Today is Monday; 13th of the Iranian month of Azar 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 15th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1439 lunar hijri; and December 4, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2547 solar years ago, on this day in 530 BC, Iran’s pre-Islamic monotheist Emperor, Cyrus the Great, the Founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, died in battle while fighting the Massagetae tribe along the Syr Darya or River Jaxartes in Central Asia, after a reign of 30 years. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the ancient Levant. He eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia and the Caucasus. From the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen.

1291 lunar years ago, on this day in 148 AH, the scholar Sulaiman Ibn Mehran Kufi al-A'mash passed away in Kufa. He had a sharp memory and had memorized a great number of hadith. A follower of the Infallible Imams of the Household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), he was greatly respected by all other Muslims. He was said to be from Damavand, northeast of Tehran. Two days before his death he was visited by several scholars including Ibn Abu Layla and Abu Hanifa – the founder of the Hanafi School of jurisprudence. The discussion turned to hadith, and the famous statement of Imam Ali (AS): "I am the distributor of heaven and hell". A'mash enlightened the assembly saying that Abu Mutawakkil Naji had told him on the authority of Abu Sa'eed Khudri, who heard the Prophet saying:

"On the Day of Judgement, God will make me and Ali sit on the Sirat with instructions to allow into heaven whoever acknowledged my mission and the friendship of Ali, and to cast into hell whoever denied my mission and was hostile to Ali."

The Prophet then added: "None have true faith in God except those who acknowledge my mission, and none have really acknowledged my mission except the one who sincerely believed in Ali."

This hadith has been narrated through various other sources as well.

1265 lunar years ago, on this day in 174 AH, Abdullah bin Lahiyya, the chief judge of Egypt passed away. He was considered a reliable narrator of hadith by most of the Sunni scholars, and among his narrations are many which expose Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan as a criminal and murderer of Muslims, including the companions of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) such as Hujr Ibn Adi, who was martyred near Damascus for being a staunch follower of Imam Ali (AS). Recently Hujr’s tomb was desecrated by Takfiri terrorists, who stole the body that had remained fresh despite passing a millennium and three centuries.

1116 lunar years ago, on this day in 323 AH, Obaidullah Mahdi died. He claimed to be a descendant of Ismail, the son of Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS), the 6th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He rejected the Abbasids and all preceding caliphs as usurpers of the political rights of the Prophet’s divinely-appointed heir, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). He declared himself caliph in the Maghreb or North Africa, in what is now Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and founded the Fatemid Dynasty, which later shifted its capital to Egypt, ruling for a total of 274 years.

907 solar years ago, on this day in 1110 AD, with the arrival of a 60-ship fleet led by King Sigurd of Norway, the European Crusader invaders who had earlier occupied the holy Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas, brutally sacked the city of Sidon in what is now Lebanon, After a 47-day siege to take the city from the control of the Ismaili Shi’ite Muslim Fatemid Dynasty of Egypt, the Christians massacred the people and looted their property. The attack was led by Baldwin the self-styled king of the usurper Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and was assisted by the Venetian fleet, to prevent the Fatemid navy from sending reinforcements. It is worth recalling that Bayt al-Moqaddas and Palestine were seized by the Crusaders from the Fatemids, whose Islamic army made up of Arabs, Iranians, Turks, and Berbers lost mainly because of arrogance and underestimation of the power and intentions of the European invaders.

886 solar years ago, on this day in 1131 AD, the Iranian mathematician, astronomer, and poet, Ghiyas od-Din Omar Ibn Ibrahim Khayyam, passed away in his hometown Naishapour, Khorasan, in northeastern Iran. He studied in Balkh, Samarqand and Bukhara, before joining the court of the Seljuq ruler, Malik Shah, as scientific advisor. In 1070, he wrote the influential “Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra”, which laid down the principles of algebra that was eventually transmitted to Europe. In 1077, Khayyam wrote “Sharh ma ashkala min Musadarat Kitab Uqlidis” (Explanations of the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid). He set up an observatory in his hometown and led work on compiling astronomical tables. To him goes the credit of reforming the solar hijri calendar on the basis of the Spring Equinox, which is still in use in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iraq, Anatolia, and the Subcontinent. This calendar, known as Jalali, is more perfect than the Gregorian Christian calendar that was imposed on Muslim countries by the colonialists after World War 1. Among Khayyam's works, his book on algebra was until the last century taught as textbook in Iran. In geometry, he reformed the generalities of Euclid and contributed to the theory of parallel lines. His contributions to other fields of science include developing methods for accurate determination of specific gravity. His most important philosophical work is “ar-Risalah fi’l-Wujud” (Treatise on Being"), written in Arabic, which begins with Qur’anic verses and asserts that all things come from God and that there is an order to all things. Khayyam is known to English-speakers for his “Rubaiyyaat” (quatrains), published in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald, although in the Islamic east he remains the astronomer and mathematician that he was, rather than a poet, since whatever he composed of poetry were casual expressions during his rare leisure hours after strenuous scientific studies and experiments. He was buried in the courtyard of the shrine of Imamzadah Mahruq, a descendant of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

483 solar years ago, on this day in 1534 AD, Baghdad was seized from Iran by Sultan Sulaiman, two years after start of the 23-year long intermittent Ottoman-Safavid War. Following invasion of southeastern Anatolia and Iraq by the Turks, the Iranian army withdrew since Shah Tahmasp I, who believed in peace and negotiations, did not want unnecessary spilling of Muslim blood. The Ottomans, however, continued to push forward by seizing Basra and invading the Caucasus and Azarbaijan in the north, prompting Shah Tahmasp to adopt a scorched-earth policy that blunted the Turkish invasion and forced Sultan Sulaiman to sign the 30-year Peace Treaty of Amasya, after three massive but unsuccessful invasions in the course of 22 years. The frontier of the two empires was delineated through Anatolia, Iraq, and the Caucasus, with Georgia being divided between the Ottomans and the Safavids. The Ottomans, in return for their annexation of Baghdad and most of Iraq, allowed Iranian pilgrims to continue visits to Najaf and Karbala, as well as to Mecca and Medina for Hajj. Over the next two centuries, whenever Iran became powerful, it liberated Baghdad, Karbala, and Najaf.

338 solar years ago, on this day in 1679 AD, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes died at the age of 91. He believed that human beings by nature are selfish and power-hungry with the tendency to dominate. He thus advocated establishment of a powerful government to provide peace and security for the vulnerable people. His important book is “Leviathan”, in which he argues that the only way to secure civil society is through submission to the absolute authority of a sovereign.

222 solar years ago, on this day in 1795 AD, Scottish essayist, historian and orientalist, Thomas Carlyle was born. He mastered German and Arabic languages, and later taught Arabic at Cambridge University. During trips to Muslim lands, he became familiar with Islamic culture and civilization, and was highly influenced by the divine religion of Islam. On the Holy Qur’an, he calls it a direct voice from the heart of the universe for mankind. He has hailed Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) as a person of deep and a great spirit, far from worldly ambitions, saying:

“It is a great shame for anyone to listen to the accusation that Islam is a lie and that Mohammad was a fabricator and a deceiver. We saw that he remained steadfast upon his principles, with firm determination; kind and generous, compassionate, pious, virtuous, with real manhood, hardworking and sincere. Besides all these qualities, he was lenient with others, tolerant, kind, cheerful and praiseworthy and perhaps he would joke and tease his companions. He was just, truthful, smart, pure, magnanimous and present-minded; his face was radiant as if he had lights within him to illuminate the darkest of nights; he was a great man by nature who was not educated in a school nor nurtured by a teacher as he was not in need of any of this.”

On the Prophet’s divinely-decreed vicegerent Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), Carlyle wrote:

"As for this young Ali, one cannot but like him. A noble minded creature, as he shows himself, now and always afterwards, full of affection, of fiery daring something chivalrous in him, brave as a lion, yet with a grace, truth and affection… He died by assassination in the mosque at Kufa, death occasioned by his own generous fairness, confidence in the fairness of others. He said: if the wound proved not unto death, they must pardon the assassin, but if it did, they must slay him straightaway, so that the two of them in the same our might appear before God, and see which side of that quarrel was the just one."

On the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), he has written:

"The best lesson which we get from the tragedy of Karbala is that Husain and his companions were the steadfast believers of God. They illustrated that numerical superiority does not count when it comes to truth and falsehood. The victory of Husain despite his minority marvels me!"

Carlyle, who died at the age of 86, authored several books, including “The French Revolution”, “Past and Present”, and “On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History.”

188 solar years ago, on this day in 1829 AD British Governor-General of India, William Bentinck, issued a regulation declaring that anyone who abets “sati” or the Hindu custom of burning a widow on her husband’s pyre, is guilty of culpable homicide.

182 solar years ago, on this day in 1835 AD, British writer and painter, Samuel Butler, was born. Two of his most famous pieces are the satire “Erewhon” and a semi-autobiographical novel published posthumously, “The Way of All Flesh”. He is also known for examining Christian orthodoxy, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history and criticism. Butler made prose translations of the ancient Greek classics “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, which remain in use to this day.

161 solar years ago, on this day in 1856 AD, a month after Iran’s liberation of its northeastern city of Herat in Khorasan on 1st of November 1856, Britain declared war on Iran as its fleet sent from Bombay to the Persian Gulf, attacked Khark Island and Bushehr. By the start of January 1857, the British led battalions of “sepoys” (corruption for the Persian word "sipahi" for Indian soldiers), after occupying Khark and Bushehr, pushed inland towards Kerman in the southeast and Khorramshahr in the southwest of Iran. An alarmed Nasser od-Din Shah Qajar sent an envoy to France for mediation, and the result was imposition of the Treaty of Paris on Iran, which was forced to drop all claims to this historical city and most of eastern Khorasan, which is now part of Afghanistan today, on condition of British withdrawal from Khark, Bushehr and Khorramshahr. Herat, the then capital of Khorasan, had been part of Iran from time immemorial till 1856 when its rebellious governor placed the area under British protection. It is worth noting that earlier in February1856, these Indian sepoy battalions had been used by the British to overthrow Wajed Ali Shah of the Naishapuri Dynasty of Iranian origin of Awadh in northern India, and would be mobilized again in the middle of 1857 to crush the uprising of the Indian people and end the Mughal Dynasty of Delhi by exiling to Burma its last ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar.

145 lunar years ago, on this day in 1294 AH, the scholar Mohammad Qazvini was born in Tehran. His talents emerged in his teens in literature and theology, and he soon became an authority in these fields. He spent some years in Europe where he made copies of valuable Persian manuscripts in museums and libraries. Of the books he wrote "The Era of Hafez" is regarded as his masterpiece. At the age of 75 he passed away, and was laid to rest in Rayy, south of Tehran.

118 solar years ago, on this day in 1899 AD, vaccine to prevent the typhoid fever was used for the first time. It was developed by British pathologist, bacteriologist, and immunologist, Edward Wright.

64 solar years ago, on this day in 1952 AD, the US, Britain, and France held a trilateral conference in the Bermuda islands in the Caribbean Sea to plot against the USSR’s influence in the German city of Berlin. At the time, the western region of Berlin was under the control of the US, Britain, and France, while the eastern section was controlled by the Soviet Union. The escalating disputes over terms of administration of Berlin finally led to construction of the Berlin Wall by the Soviet Union and the then East Germany in 1961.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1983 AD, when the US, in yet another act of state terrorism, attempted an air strike on Syrian positions in Lebanon, two of its aircraft were downed and a pilot captured. The Syrians then shelled the positions of the American intruders and killed eight Marines.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, the prominent Iranian researcher, author and member of the academic board of the UNESCO International Studies Department, Dr. Mohammad Hussein Mashayekh Faridouni, passed away at the age of 76. He received his PhD in Persian language and literature and conducted numerous studies in the domains of Islamology, Iranology, and the cultural relations of Islamic lands, publishing all these studies in the form of highly valuable compilations. He has also written an excellent work titled "Nawa-e Sha'er-e Farda" (Voice of the Poet of the Future) on the Persian works of the famous Poet and Philosopher of the East, Allamah Mohammad Iqbal Lahori of the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, the First Islamic conference on solidarity with the Intefadha of the Palestinian people was held in Tehran. Thinkers from several countries reviewed the chronic crisis of the usurpation of Palestine by the Zionists of Europe and the growing influence of the Islamic Revolution on the Palestinian people. Iran is a firm supporter of the Palestinian cause and believes that Israel has no right to exist in Palestine, which should be returned in its entirety to the Palestinian people.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, Iranian defence experts brought down intact in eastern Iran through cyber control, a US spy drone RQ-170, which violated Iranian airspace from American-occupied Afghanistan. Among the most modern types of pilotless aircraft, these drones are designed to evade radars. These are equipped with an automatic pilot system designed to make them automatically explode in case of severance of links with their base operator. By gaining control of this radar-evasive drone, the Islamic Republic of Iran showed its ability in cyber warfare to the confusion of US military experts and officials. Iranian experts by decoding the advanced drone gained access to confidential data and technology behind its production.

AS/ME