Today is Thursday; 21st of the Iranian month of Dey 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 23rd of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1439 lunar hijri; and January 11, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1150 lunar years ago, on this day in 289 AH, Mu’tazid-Billah, the 16th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime died at the age of 46 after a 10-year reign, during which he reversed the anti-Islamic policies of his uncle and predecessor, Mu’tamed, the murderer of Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), the 11th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Son of the regent Muwaffaq, he showed respect for the Prophet’s progeny and ordered the public cursing of the Omayyad caliphs (especially Mu’awiyya ibn Abu Sufyan and Yazid), and the disclosure of their anti-Islamic acts and misdeeds, from pulpits during the Friday Prayers. He also suppressed the Kharijites (renegades) for their acts of terrorism against Muslims, and was very harsh with them and other rebels; while sending presents and large sums of money to the semi-independent Alawid ruler of Tabaristan on the Caspian Sea coast of Iran because of his being a venerable descendent of the Prophet. The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), in his prophecies had foretold about Mu’tazid.

1129 solar years ago, on this day in 889 AD, Abdur-Rahman III, the Omayyad Emir of Cordoba, and the first self-styled caliph of Spain, was born to a Christian concubine, while his father's mother was also a Christian concubine. He succeeded his grandfather, Abdullah, and broke all allegiance with the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. During his 49-year rule until his death at the age of 72, his legitimacy was under serious question as a result of the bid by the Fatemid Ismaili Shi'ite Dynasty of North Africa to expand its sphere of influence in Spain, where Muslims considered the Omayyads as usurpers and the descendants of the Prophet more worthy of governance. In order to check the Fatemids, he signed a treaty with the Christian ruler of Leon, Ordono III, and backed the Maghrawa Berber rebels in Northwest Africa. Instead of confronting the European Christian rebels who were slowly encroaching upon the northern territories of Islamic Spain, he devoted his time and energy to creating inter-Muslim rivalries, as was evident by his support for the Idrisids, which was also a Shi'ite Muslim Dynasty of what is now Morocco. Abdur-Rahman's efforts were brought to naught in 958, after a decisive Fatemid victory that ended for good any Omayyad influence in North Africa.

1018 lunar years ago, on this day in 421 AH, following the death of Mahmoud Ghaznavi, the Turkic Sultan who had created an extensive empire encompassing the eastern half of Iran, most of Central Asia, and the northwestern parts of the Subcontinent; power dispute flared up among his twin sons, Mohammad and Mas’oud. Mohammad ascended the throne as per the will of his father, but when he refused his brother’s request for three of the provinces Mas’oud had won by his sword, civil war erupted. Mas’oud seized power, blinded Mohammad and imprisoned him, but was unable to preserve the empire following a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Dandanaqan by the Seljuq Turks who seized Central Asia and Iran. His last act was to collect treasures from all his forts in the hope of assembling an army to rule from India but his own forces plundered the wealth, forcing him to proclaim his blind brother as king again after ten years. The position of the two brothers was reversed; Mohammad from a prison was raised to the throne and Mas’oud from a throne was consigned to a dungeon where he was assassinated. Soon his son, Mawdoud, rebelled against his blind uncle defeated his sons at the Battle of Nangarhar, and seized the throne of Ghazna.

693 solar years ago, on this day in 1325 AD, Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, was built by one of the Aztec kings before the European invaders set foot on American soil. The Aztecs were indigenous Amerindian tribes, which settled in Mexico in the 12th century and ruled the region until early 16th century. They were an agrarian people and developed industries as well. They invented pictograph and attained significant achievements in different scientific fields. But as of the 16th century, the Spanish colonialists infiltrated their land, destroyed the Aztec civilization and almost exterminated the whole race. During this period, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards settled in Mexico, and now form the ruling class while the native Mexicans are still suppressed.

265 solar years ago, on this day in 1753 AD, Hans Sloane, British physician, naturalist and collector of books, manuscripts and curios, that formed the basis for the British Museum in London, died, leaving one of the world's largest and most varied collections of natural history specimens. His passion for the collection and his concern for its future upkeep after his death led him to write a will which clearly stated that it must "remain together and not be separated." He offered it to the British nation, requesting in return a sum of £20,000 for his heirs, which the Parliament accepted, and thus the British Museum was created and eventually its sister institution, the British Museum of Natural History.

194 lunar years ago, on this day in 1245 AH, the Iranian religious scholar and poet, Allamah Ahmad Naraqi, passed away at the age of 60 in Kashan and his body was taken holy Najaf in Iraq for burial besides his father, the famous Mullah Mahdi Naraqi, in the sacred mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). He studied under his father in the city of Kashan, before leaving for Iraq for higher studies at the seminary of holy Najaf where he reached the status of Ijtehad. His teachers included Seyyed Mahdi Bahr al-Uloum and Sheikh Ja’far Kashef al-Gheta. Among his students mention could be made of Ayatollah Sheikh Murtaza Ansari Dezfuli, Aqa Mohammad Baqer Hezar Jaribi, and his own brother, Mahdi, known as Aqa Buzurg Naraqi. On his father’s death in Najaf, he returned to Iran and took over administrative affairs of the Kashan Seminary. He was an authority on jurisprudence, hadith, theology, Ilm-ar-Rijal or analytical biography of scholars and narrators, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, Arabic literature and poetry, as well as Persian literature and poetry. He was fluent in Arabic, Hebrew and Latin and his knowledge about different sciences is evident in his various books. One of his books titled “Sayf al-Ummah wa Burhan al-Millah”, which was written to answer questions raised by British pastor Henry Martin shows his knowledge of Christianity and his mastery in answering deviated thoughts. Among his other works mention could be made of “Me’raj as-Sa’adah”, and “al-Asrar al-Hajj”.  He lived during the weak rule of Fath Ali Shah Qajar, when the Russians occupied large parts of Iran’s Caucasus and treated the local Muslims in the worst possible way. Mullah Ahmad Naraqi, along with other aware and politically conscious ulema helped influence the declaration of war by Iran against Russian forces and eventually at the end of Muharram 1242 AH (corresponding to 1826 AD), some of the areas occupied by Russia as per the dubious Gulistan Treaty, were liberated by Iran.

139 solar years ago, on this day in 1879 AS, the Anglo-Zulu War began, and lasted almost six months at the end of which the British annexed the Zulu kingdom to their dominion of South Africa, massacring a large number of natives and destroying their homes and hearths.

114 solar years ago, on this day in 1904 AD, British occupation troops massacred 1,000 dervishes in Somaliland, which although the northern part of the Republic of Somalia, is today a self-declared independent state which no country or organization has recognized.

61 solar years ago, on this day in 1957 AD, the prominent Iranian geographer and researcher, Professor Abu'l-Qasem Sehaab, passed away at the age of 70. Born in Tafresh, he studied theology and jurisprudence under the ulema of the city at a young age, and soon gained proficiency in Persian, Arabic, French, English, and German languages. He has left behind almost seventy books in different domains, including the book on the lives of the Infallible Imams; the translation of "History of the Holy Qur’an", and the translation of "Carpenter’s Geographical Works" in six volumes from English into Persian. He established the first Geography and Cartography Institute of Iran as a private institute in 1936. Currently the Sehaab Institute of Geography and Cartography is one of the largest geographical institutes in Iran. The library of this institute has over 16,000 books on geography; 18,000 geographical periodicals, and 20,000 maps.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, following the resounding victory of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the elections, President Shazli bin Jadid, resigned. In 1988, after wide-scale unrests, he had pledged reforms and revision of the Constitution, to permit political parties to operate. This enabled FIS to publicly announce its existence in September 1989. It managed to attract hundreds of thousands of members. In June 1990, FIS victory in the local elections ended the monopoly of the ruling Algerian National Liberation Front, which was in power for thirty years. In the wake of public strikes in May and June 1991, President Shazli bin Jadid was forced to hold legislative elections. The landslide victory of FIS in the parliamentary polls of December 1991 deeply worried France – the former colonial power – which ordered Algerian generals to annul the results and force the resignation of Bin Jadid.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a senior official of Iran’s Natanz nuclear site was martyred in Tehran by agents of the US and the illegal Zionist entity at the relatively young age of 33 years. A post-graduate in chemical engineering, he was studying for PhD, and had to his credit several excellent scientific articles published in Persian and English. He was targeted along with Reza Qashqai – who survived – while leaving his house. The Leader of Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in a message of condolences on the martyrdom of this brilliant young scientist, referred to Iran's astounding scientific progress, and emphasized: "This is a historical movement, which has its roots in the indomitable resolve of the Iranian nation. We will strongly and resolutely continue this path."

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, notorious Zionist terrorist, Ariel Sharon, known as the “Butcher of Beirut”, plunged into the bowels of hell after languishing in coma for eight years as a result of divine wrath that struck him on January 5, 2006, for his crimes against humanity. A Lithuanian Jew having no connections to Palestine, he was the son of illegal migrants to this Muslim land and was named Ariel Sheinerman. During British mandate over Palestine, he was active since his early teens in the Gadna and Haganah terrorist outfits. He has shamelessly admitted in his biography, how he and his Zionist-comrades-in crime would terrorize Palestinian villages, attack bridges and bases, and ambush traffic between Arab villages. With the illegal birth of Israel in 1948, he joined the army, changed his surname to Sharon, and rose rapidly in ranks because of his cold-blooded killings of Palestinian people – both Muslims and Christians. As war minister in 1982, he was physically present in south Lebanon and ordered the Phalangist Christian militia to massacre over 5,000 Palestinian women, children and elderly men in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. On 28th September 2000 he desecrated the sanctity of the al-Aqsa Mosque by entering it with boots. The next year he became prime minster of a coalition cabinet. An avowed enemy of Islam, he was the first Zionist premier to visit India in 2005, and proposed a tripartite alliance with the BJP government and the US for terrorizing Muslims worldwide.

AS/ME