Today is Friday; 28th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 29th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1439 lunar hijri; and October 20, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1378 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, 19 days after the heartrending tragedy of Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the captive children and womenfolk of the Household of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), along with the heads of martyrs, mounted on spear-points, were brought to Damascus, the capital of the Godless Yazid, the self-styled caliph of the Omayyad regime. The noble captives were made to stand at the city gates without any shade, until the bazaars and streets of Damascus were decorated to mock at the Prophet’s family.

536 lunar years ago, on this day in 903 AH, the Iranian historian, Mohammad bin Khwandshah, popularly known as Mirkhwand, passed away in Herat, which was then part of Khorasan and is now in present day Afghanistan. He was from a well-known Seyyed family of Bukhara that traced its descent to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Spending most of his life in Herat in the court of the last Timurid sultan, Hussain Bayqarah, Mirkhwand enjoyed the patronage of the renowned minister, Ali Shir Nava’i, a celebrated writer and poet himself. At the request of his patron, he wrote the general history titled "Rowzat os-Safa" (Garden of Purity). The work is composed of seven large volumes and a geographic appendix, sometimes considered an 8th volume. The history begins with the pre-Islamic Persian kings and surveys the major Muslim rulers of Iran up to his times. Mirkhwand’s maternal grandson, the historian Khwandamir, wrote a sequel to it, and in the 19th century the Iranian scholar Reza Qoli Khan Hedayat wrote a supplement to this work. Mirkhwand is often criticized for his highly embellished and bombastic style and for his uncritical approach to the sources, but his history preserves sections from earlier works that have since been lost. Volumes 5 and 6 are particularly reliable, for they utilize the abundant historiographic materials of the Mongol and Timurid periods and furnish independent information on events contemporary or near contemporary to the author’s lifetime.

385 solar years ago, on this day in 1632 AD, the English mathematician, astronomer and architect, Christopher Wren, was born. After the 'Great Fire'  that destroyed most of London, he presented a scheme to rebuild the city, though only partially realized, still boasts of such architectural landmarks as St. Paul's Cathedral. He invented a “weather clock” similar to a modern barometer, as well as new engraving methods. He died at the age of 90.

298 solar years ago, on this day in 1719 AD, the German mathematician and philosopher, Gottfried Achenwall, was born. He founded the science of statistics. He also conducted extensive studies in philosophy and left behind several works in this scientific course. He died in 1771.

219 solar years ago, on this day in 1798 AD, the Muslim people of Cairo staged an uprising against the French occupation forces of Napoleon Bonaparte, offering 3000 martyrs for the freedom of their country. Inspired by the ulema, the people held a large protest gathering at the famous al-Azhar University that was subjected to attacks by the French military. This led to a battle between the unarmed people who overpowered and killed many French soldiers. The French occupiers retorted with brute forces, killing some 3,000 defenseless people, including many religious scholars. The French soldiers threw the bodies of martyrs into the River Nile.

190 solar years ago, on this day in 1827 AD, the Battle of Navarino in Greece resulted in the defeat of a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada by the British, French, and Russian naval forces in the port of Navarino in Pylos. As many as 6,000 Muslim soldiers lost their life while 60 warships were sunk. The revolt in the Ottoman Province of Yunanistan that had begun in 1821 with the support of leading European Christian powers ended in 1829 with the formal separation of this province and it's renaming as Greece. In short, the Greek Revolt turned into the genocide of Muslims and within a few years all traces of four centuries of Turkish rule of Greece were removed through barbaric crimes by the Christians, who destroyed mosques, converted many into churches and even massacred or expelled ethnic Greek Muslims.

158 solar years ago, on this day in 1859 AD, US philosopher, John Dewey, was born. An advocate of the Pragmatic School of Thought, he authored several books including "The Public and Its Problems", and "Reconstruction in Philosophy". He died in 1952.

126 solar years ago, on this day in 1891 AD, British physicist, James Chadwick, who as one of the evil minds behind London’s manufacture of the atom bomb, was born. He worked on the scattering of alpha particles and on nuclear disintegration. By bombarding beryllium with alpha particles, he discovered a neutral particle in the atom's nucleus in 1932, and named it neutron, while investigating the prototype of weapons of mass destruction. Ironically for his destructive work, he was given the Nobel Prize and later knighted in 1945. He died in 1974.

117 solar years ago, on this day 1900 AD, Albanian Muslim poet and writer, Na'eem Frasheri, passed away at the age of 54 in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which he served as an official in the ministry of culture. A prominent figure of the Albanian National Awakening he is widely regarded as the national poet of Albania. His father was a Bey from Frasher, and he hailed from a family with long connections to the Bektashi Shi'ite Sufi order, founded by the 13th century Iranian mystic, Haji Bektashi Vali of Naishapour, who had settled in Anatolia or what is now Turkey during the days of Seljuqid Sultanate of Roum. Frasheri's earliest writings were poetry and the very first poems he wrote were in Persian. In all, he authored twenty-two major works: four in Turkish, one in Persian, two in Greek and fifteen in his native Albanian. His patriotic poems and highly popular lyric poetry were strongly influenced by Persian literature. He also translated Homer's Iliad, and wrote articles on didactics and Islamic practices. Through his writings, Frasheri exerted a strong influence on Albanian literature and society. Today, the government of Albania has depicted his picture on the obverses of the Albanian 500 leke banknote and the 200 leke banknote. He was survived by his only son, Mahdi Frasheri.

114 solar years ago, on this day in 1903 AD, the prominent theologian and jurisprudent, Ayatollah Seyyed Ismail Noori Tabarsi, passed away in holy Kazemain in Iraq. Born in the town of Noor in Iran’s Mazandaran Province near the Caspian Sea, after preliminary studies, he travelled for higher studies to Iraq, where the famous seminary of holy Najaf, he attended the classes of such leading ulema as the Ayatollahs Shaikh Morteza Ansari, Mirza Habibollah Rashti, and Mirza Mohammad Hassan Shirazi – famous for his fatwa against tobacco consumption to save Iran’s economy from British exploitation. Besides teaching at the seminary he wrote several books, such as the 3-volume “Kifayat-al-Muwahhidin” in Arabic, and the Persian language “Ismat-al-Wilayah”, on imamate. 

79 lunar years ago, on this day in 1360 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hojjat Kuh-Kamarei, passed away. A product of the seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, on his return home, he was active in the northwestern parts of Iran. He groomed many scholars, including his son, Seyyed Mohammad Hojjat Kuh-Kamarei, who was a Marja’ or Source of Emulation of his times.

67 solar years ago, on this day in 1950 AD, the jurisprudent and exegete of the holy Qur’an, Ayatollah Shaikh Ja’far Nizari Naqdi, passed away in holy Najaf, Iraq, at the age of 64. A student of famous scholars such as Ayatollah Shaikh Ahmad Kashef al-Gheta and Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi, on the latter’s instructions he was stationed for a time in al-Ammarah in southern Iraq to enlighten the local tribes of the teachings of Islam. He is the author of several books, such as “al-Anwaar al-Alawiyya wa’l-Asraar al-Murtazawiyya” on the God-given merits of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (PuH), the 1^st divinely-designated vicegerent of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, the former leader of Libya, Muammar Mohammad Qadhafi and his son, Mutassim, were killed shortly after the Battle of Sirte while in the custody of NTC fighters. Brought to power through a military coup in 1969 by the CIA against King Idris who was abroad for medical treatment, Qadhafi terrorized Libya for 42 years until his violent ouster by his own masters – the US and the West – who have since destabilized the country.

AS/ME