Today is Friday; 25th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 27th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1439 lunar hijri; and March 16, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2615 solar years ago, on this day in 597 BC, the Babylonian tyrant, Nebuchadnezzar II (Bokht an-Nasar in Arabic) after capturing the holy city of Bayt al-Moqaddas, replaced the Israelite king, Jeconiah (Yaqunia) with his uncle Zedekiah (Sadqiya), thereby bringing under direct rule of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) the kingdom of Judah (Palestine), which until then was a tributary. Jeconiah was taken to Babylon as prisoner. Nine years later in 588 BC, when the evil Zedekiah, ignoring the advice of Prophet Jeremiah (Irmiyah), dared to side with Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt, the tyrant Nebuchadnezzar II descended with a mighty army and after an 18-month siege, captured Bayt al-Moqaddas, plundered it, and razed to the ground all edifices, including Solomon’s Mosque. Zedekiah, along with his followers attempted to escape, but was captured, made to witness the execution of his sons, before his own eyes were pulled out, and he was carried as a fettered captive to Babylon, where he remained until death. Nebuchadnezzar transported almost all the population of Palestine to Mesopotamia. It is worth noting that the recently executed Iraqi tyrant, Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority, used to regard himself as reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar, who is said to have been weaned on sow's milk.

1981 solar years ago, on this day in 37 AD, Roman Emperor Tiberius died at the age of 77 after a 34-year reign in a paranoid state following the invasion of Syria by Iran’s Parthian Empire. The stepson and successor of Emperor Augustus Caesar, decades earlier he had been sent at the head of a large army to Armenia to try to wrest its control from Parthia, but failed to defeat the Iranians. After a year of negotiations, he reached compromise on preserving Armenia as a buffer zone between the two empires and the Iranians returned the prestigious standards of the legions they had captured during the Roman wars against Parthia waged by Marcus Crassus (53 BC – at the Battle of Carrhae), Decidius Saxa (40 BC), and Marc Antonius (36 BC).  

1323 lunar years ago, on this day in 116 AH, Ali, a son of Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS) – the 5^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – was martyred in Ardahal near Kashan in central Iran, along with a hundred of his followers in an uneven fight with forces of the usurper Omayyad regime. He had come to Iran from Medina three years earlier on the invitation of followers of the Ahl al-Bayt and was peacefully promoting the genuine teachings of Islam when the enemies launched an unprovoked attack upon him. His sprawling shrine in Mashhad-e Ardahal is a site of pilgrimage for people from all over Iran and other parts of the world. Every year on the second Friday of the Iranian month of Mehr, pilgrims flock in great numbers to commemorate his martyrdom as per the solar hijri calendar.

1048 lunar years ago, on this day in 391 AH, poet and eulogist Siraj Wahhaj Hussain bin Ahmad, popular as Ibn Hajjaj, passed away. As per his will he was laid to rest in Kazemain at the feet of the holy shrine of Imam Musa Kazem (AS), the 7^th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The renowned poet and scholar Seyyed Razi, who compiled the book “Nahj al-Balagha”, which is a collection of sermons, letters and aphorisms of Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), composed a moving elegy at Ibn Hajjaj’s funeral. Among the panegyrics of Ibn Hajjaj is the famous eulogy in praise of Imam Ali (AS), which begins with the verse “Ya Sahebat al-Qubbat al-Bayza fi’n-Najaf" (O Possessor of the White Dome in Najaf).

991 lunar years ago, on this day in 448 AH, statesman, warrior and literary figure, Majd od-Din Osama ibn Murshid ibn Ali ibn Munqidh al-Kinani, titled Moayyed od-Dowlah, was born in Shaizar near Hama in Syria. He witnessed the rise and fall of several Muslim dynasties, as well as the invasion by the First Crusade by European invaders. He was a nephew of the emir of Shaizar and was a courtier to the Zengids and Ayyubids in Damascus, serving Noor od-Din Zengi and later Salah od-Din Ayyubi, over a period of almost fifty years. He also served the Fatemid court in Cairo. He often meddled in politics and was exiled from both Damascus and Cairo. He wrote several poetical works, such as "Kitab al-Asa" (Book of the Staff), "Lubab al-Adab" (Kernels of Literature), and "al-Manazil wa'd-Diyar" (Dwellings and Abodes). For modern readers, he is well-known for his "Kitab al-I'bar", which contains lengthy descriptions of the crusaders, whom he visited on many occasions and some of whom he befriended, though he generally saw them as European barbarians. It is sometimes assumed that Osama was a Shi'a Muslim, because he often writes about and praises Imam Ali (AS). His family cooperated with the Fatemids and other Shi'ia Muslim dynasties, and he himself served the Fatemids in Egypt. Researchers are divided, and some think that he had a "secret sympathy" for Shi'a Muslims, while others believe he was a Sunni with Shi'a tendencies. Still others think his family members were Twelver Shi'as. He died in Damascus at the age of 96, a year after the liberation of Bayt ol-Moqaddas from the crusaders after 88 years of occupation.

828 solar years ago, on this day in 1190 AD, before embarking on the Crusades against Muslims in Palestine, the Christian knights of England launched a massacre of Jews in York. The terrified Jewish population fled to Clifford’s Tower, which was set on fire by a Christian priest, resulting in the burning to death of hundreds of Jews. At a time when Jews enjoyed all rights in Muslim lands, even becoming viziers, they were subjected to periodic massacres in Europe for their rejection of Prophet Jesus and their slandering of his mother, the Virgin Mary.  

229 solar years ago, on this day in 1789 AD, German physicist Georg Simon Ohm, was born in Brandenburg. In 1825 he demonstrated through experiments on the electrochemical cell invented by Italian scientist Alessandro Volta that there are no “perfect” electrical conductors. All conductors have some resistance. The next year, he stated the famous law known as Ohm’s Law: “If the given temperature remains constant, the current flowing through certain conductors is proportional to the potential difference (voltage) across it.” or V=iR. He died at the age of 65.

177 solar years ago, on this day in 1841 AD, Scottish naturalist John Murray who coined the word “oceanography”, was born. As a marine scientist, he took part in the Challenger Expedition (1872-76), the first major oceanographic expedition of the world. He was first to observe the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and marine trenches. With Alexander Agassiz, he put forward a modified hypothesis for coral reef development, arguing against Charles Darwin's hypothesis and suggesting that subsidence was not always a controlling mechanism. He died in 1914 in a car accident.

173 solar years ago, on this day in 1845 AD, German mathematician and physicist, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, was born. He conducted extensive research on different rays and discovered X-ray in 1895. The unit of radiation of X-rays and Gama rays is named after him as Roentgen. He died in 1923.

159 solar years ago, on this day in 1859 AD, Russian inventor, Alexander Popov, was born. He conducted studies to build a device for recording and broadcasting sound. In 1895, he succeeded in inventing the tape recorder. He died in 1905.

140 solar years ago, on this day in 1878 AD, the British-installed Pahlavi tyrant, Reza Khani, was born in the village of Alash in Savadkuh County, Mazandaran, in an obscure peasant family to a refugee woman named Noushafarin Ayromlou, from the Russian-occupied Iranian parts of the Caucasus land of Georgia. It is said, his father was a petty military officer, who died when he was only 8 months old. His mother remarried and entrusted the child to her brother, who later handed him to a military man named Vartan Gorg-e Koohi, who as the surname suggests means “mountain wolf” in Persian. The boy who had a harsh upbringing, was apparently exploited and abused, resulting in his acquirement of brutal characteristics, including treachery, disloyalty, faithlessness, etc. that would last throughout his life. At the age of sixteen he joined the Cossack Brigade and his skill with the artillery made him known as “Reza Maksim”. He was promoted through military ranks, mainly because of favours shown by the armed forces commander, Prince Abdol-Hussein Mirza Farmanfarma Qajari, whom he would betray, imprison and kill his sons. The crafty British saw in the brutal, immoral and Godless Reza Khan a potential stooge to tighten their colonial hold on Iran. In 1921, they imposed this illiterate soldier on the inefficient king, Ahmad Shah Qajar, as war minister and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, with the titles of Mirpanj and Sardar Sepah. Later the British made him prime minister to the Shah, and in 1925 placed him on the Peacock Throne as the new king of Iran. He immediately launched a reign of terror, suppressing the rights of people, confiscating their property, censoring the media, mistreating the ulema, banning religious gatherings, imposing the European dress code on the Iranians at the expense of their traditional attire, destroying the national culture, and forcing women to unveil in public. When World War 2 started, he tried to cozy up to the German Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, a move that made his masters the British depose him, replace him with his son, Mohammad Reza, and send him into exile to Mauritius island, and then to South Africa, where he died in 1944.   

119 lunar years ago, on this day in 1320 AH, prominent Islamic scholar, Mirza Hussein Noori Tabarsi, popular as Muhaddith Noori, passed away at the age of 66 in holy Najaf and was laid to rest on the right side of the entrance to the Mausoleum of Imam Ali (AS). Born in the town of Noor in Mazandaran in a religious family, he studied in Iraq under such scholars as Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli. An authority on Islamic sciences, including hadith, theology, exegesis of the Holy Qur’an, and biography of ulema, he groomed several students, such as Shaikh Abbas Qomi – author of the famous prayer/supplication manual, "Mafatih al-Jinaan" (Keys of Paradise). A prolific writer, Muhaddith Noori wrote many books including "Najm as-Saqeb" on the Imam of the Age (God hasten his reappearance). His works include the voluminous "Mustadrak al-Wasa'el”, containing 123,000 hadith of the Infallible Imams on the line of Shaikh Hur al Ameli’s “Wasa'el ash-Shi'a".

81 lunar years ago, on this day in 1358 AH, the Iranian scholar, Mirza Abu'l-Hassan Azarbaijani Meshkini, passed away in Baghdad. He was an expert in theology, jurisprudence, and exegesis of Holy Qur'an. Among his works is “Hashiyeh bar Makaseb” – an annotation of Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Ansari's "al-Makaseb".

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, on the eve of World War II, German forces occupied Czechoslovakia, following Adolf Hitler’s occupation of Austria.

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1940 AD, Swedish author, Selma Lagerlof, died at the age of 82. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1909).

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, ninety percent of the city of Wurzburg in Germany was destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers. Over 5,000 men, women, and children were mercilessly killed by the British.

50 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD during the Vietnam War, US troops cold-bloodedly massacred 500 men, women and children in the village of Mai Lai.

33 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, valiant Iranian commander, Mahdi Bakeri, attained martyrdom at the age of 30 at the fronts of the war imposed on Iran by Saddam of the repressive Bath minority regime at the behest of the US. Born in Miandoab in northwestern Iran, he was active since high school against the despotic British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime, whose agents had earlier martyred his elder brother. After victory of the Islamic Revolution he joined the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and in view of his ability served as prosecutor at the revolutionary court and later as mayor of Oroumiyeh, capital of West Azarbaijan Province. On invasion of the country, he marched to the warfronts and after showing his battle prowess was promoted to commander of the Ashura Brigade. Several times he was injured but recovered from his wounds. He was martyred in Badr Operations.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, Baghdad’s repressive B’ath minority regime bombed the northeastern Iraqi Kurdish city of Halabche with internationally-banned chemical weapons, killing 5,000 men, women, and children, and maiming 10,000 others, at a time when Iraqi Kurdish combatants welcomed Iran’s Muslim combatants as liberators from Saddam’s tyrannical rule. Western regimes, such as the US, Germany, France and Britain, which had supplied Saddam with chemical weapons, remained silent in the face of these barbaric crimes against humanity. The UN also ignored the catastrophe for several years.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, Aziz Abu Saber, Brazilian geologist and environmentalist of Palestinian origin, passed away in his hometown Sao Paulo. He was honoured with the highest awards of Brazilian science in geography, geology, ecology and archaeology. He was a former president of the Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência (Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science), Emeritus Professor of the University of Sao Paulo and member of the highest rank - Order Grão-Cruz in Earth Sciences - of the Academy of Science. Among the awards, he received the UNESCO Prize on Science and the Environment in 2001. He published more than 480 works, most of them scientific.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, people in Crimea voted in a referendum to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. In ancient times, Crimea was home of the Iranian tribes of Cimmerians and Scythians, before being colonized by the Greeks, who were followed by the Romans, the Goths, the Huns, the Bulgars, the Khazars, the Byzantine Empire, the Qipchak Turks, and the Muslim Mongols of the Golden Horde. The area became the site of overlapping interests and contact between the medieval Slavic, Turkic and Greek spheres, as well as a center of slave trade. In the 1230s, Crimea was incorporated into the Mongol Golden Horde. The Crimean Muslim Khanate, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, succeeded the Golden Horde and lasted from 1449 to 1779, building a glorious Muslim civilization. In 1571, the Crimean Tatars sacked Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin. Crimea was seized by Russia in 1783. From 1853 to 1856, it was site of the principal engagements of the Crimean War – a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of France, Britain, and the Ottoman Empire. During World War 2, Crimea was occupied by Nazi Germany. After its liberation, it was downgraded to the Crimean Oblast, and Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin ordered mass deportation of at least 230,000 Crimean Muslim Tatars for alleged collaboration with the Nazis. In 1991, on disintegration of the USSR, Crimea became part of independent Ukraine as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Following the crisis stoked in Ukraine by the West, the Crimean people held a referendum and decided to join Russia.

AS/MG