Today is Friday; 11th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 13th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1439 lunar hijri; and March 2, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1370 lunar years ago, on this day in 69 AH, the pious lady, Hazrat Omm al-Baneen (SA), the mother of the valiant standard-bearer of Karbala, Hazrat Abbas (AS), passed away in Medina, and was laid to rest in the Baqie Cemetery, next to Safiyyah and Atekah, the paternal aunts of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Her real name was Fatema, the daughter of Huzaam of the al-Kulabiyya Clan noted for its courage and loyalty. Imam Ali (AS) married her several years after the passing away of his beloved wife, the Prophet’s Immaculate daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA).The reason she is called Omm al-Baneen is because she bore several sons, four to be exact, and all of whom were martyred in Karbala. After the heartrending tragedy of Karbala, she accomplished her political and social mission by keeping alive the heroic epic of Ashura in the best way possible, including elegies that are considered masterpieces of Arabic literature.

1009 lunar years ago, on this day in 430 AH, the prominent Muslim scientist and polymath, Abu Ali Hassan Ibn al-Haytham, known to medieval Europe by his Latinized name of Alhazen, passed away in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, at the age of 76. Born in Basra in the Iraqi province of the Iranian Buwayhid (or Daylamite) Empire, he made vital contributions to optics, medicine, physics, astronomy, mathematics, visual perception, ophthalmology, philosophy, and various other sciences, and is the inventor of the telescope and the magnifying glass. He conducted extensive research on light rays, determining the relationship between the angle of light radiation and the angle of its reflection. He wrote insightful commentaries on the works of the ancient Greek philosophers and scientists such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Euclid. Ibn al-Haytham was active in both Basra and Baghdad and after visiting Islamic Spain he settled in Egypt which was ruled by the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’a Muslim dynasty. He was a follower of the school of the Ahl al-Bayt, and was associated with the renowned academy of al-Azhar, which derives its name from “az-Zahra” (the Radiant), the famous epithet of Hazrat Fatema (SA), the Immaculate Daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). In Egypt he took up the project of controlling the floods of the Nile. He is said to have written over 200 books and treatises, the most famous of which is “Kitab al-Manazer” on Optics that was extensively used by later European scholars such as Roger Bacon, Johannes Keppler, and Galileo Galilei. Among his works, mention could be made of the “Configuration of the World”, “On the Formation of Eclipse”, “On the Milky Way”, “The Model of the Motions of Each of the Seven Planets”, and “Treatise on the Influence of Melodies on the Souls of Animals”. Among his prominent students were Sorkhab, an Iranian scientist from Semnan and Mubashir ibn Fatek, an Egyptian.

965 solar years ago, on this day in 1053 AD, Farrokhzad Jamal od-Dowlah ascended the throne of Ghazni as the 9th sultan, having escaped the massacre of Ghaznavid princess by Toghrul the Usurper. Son of Mas’oud I and grandson of the famous Sultan Mahmoud, his 6-year reign was one of benevolence, prosperity and tranquility, free from the chaotic turbulence of palace slaves who had destabilized the rule of his predecessors. A devout Muslim, he used to fast during Rajab, Sha'ban and Ramadhan, and reinstated as vizier the able Iranian administrator, Abdur-Razzaq Maymandi, who had formerly served his brother Maudud and uncle Abd ur-Rashid. He also freed from imprisonment the celebrated Iranian scholar, Abu’l-Fazl Bayhaqi, who wrote his famous history in Persian (Tarikh-e Bayhaqi), which is one of the most credible sources about the Ghaznavid Empire. Chagri Beg Seljuq launched an invasion soon after Farrokhzad’s ascension, but was defeated. Around 1058, Farrokh invaded Tukharistan in hopes of removing the Seljuqs to whom his father Mas’oud had lost Khorasan and parts of Transoxiana in the Battle of Dandanaqan in 1040. His army was initially successful, capturing the Seljuq Atabeg Qotb od-Din Kul-Sarigh. However, Alp Arslan counter-attacked and defeated the Ghaznavid army. A subsequent peace treaty, drawn up by Abu’l-Fazl Bayhaqi allowed for exchange of prisoners and a mutual non-aggression pact. Depressed and sickened after an attempt on his life by palace slaves, Farrokhzad withdrew from worldly affairs and died on 4 April 1059 at the age of thirty four.

520 solar years ago, on this day in 1498 AD, Vasco da Gama, the murderous Portuguese navigator and Christian missionary landed on the Muslim-ruled island of Mozambique, after having rounded with the help of Muslim navigators the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of the African continent – the first European to do so. Since the island and the nearby African coast were ruled by Sultan Musa Ali Bique, the Portuguese corrupted the name to Mozambique. Vasco da Gama disguised as a Muslim gained audience with the Sultan, who was a vassal of the Kilwa Empire of Iranian Shirazi origin of east Africa. Soon the local Muslim populace became suspicious of the Portuguese and forced them to flee the island 27 days later on March 29. Vasco da Gama, while fleeing, indiscriminately fired his cannons into the city, killing and wounding many men, women, and children. He next landed at Mombasa in the heartland of the Kilwa sultanate, where he was an unwelcome visitor. Then with the help of Muslim navigators he reached Calicut on the western coast of India. Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese struck the Muslim-ruled eastern coast of Africa with vengeance, sacking Mombasa in 1500 and by 1507 seizing Mozambique and destroying the centuries-old flourishing Indian Ocean trade of the Arabs and Persians. For his crimes against Muslim lands and piracy on the high seas, in 1502 Portugal awarded him the title of “Almirante dos mares de Arabia, Persia, India e de todo o Oriente”, which means Admiral of the Seas of Arabia, Persia, India and all the Orient". Vasco da Gama now embarked on one of the most gruesome massacres when he and his crew terrorized Muslim ports up and down the African east coast, and at one point, set ablaze a Muslim ship returning from Mecca, killing the several hundreds of people on board, including women and children. In the Cannanore port in southwestern India he committed a similar crime, by attacking a Muslim merchant ship, seizing its cargo, and burning to death around 400 passengers, including women and children. Over four-and-a-half centuries later in 1975 Mozambique became independent. Today some 20 percent of the population is Muslim, since the Portuguese occupiers forcibly converted the local people to Christianity and destroyed the rich Islamic Arabic and Swahili culture. Vasco da Gama who died in Kochi in 1524 in India, at the age of 65 and was buried in Lisbon, Portugal, slaughtered thousands of Muslims and enslaved thousands of Africans.

493 solar years ago, on this day in 1525 AD, Budapest, the capital of Hungary was taken by the Ottoman Turkish army. The Turks had earlier defeated the Hungarian king in the Battle of Mohacs and in this manner the boundaries and borders of Ottoman Empire reached the Austrian Capital, Vienna.

331 solar years ago, on this day in 1687 AD, Prince Muhammad Mu'azzam was charged with treacherous conduct during the Mughal sieges of the Deccan sultanates of Iranian origin of Bijapur and Golkandah-Haiderabad, and imprisoned for seven years on the orders of his father, Emperor Aurangzeb. Earlier in the year he had defeated the Qutb-Shahi forces at Malkhed in what is now Karnataka State, but the Qutb-Shahis put up strong resistance from the impregnable Golkandah fortress till September of the same year, when through deceit and treachery the 170-year old dynasty founded by Sultan Quli, the Qara Qoyounlu adventurer from Hamedan in western Iran, collapsed. On Aurangzeb’s death, Mu’azzam rebelled against his brother Azam Shah (descended on his mother’s side from the Safavid emperors of Iran), who as the heir-apparent had crowned himself emperor, and after defeating and executing him, seized the throne with the titles of Shah Alam I and Bahadur Shah I. He died five years later.

221 solar years ago, on this day in 1797 AD, Horace Walpole, English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician, died at the age of 80. In 1754 AD, by playing with Persian words, he had coined the word “Serendipity” meaning a “fortuitous happenstance” or “pleasant surprise”. In a letter to a friend he explained an unexpected discovery he had made by reference to a Persian tale titled “The Three Princes of Serendip”, who were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.” “Serendip” was the ancient Iranian name for Sri Lanka. In its modern vernacular, “Serendipity” is commonly associated with luck and accidental discovery. The notion of serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of scientific innovation such as Alexander Flemming's accidental discovery of Penicillin in 1928, and the invention of the microwave oven by Percy Spencer in 1945, to name but a few. In contrast, “Bahramdipity” is derived from the 15th Sassanid Emperor of ancient Iran, Bahram Gur, and means suppression of serendipitous discoveries or research results by powerful individuals.

182 solar years ago, on this day in 1936 AD, German orientalist and Islamic scholar, Theodor Noldeke, was born in Harburg. He studied in Göttingen, Vienna, Leiden and Berlin, mastering several languages including Arabic and Persian. In 1859 his history of the holy Qur'an won for him the prize of the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and in the following year he rewrote it in German (Geschichte des Qorâns). In 1861 he began to lecture at the university, where three years later he was appointed extraordinary professor. In 1868 he became ordinary professor at Kiel, and in 1872 was appointed to the chair of Oriental Languages at Strassburg, which he resigned in 1906. His range of studies was wide and varied, but the main focus of his work has followed the two lines indicated by his prize essay, Semitic languages, and the history and civilization of Islam. While a great deal of his work (e.g. his translations from the Arabic of the history of Tabari, 1881–1882) is meant for specialists, many of his books are of interest to the general reader. Noldeke’s articles dealing with Iran were republished in a German volume, titled “Aufsätze zur Persischen Geschichte” in Leipzig in 1887. He died in 1930.

145 solar years ago, on this day in 1873 AD, George Smith, British Assyriologist, arrived at the ruins of Nineveh outside Mosul in Iraq. Over the next few weeks he found tablets referring to more pieces of the Gilgamesh story, a record of kings in the Babylonian dynasties, as well as lists of cuneiform symbols.

122 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, French physicist, Henri Becquerel, discovered the radiation feature of radioactive material in uranium. The discovery won him the Nobel Prize for Physics in the year 1905; five years prior to his death.

94 solar years ago, on this day in 1923 AD, Iranian musician, Morteza Hannaneh, was born. For a while, he was conductor of Tehran’s Symphonic Orchestra, and then joined Iran Radio. An expert in classical Iranian music, he died at the age of 67 in 1990. He authored several books, including the translation and commentary of the book “Maqased al-Alhaan”.

62 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Morocco gained independence from French colonial rule. In 1912, after decades of meddling by European powers, France had declared this Muslim country as its protectorate. The same year the Moroccan people, under the leadership of Abdul-Karim Rifi, started the liberation struggle and managed to free the mountainous parts of the country, until they were defeated in 1926 by the French.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, during the waning months of the US imposed 8-year war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad ordered the indiscriminate firing of at least 16 long range missiles into Tehran’s residential areas, that left houses and commercial areas devastated, in addition to the martyrdom and injury of several men, women, and children. The missile barrage into Tehran and other Iranian cities continued for the next few days, without the UN and the self-styled defenders of human rights in the west uttering even a single word in condemnation, until the Iranians quickly developed the technology to shoot down the incoming Iraqi missiles in midair, thus averting a potential catastrophe.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, in the wake of the defeat of the Iraqi army in Kuwait by the US-led coalition, Iraqi people started their popular uprising against the repressive rule of Saddam’s Ba’th minority regime, as the long suppressed Shi’a Arab majority rose in the south, while the ethnic Kurd minority rose in the north. After initial gains, when the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala had been liberated and the noose was being tightened around Baghdad, the US allowed Saddam to use missiles and fixed-wing aircraft to brutally crush the popular uprising and to desecrate the holy shrines. The result was catastrophic. Saddam massacred at least seven hundred thousand Shi’a Arabs, and forced some two million Kurds to seek refuge across the borders in Iran and Turkey.

17 solar years ago, on this day in 2001 AD, in Afghanistan the Taliban terrorists began the destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan despite international protests. The pair of Buddha statues was not the object of worship to be destroyed. These were relics of the skill of craftsmen of the ancient past who had hewn mountains to carve them. The Taliban used dynamite, anti-tank missiles, and artillery fire to destroy the two statues.

14 solar years ago, on this day in 2004 AD, the holy cities of Karbala and Kazemain were rocked by several terrorist attacks, in which at least 180 people were martyred and 500 others injured. These attacks were carried out by the Takfiri terrorists on the Day of Ashura (10^th of Moharram) – the martyrdom anniversary of the Prophet's grandson Imam Husain (AS) – when millions of devotees were attending mourning processions for the first time after the fall of Iraq's US-installed dictator, Saddam. The terrorists were never identified, but believed to be the agents of the US and Saudi Arabia.

AS/MG