Today is Saturday; 27th of the Iranian month of Aban 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 29th of the Islamic month of Safar 1439 lunar hijri; and November 18, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1122 lunar years ago, on this day in 317 AH, the famous Muslim astronomer, astrologer, and mathematician,  Abu Abdullah Mohammad bin Jaber al-Battani, known as Albatenius to medieval Europe, passed away near Samarra in Iraq at the age of 81. Born in the upper Mesopotamian Syrian city of Harran (presently under Turkish occupation), he was initially educated by his scientist father Jaber Ibn San’an al-Battani. He then moved to Raqqa, situated on the banks of the Euphrates, where he received advanced education and flourished as a scholar. Later he migrated to Samarra, where he worked till the end of his life. He introduced a number of trigonometric relations, and his “Kitabaz-Zij” was frequently quoted by many medieval astronomers, including Copernicus. He catalogued 489 stars. He showed that the position of the Sun’s apogee, or farthest point from the Earth, is variable and that annular (central but incomplete) eclipses of the Sun are possible. The thorough observation of the movement of the stars and the revolution of the earth around the sun, enabled Islamic scientists to fix the length of the solar year, and thus the Islamic calendar was born. As its lunar counterpart, it was also based on the auspicious migration of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina. Al-Battani determined the solar year as being 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds. Some of his measurements were even much more accurate than ones taken by Copernicus many centuries later. The Islamic calendar is more precise than the modern western calendar, and it was perfected by the Iranian Islamic astronomer, Omar Khayyam Neishapouri, who compiled the Jalali Calendar, on whose basis the Nowrouz or exact time of the Spring Equinox continues to be determined in Iran and other eastern Islamic lands till this day. Al-Battani’s principal written work, a compendium of astronomical tables, was translated into Latin in about 1116 and into Spanish in the 13th century. The crater Albategnius on the Moon is named after him. The indebtedness of Copernicus to al-Battani is well known. He quotes him fairly often, especially— as does Peurbach—in the chapters dealing with the problems of solar motion and of precession. Much more frequent references to him are found in Tycho Brahe’s writings and in Kepler’s; while Galileo is also all praise for him.

591 lunar years ago, on this day in 848 AH, Mirza Ispand, the governor of Baghdad, passed away. In 840 AH, he invited prominent ulema of all denominations of Islam to hold a debate, in which the Shi'ites or followers of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt triumphed through their rational discourse on the basis of the holy Qur'an and the Prophet's Hadith. Mirza Ispand thereby declared the School of the Ahl al-Bayt as the official creed of the state.

416 solar years ago, on this day in 1601 AD, Tiryaki Hassan Pasha, provincial governor of Ottoman Empire, decisively defeated Habsburg forces commanded by Ferdinand the Archduke of Austria during the Siege of Nagykanizsa. The 50,000-strong Christian force attacked what was then Kanije in southwest Hungary, but the superior tactics of the Muslim defenders enabled the Turks to withstand the siege and ultimately counterattack and defeat the enemy forces. Hassan Pasha was an ethnic Bosnian and because of addiction to coffee was known as Tiryaki.

372 lunar years ago, on this day in 1077 AH, the Maratha rebel Shivaji Bhosle panicked and fled from the guesthouse where he was lodged in Agra, on learning that Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, was planning to send him and his guerilla forces to the northwestern frontier for the campaign to retake Qandahar (in what is now Afghanistan) from the Safavid Empire of Iran. Back in the Deccan, Shivaji continued his marauding of the territories of the Mughals as well as that of the Adel-Shahi and Qutb Shahi kingdoms of Iranian origin, from his base in Raigarh. He molded the Maratha people, who had previously served the Nizam-Shahi and Adel-Shahi kingdoms, into a warlike group that became dominant in India for the next century, and even changed the kings of the declining Mughal Empire in Delhi, until their shattering defeat at the 3rd Battle of Panipat by Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan.

350 solar years ago, on this day in 1667 AD, The Treaty of Bongaja was forced upon Sultan Hassan od-Din of Gowa in what is now Indonesia by the invading forces of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), following the defeat of the Muslim army at Makassar on Sulawesi Island, mainly due to the siding of the animist warlord Arung Palakka with the Christians. Based on the terms of the treaty, Sultan Hassan od-Din conceded to the Dutch the territories of Buton, Makassar, Timor, Bima and the coasts of Java. For the next two centuries, Netherland’s control over the archipelago was tenuous outside of coastal strongholds and only in the early 20th century did Dutch dominance extend to what was to become Indonesia's present boundaries. In 1945, following end of World War 2 and Japanese occupation, Indonesia announced its independence, but was attacked by the Dutch, who in 1949, finally left the world’s most populous Muslim country.

230 solar years ago, on this day in 1787 AD, the French painter, inventor, and physicist, Louis Daguerre, was born. His most important invention was the camera in the year 1839. He managed to take the first clear photo with this camera. Interestingly, nearly concurrent with Daguerre, his compatriot, Joseph Nicephore Niepce, had also succeeded in inventing the camera. Daguerre died in 1851.

178 solar years ago, on this day in 1839 AD, the second phase of the Algerian people’s anti-colonial struggles against France started under the leadership of Seyyed Abdul-Qader bin Mohieddin al-Hassani, al-Jaza'eri, who claimed descent from Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Abdul-Qader, who returned to Algeria, a few months before the Turks lost it to the French invaders in 1930, had during his 5-year journey abroad, met with, and was highly impressed by Imam Shamil of Daghestan – the leader of the struggle against Russian expansion in the Caucasus which recently had been seized by the Czar from the Qajarid rulers of Iran. As a Sufi scholar, Abdul-Qader now led the military struggle against France, and within two years was made an amir by tribes fighting the French. He organized guerrilla warfare and for a decade scored many victories. He often signed tactical truces with the French, but these did not last. His failure to get support from the eastern tribes, apart from the Berbers of western Kabylie led to the quelling of his uprising. On December 21, 1847, after being denied refuge in Morocco because of French pressure, he surrendered. It took more than a century for the French to leave Algeria as a result of the freedom war that started in the 1950s and triumphed in 1962, but not before France had massacred over a million Algerian Muslims.

153 lunar years ago, on this day in 1286 AH, the prominent Iranian religious scholar, Mullah Hussain-Ali Toiserkaani, passed away in the central Iranian city of Isfahan. He conducted researches and studies and was highly knowledgeable in sciences such as theology and jurisprudence. He lectured for long years and groomed many students. One of his most important books in theology is "Kashf al-Asraar", which has been compiled in eleven volumes. He has left behind other books, such as “Osoul-e Aqaayed”, and “Makaarem al-Akhlaaq”.

118 solar years ago, on this day in 1899 AD, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Qasim Musavi Khoei, was born in Khoy in Iran’s West Azarbaijan Province. After initial studies in Tabriz, he left for holy Najaf in Iraq at the age of 13 to continue his studies. Here, his piety and knowledge attracted the attention of the Indian-based Iranian religious scholar, Mirza Ahmad Najafi-Tabrizi, who gave his daughter in marriage to him and lodged him in his own house. Mirza Ahmad used to frequent the semi-independent state of Banganapalle in south India, ruled by a Seyyed family of Iranian origin, who were patrons of scholars and learning. Soon Ayatollah Khoei mastered logic, rhetoric, theology, jurisprudence and philosophy, and in the process attained the status of Ijtehad. In 1971, he succeeded Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsin al-Hakim as the leading Marja’ of the Islamic world and thereafter groomed a large number of scholars from Iran, Iraq, the Subcontinent, Bahrain and Lebanon. Among his valuable books are “Lectures in the Principles of Jurisprudence”, in 10 volumes, “Islamic Law” in 18 volumes, and "Mu'jam Rijal al-Hadith" in 24 volumes. The last named is an authoritative work on evaluation of narrators of hadith. During the 8-year war imposed on Iran in the 1980s by the US through Saddam, he refused to yield to the Ba’thist minority regime’s pressures to denounce the Islamic Republic, even though his house was frequently subjected to water and electricity cuts. He passed away in Kufa in 1992, a year and some five months after Saddam brutally crushed popular uprising of the Iraqi people. It is believed the regime martyred him through poisoning.

114 solar years ago, on this day in 1903 AD, Panama Canal Treaty was concluded between the Republic of Panama and the US, on the basis of which, the strategic Canal was permanently leased to the US for a mere $10 million in cash and an annual payment of $250,000. The people of Panama, through their struggles, finally forced the US to revise the permanent lease contract in 1978, when US president, Jimmy Carter, and the president of Panama, Omar Torrijos, signed an agreement to give back the Canal to Panama towards the end of the year 1999. The Panama Canal is 68 km in length and links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. However, despite the US withdrawal, Panama continues to be considered by the US as its fiefdom.

100 solar years ago, on this day in 1926 AD, Irish thinker and playwright, George Bernard Shaw, refused to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize." Instituted in 1895 by the Swedish chemist, who was dismayed by the epithet “merchant of death” which he acquired after inventing dynamite, the Nobel Prize was soon politicized and turned into a means for promotion of the West’s domineering, divisive, exploitative and murderous policies that led Bernard Shaw to criticize it. Interestingly, Shaw has made the following statements regarding Islam:

“If any religion had the chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam."

“I have always held the religion of (Prophet) Mohammad (SAWA) in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity.”

“I have prophesied about the faith of (Prophet) Mohammad (SAWA) that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, Head of the Islamic seminary of holy Mashhad, Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Ashtiyani, passed away at the age of 83 and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of Imam Reza (AS) – the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He completed his higher studies and reached the status of Ijtehad in holy Najaf, Iraq, where his teachers were the famous ulema, Mirza Habibollah Rashti, and Akhound Khorasani. On his return to Iran, he took up residence in Tehran for some years before shifting to holy Mashhad where he spent the last 25 years of his life, teaching and preaching.

61 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Morocco became independent from the colonial rule of France, which had seized this Muslim country in 1921. Morocco covers an area of 458,730 sq km, and is located in northwestern Africa and the coastlines of Atlantic Ocean. Muslims constitute 99% of its population.

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1962, Danish scientist and physicist, Niels Bohr, died at the age of 82. He conducted atomic researches for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1945.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, Colonel Abdus-Salaam Aref, with the help of the Ba'th Party, seized power in Iraq, by staging a coup and killing General Abdul-Karim Qasem. Abdus-Salaam Aref, after consolidating his power, purged the government of the Ba’th Party. In 1966, he was killed in a plane crash, while returning to Baghdad from Basra, where in a blasphemous speech he tried to ridicule the famous sermon of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn AbiTaleb (AS), in the book “Nahj al-Balagha”, where Prophet Mohammad's (SAWA) 1st Infallible Successor censures the people of Basra for their unmanly characteristics in assisting the seditionists that had stirred the Battle of Jamal and shed Muslim blood. Abdus-Salaam Aref was replaced by his brother Abdur-Rahman Aref.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, Iraqi parties in exile met in Tehran to form the Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SAIRI) to free their homeland from the tyrannical rule of the Ba'th minority regime of Saddam. SAIRI was active in political and military circles against the Ba'thists during the 8-year war the US had imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran through Saddam. After the US and Britain turned against their protégé Saddam and dislodged him from power in 2003, SAIRI relocated its headquarters to Iraq, where a few months later, its charismatic leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Baqer Hakeem was martyred shortly after leading the Friday Prayer in Najaf in the holy shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS). It has now changed its name to Supreme Islamic Assembly of Iraq, and is led by Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Ammar Hakeem, nephew of Seyyed Mohammd Baqer Hakeem. The group is an active member of the ruling coalition of Iraq.

AS/SS