pedro II and returned to Europe, where shortly after retaking Portugal following a civil war, and ascending the throne in Lisbon as Pedro IV, he died of tuberculosis in 1834. In 1889 Brazil became a republic, a year after Pedro II whose reforms such as abolishment of slavery in 1888, angered plantation owners and led to his overthrow.

194 solar years ago, on this day in 1823 AD, Charles Macintosh of Scotland began selling for the first time what he had invented and called a raincoat for protection of clothes from showers.

146 solar years ago, on this day in 1871 AD, the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) was enacted by British colonialists in India, which unjustly branded over 160 local communities as 'Criminal Tribes' or ‘hereditary criminals’. This discriminatory law was repealed in 1949, after India gained Independence.

93 solar years ago, on this day in 1924 AD, French journalist, author, poet, and Nobel Prize laureate, Anatole France, died at the age of 80 in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire in central France. Born in Paris, he was considered the ideal French man of letters.

23 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, the prominent Iranian researcher and translator, Mahmoud Riyazi, passed away. He has left behind several important works such as “Emergence and Downfall of Big Powers”, and “Energy Crisis”.

18 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, General Pervez Musharraf ousted Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup and seized power in Pakistan, a day after the latter had dismissed him from his post of chairman of the army's joint chief of staff. For nine years, Musharraf stayed in power, by changing the constitution and becoming the president through rigged elections. He turned the country into a US base for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. In July 2008 he was forced to resign and hand over power to an elected civilian government.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, Iranian President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, welcomed by tens of thousands of Lebanese people in Beirut, including Christians and Sunni Muslims, throwing rose petals at his cavalcade, underscored the growing power of the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Resistance in the face of US-Zionist plots. Later, the Iranian president visited the border with occupied Palestine and boldly denounced the illegal Zionist entity.

3 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, East African academic and political scientist, Professor Ali Mazrui, passed away at the age of 81 in New York, where he was Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, and as per his will, his body was taken to his hometown Mombasa in Kenya for burial in his ancestral graveyard as per Islamic rites. After preliminary studies in Mombasa, he completed higher education in Britain, and returned to East Africa to teach at the University of Kampala in Uganda, from where after expulsion by the dictator Idi Amin, he settled in the US, teaching as professor in several universities. An expert writer on African and Islamic studies as well as North-South relations, he was critical of African socialism and all strains of Marxism. He argued that communism was a Western import just as unsuited for the African condition as the earlier colonial attempts to install European type governments. At the same time he was a prominent critic of the current world order. He believed the capitalist system was deeply exploitative of Africa, and that the West practiced global apartheid. He opposed the West’s interventions in the developing world, such as the US war on Iraq, and was against the policies of the Zionist entity, Israel – one of the first to link the treatment of Palestinians with South Africa's apartheid. Mazrui was also a well-known commentator on Islam and Islamism. He rejected violence and terrorism and praised the anti-imperialist sentiment that plays an important role in the modern world. He maintained that the dynamism of the shari’a law is compatible with democracy. Mazrui wrote several books, including on his native Swahili language and culture.

Today, 20^th of the Iranian month of Mehr, is the day for commemoration of the famous Iranian poet, Khwajah Shams od-Din Mohammad Hafez Shirazi. Born in the southern city of Shiraz in 1348 AD, he was a memorizer of the Holy Qur’an and Arabic literature, and thus popularly known as "Hafez". Being inspired by Islamic teachings, he used unique metaphors, writing the best Persian ghazals or lyrics in the history of Iran's literature. For this reason, the Leader of Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in an address to congress, commemorating the 600th anniversary of the death of Hafez, termed the commemoration of Hafez as the commemoration of Islamic and Iranian culture and pure thoughts, while naming Hafez as the most glittering cultural figure of Iran. Up to now, numerous commentaries have been written on the Diwan of Hafez, which has been translated into major world languages. Hafez passed away in 1413 AD.

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