Today is Thursday; 9th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 11th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1439 lunar hijri; and March 29, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1173 solar years ago, on this day in 845 AD, Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collected a huge ransom for leaving France.

1168 lunar years ago, on this day in 271 AH, lexicographer, and exegete of Holy Qur’an, Mohammad Ibn Qassim al-Anbari was born in Baghdad. He had a powerful and photographic memory and was very modest in teaching. In his book "al-Musahef" he has mentioned the "tawatur" (continuous unbroken chain of narration) of the famous "Hadith Thaqalayn" in which Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) has explicitly stated: "I am leaving behind among you Two Weighty Things; the Book of Allah (Qur'an) and my progeny, the Ahl al-Bayt. Hold fast to them and you will never go astray, for the two never part with each other even when they return to me at the Fountain (of Kowsar in the Hereafter)."

Among his other works is “Adaab al-Kateb” (Norms of Scribes). He passed away in 328 AH.

868 lunar years ago, on this day in 571 AH, prominent historian and hadith scholar, Hafez Ali ibn al-Hassan ibn Hebatollah, known popularly as Ibn Asaker, was born in Damascus. After mastering Islamic sciences, he travelled widely to acquire further knowledge and benefitted from the scientific centers of the cities of Baghdad, Kufa, Mosul, Naishapour, Marv, Isfahan, and Hamedan. He has left behind 134 books, including the voluminous “Tarikh Madinat ad-Dameshq”. He was follower of the Shafei school of Sunni jurisprudence, and has mentioned at least 400 ayahs of the holy Qur’an revealed by God on the unrivalled merits of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

588 solar years ago, on this day in 1430 AD, the Ottoman Empire under Murad II captured the Byzantine city of Thessalonica, and made it the commercial hub of the Turkish Empire. For almost five centuries the city called Selanik in Turkish was under Ottoman rule, until its occupation by Greece in 1912 during the First Balkan War. The mostly Muslim population of this city was deported to Turkey in 1922 and resettled with Greeks to change its Islamic atmosphere.

445 solar years ago, on this day in 1573 AD, French King Charles IX issued an edict in favour of Protestants, according to which the French Protestants who had beaten Catholics in the 4th War of Religion, gained freedom in observance of their rituals. This 4th War of Religion between Catholics and Protestants, which started as of July 16, 1572, is known as La Rochelle Battle.

342 solar years ago, on this day in 1676 AD, Ottoman Turks defeated Poland and gained control of parts of Ukraine. This battle started in 1671 with the unrest of Poland’s Cossacks and the Ottoman Empire’s support for them.

246 solar years ago, on this day in 1772 AD, Swedish thinker and mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, passed away at the age of 104. He based his philosophy on separation from the materialistic world and observance of the spiritual universe. He believed that whatever exists in the materialistic world is a symbol of the superior spiritual universe. He believed that the more pure and chaste the human being, the better he would be able to understand God. He wrote 50 books on his thoughts.

169 solar years ago, on this day in 1849 AD, British colonialists formally annexed the Punjab region of the subcontinent after defeating the Sikhs. Punjab is today divided between Pakistan and India.

148 solar years ago, on this day in 1870 AD, Italian-French explorer, Paul-Emile Botta, died at the age of 68. He was assigned as French consul to Mosul in Iraq, where his interest in archaeology led to the discovery in 1843 of the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II (721 to 705 BC) at Dur Sharrukin or modern Khorsabad.

138 solar years ago, on this day in 1885 AD, famous Iranian historian, writer, and poet, Mirza Mohammad Taqi Sepehr Kashani, titled “Lisan ol-Mulk”, passed away at the age of 86. After initial education in his hometown Kashan, he moved to Tehran and on the encouragement of the poet laureate Saba he started writing books. On Saba's death, he returned to Kashan and was appointed deputy to Prince Mahmoud son of Fath Ali Shah. The prince gave him the pen name "Sepehr". He was called to Tehran by Fath Ali Shah and entered government service. During Mohammad Shah’s reign, he was the royal eulogist and secretary of the Finance Department. In 1843, the Shah commissioned him to write a comprehensive history from the creation of Adam. He compiled it in several volumes titled “Nasekh at-Tawarikh” which covers the world history up to 1272 AH (1855 AD) when he was given the title “Lisan ol-Mulk” by Nasser od-Din Shah. He also wrote the books “Aina-e Jahan-Nama” and “Merits of the Infallible Imams”.

116 solar years ago, on this day in 1902 AD, Marcel Ayme, the French novelist, children's writer, humour writer, screenwriter and theatre playwright, was born. After the great success of his novel “La Jument Verte” in 1933, translated into English as "The Green Mare", he concentrated mostly on writing and published children's stories, novels, and collections of stories. He died in 1967.

115 solar years ago, on this day in 1903 AD, regular wireless news service began between New York and London on Marconi’s wireless. On 30 March 1903, The Times in London became the first newspaper to establish an ongoing arrangement with the Marconi Telegraph Company for regular transmission of news between the US and the UK. Shortly thereafter, the New York Times requested that it be part of the arrangement. Despite extensive teething problems the importance of wireless as a cheap form of communication quickly became obvious.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, the Malagasy uprising against French rule in Madagascar started through coordinated attacks by the local people, armed mainly with spears, against military bases and French-owned plantations in the eastern part of the island around Moramanga and Manakara. The nationalist cause was rapidly adopted in the south and spread to the central highlands and the capital of Antananarivo by the following month, with the number of Malagasy fighters estimated at over a million. The French savagely attacked the independence-seekers and engaged in a variety of terror tactics designed to demoralize the population. The French carried out mass executions, torture, rape, torching of entire villages, collective punishment and other atrocities such as throwing live Malagasy prisoners out of airplanes – called death flights. As many as 100,000 Malagasies were killed, while only 550 French soldiers lost their life. By August 1948, the majority of the nationalist leaders were killed or captured, and the Uprising was effectively put down by December 1948. The violent repression of the uprising left deep scars in Malagasy society. A generation of the managerial class was wiped out, creating challenges for the country in 1960 on achieving independence. The Malagasy trace their origin to Borneo in Southeast Asia. Muslims form over 10 percent of the population. The first Muslims to arrive were Arabs and Somalis in the 9th century. The written history of Madagascar began with the Arabs, who established trading posts along the northwest coast by the 10th century and introduced Islam and the Arabic script that was formally used to transcribe the Malagasy language in a form of writing known as “Sorabe”. Today the language is written in the Latin script imposed by the French. The majority of people are Christians – a legacy of European colonial rule. Over 90% of Madagascar’s wildlife is not found anywhere.

45 solar years ago, on this day in 1973 AD, following the humiliating US failure to suppress the aspirations of the Vietnamese people for national unity, despite intense bombing and use of chemical weapons, the last US combat soldiers left the artificial entity South Vietnam, whose capital Saigon fell on 30 April 1975, thereby ending the war that had started in 1955 with unwarranted American intervention.

24 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, the Gnostic, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Marandi, passed away at the age of 97 in his hometown Marand. Born in an impoverished family, he studied at the Tabriz seminary, and on visiting Iraq for pilgrimage on behalf of a philanthropist, decided to enroll at the famous Islamic seminary of holy Najaf, where he stayed for sixteen years and attained the status of Ijtehad. For ten years, he was roommate and close friend of the famous exegete of the holy Qur’an, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabatabaie. He attended the classes of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani, Grand Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hussain Na’ini, Ayatollah Aqa Zia od-Din Iraqi, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Qazi Tabatabaie, and Ayatollah Badkubaei. On return to Iran, he took up teaching at the seminary of Tabriz, but his gnostic spirit shunned the limelight he was acquiring, and he retired to his hometown Marand, to continue his activities amongst the deprived people of the region. He fully supported the grassroots movement of the Iranian people against the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime. When the regime exiled to Turkey, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), he issued statements in support of the Imam, and played a vital role in awakening the people of Marand and its surroundings. He left the transient world with the fundamental testimony of monotheism on his lips: “la ilaha il-Allah” (there is no god but Allah). 

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2010 AD, Iran’s intelligence personnel carried out an “intricate” cross-border mission to free Iranian diplomat, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, who was kidnapped in 2008 by terrorists in northwestern Pakistan on November 13, 2008, along with his Pakistani bodyguard, while driving over a narrow bridge in Peshawar, when two gunmen blocked way and opened fire.

AS/ME