Today is Friday; 29th of the Iranian month of Dey 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 1st of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1439 lunar hijri; and January 19, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1448 solar years ago, on this day in 570 AD, as per the Georgian calendar is the birthday in Mecca of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). According to the lunar calendar he was born on Rabi al-Awwal 17^th. His family, the monotheist Hashemite clan of the Quraish, was descended directly from Prophet Ishmael, the firstborn son of Prophet Abraham. His mission was foretold by all previous prophets, including Moses and Jesus.

981 lunar years ago, on this day in 459 AH, the Iranian literary figure and poet, Sharaf od-Din Khaled Fini Kashani, was born in Kashan. He served as assistant to the famous Seljuqid vizier Khaja Nizam ul-Mulk Tusi, on whose assassination he resigned his post and settled in the Iraqi port city of Basra, spending his years in study and research. He has penned memoirs of his days in administrative posts at the Seljuqid court in Isfahan. It is a fine specimen of Persian prose and includes poems of prominent classical poets.

638 lunar years ago, on this day in 801 AH, the fearsome Turko-Mongol invader, Amir Timur Gurkani captured Meerut north of Delhi. Days earlier, he had ordered a general massacre in Delhi, killing tens of thousands of people, before proceeding to the banks of River Ganges to defeat a Hindu force near Tughlaqpur, and an Indian Muslim army under Mubarak Khan. He then defeated Malik Shaikha at Kutila (Hardwar), and started his return march to his capital Samarqand (in what is now Uzbekistan) through the Siwalik Hills, where he gained a victory on the 15th of Jamadi al-Awwal over Ratan Sen and captured Nagarkot (Kangra).

523 lunar years ago, on this day in 916 AH, Da’ud Khan of the Faruqi Dynasty of Khandesh in Central India, died after a reign of 7 years, during which he was totally dependent on his two brothers, Hussain Ali and Yar Ali, with the former serving as vizier of the state. Because of ill advice, he attacked the Nizamshahi Dynasty of Ahmadnagar, but the latter’s army marched into Khandesh, almost making him lose his kingdom which was only saved by his pleas of help to the Sultan of Malwa, who forced him to become his subordinate. His son and successor, Ghazni Khan, was killed by poisoning within ten days of his death, prompting the kingdoms of Berar and Ahmadnagar to install his cousin, Alam Khan, as ruler, a move that was opposed by Mahmoud Shah, the powerful sultan of Gujarat, who instead sent an army to crown another member of the Faruqi Dynasty as Adil Khan III. Founded in 1382 by Malik Ahmad Raja Faruqi, the son of a Rajput convert to Islam who served Sultan Feroze Shah Tughlaq of Delhi, Khandesh and its capital Burhanpur, were annexed by the Moghal Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar in 1601. The Sultanate was a Persianate society, and made contributions to Persian literature, art and architecture. Islam was promoted through peaceful means, as is evident today by the large number of Tadvi Bhils, and Raj Gonds, who are Muslims.

495 solar years ago, on this day in1523 AD, in Switzerland, Huldrych Zwingli published his 67 Articles, the first manifesto of the Zurich Reformation which attacked the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church.

420 solar years ago, on this day in 1597 AD, Rajput rebel, Pratap Singh, who along with Afghan mercenaries fought several unsuccessful battles against Mughal Emperor Mohammad Jalal od-Din Akbar of Hindustan (northern subcontinent), died of injuries at the age of 57 in his principality of Mewar. He was succeeded by his son, Amar Singh who after initial rebellion, found it prudent to submit to the authority of the next emperor, Mohammad Noor od-Din Jahangir, and was appointed governor of Mewar.  

389 solar years ago, on this day in 1629 AD, Shah Abbas I, regarded as the greatest emperor of the Safavid dynasty of Iran, passed away at the age of 58. The son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, he ascended the throne as a 16-year youth during troubled times, when the country was rife with discord between the different factions of the Qizilbash army, who killed his elder brother Hamza Mirza and mother Queen Khair on-Nisa Begum Mahd-e Olya – descended from Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), the 4th Infallible Heir of the Prophet (SAWA). Meanwhile, Iran's enemies, the Ottomans and the Uzbeks, exploited the political chaos to seize territory in the west and northeast. Abbas soon reduced the influence of the Qizilbash in the administrative and military affairs, executed the killers of his mother and brother, and reformed the army, enabling him to fight the Ottomans and Uzbeks and retake Iran's lost provinces. He decisively defeated the Ottomans in several battles in the Caucasus, in Anatolia and in Iraq, where he rebuilt on a grand scale the shrines of the Infallible Imams in Najaf, Karbala, and Kazemain. He drove back the Uzbeks from the northern and western parts of Khorasan, and in fulfillment of a vow walked on foot from his new capital Isfahan to distant Mashhad, where he rebuilt the shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He also liberated Iranian territories from the Portuguese invaders in the Persian Gulf and from the Mughals of India in what is now Afghanistan. Shah Abbas I was a great builder and moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, which he adorned with beautiful mosques, such as Masjid Sheikh Lotfollah and the largest one named after, and which is now called Masjid-e Imam. He also built the Aali Qapu Palace and the world famous Naqsh-e Jahan Square, to the extent that Isfahan came to be known as Nisf-e Jahan or Half of the World. He patronized poets and painters, resulting in the birth of the Isfahan School that created some of the finest arts in Iranian history, by such illustrious painters as Reza Abbasi and others. He respected religious figures, and during his era some of the greatest ulema and philosophers of Iran, such as Shaikh Baha od-Din Ameli, Mir Baqer Damad and Mullah Sadra Shirazi flourished. During his 42-year reign, Shah Abbas also promoted commerce, trade and diplomacy, establishing relations with European powers to keep the Ottomans in check, and strengthening ties with the Shi'ite Muslim sultanates of Golkandah-Haiderabad and Bijapur in the Deccan (southern India), where the name of the Safavid Emperor was recited in the Friday Prayer sermons. He also maintained friendly relations with the Mughal Emperor Jahangir of Hindustan (North India). He was succeeded by his grandson, Shah Safi.

282 solar years ago, on this day in 1736 AD, the English inventor and engineer, James Watt, was born. He discovered steam power, which led to a revolution in industry, especially in the land and sea transportation network. Steam ships and locomotives were the result of his discoveries.

220 solar years ago, on this day in 1798 AD, August Comte, French philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the Philosophical School of Positivism, was born. He died in 1857 at the age of 59.

209 solar years ago, on this day in 1809 AD, American writer, editor, and literary critic, Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston. He is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known US writer to try to earn a living through writing alone. He died in 1849.

129 lunar years ago, on this day in 1309 AH, Grand Ayatolllah Mirza Mohammad Hassan Hussaini Shirazi, issued his historic fatwa against consumption of tobacco in Iran in order to prevent the undermining of Iranian economy by the British colonialists. The inefficient Qajarid king, Naser od-Din Shah, under pressure from Britain granted Major G. F. Talbot a 50-year monopoly for cultivation and production of tobacco in Iran, as well as its exclusive sale and export through the British Regie company. The Iranian people outraged by the selling of national resources and honour for a paltry sum of British pounds, appealed to the religious leaders, who in turn demanded cancellation of the grant.  When the Shah remained unmoved and news reached the holy city of Samarra in Iraq, where the leading jurisprudent Grand Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Hussaini Shirazi lived, he promptly sent a telegram to the Iranian king warning him of the ruin he was bringing upon the Iranian economy and harming national sovereignty. When Naser od-Din Shah failed to heed the warnings, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi had no other choice but issue a Fatwa prohibiting use of tobacco, with the words: “Any use of tobacco from now onwards would be considered war against the Lord of the Age, Imam Mahdi (AS) – the 12^th and Last Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).” Immediately, the people of Iran obeyed the edict, and throughout the country refrained from buying, selling and using tobacco. The ban even spread to the royal palace, where the queen ordered the breaking of all tobacco pipes and the traditional huqqas. When Naser od-Din Shah asked her, on whose orders she had done such a thing, she promptly replied: “On the orders of the person who has legalized husband-and-wife relations between me and you.” The Shah had no other choice but to cancel the tobacco concession.

Born in Shiraz, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi mastered various branches of Islamic sciences in holy Najaf Iraq, under such great scholars as Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli, before settling in Samarra, where he passed away at the age of 82. This erudite scholar also championed the rights of Shi’a Muslims in Afghanistan, and sent missionaries to India, Kashmir, the Caucasus, and other parts of the Muslim World. He trained a number of scholars such as the Ayatollahs Sheikh Fazlollah Noori, Mirza Husain Noori Tabarsi, Ismail as-Sadr, Mohammad Hussain Na’ini, Mohammed Kazem Yazdi, Abdul-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi (Reviver of the Qom Seminary), and Mirza Mohammad Taqi Golshani Shirazi (leader of the 1920 revolution of Iraq against British rule).

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, the first ever complaint heard by the newly formed United Nations Security Council was made by Iran and directed against the Soviet Union. Iran officially complained the Soviet interference in its internal affairs and the refusal of Moscow to withdraw Soviet occupation troops from Iranian territory. The very first session of the UN had begun just days earlier, on January 10, 1946, in London. The issue, however, was resolved without UN intervention, when the Soviet Union pulled out its troops from Iran resulting in the collapse of the so-called communist republics, Moscow had set up in Azarbaijan and Kurdistan.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the Iranian people through their trust in God and their solidarity staged a huge demonstration against the remnants of the Shah’s despotic regime. The protesters demanded the ouster of Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiyar and establishment of the Islamic system of government. On this day, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), in his message to the Iranian nation from exile, said: “Insha Allah (God-Willing), I will soon join you, so that with your courageous efforts we would resolve problems, and through the unity of all strata of the nation, we would make every effort in the path toward independence and freedom of Iran.”

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, renowned Iranian musician and physicist Mahdi Barkeshli, passed away at the age of 75 in his hometown Tehran. After graduating from Tehran University he completed his higher studies in France and on his return home, although a physicist by profession, he devoted his career to definition of Persian classic music. In 1940, he defined Persian music intervals within a 22 tone scale, basing his theory on the works of masters of the past such as Abu-Nasr Farabi and Safi od-Din Ormavi, in whose eras the Pythagorean intervals of Limma and Comma were the basis for fretting the musical instruments. For example, the octave contained two tetra-chords plus a whole tone; each tetra-chord consisted of five pitches and four intervals, and the five pitches were named after the open string by the name of the fingers which press the string of the Oud. Mahdi Barkeshli did a series of tests among the reputable musicians. He recorded some songs in various modes and analyzed them. From the results he concluded that the whole tone and semi tone intervals in Persian music are stable and they are the same Pythagorean intervals. On the basis of his expertise as a physicist, he wrote several articles on music in Persian, French and English. Barkeshli also translated into Persian from Arabic Farabi’s famous book “Kitab al-Mosiqi al-Kabeer”, and wrote the valuable work “Development of Musical Instruments in Iran”.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, Palestinian activist of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was assassinated in Dubai by agents of the illegal Zionist entity, Israel, who had entered the UAE on fake western passports. Born in 1960 in a religious family in the Jabaliyya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, he graduated in mechanical engineering and was familiar with several languages. He was among the founders of the military branch of Hamas, and for this reason, was the target of several abortive Zionist assassination bids. Several months after his assassination, Israel admitted its dastardly act of terrorism. This atrocious crime was yet another proof of the state terrorism of the usurper state of Israel, with the support of Western regimes.

AS/MG