Today is Monday; 8th of the Iranian month of Aban 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 10th of the Islamic month of Safar 1439 lunar hijri; and October 30, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1380 solar years ago, on this day in 637 AD, Antioch in Syria surrendered to the Muslim forces after the Battle of the Iron Bridge that was fought near a nine-arch stone bridge spanning the River Orontes in what is now southeastern Turkey, but is geographically and historically part of Syria. The aftermath of the battle marked the nearly complete annexation of the large Roman province of Syria by the Muslims, one of whose victorious commanders in this battle was Malek Ashtar, who later loyally served the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS) and was made governor of Egypt with the famous epistle that is regarded till this day as the finest charter of human rights. The capture and clearance of Azaz was essential to ensure that no large Byzantine forces remained north of Aleppo, from where they could strike at the flank and rear of the Muslim army during the operation against Antioch. According to the pact, the defeated Byzantine soldiers were allowed to depart in peace. Following the surrender of Antioch, Muslim forces moved south along the Mediterranean coast and captured Latakia, Jablah and Tartus, while other columns were sent to subdue the remaining resistance in northern Syria.

1350 lunar years ago, on this day in 99 AH, Sulayman ibn Abdul-Malik, the 7^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, died at the age of 43 after a reign of 2 years and nine months in Qenshirin, near Aleppo on his way to invade the Byzantine Empire, following the unsuccessful siege of Constantinople by his brother, Maslamah. He was gluttonous with insatiable appetite for large quantities of food, in addition to being a womanizer. An intensely jealous person, he publicly disgraced Musa Ibn Nusayr, the governor-general of North Africa and Spain for not delaying the triumphal entry into Damascus of the rich spoils of Spain until he could take over the caliphate from his ailing brother, Waleed I. He subsequently had two of Ibn Nusayr’s sons executed and sadistically presented the head of one of them to the wretched father. He also had the governor of Khorasan and Transoxiana, Qutayba Ibn Muslim, killed in battle for advising Waleed to exclude Sulayman from the list of succession. He used to openly praise the founder of the Omayyad usurper regime, Mu'awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, saying he had never come across anyone so unabashed in cruelty, crime and oppression

1259 solar years ago, on this day in 758 AD, Guangzhou in southeastern China saw an expedition mounted by a joint force of Arab and Iranian sailors who took control of this port city, following massacre of thousands of Muslim merchants and their families by the Chinese rebel leader, Huang Chao, during the days of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty. Order was restored on the intervention of the authorities and the Muslims were allowed to carry on trade and build mosques in Guangzhou, where in 2010 China held the 16th Asian Games. According to the ancient Iranian historian, Abu Zaid Hassan of Siraf, Iranians used to call Guangzhou "Khanfu" and Arabs "Sin Kalaan". Many Iranian and Arab Muslims were settled over a thousand years ago in this city which was later called Canton by the Europeans. Today also Guangzhou has a noticeable population of Chinese Muslims. 

1110 lunar years ago, on this day in 329 AH, the Iranian statesman and historian, Abu Ali Mohammad Amirak Bal’ami, passed away. Born in Lashjerd near the Khorasani city of Marv (presently in Turkmenistan), he was the son of Abu’l-Fazl Bal’ami (also called Bal’am-e Buzurg or the Elder), and was appointed vizier of the Iranian Samanid Empire during the reign of Amir Abdul-Malik I. He kept holding the office under the next ruler, Mansour I. His most famous work is “Tarikh-e Bal’ami”, which is a Persian translation of the famous Iranian historian Abu Ja’far Mohammad bin Jarir Tabari’s monumental Arabic work “Tarikh ar-Rusol wa’l-Mulook” (History of Prophets and Kings). It contains supplementary material, some of which is found nowhere else. It is the oldest Persian prose work after the Shahnamah of Daqiqi.

746 solar years ago, on this day in 1270 AD, the Eighth Crusade and siege of Tunis, mounted by invaders from Europe, ended by an accord between Sultan Mohammad I al-Mustansir of Tunis and Charles I of Sicily (brother of King Louis IX of France, who died months earlier on invading this Muslim land). The Crusader plan was to use this North African Muslim city as a base to attack Palestine, but the plan failed, because of the strength of the Mamluk army of Sultan Baibars of Egypt that had liberated most of the cities of Palestine and Syria from the Crusader occupation. Baibars had already assembled a separate army for aiding Tunis against the Christian invaders, but disbanded it on learning of the retreat of the disease-afflicted Crusaders.

735 solar years ago, on this day in 1282 AD, the famous biographer of Iranian stock, Shams od-Din Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Ibn Khallikan passed away in Damascus at the age of 71. He was born in Arbil in northeastern Iraq and 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. 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.

677 solar years ago, on this day in 1340 AD, Portuguese and Spanish Castilian forces halted the Muslims in the Battle of Río Salado, but failed to subjugate the Emirate of Granada. Two months earlier in August, Sultan Abu’l-Hasan Ali, the Marinid ruler of Morocco, who had crossed over to Spain to help Spanish Muslims against Christian marauders from the north, had inflicted a shattering defeat on the Portuguese-Castilian alliance, destroying the Christian fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar, and ensuring that the island of Gibraltar (corruption of the Arabic term “Jabal at-Tareq” or Rock of Tareq, the Muslim conqueror of Spain), remains under the suzerainty of Emir Yusuf of Granada. In 1492 with the fall of Granada, the last Spanish Muslim stronghold, to the Christian aggressors, almost 8 centuries of Muslim rule in Spain that produced scholars and scientists at a time when Europe was immersed in the dark ages, came to its end, because of Muslim disunity and the failure of the two strong Muslim regional Empires of the Mamluks of Egypt-Syria and the Ottomans of Anatolia and southwestern Europe, to respond to the pleas for help of their co-religionists in Spain. 

436 lunar years ago, on this day in 1003 AH, the famous Persian poet and scholar of India, Shaikh Abu’l-Faiz, known by his penname “Faizi”, died from asthma at the age of 49. He was the “Malik-ush-Shu'ara” (Poet Laureate) of the court of the Moghal Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar Shah, and was elder brother of the equally famous court historian Abu’l-Fazl. He composed significant poetic works in Persian and his Divan comprising “qasida” (eulogy), “ghazal” (lyric), “ruba’i” (quatrain), and “marthia” (elegy), is entitled “Tabashir as-Subh”. In pursuance of the literary practice then in vogue, he produced “Panj Ganj” (Five Treasures) in the “khamsa” style of poetry in imitation of the celebrated Iranian poet Nizami Ganjavi. He thus wrote “Nal va Daman”, “Markaz ul-Advaar”, “Sulaiman va Bilqis”, “Haft Kishvar” and “Akbarnamah”. These are respectively answers to Nizami's “Layla va Majnoun”, “Makhzan ul-Asraar” “Khosraw va Shirin”, “Haft Paykar” and “Iskandarnamah”. Faizi also wrote a series of reports on political and cultural conditions of the sultanates of the Deccan (southern India), as well as on the Safavid Empire of Iran. Among his other works is an exegesis of the Holy Qur’an, and translation from Sanskrit into Persian of the famous mathematical work “Lilavati”.

391 solar years ago, on this day in 1626 AD, Dutch astronomer and mathematician, Willebrord Snellius, who falsely attributed to himself the Iranian Islamic scientist Ibn Sahl’s “Law of Refraction of Light”, died at the age of 46. Named Willebrord Snel van Royen at birth and known in the English-speaking world as Snell; in the West, his name has been attached to the law of refraction of light for several centuries, but it is now known that this law was discovered by Abu Sa’d al-Ala ibn Sahl of Baghdad in 984. Ibn Sahl (940–1000) was a mathematician, physicist and optics engineer of the Islamic Golden Age. His treatise “On Burning Mirrors and Lenses” sets out his understanding of how curved mirrors and lenses bend and focus light. Ibn Sahl is credited with first discovering the law of refraction, which until late was called “Snell’s Law” in the West. Ibn Sahl used the law of refraction to derive lens shapes that focus light with no geometric aberrations, known as anaclastic lenses. Ibn Sahl’s treatise was used by Ibn al-Haitham (965–1039), one of the greatest Islamic scholars of optics who flourished in Iraq during the rule of the Iranian Buwaihid Dynasty and later moved to Fatemid Egypt. In modern times, Egyptian scientist and historian, Roshdi Rashed, discovered Ibn Sahl’s text dispersed in manuscripts in two different libraries, one in Tehran (Iran), and the other in Damascus (Syria). He reassembled the surviving portions, translated and published them.

175 lunar years ago, on this day in 1263 AH, prominent Iranian author, Mullah Ja’far Shariatmadar Astarabadi passed away in Tehran at the age of 66 and his body was taken to holy Najaf in Iraq for burial. He was a product of the famous Najaf Islamic seminary. He left for Iran during the siege of the holy city of Karbala by the Ottoman General Davoud Pasha. He was an expert on Arabic literature and an accomplished poet. Among his books is "al-Masabih" on principles of Islamic Jurisprudence.

107 solar years ago, on this day in 1910 AD, Founder of International Committee of the Red Cross, Henri Dunant, died at the age of 82. He backed efforts to help and save the wounded in wars, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 for his humanitarian services. Since the Cross represents the crucifix and is a Christian Trinitarian emblem contrary to the belief of Muslims that Prophet Jesus was not crucified, Muslims have adopted the Red Crescent as their symbol. The Red Crescent emblem was first used by ICRC volunteers during the armed conflict between the Ottoman Muslim Empire and the Russian Christian Empire in 1877-1878. The symbol was officially adopted in 1929, and so far 33 Islamic states have recognized it. Today the abbreviation IFRC stands for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

80 solar years ago, on this day in 1937 AD, an asteroid approached the Earth, at about twice the distance of the moon. At the time, it was regarded as the closest approach of anybody other than a meteor. It traversed the night sky at 5 degrees per hour. It was first spotted two nights earlier on 28 Oct by Astronomer Karl Reinmuth of Germany who noticed a streak of light on a picture he had just taken. He named it Hermes. He was able to observe it for only five days before viewing conditions became unfavorable. It was lost until sighted again on 15 Oct 2003 by Britain’s Lowell Observatory astronomer Brian Skiff. Its elliptical orbit took 777 days, cutting across the orbits of Venus, Earth and Mars. It was found to be a binary object by Jean-Luc Margot at the Arecibo Observatory.

57 lunar years ago, on this day in 1382 AH, Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abdul-Hadi Shirazi, passed away at the age of 77 in Kufa and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). Born in holy Samarra to the scholar Seyyed Ismail Shirazi, he completed his higher religious studies in the famous Najaf Seminary where his teachers included Ayatollah Mohammad Kazem Akhound Khorasani and Ayatollah Shaikh ash-Shari’ah Isfahani. He attained ijtehad and issued a famous fatwa against communism, which was spreading in Iraq. He was teacher to such famous students as Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Ja’fari, Ayatollah Hussain Wahid Khorasani and Ayatollah Mohammad Reza al-Muzaffar. He wrote several books, including “Dar al-Islam”.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, the courageous Iranian boy, Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Fahmideh, who had just stepped into his teens, attained martyrdom in the port city of Khorramshahr at the age of 13 during the initial days of the 8-year war imposed on Iran by the US through Saddam. Born in holy Qom, he went to the warfronts to confront the cowardly Ba'thist enemy. In a bid to stop Iraqi columns from advancing, he tied grenades around his waist and fearlessly threw himself into the path of a tank, destroying it and attaining martyrdom in the process. Aban 8 is marked in Iran as Day of Youth and Day of Student Basijis. Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini lauded this young martyr, saying: "Our leader is that 12-year-old child, who attained martyrdom while blowing up an enemy tank."

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, under US pressure, the so-called Middle East Peace Conference was held in Madrid, Spain, between the illegal Zionist entity, and Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestine Liberation Organization. At this and subsequent dubious meetings, the usurper Israeli regime emphasized on what it called peace for peace, while the Arab states called for return of land in exchange for peace by urging the withdrawal of Zionists from only the lands occupied in 1967. Israel, with US help managed to drive a wedge among Arab negotiators, and tricked the PLO and Jordan by imposing upon them separate so-called peace treaties, whose clauses it refuses to honour. Such meetings are mere deception and nothing has come out from them, except for more retreat by the Arabs. Syria, sensing the futility of these so-called peace talks withdrew from them when Israel refused to return the Golan Heights. The regime in Jordan signed a scandalous treaty with Israel and has not gained anything concrete in return, except for more humiliation. As has become evident, Israel and its backers are not interested in peace, and as Iran has pointed out the only solution to the chronic question of Palestine is to hold a referendum involving all original inhabitants of this land, including Muslims, Christians and the original Jews, for a single country and government, with the emphasis that all those who migrated from abroad should peacefully return to their lands of origin.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Iranian revolutionary and committed poet, Qaysar Aminpour passed away at the age of 48. Born in the vicinity of the southwestern city of Dezful, he came to Tehran after completion of his primary and high school studies, got his PhD in Persian Language and Literature from Tehran University. As of the early days after the victory of Islamic Revolution, he composed revolutionary poems and helped set up literary and art associations. His works include “Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Poetry” and "Noon of the Tenth Day".

AS/ME