Today is Tuesday; 21st of the Iranian month of Azar 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 23rd of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1439 lunar hijri; and December 12, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1390 solar years ago, on this day in 627 AD, the Battle of Ninevah was fought in Iraq in which a Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius of the Eastern Roman Empire defeated the Persian forces of Emperor Khosrow II Pervez of Iran’s Sassanid Empire, commanded by the Armenian General, Rokh Vehan (Rahzadh). The Byzantine victory in the 26-year long Roman-Iranian war, broke the power of the Sassanid dynasty, which a few years back in the early stages of the war had conquered much of the Levant, Egypt, and most of Anatolia (modern day Turkey), even besieging the Byzantine capital, Constantinople (present day Istanbul). It is worth noting that the pagan Arabs on learning of the victories of the fire-worshipping Sassanids over the monotheistic Christians had rejoiced and mocked Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), saying the fledgling Muslim community will soon be annihilated. In response, Allah revealed the opening ayahs of Surah Roum, saying although the Romans have been vanquished in the nearby lands, soon they will triumph. With Constantinople under Persian siege, Heraclius became emperor, and immediately forged an alliance with the Turkic Khaqanate of the Gokturks, who in 626 sent a 40,000-strong army of nomads to ravage the Persian Empire in the Caucasus, distracting the Iranian forces’ attention, and resulting in their withdrawal from the Roman front. The Battle of Ninevah, followed by the sack of several cities in Iraq, made the Iranian army rebel and overthrow Khosrow II; replacing him with his son Qobad II in 628. Khosrow perished in a dungeon after suffering for five days on bare sustenance — he was shot to death slowly with arrows on the fifth day. Both the superpowers were so exhausted from their long wars that within a decade their territories were overrun by a new force from the Arabian Desert – the Muslims. It is worth mentioning that Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) had written letters to both the emperors, inviting them to Islam. Heraclius showed respect to the letter, while Khosrow Pervez showed disdain by tearing it and ordering his governor in Yemen to invade the Hijaz, but was soon killed. 

1238 lunar years ago, on this day in 201 AH, Hazrat Fatema al-Ma’sumah (SA), the venerable descendent of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), arrived in Qom, which proved to be her permanent abode, since seventeen days later her soul flew to the ethereal heavens from this city in the Iranian desert. The daughter of the Prophet’s 7th Infallible Heir, Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), she was on her way from Medina to Merv in Khorasan to meet her brother Imam Reza (AS), when her caravan was attacked near Saveh by agents of the tyrannical Abbasid regime. As a result, several people, including two of her brothers were martyred, and the exhausted lady, reportedly poisoned, asked the caravan to turn towards Qom, which was a centre of adherents of the Prophet’s Ahl-Bayt. People came out in large numbers to greet her and to escort her to the city – a ceremony that is enacted till this day by the people of Qom. On the 10th of Rabi al-Akher, she departed from the world at the young age of 28, and was laid to rest in an orchard near the riverbank. Her tomb soon grew into a sprawling mausoleum, topped by a gold-plated dome, which is the site of pilgrimage today for people from all over the world, who seek intercession with God and see their prayers answered. Imam Reza (AS) had remarked: “Whoever visits her (shrine), aware of her status, is like the one who has visited me.”

919 solar years ago, on this day in 1098 AD, during the First Crusade, the Christian invaders from Europe not just massacred over 20,000 Muslim men, women, and children of the Syrian city of Ma'arrat an-Numan after deceiving them to surrender peacefully, but resorted to cannibalism by eating the bodies of their victims. These barbaric events were chronicled by Fulcher of Chartres, who wrote: "I shudder to tell that many of our people (European Christians), harassed by the madness of excessive hunger, cut pieces from the buttocks of the Saracens (Muslims) already dead there, which they cooked, but when it was not yet roasted enough by the fire, they devoured it with savage mouth.”

573 lunar years ago, on this day in 866 AH, Jam Nizam od-Din II, known as Nindo, the most powerful ruler of the Samma Dynasty, succeeded his father Sanjar Sadr od-Din and ruled for 48 years over Sindh, parts of Punjab, Baluchestan and Gujarat. Towards the end of his reign he defeated a Mughal army sent against him by Shah Beg Arghun from Qandahar. Founded by Rajputs who had embraced the truth of Islam, the Samma civilization contributed significantly to the evolution of the "Sindhi-Islamic" architectural style, which is a blending of Persian art as well. Thatta, which is in modern Pakistan, was the capital of this kingdom that lasted almost two centuries. The city is still famous for its necropolis, which covers 10 square km on the Makli Hill. Every year thousands perform pilgrimage to this site to commemorate the saints buried here. The graves testify to a long period when Thatta was a thriving center of trade, religion and scholarly pursuits.

508 solar years ago, on this day in 1509 AD, Portuguese admiral, Francisco de Almeida, in a bid to avenge the death of his marauding son, Lorenzo de Almeida, who was killed in the naval Battle of Chaul off the coast of Gujarat by the joint fleet of the Zamorin of Kerala and the Mamluks of Egypt led by Mir Hussain Kurdi, pursued the latter, after indiscriminately burning several Indian ships in the ports of Calicut and Cannanore. Unable to corner Mir Hussain, he took the defenseless town of Dabhol on India’s western coast on December 30, plundered it, and massacred its inhabitants including women, children, and elderly men.

443 solar years ago, on this day in 1574 AD, Selim II, the 11^th Ottoman Sultan and the 3^rd self-styled Turkish caliph, died at the age of 50 after an incompetent 8-year rule, due to drunkenly slipping on the wet floor of a bath-house, and fatally injuring his head. Son of Suleiman the Magnificent and the Rutherian (Polish-Ukrainian) concubine, Khorram Sultan (original name: Alexandra Lisowska), he succeeded to the throne through intrigue and fraternal dispute. Despite claiming to be caliph and having a powerful fleet that controlled the Mediterranean Sea, he refused the pleas for help by the Spanish Muslims during the 3-year Morisco Revolt (1568-71) in Granada, southern Spain. As a result the uprising was ruthlessly crushed by a joint Christian army of Spain, Austria, and Italy, after which hundreds of thousands of Spanish Muslims were forcibly Christianized and all books and documents in Arabic burned.  

264 solar years ago, on this day in 1753 AD, British adjutant of Virginia, 22-year old George Washington, who over two decades later became US president, delivered an ultimatum to the French forces at Fort Le Boeuf, south of Lake Erie, reiterating Britain’s claim to the entire Ohio river valley. He was sent by Governor Robert Dinwiddie to warn the French soldiers that they were trespassing on English territory, because of his apparent loyalty to the British crown. Over the two decades later on the outbreak of rebellion against the crown in the 13 New England colonies, Washington switched sides, joined the rebels, led them to victory over the British forces, and became the first president of the United States of America (USA).  

251 solar years ago, on this day in 1766 AD, Nikolay Karamzin, Russian poet and historian, was born in the village of Znamenskoye, in Simbirsk Governorate. He is best remembered for his “History of the Russian State”, a 12-volume national history, for the writing of which he left the literary circles of St. Petersburg and Moscow and secluded himself for two years at Simbirsk. He was a strong supporter of the anti-Polish policies of the Russian Empire, and expressed hope that there would be no Poland under any shape or name. On learning of his endeavor to compile the history of Russia, Tsar Alexander I invited him in 1816 to St Petersburg, had the work read to him, and lodged him in the gardens of the palace of Tsarskoye Selo to complete it. Karamzin was most industrious in accumulating materials, and the notes to his volumes are mines of interesting information, although he is justly criticized for the false gloss and romantic air thrown over the early Russian annals.

123 solar years ago, on this day in 1894 AD, Grand Ayatollah Mirza Habibollah Rashti, passed away at age of 75 in holy Najaf, Iraq. Born in Amlash in Gilan, northern Iran near the Caspian Sea, he was gifted with a sharp mind and reached the status of Ijtehad at the young age of 25. A product of the famous Islamic seminary of holy Najaf, he studied under prominent scholars such as Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli and Mohammad Hassan Najafi (author of the famous jurisprudential work “Jawaher al-Kalaam”). His works include the book: “Badi al-Afkaar”.

116 solar years ago, on this day in 1901 AD, for the first time, a sentence was telecommunicated across the Atlantic Ocean through radio waves, without an extension wire. The inventor was Italian Physicist Guglielmo Marconi, who later invented the Radio. This first transatlantic radio signal was from Poldhu in Cornwall, where Marconi was stationed and was received by Percy Wright Page in St John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Then electrical engineer John Ambrose Fleming transmitted the Morse code signal for "s" from across the Atlantic Ocean in England and Marconi heard it--three short clicks--through a radio speaker. Marconi had begun experimenting with radiotelegraphy around 1895, and he realized that messages could be transmitted over much greater distances by using grounded antennae on the radio transmitter and receiver. A few years after the successful transmission with Fleming, Marconi opened the first commercial wireless telegraph service.

113 solar years ago, on this day in 1904 AD, the ulema of Tehran migrated along with their followers to the holy shrine of Seyyed Abdul-Azim al-Hassani in Rayy, in protest to the repressive policies of Mozaffar od-Din Shah Qajar. Some 2000 people joined the ulema and in a few days 20,000 protestors had assembled at the shrine, forcing the Shah to yield to the demands by agreeing to establish courts of law in all towns and cities, and base the country’s laws in accordance with the Islamic shari’a. 

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, Delhi, the former Muslim capital of North India, replaced Calcutta (presently Kolkata) as the capital of British India. It was declared the capital by Britain’s King George V in the presence of some 562 Indian princes, Muslim nawabs, Hindu maharajahs, soldiers and bureaucrats. After this announcement, George V and his wife Mary of Teck were crowned emperor and empress of India. The British, who had entered the subcontinent as traders, seized the opportunity after the death of the last Great Moghul, Aurangzeb, in early 18^th century, to spread their military influence on the weak Muslim successor states. In Bengal, on the banks of the River Hooghly, Calcutta, which started as the garrison town of Fort William, became the capital of all British possessions in 1772, some 15 years after these invaders ended through treachery, the rule of Nawab Siraj od-Dowla (of Iranian origin). After gradual encroachment on other parts of the subcontinent through wars and intrigues, in 1857 the British brutally brought to end the remnants of the Mughal Dynasty and sacked Delhi. The subcontinent was subjugated, the Persian language, which had been the official language of Muslim India for almost seven centuries, was banned, and Queen Victoria was declared as Empress of India. In 1927, the British started building New Delhi and completed it in 1931. In 1947, they left the subcontinent after partitioning it into India and Pakistan, and later Bangladesh.

92 solar years ago, on this day in 1925 AD, the illiterate British agent Reza Khan Pahlavi forced the Iranian parliament to set up a so-called constitutional assembly to change clauses of the constitution for formally deposing Ahmad Shah Qajar and declaring himself the next king of Iran. In this manner, the 131-year rule of the Qajarids ended and the 53-year rule of the tyrannical Pahlavi regime started. The common features of the Qajarid and Pahlavi rulers were their autocratic and despotic policies; lack of essential qualifications, including popular support; and submission to foreign powers. An illiterate petty officer, Reza Khan, had earlier staged a coup with British backing to impose himself as prime minister on the incompetent Ahmad Shah Qajar. . In 1941 the British dethroned Reza Khan for his sympathies with Nazi Germany during World War 2 and installed on the Peacock Throne his 21-year old indolent son, Mohammad Reza. In 1953, Mohammad Reza had to flee Iran to escape the people’s wrath but was restored to power the same year through a joint US-British coup. He again fled Iran in January 1979 and in less than a month, following the return to Iran from exile of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), the Pahlavi regime was thrown into the dustbin of history.

77 lunar years ago, on this day in 1362 AH, famous Iranian poet and scholar, Hussain Khan Danesh, died at the age of 70. He spent a major part of his life in Turkey, conducting research on Persian works in Ankara, Istanbul and other cities, and making efforts to publish them. Among his works, mention could be made of "Dastour Zaban-e Farsi" and "Saramadan-e Sokhan".

69 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, British colonial soldiers surrounded the Sungai Rimoh rubber estate in Batang Kali, shot 24 Malaysian rubber plantation workers and set the village on fire. In 1970 Britain’s government dropped a police investigation, claiming alleged lack of evidence. In 2012, relatives of the brutally killed workers lost their court battle for a full inquiry by the British regime.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, Kenya in east Africa gained independence from Britain. It was occupied as of early 20^th century and formally proclaimed a British colony in 1920. After World War 2, the Kenyan people led by Jomo Kenyatta launched their uprising. The monopoly of whites and racial strife took the country to the brink of civil war in the 1950s, forcing the British to draft a constitution and hold elections. In the February 1961 parliamentary polls, the indigenous Africans won the most number of seats, and two years later complete independence was achieved. The Republic of Kenya covers an area of 582,646 sq km. It has a coastline on the Indian Ocean, and its capital is Nairobi. It shares borders with Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania. Over 15 percent of the 40 million population of Kenya is Muslim. Kenya has a rich Islamic cultural past in view of the fact that by the 8^th century Arab and Persian settlements had sprouted along the coast. At its height, the Kilwa Sultanate, centered in what is now Tanzania, and founded by the Iranian nobleman, Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi, over a thousand years ago, stretched over the entire length of the Swahili Coast, including Kenya. The Persian rulers would go on to build elaborate coral mosques and introduced copper coinage. During this period, people of Yemen and Oman also settled on the coast and set up many autonomous city-states, including Mombasa, the leading port city of Kenya. This blending of cultures left a profound influence on the local Bantu Swahili culture and language. Mombasa, which has a Muslim majority population, has had traditional trade links with commercial centers in Iran, Arabia, and India.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, Iranian author and translator, Dr. Ali Asghar Soroush, passed away at the age of 74. In addition to translation of several books from French into Persian, he was also fluent in English and Arabic. His translated books include the “Ancient Civilizations of the Near East”.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, the poet Gholam-Reza Qodsi-Nejad Mashhadi passed away at the age of 64 in Mashhad and was laid to rest in the holy mausoleum of Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). A student of the famous scholar Adib Naishapuri, he mastered religious sciences and started writing poems at the age of 16. He made several trips to India and Pakistan in search of Persian manuscripts. He was politically active against the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime and following victory of the Islamic Revolution became lecturer at the College of Literature of Mashhad University.  

29 lunar years ago, on this day in 1410 AH, Grand Ayatollah Jawad Aqa Tehrani passed away at the age of 88. He was born in Tehran and after completing his studies in Qom left for Holy Najaf in Iraq to continue his higher studies. He groomed many scholars and was known for his piety and ascetic nature. Among the books written by him are: "Mizan al-Mataleb" in Arabic and "Aieen-e Zindagi" in Persian.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, Bangladesh Islamist leader, Abdul Qader Mullah, of the Jama’at-e Islami, was tried, sentenced and executed by hanging by the government of Prime Minister Hassina Wajed, despite objections from the UN.

AS/MG