Today is Tuesday; 14th of the Iranian month of Azar 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 16th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1439 lunar hijri; and December 5, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1439 lunar years ago, on this day, a few days after his Hijra or migration from Mecca, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), held the first-ever public Friday Prayer. This landmark congregation was held on the outskirts of Medina at Qoba, where on the Prophet’s instructions the construction of the first-ever mosque had started on Rabi al-Awwal 12. The Prophet had halted at Qoba to await his dear cousin, Imam Ali (AS), who on his instructions had agreed to sleep on his bed the night of Hijra so that he could migrate undetected from the assassins hovering around the abode of divine revelation. The Prophet had also instructed the Imam to return to the people of Mecca the things they used to keep as safe-custody with him as “Amin” (Trustworthy). After three days, the Imam, for whose selfless risking of life on the night of Hijra, God Almighty revealed to the Prophet ayah 207 of Surah Baqarah, left Mecca and a few days later arrived in Qoba with the ladies of the Bani Hashem clan, including his mother, Fatema bint Asad (SA), and his future wife, the Prophet's Immaculate daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA). The Prophet's holding of the first-ever Friday Prayer is indicative of the religious, social, cultural, and political importance of this congregational ritual, which Muslims have been recommended to perform every week.

1093 lunar years ago, on this day, the noted Islamic historian and geographer, Ali bin Hussain al-Mas’oudi, passed away in Egypt at the age of 62. Born in Baghdad in an Arab family descended from Abdullah ibn Mas’oud, the prominent companion of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), like his ancestor he was a staunch follower of the Ahl al-Bayt. He is sometimes referred to as the Herodotus of the Arabs, and was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, as is evident in his famous book “Morouj az-Zahab wa Ma’adan al-Jawaher” (Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems), which is an encyclopedic history of the world. Mas’oudi widely travelled and his journeys took him to most of the Persian provinces, Armenia, Georgia and other regions of the Caspian Sea; as well as to Arabia, Syria and Egypt. He also travelled to the Indus Valley, and other parts of India, especially the western coast; and he voyaged more than once to East Africa. He also sailed on the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and the Caspian. It is said that Sri Lanka and China were also among the lands he visited, as is evident by the precise information he has provided to readers over a millennium ago. Among the other writings of Mas’oudi mention could be made of “at-Tanbih wa’l-Ishraaf” (Book of Admonition and Revision).

609 solar years ago, on this day in 1408 AD, the Muslim ruler, Amir Edigu of the Golden Horde reached Moscow and besieged it after capturing several Russian cities. Part of Moscow was burned and the siege was lifted on resumption of the annual tribute to the Tatars by the Russians, who had withheld it for several decades. Edigu gained fame as a highly successful general of Khan Tokhtamysh before turning the arms against him. By 1396, he was a sovereign ruler of a large area stretching between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains, which would later be called the Nogai Horde. In 1397 he allied himself with Timur-Qutlugh and was appointed general and commander-in-chief of the Golden Horde armies. In 1399 he inflicted a crushing defeat on Tokhtamysh and the Christian king, Vytautas of Lithuania at the Vorskla River. In 1406 he located his old enemy Tokhtamysh in Siberia and had him killed through his agents. The following year he raided Volga Bulgaria. In 1408, he staged a triumphant Tatar invasion of Russia. Two years later Edigu was dethroned in the Golden Horde and had to seek refuge in Khwarezm. Shah Rukh, the son and successor of the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur, expelled him back to Sarai, where he was assassinated by one of Tokhtamysh's sons in 1419. Edigu's dynasty in the Nogai Horde continued for about two centuries.

561 solar years ago, on this day in 1456 AD, a devastating earthquake struck Naples, Italy, resulting in the death of around 40,000 people.

368 lunar years ago, on this day in 1071 AH, the prominent jurist and scholar, Mullah Abdullah Touni Basharwi, known as Fazel Touni, passed away in Kermanshah, western Iran. A product of the seminary of Isfahan, he wrote several books, including "al-Wafiyah" on the fundamentals of faith.

347 solar years ago, on this day in 1670 AD, Sultan Abdullah Qotb Shah of the Iranian origin kingdom of Golkandah-Haiderabad in the Deccan (southern India), issued a farmaan to the Iranian Armenian merchant from Isfahan, Marcara Avanchintz, permitting the French to trade and build a factory in the port-city Machli Bandar on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. Marcara had joined the service of King Louis XIV, and was appointed director of the newly founded French East India Company. Because of the common bond of Persian language, Marcara had established cordial relations with the Qotb Shahi Dynasty.

226 solar years ago, on this day in 1791 AD, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the famous Austrian pianist and composer, died at the young age of 35. Born in Salzburg, he spent the last ten years of his short life in Vienna. He composed several masterpieces. His famous operas include: "The Marriage of Figaro", and "The Magic Flute".

214 solar years ago, on this day 1803 AD, Russian poet and diplomat, Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, was born near Bryansk. He spent most of his childhood in Moscow, and is generally considered the last of three great Romantic poets of Russia, following Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov.

205 solar years ago, on this day in 1812 AD, French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, after suffering a crushing defeat by Russia, returned crestfallen to Paris. He had launched his offensive on Russia on June 2 and advanced till Moscow, where for six months he met stiff resistance in freezing cold and was driven back, having lost 320,000 of the 350,000 French troops.

182 solar years ago, on this day in 1835 AD, the Iranian statesman and political figure, Mirza Abu’l-Qasem Qa’em Maqaam Farahani, was killed for carrying out political and administrative reforms that the colonialists and their local agents deemed against their interests. He served as regent to the young Mohammad Shah Qajar, and later as Grand Vizier. But within a year, due to the intrigues of John Campbell, the British representative in Iran, Farahani was arrested and subsequently murdered. He was kept for five or six days in a room in the basement of Negarestan without any food so that he would die when his strength diminishes. Eventually, the executioner, Safar Ismael Khan Qarajeh Daghi entered the basement and thrusting a handkerchief in his mouth, suffocated him. Farahani had mastered many sciences of the day in addition to literary techniques and initiated a new style in Persian prose. Among his works is a Divan of Persian poetry and the “Mansha’at” in prose.

147 solar years ago, on this day in 1870 AD, French author Alexandre Dumas died at the age of 68. He wrote numerous novels on the French Revolution and history based on the memoirs of his father, who was an army general. Among his books, mention can be made of “The Three Musketeers”, and “The Count of Monte Cristo”. He was also a playwright and has written a number of famous plays.

143 solar years ago, on this day in 1874 AD, Iran became member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which was set up in Geneva, Switzerland on 17 February 1863. On 5 April 1922, the “Iran Red Cross Society” changed its name to “Red Lion and Sun Society of Iran”. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, its name was changed to the “Red Crescent Society”, which is headquartered in Tehran, and is among the top five relief agencies of the world.

123 solar years ago, on this day in 1894 AD, the famous Urdu poet of the Subcontinent, Shabbir Hassan Khan “Joush” was born in a Pashtun family in Malihabad, northern India. After mastering Urdu and English, he studied Arabic and Persian, and in 1925 began to supervise translation work at the famous Osmania University in the semi-independent state of Haiderabad-Deccan. Soon he founded the magazine “Kaleem” in which he openly wrote articles in favour of independence from Britain. As his reputation spread, he came to be called “Sha’er-e Inqelab” (Poet of the Revolution), and was a personal friend of India’s first prime minister, Jawaherlal Nehru. Over a decade after India’s independence, disillusioned with the declining status of Muslims and Urdu language in India, he migrated to Pakistan in 1958, and settled in Karachi where he joined “Anjuman-e Tarraqi-e-Urdu” for promotion of the Urdu language in Pakistan. He passed away in Islamabad on February 22, 1982. Joush Malihabadi has left behind valuable works in poetry and prose, including lengthy odes in praise of the Ahl al-Bayt, especially Imam Ali (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) – regarded as masterpieces of Urdu poetry.

116 solar years ago, on this day in 1901 AD, the famous American showman, animator and producer of children’s cinema and cartoons, Walt Disney, was born in Chicago in a family of Irish origin. He obtained a PhD in Arts from Harvard University and went on to create world famous cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, winning academy awards on several occasions. Disney had an aversion towards the racist ideology of Zionism. In view of this, pro-Israeli Jewish groups tried to accuse him of anti-Semitism, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Semites are Arabs and not the Jews of European origin, who are in fact ethnic Khazars – a Turkic people converted to Judaism and with no connection to the soil of Palestine, where the illegal entity Israel has been set up. He died in Burbank, California, in 1966.

65 solar years ago, on this day in 1952 AD, a dense cold fog descended upon London, combining with air pollution and killing over four thousand people in four days. It paralyzed transport service because of almost nil visibility. Even after its clearance, deaths continued to occur for several weeks, and claimed 12,000 lives.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardi, the 5th Prime Minister of Pakistan and one of its founding fathers, passed away in Beirut, Lebanon, and his body was brought for burial to Dhaka – then in East Pakistan and now capital of Bangladesh. He was premier from 1956 to 1957. Born into a prominent  academic family of Bengal, he traced his lineage to the Iranian mystic and founder of the Sufi order, Shehab od-Din Suhrawardi, who in turn was a descendant of Mohammad Ibn Abu Bakr, one of the loyal devotees of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS).

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1990 AD, Iranian lecturer, researcher, and Persian language expert, Dr. Gholam Hussein Yousufi, passed away at the age of 63. Born in the holy city of Mashhad, he started his career as a university lecturer after obtaining a PhD. Among the books he has left behind, mention can be made of “Cheshma-e Rowshan”. He also edited several Persian literary masterpieces such as “Qaboos-Nameh”, and the “Golestan” and “Boustan” of the famous poet, Sa’di Shirazi.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, The Islamic Republic announced it could now use domestically mined uranium to produce nuclear fuel, giving Iran complete control over the fuel cycle, as part of efforts for peaceful use of nuclear energy.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, Nelson Mandela, lawyer, politician and 1st President of South Africa, died at the age of 95 in Johannesburg. Born in the village of Mvezo in Umtata, then a part of South Africa's Cape Province, his patrilineal great-grandfather, Ngubengcuka, was ruler of the Thembu people in the Transkeian Territories of what is now Eastern Cape Province. One of this king's sons, named Mandela, became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname. Mandela attended Fort Hare University and the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied law. Living in Johannesburg, he became involved in anti-colonial politics, joining the African National Congress (ANC) and becoming a founding member of its Youth League. After the Afrikaner minority government of the National Party established apartheid in 1948, he rose to prominence in the ANC's 1952 Defiance Campaign, was appointed superintendent of the organisation's Transvaal chapter and presided over the 1955 Congress of the People. Working as a lawyer, he was repeatedly arrested. In 1963 he was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the apartheid regime and sentenced to life. In 1990, he was released after 27 years in prison and was accorded a very warm welcome by the black people of South Africa. In 1991, an agreement was reached between Mandela and the minority regime for ending the apartheid system, and in 1994, after holding of the first multiracial elections Mandela was elected as the first black president of South Africa. He stepped down from office in 1999.

AS/MG