Today is Friday; 15th of the Iranian month of Dey 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 17th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1439 lunar hijri; and January 5, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1415 solar years ago, on this day in the year 603 AD, the 24-year war broke out between the Iranian and Roman Empires, as a result of assassination of Emperor Maurice, who was a close ally of the Sassanid Emperor, Khosrow Parviz, since he had, years earlier, helped him regain the throne by defeating the usurper Bahram Chubin. In 602 when Maurice was murdered by General Phocas, who usurped the Roman throne, Khosrow launched an offensive against Constantinople, ostensibly to avenge Maurice's death, but clearly his aim included the annexation of as much Byzantine territory as possible. His armies invaded Syria and Asia Minor, and in 608 advanced into Chalcedon. In 613 and 614, Damascus and Jerusalem were besieged and captured by General Shahrbaraz. Soon General Shahin marched through Anatolia or present day Turkey, defeating the Byzantines in several battles, and then conquered Egypt in 618. It is worth noting that victories of the Zoroastrian Persians over the Christian Romans had delighted the pagan Arabs and made them taunt Muslims that their monotheist creed of Islam will also soon vanish. At this time, God revealed the opening ayahs of Surah Roum, saying that although the monotheist Romans have been subdued for the moment, they would be the eventual victors. This prophecy is among the miracles of the holy Qur'an. Ultimately, in 622, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, who had succeeded Phocas in 610 and ruled until 641, was able to take the field with a powerful force. In 624, he advanced into northern Media, where he destroyed the great fire-temple of Ganzhak. Two years later in 626, he captured Colchis in Georgia from the Iranians. In response, Persian general Shahrbaraz advanced to Chalcedon and attempted to capture Constantinople with the help of Iran's Avar allies. His maneuver failed as his forces were defeated, and he withdrew his army from Anatolia in the face of Roman advance. In 627, Khosrow fled his capital Cteisphon in Iraq, where the Persian generals tired of his endless wars crowned his son as king, and made peace with the Romans. KhosrowParviz was eventually killed by his own men.

1180 solar years ago, on this day in 838 AD, Babak Khorrami was executed in Samarra on the orders of the Abbasid caliph, Mu’tasim-Billah, after he was captured by the Iranian governor of Azarbaijan and Armenia, General Afshin Khaydaar bin Kavous, who crushed the 20-year long Khorramdin rebellion. Babak (Papak in Persian) was not well known outside academic circles until the 20th century, when due to Soviet nation-building efforts and the Khorramdin cult’s following of the teachings of Mazdak with its communist and socialist themes, he was proclaimed a national hero in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In Iran, Babak was discovered by Reza Shah Pahlavi since it suited his anti-Islamic and pseudo nationalist policies to magnify pre-Islamic themes.

1176 solar years ago, on this day in 842 AD, Mu’tasim-Billah, the 8th self-styled caliph of the Abbasid usurper regime, died at the age of 48 after a reign of nine years, and was succeeded by his son, Watheq-Billah (born to a Greek concubine named Qaratis). Mu’tasem was the son of the tyrant Haroun Rashid’s Turkic concubine – a singing-dancing slave girl named Marida – and took over the caliphate on the death of his step-brother, Mamoun. He favoured the Turks and gave them all authority to the resentment of the Iranian and Arab Muslims. He opposed the Mu’tazallite or Rationalistic doctrine of his predecessor. It was on his orders that Ijtihad was forbidden and of the several jurisprudential schools of the newly designated sect Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’at, only four, that is, Hanafi, Maleki, Shafei, and Hanbali, were decreed as official. Mu’tasem has earned lasting notoriety for martyring through poison, Imam Mohammad at-Taqi al-Jawad (AS), the 9th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

1083 lunar years ago, on this day in 356 AH, Moez od-Dowla Abu’l-Hassan Ahmad ibn Buyeh Daylami, the founder of the Buwaiyhid Dynasty of Iran-Iraq-Oman, passed away in Baghdad after a reign of 22 years, and was buried in the graveyard of the Quraish, adjacent to the holy shrine of Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). After taking Baghdad in 334 and reducing to a mere figurehead al-Mustakfi, the 22nd self-styled caliphs of the usurper Abbasid regime (who a year later was deposed and replaced by al-Muti), he ruled as Amir al-Omara (Chief of the Nobles). For the first time he declared as public holidays the Day of Ghadeer (18th Zilhijja – the Prophet’s proclamation of Imam Ali [AS] as vicegerent on God’s commandment), and the Day of Ashura (10th Moharram – the tragic martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husain [AS] in Karbala). He also ordered that on the walls of mosques and other main buildings of Iraq and Iran curses should be written against the Omayyad usurper Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan and other enemies of the Ahl al-Bayt. This practice was emulated in Aleppo and parts of Syria and what is now south-central Turkey by Sayf od-Dowla, the ruler of the Hamdanid Dynasty. Moez od-Dowla’s elder brother Ali who was in control of central and southern Iran was given the title of 'Emad od-Dowla", while the younger brother Hassan, who had gained control of northern Iran, took the title of "Rokn od-Dowla". Buwaiyhid rule lasted over a century in Iran and Iraq and was a period of great cultural revival and emergence of outstanding religious scholars, such as Sheikh Mufid, Seyyed Murtaza, Seyyed Radhi, Shaikh at-Tayefa Tusi, etc.

492 lunar years ago, on this day in 947 AH, India’s Persian language historian, Mullah Abdul-Qader Bada'uni, was born. He was a court chronicler and translator from Sanskrit into Persian for the Mughal Emperor, Jalal od-Din Akbar Shah. He translated the Hindu epics, “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata”, into Persian from Sanskrit. His famous work is the history in Persian titled “Muntakhab at-Tawarikh”.

426 solar years ago, on this day in 1592 AD, Shah Jahan, the Moghal emperor of Hindustan (Northern Subcontinent), was born at Lahore. Named Shahab od-Din Mohammad Khorram, he succeeded his father, Saleem Noor od-Din Jahangir in 1628. His reign was the golden age of architecture. He erected splendid monuments, the most famous of which is the famous white marble TajMahal at Agra built as a mausoleum for his wife of Iranian ancestry, Empress Arjmand Bano Momtaz Mahal, and regarded among the Seven Wonders of the World. The Pearl Mosque and many other buildings in Agra, the Red Fort and the Jama Mosque in Delhi, were built by him. The famous “Takht-e Tawous” (Peacock Throne), said to be worth millions of dollars by modern estimates, also dates from his reign. Other important buildings of his rule are the “Diwan-e Aam” (Public Audience Chamber) and the “Diwan-e Khaas” (Special Audience Chamber) in the Red Fort Complex in Delhi and the Pearl Mosque in the Lahore Fort. He also patronized paintings and laid out gardens, especially in Kashmir, his favourite summer resort. In 1638, by bribing the governor, Shah Jahan captured the city of Qandahar in what is now Afghanistan from the Iranians, prompting the retaliation of the Safavids led by Shah Abbas II, who recaptured it in 1649. The Mughal armies were unable to retake it despite repeated attempts. Shah Jahan's end was ill-fated. When he became ill, civil war erupted among his four sons, at the end of which the victor, Aurangzeb, after killing his brothers, confined his father to the Agra fort, where Shah Jahan died in 1666.

413 solar years ago, on this day in 1605 AD, Spanish poet and novelist, Miguel de Cervantes published in Madrid the first edition of his magnum opus “El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha” or Book One of Don Quixote. Considered to be the first modern European novel, it follows the adventures of Alonso Quixano, who reads so many chivalric novels that he loses his sanity and decides to set out to revive chivalry, undo wrongs, and bring justice to the world, under the name Don Quixote. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, who often employs a unique, earthly wit in dealing with Don Quixote's rhetorical orations on antiquated knighthood. Cervantes influence on the Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called “la lengua de Cervantes” (or the language of Cervantes). He wrote “Don Quixote” to satirize the chivalric romance and to challenge the popularity of a form of literature that had been a favorite of the general public for more than a century. Cervantes enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment and was captured by Algerian-Ottoman naval forces. After 5 years of captivity he was released. He died in 1616 in Madrid, Spain.

329 lunar years ago, on this day in 1110 AH, the Ottoman Turkish fleet defeated the Venetian fleet in a sea battle in the Mediterranean, near Italy, thus establishing Muslim supremacy over the sea routes.

327 solar years ago, on this day in 1691 AD, the first currency note or paper money in Europe was printed and distributed by Sweden’s Stockholm Bank. The credit for paper money actually goes to China several centuries earlier.

209 solar years ago, on this day in 1809 AD, the Treaty of Dardanelles was signed between London and Istanbul, according to which Britain pledged to withdraw forces from all Ottoman territories, including Egypt. In return, the Ottoman Empire pledged to recognize the consular rights of Britain in Ottoman lands. The goal behind this treaty by Britain was to maintain the security of the British fleet in the Mediterranean in the face of possible attacks by the Russian Navy through the Black Sea, because according to this treaty the Ottoman Empire agreed not to allow any warship to pass through the Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles during peacetime.

105 lunar years ago, on this day in 1334 AH, the renowned Islamic scholar, Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Mohammad Ali Nakhchivani, passed away in the holy city of Karbala in Iraq. He was from the Iranian region of Nakhchivan – which is presently in Republic of Azerbaijan – and was a student of Ayatollah Fazel Iravani, who was also from the Caucasus. Nakhchivani soon became a Source of Emulation for Muslims of the Caucasus and Azarbaijan. A master of logic and Arabic literature, he authored several books, including “Ijtema al-Amr”.

90 solar years ago, on this day in 1928 AD, Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto, who served as Pakistani foreign minister, president and prime minister, was born in Larnaka, Sindh to Shahnawaz Bhutto, the prime minister of the Muslim princely state of Junagadh in Gujarat, India. Educated in Bombay and the US, he founded the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the 1960s. He was ousted in a military coup in 1977 by the US-backed General Zia ul-Haq, who two years later executed him on charges of murder. Bhutto’s legacy is still alive in Pakistan. His daughter Benazir was to serve as prime minister in the 1990s, before her assassination during the election campaign, while the previous president of Pakistan, Asef Ali Zardari, was his son-in-law.

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, Ayatollah Mir Seyyed Mohammad Modarres Najafabadi passed away at the age of 62. He studied preliminary sciences in his hometown near Isfahan, before leaving for Iraq for higher studies in the famous seminary of holy Najaf. On his return to Isfahan, he taught for more than thirty years, grooming a large number of students, some of them which became prominent scholars. Among his works is the famous annotation titled “Hashiyaala Kifayat al-Osoul”.

58 solar years ago, on this day in 1960 AD, Russian Orientalist and Iranologist, Dr. Boris Zakhoder, passed away at the age of 62. He conducted numerous studies on Iran’s history and wrote several books including one on the famous Iranian statesman of the Seljuqid era, Khwaja Nizam- ol-MolkTusi.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, Iranian university students boycotted classes in protest to the visit to Tehran by US president Jimmy Carter and his support for the repressive Pahlavi regime despite his claims to defend human rights and democracy.

23 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, Air force commander, Mansour Sattari, was martyred in an air crash at the age of 46. A professional pilot with military training, he served Iran with distinction during the 8-year war imposed on the Islamic Republic by the US through its agent, Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad.

AS/ME