Today is Friday; 10th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 12th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1439 lunar hijri; and March 30, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2257 solar years ago, on this day in 239 BC, the first recorded perihelion passage of what later became known as Halley's Comet, was carried out by Chinese astronomers in the Shih Chi and Wen Hsien Thung Khao chronicles. It was the first comet that was recognized as being periodic. Its highly elliptical, 75-year orbit, carries it out well beyond the orbit of Neptune and well inside the orbits of Earth and Venus when it swings in around the Sun, travelling in the opposite direction from the revolution of the planets. In Babylonian and later in Islamic scientific chronicles, references exist about this comet, which in 1705 was first noted in Europe by Englishman, Edmond Halley, after whom the West named it posthumously.

1407 lunar years ago, on this day in 32 AH, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttaleb, the paternal uncle of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), passed away in Medina at almost 90 years of age and was laid to rest in the sacred Baqie Cemetery by his worthy son, Abdullah, the hadith narrator and exegete of the holy Qur’an, who was a disciple of Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). Abbas, who had become a rich merchant in the days of ignorance, did not openly profess Islam in Mecca, but it is said that he stood beside his nephew when a group from Medina came to the Prophet for the secret allegiance of Aqaba. He was forced by the pagan Arabs to accompany them to the Battle of Badr in which he was captured by the Muslims and allowed to ransom himself and return to Mecca. Shortly before the peaceful takeover of Mecca by the Prophet, he disassociated from the Meccans and submitted to the Muslims, some twenty year after his wife, “Omm al-Fazl Lubaba bint al-Hareth had accepted Islam, claiming to be second woman to do so. Thereafter he accompanied the Prophet, like other members of the Hashemite clan in various endeavours. Abbas knew that after the passing away of the Prophet, his other nephew, Imam Ali (AS), was the divinely-decreed leader of mankind as was evident by the historic declaration at Ghadeer-Khom. Unfortunately, some of his descendants in blind pursuit of power, turned away from the truth, usurped political rule by deceiving the Muslims, wrongly called themselves caliphs, and indulged in the persecution of the Prophet’s progeny, to the extent that six of the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt were martyred through poisoning by the Abbasids.

1233 lunar years ago, on this day in 206 AH, narrator of hadith and historical events, Abu Hudhayfa, passed away. Among his compilations is “al-Mubtada” on creation of mankind and the biography of prophets. He has also narrated from Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS), the account of Me’raj or ascension to the ethereal heavens and back in a fraction of the night by Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

860 lunar years ago, on this day in 479 AH, Spanish Muslims led by Yusuf bin Tashfin defeated Spanish Christians under command of Alphonse VI in the Battle of "az-Zalaqa". This decisive battle halted for over two-and-a-half centuries the bid by the Christian powers to drive out Spanish Muslim from the Iberian Peninsula.

586 solar years ago, on this day in 1432 AD, Sultan Mohammad II, the Ottoman Emperor, who conquered Constantinople and ended Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire, was born in Edirne, the then capital of the Ottoman Turks. Son of Sultan Murad II, in 1453, two years after becoming Sultan, he conquered Constantinople, and renamed it Islambol (modern Istanbul). On entering the city and stepping into the ruins of the Boukoleon, known to the Ottomans and Iranians as the Palace of the Caesars, which was built over a thousand years before by Theodosius II, he recited the Persian couplet of the famous Iranian poet, Sheikh Mosleh od-Din Sa’di:

“The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars;

The owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiyab.”

Sultan Mohammad, who reigned for 30 years, allowed the Greek Orthodox Church to maintain its headquarters in Constantinople. On 1 June 1453, three days after the fall of the city, the procession of the new Patriarch, Gennadius, passed through the streets where the Sultan received the Head of the Christian Church and invested him with the signs of office. This ceremonial investiture was repeated by all Sultans and Patriarchs until the end of the empire in 1923. The Ottomans divided their subjects into “millets”, of which the Greek Christians known as “Millet-e Roum” were the largest. Sadly, when Greeks, revolted against Ottoman rule with the support of Britain, France and Russia, during the 1820s-30s, they launched a general massacre of Muslims, destroyed centuries of Islamic culture, and converted mosques into churches.

459 solar years ago, on this day in 1559 AD, German mathematician, Adam Riese, died at the age of 67. The West considers him as "father of modern calculating" for his recognition that Roman numerals are unwieldy in practice and their replacement by the considerably more structured Arabic numerals. In his book “Rechnung auff der Linihen und Federn” (written in 1522 and published 114 times till this day), besides calculating on the calculating board, he describes numerical calculations with Arabic digits. Over five centuries earlier, Gerbert d'Aurillac of France, who later became Pope Sylvester II, had introduced to Europe for the first time the Arabic numerals of the famous Iranian Islamic scientist, Mohammad ibn Musa Khwarezmi. Inspired by Latin translations of Islamic scientific works, he had extensively utilized Islamic scientific works to build for the first time in Europe clocks, the hydraulic organ, astronomical instruments, and the abacus for use in mathematical calculations. Christian Europe came out of the Dark Ages, thanks to his study of Islamic sciences.

230 lunar years ago, on this day in 1209 AH, Lotf Ali Khan, the last ruler of the Zand Dynasty of Iran, died under torture in prison in Tehran at the age of 25, three years after he was captured through deceit and bribing of the governor of Bam by Agha Mohammad Khan the founder of the Qajarid Dynasty. He was buried in the mausoleum of the Prophet’s descendant, Imamzadah Zaid, near the Tehran Grand Bazaar. An extremely handsome and gallant person, he was a master swordsman who fought for two hours and killed several of his opponents until overpowered. Lotf Ali Khan ruled Iran for five years from his capital Shiraz, and had almost won his last battle against his mortal enemy, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, who was put to flight. A tactical error and betrayal by subordinates cost him the throne and his life. The extremely cruel Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar had him blinded and castrated, and also castrated his minor sons. A few months later, Agha Mohammad Khan was assassinated in Qarabagh, Caucasus. Founded by Karim Khan, a general of Nader Shah Afshar, the Zand dynasty lasted for 45 years, and at its peak held sway over almost all of Iran, along with Basra and parts of the Caucasus, except for Greater Khorasan. To legitimize his rule, Karim Khan had placed the Safavid prince, Ismail III, as a figurehead, and never took the title of Shah, contenting himself with the honourary epithet “Wakil ar-Re’aya” (Representative of the People). He based his administration on social justice, and to this day he has the reputation as one of the most able rulers in Iranian history.

212 lunar years ago, on this day in 1227 AH, prominent jurisprudent, Shaikh Ja’far bin Khizr al-Ḥilli an-Najafi, popular as Kashef al-Gheta, an epithet by which his scholarly descendants became well-known, passed away at the age of 73. A student of the famous scholars, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Mahdi Bahr al-Uloum, and Waheed Behbahani, he campaigned against Akhbaris, writing books and essays to reject their views. During the Wahhabi attack on holy Najaf, he defended the city, and was the first Shi’a Muslim scholar who wrote against the heretical Wahhabi cult. He wrote several books and groomed scholars, including the famous jurisprudent, Shaikh Mohammad Hasan Najafi, the author of “Jawaher al-Kalaam”.

198 solar years ago, on this day in 1820 AD, British author, Anna Sewell, was born in Yarmouth. She is best known as author of the classic novel “Black Beauty” which is a story about a horse, and has been made into a children’s movie.

165 solar years ago, on this day in 1853 AD, famous Post-Impressionist Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh, was born in Zundert. His works had a far-reaching influence on 20^th-century art. His output includes portraits, self portraits, landscapes and still life. He produced more than 2,100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints, during his short life of 37, which ended in a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Although he failed to sell any of his paintings, today his works are priced in millions of dollars. 

162 solar years ago, on this day in 1856 AD, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the 3-year Crimean War, between expansionist Russia, on one side, and France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, Austria, and Prussia, on the other side. The war was part of a contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Most of the battles took place on the Crimean Peninsula, but there were smaller campaigns in western Anatolia and the Caucasus.

151 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, Russia sold the rich land of Alaska, situated northeast of Canada and on the coastlines of Pacific Ocean and near the Arctic circle, to the US for a paltry $7.2 million, due to its financial needs. Alaska covers an area of over 1.5 million sq km. It is now the 49^th US state and is rich in natural resources, especially oil and gold, in addition to fishing. The deal was conducted by US Secretary of State, William Seward for about 2 cent per acre, and was long derided by Americans as Seward’s Folly for Alaska’s remoteness.

129 lunar years ago, on this day in 1110 AH, Omani sailors, who dominated Zanzibar and the eastern coast of Africa, defeated the Portuguese in the sea Battle of Mombasa, off the coast of what is now Kenya.

93 solar years ago, on this day in 1925 AD, Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, the Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist, died. He gained initial recognition at the end of the 19^th century as a literary critic and published philosophical works including “The Philosophy of Freedom”. He founded a spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang Goethe's world view.

57 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Tabatabaei Boroujerdi, passed away in holy Qom. After studying preliminary Islamic sciences in his hometown, Boroujerd, he left for the Najaf Seminary in Iraq, acquiring knowledge under the prominent Ulema of his time. On returning to Iran he engaged in scholarly and social activities. In 1945, he went to holy Mashhad and thereafter Qom, and soon became a Source of Emulation. Under his supervision, the Qom Seminary vastly expanded. Grand Ayatollah Boroujerdi took the opportunity to introduce the rich Islamic culture globally and to take positive steps for proximity and unity among Muslim denominations with the cooperation of Muslim thinkers worldwide. His important measures include revival of the valuable works of Ulema; compilation of numerous scientific and religious books; construction of mosques; development of the Hamburg Mosque in Germany; and grooming of prominent students, including the Father of Islamic Revolution, late Imam Khomeini (RA).

42 solar years ago, on this day in 1976 AD, major demonstrations of Land Day started in the Zionist usurped land of Palestine. In response to Israel’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of acres of Muslim land for so-called "security and settlement purposes", a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Naqab Desert. In the ensuing confrontations, the Zionist army killed six Palestinians, injured over a hundred others, and arrested several hundreds. Every year on this day, the people of Palestine and other Muslim countries hold rallies denouncing the expansionist policies of the illegal Zionist entity.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, the grassroots movement of the Muslim people of Iran started gathering momentum as the masses in the central city of Yazd and the holy city of Mashhad in the northeast, staged demonstrations against the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime, on the 40^th day of the martyrdom of scores of people in Tabriz, northwestern Iran, by the security forces. They called for return home from exile of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). At the same time, merchants in Tehran and other big cities closed down the main markets in protest against the oppression of the people by the Shah’s regime.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, following victory of the Islamic Revolution and ouster of the Pahlavi regime, a nationwide referendum was held for determination of the type of system governing Iran. It lasted two days due to wide scale participation. Finally, 98.2% of the participants voted for the Islamic system.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, the Earth Hour worldwide movement for the planet, organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), went international, in a global effort to raise awareness about climate change that will even be monitored from space – a year after it was started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia. The event is held worldwide annually encouraging individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on the last Saturday in March, as a symbol for their commitment to the planet. Some 7000 cities and towns worldwide observe it. In Iran, lights are switched off during the prescribed hour at Tehran’s Milad Tower, and at Isfahan’s Siosepol (or 33-span) Bridge and the Naqsh-e Jahan Square.

AS/ME