Today is Sunday; 24th of the Iranian month of Dey 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 26th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1439 lunar hijri; and January 14, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

974 lunar years ago, on this day in 465 AH, the Iranian Muslim mathematician, physician, and philosopher, Ain az-Zamaan Abu’l-Hassan ibn Ali al-Qattani al-Marvazi, was born in the Khorasani city of Marv (presently in Turkmenistan). Living in a city with a rich Islamic cultural milieu, he grew up to become an expert in many scientific fields. Like other erudite and encyclopedic savants of the Islamic Middle Ages, he wrote books in most areas of knowledge including astronomy, medicine, prosody, engineering, and literature. A student of Lawkari, who in turn was a student of Bahmanyar, the most distinguished disciple of the famous polymath Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Qattan al‐Marvazi belongs to the third generation of scholars who fully benefited from the Avicennian tradition. He passed away in 548 AH at the age of 83 in his hometown. His writings have not survived except for a book on astronomy written in Persian and entitled “Kayhan-Shenakht” (Knowledge of the Cosmos). The book, however, is not confined to cosmology, but covers a wider range of subjects such as the configuration of the Earth, geographical factors, works dealing with the determination of the calendar and issues related to the passage of time. On purely cosmological issues, it discusses celestial movements, eccentrics and epicycles, apogees, planetary sectors, the ecliptic, the fixed stars, lunar and solar eclipses, the meridian, the azimuth, the size of the earth, and astrology.

921 lunar years ago, on this day in 518 AH, prominent Ismaili missionary of Iran, Hassan Sabbah, died in his stronghold Alamut at the age of 89. Born in Qom in a Shi’a Muslim family, he studied in Rayy and at the age of 17 after coming under the influence of missionaries of the Fatemid caliphate of Egypt (sent by Caliph al-Mustansir’s Chief Missionary [Bab al-Abwab], the Iranian Hibatullah Mu'ayyad fi'd-Din Shirazi), he deviated from the right path. He travelled to Cairo, where he stayed for three years to become a full-fledged missionary. Hassan Sabbah had to return to Iran after being imprisoned and expelled for supporting Nizar, the elder son of Mustansir, as the next Imam rather than Ahmad Musta’l the younger son – resulting in the split of the Ismaili creed into Nizari and Musta’li sects. Several years later, following Nizar’s death in prison, his son Hadi came to Alamut which Hassan Sabbah had taken control of in 483 AH as an inaccessible fort in the Alborz Mountain range, and was hailed as the 20^th Ismaili Imam – dynastic rule that ended in 654 AH when the fortress fell to the Mongol invader Hulagu Khan. In a major departure from tradition, Hassan Sabbah declared Persian to be the language of holy literature for Nizaris, a decision that resulted in all the Nizari Ismaili literature from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Central Asia to be transcribed in Persian for several centuries. From this point on his community and its branches spread throughout Iran and Syria and came to be called Hashshashin or Assassins. The present self-styled Imam of the Nizaris (known as Khojas), is the Europe-based Karim Agha Khan. The famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who visited Iran several years after the Mongol conqueror had captured Alamut and liquidated the Ismailis, calls Hassan Sabbah as Old Man of the Mountain, and describes him as a charlatan who devised plots to convert young men to his sect. Xishiji, a Chinese manuscript completed in 1263 AD, re-tells the story similar to Polo's.

276 solar years ago, on this day in 1742 AD, English astronomer and mathematician, Edmond Halley, died at the age of 85. He is best known for recognizing that a bright comet (later named after him) had appeared several times on a periodical basis. He calculated its orbit and successfully predicted its return. He identified the proper motion of stars, studied the moon's motion and tides, realized that nebulae were clouds of luminous gas among the stars, and that the aurora was a phenomenon connected with the Earth's magnetism. The so-called Halley’s Comet, which appears after an interval of 74-to-79 years, was believed to have been first recorded in 466 BC. Chinese, Babylonian, Greek, and Islamic astronomers have regularly recorded its observations long before Edmond Halley.

257 solar years ago, on this day in 1761 AD, the Afghans led by Ahmad Shah Abdali Durrani inflicted a crushing defeat on the Marathas at the 3rd Battle of Panipat, fought about 95 km from Delhi that changed the course of Indian history. The Marathas' French supplied artillery was no match for the "Zamburak" mounted artillery of Ahmad Shah – who as a veteran general of Nader Shah Afshar of Iran had participated in the latter's capture of Delhi in 1739. The Marathas of southwestern India, emboldened by the breakaway of the two important provinces of Bengal and Haiderabad-Deccan from the Mughal Empire, had quickly expanded their influence in the north as far as Punjab and the borders of Kashmir, bringing them into direct confrontation with the Afghans. Ahmad Shah with his two Indian allies – Najeeb od-Dowla Rohilla of the Doaab, and Shuja od-Dowla, the Nawab of Awadh – decided to crush the Maratha marauders, whose pillaging and looting of lands had alienated from them the Sikhs, the Jats, and even fellow Hindu Rajputs. The battle is considered one of the largest fought in the 18th century. The 250,000- strong Maratha army was annihilated and large numbers fled the battlefield. The earlier two decisive Battles of Panipat that also changed the course of Indian history were fought in 1526 and 1556. The first saw the defeat of the Afghan king, Ibrahim Lodhi of Hindustan (Northern Subcontinent) and establishment of the Mughal Empire by the Timurid ruler of Kabul, Zaheer od-Din Babar Shah – a protégé of Shah Ismail I of Iran. The second saw the victory of Bayram Khan Turkman, the guardian and general of Jalal od-Din Akbar Shah over Hemu, the Hindu general of the Afghan rulers of Delhi and led to the restoration of Mughal rule in the aftermath of Humayun Shah’s sudden death shortly after return from Iran and recapture of Hindustan with aid provided by Shah Tahmasp Safavi.

143 solar years ago, on this day in 1875 AD, Albert Schweitzer the physician was born in Alsace in France. He established a hospital in Gabon, spending the rest of his life assisting and medically treating the disadvantaged people of Africa. He wrote several books, including "The Philosophy of Civilization". Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953, he died in 1965.

120 solar years ago, on this day in 1898 AD, Lewis Carroll, the British logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, remembered for the book “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” (1865), died at the age of 65. His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and after graduating from Oxford University, he taught mathematics and wrote treatises there until 1881. He was the author of several mathematics books, including “A Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry” (1860), and “Euclid and his Modern Rivals” (1879).

76 solar years ago, on this day in 1942 AD during World War 2, US president, Franklin Roosevelt, and British prime minister, Winston Churchill, as the main leaders of the Allied Powers held a summit in Casablanca, Morocco, to plan attacks on Fascist Italy including the bombardment of Sicily and other places by the American air force.

76 lunar years ago, on this day in 1363 AH, the prominent Iranian theologian, Aqa Najafi Qochani, passed away in his hometown Qochan in northeastern Iran. He was a product of the famous Islamic seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, where he reached the status of Ijtehad. On his return to Iran, he actively participated in the Constitutional Movement. He has widely elaborated on this era in his book: “Siahat-e Sharq”. He wrote many books, including “Siahat-e Gharb”.

69 solar years ago, on this day in 1949 AD, the Durban riots occurred in South Africa against Indians predominantly by Zulus (at the instigation of the ruling whites) resulting in the massacre of 142 people, and injury to 1,087 others. It also led to the destruction of 58 shops, 247 dwellings and one factory – all owned by Indians. The Indian business area was attacked with an assortment of improvised weapons. As the looting took place, a number of white Europeans encouraged the black people to attack, and subsequently joined the looting. The riot then spread to the peri-urban areas of Durban where numerous acts of murder, arson, rape, and looting took place. The Indians were accused of black-marketeering, opposition to the economic expansion of the Africans, and social and racial humiliation of the blacks by Indian landlords, but in reality Indians were treated far worse by Europeans because they were given the terms coolie and the jealousy that blacks and whites showed because Indians started going from extremely poor and servitude status to being their owners through close knit networks and pre planning steps in business. The Indians were descendants of low caste groups from places like Bihar, and were despised by both the whites and the blacks who resented the rise of dark skin inferior looking people.

43 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, the famous jurisprudent, Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Rafi’i Qazvini, passed away at the age of 83. Born in Qazvin, he studied in Tehran and then in holy Qom under the famous scholar, Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Ha’eri Yazdi, mastering various branches of Islamic sciences. He authored several books.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD during the crucial days of the Islamic Revolution, the beleaguered British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi potentate, Mohammad Reza Shah, unable to crush the people’s resolve to overthrow his dynasty, resorted to the ruse of abdicating power in favour of his 18-year old son by setting up a regency council, in a bid to deceive the people. But the ever-alert Iranian people took to the streets to denounce his plot, and voiced support for the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). On this day, from his brief exile in Paris, the Imam announced that soon a revolutionary government would be established. This made the head of the so-called regency council, Jalal od-Din Tehrani, to fly to France to meet Imam Khomeini, who set two conditions for receiving him: First resignation from his post, and second announcement of illegitimacy of the regency council. With Tehrani’s resignation the regency council was practically dissolved.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, the notorious Zionist spying agency, Mossad, in a terrorist act in Tunisia, assassinated Abu Ayad, a senior leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), along with two other Palestinian officials. The assassination smelled of treason on the part of the Tunisian regime of the now ousted Zain al-Abedin bin Ali and some Palestinian leaders, because later in the same year in October, PLO Chief, Yasser Arafat, started the so-called peace talks with the illegal Zionist entity, Israel.

23 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, the poet and researcher Dr. Abdul-Wahhab Noorani Shirazi passed away at the age of 71. Grandson of the famous poet of the Qajarid era, Vesaal Shirazi, he obtained his doctorate in Persian literature from Tehran University, and served as professor in the same field at Shiraz University. He edited and published classical works such as “Mosibat-Nameh” of the famous poet Farid od-Din Attar Naishapuri. Among his other works mention could be made of “Hazar Mazar” and “Fawa’ed as-Solouk”.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, the famous Iranologist, Dr. Ahmad Tafazzoli, passed away. After graduating in Persian literature from Tehran University, he studied ancient Iranian languages at London University and obtained doctorate in this field. His researches earned him national and international awards.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, Tunisia’s pro-US-Israeli dictator, Zain al-Abedin bin Ali, faced with a popular uprising, fled the country for Saudi Arabia along with his family and billions of dollars of public wealth. On taking power in 1987 he slavishly served American interests by brutally suppressing the Tunisian Muslim people, for which he was rewarded with asylum by Saudi Arabia. His ouster freed Tunisia from over half a century of anti-Islamic rule and triggered uprisings in other countries, such as Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

AS/MG