Today is Thursday; 30th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 2nd of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1439 lunar hijri; and April 19, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1487 solar years ago, on this day in 531 AD at the Battle of Callinicum near what later came to be known as ar-Raqqah in Syria, an Iranian army of 15,000 cavalry and 5000 Lakhmid Arabs led by the Sassanid general, Azarethes, defeated the forces of Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire, made up of 25,000 Greeks and Slavs and 3000 Ghassanid Arabs under the command of Belisarius. Initially, the Romans only wanted to ward off the Persians, without a risky battle, which eventually occurred and led to the defeat of the Byzantines when after a seesaw struggle for two-thirds of the day, a squadron of elite Iranian cavalry broke through the Byzantine right flank, driving Greeks and Ghassanid Arabs in different directions. Zacharias of Mytilene writing of the battle said: "[The Romans] turned and fled before the Persian attack. Many fell into the River Euphrates and were drowned, and others were killed."

1237 lunar years ago, on this day in 202 AH, Fadhl ibn Sahl ibn Zaadaan-Farrukh Sarakhsi, the powerful Iranian prime minister of Mamoun (the 7^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime), was slain under mysterious condition while in the bathhouse of the city of Sarakhs, which today straddles the Iran-Turkmenistan border. Known for his craftiness in devising the plan to force Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), to leave Medina and come to Mamoun's capital in the Khorasani city of Merv (presently in Turkmenistan), he was entrusted with both the military command and civilian administration with the title “Dhu'r-Riyasatayn” (Possessor of Two Offices). A convert to Islam from Zoroastrianism, Sahl and his brother, Hassan, were instrumental in consolidation of the caliphate of Mamoun, whose mother was Iranian. Sahl was the de facto ruler of the caliphate until the year before his death, having played a crucial role in the civil war between Mamoun and his brother Amin. According to the historian Ibn Atheer, he was suspected of being a follower of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt and was thus murdered – probably on the orders of Mamoun. Following his death the public turned against Mamoun, who pleaded with Imam Reza (AS) to use his influence to calm down the agitators.

1043 lunar years ago, on this day in 396 AH, the renowned Iranian scholar, poet and mystic, Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, was born in Herat, which is now in Afghanistan, but was then an integral part of Khorasan. He was a commentator of the holy Qur'an, a compiler of hadith, and known for his oratory and poetic talents in Arabic and Persian. He wrote several books on Islamic mysticism and philosophy. His most famous work is "Munajaat- Namah", which is considered a masterpiece of Persian literature. His exegesis on the holy Qur'an is titled "Kashf ul-Asrar", and was compiled in 10 volumes by his disciples after his death. He used to avoid the company of the rich, powerful and the influential. Abdullah Ansari was a direct descendant of the Prophet's companion and host in Medina, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. He died in 1088 in his hometown Herat.  He is the ancestor of the line of the Heravi Khwajavi in Iran, who once dominated Khorasan and eastern Iran. Some of his descendants moved to the Subcontinent. Among them was Hakim Shaikh Ilm ud-din Ansari, better known as Wazir Khan, who was a governor of the Mughal Emperors in Multan, in what is now Pakistan. He is best known for having built the famous Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore. His other prominent descendent was Qutb ud-din Ansari who founded the famous Firangi Mahal school of religious thought and education, near Lucknow in India. He passed away in 481 AH.

567 solar years ago, on this day in 1451 AD, with the abdication of Alam Shah, the last king of the Seyyed Dynasty of North India, the ambitious Pashto warrior, Bahlol Lodi ascended the throne of Delhi as Bahlol Shah Ghazi. The dynasty founded by him lasted 75 years, ending with the defeat and death of his grandson, Ibrahim Lodi in the Battle of Panipat in 1526 against the Mughal conqueror Zaheer od-Din Mohammad Babar. The Lodis patronized Persian language and culture. Several histories were written and poetical works composed during their rule, such as the “Mathnavi Mehr va Mah”. The second king, Sikandar Lodi, had medical books translated into Persian from Sanskrit.

512 solar years ago, on this day in 1506 AD, the Lisbon Massacre or the Easter Slaughter began in the capital of Portugal, when the Catholics, joined by Christian sailors from other European lands, anchored in the Tagus, persecuted, tortured, killed, and burnt at the stake hundreds of people who were accused of being Jews and, thus, guilty of heresy. This incident took place thirty years before the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal and nine years after the Jews were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism in 1497, during the reign of King Manuel I. In three days some 1,900 Jews were killed.

243 solar years ago, on this day in 1775 AD, the armed rebellion of the 13 New England colonies against the British crown – also known as the American Revolutionary War – started with a victory of the colonists at Battle of Concord. This was prelude to the birth of the United States of America, which has since expanded to its present size, large through a policy of expansionism and seizure of Mexican territory.

211 solar years ago, on this day in 1807 AD, the British forces, following their failure to confront the Egyptians, withdrew from Alexandria. The British plot was to seize Egypt in order to pressure the Ottoman Empire, but the Egyptian ruler, Mohammad Ali Pasha, with the assistance of Egyptian people and ulema, who had issued a fatwa for Jihad against the invading troops, defended the country.

194 solar years ago, on this day in 1824 AD, English poet, George Gordon Byron, died of severe bleeding at the age of 36 in Greece, where he was inciting the Greeks to rebel against the Ottoman Turkish Empire by planning to attack the fortress of Lepanto, at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth. A controversial figure, his works are sentimental and critical. His first collection of poems was “Hours of Idleness”. His other works include “The Prisoner of Chillon”, and “Childe Harold”. He led an unprincipled life, travelling around Europe and indulging in scandalous affairs.

179 solar years ago, on this day in 1839 AD, the Treaty of London established the new country Belgium as a kingdom and guaranteed its neutrality. Made up of ethnic Dutch, French and German speakers, its capital Brussels today is the headquarters of the 28-nation European Union (EU).

136 solar years ago, on this day in 1882 AD, English naturalist, Charles Darwin, died. He is the author of the controversial theory of evolution which he presented in "Survival of the Fittest," and “On the Origin of Species.” His theories have been refuted by both Christian and Muslim scientists and scholars as absurd.

112 solar years ago, on this day in 1906 AD, French physical chemist and co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, Pierre Curie died at the age of 46. His studies of radioactive substances were made together with his wife, Marie Curie, whom he married in 1895. They were achieved under conditions of much hardship - barely adequate laboratory facilities and under the stress of having to do much teaching in order to earn their livelihood. Together, they discovered radium and polonium in their investigation of radioactivity by fractionation of pitchblende (announced in 1898). Later they did much to elucidate the properties of radium and its transformation products. Their work in this era formed the basis for much of the subsequent research in nuclear physics and chemistry.

109 solar years ago, on this day in 1909 AD, Howard Baskerville, a 24-year old American Presbyterian preacher in Iran, was shot dead while trying to break the siege of Tabriz as a defender of the new Iranian constitution. Born in North Platte, Nebraska, he came to Iran in 1907, and taught English and geometry in the American Memorial School in Tabriz. In the spring of 1909, during the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, he decided to raise a volunteer force to defend the people. Despite attempts to discourage him by the American consul in Tabriz, William F. Doty, he led about a hundred volunteers to help defend the besieged city against the British-backed Qajar troops of Mohammad Ali Shah. Baskerville's funeral was attended by thousands, and he was eulogized by Iranian patriots. He was buried in the Christian Armenian cemetery in Tabriz, which fell to the Shah’s forces five days after Baskerville's death. A carpet with his picture woven on it was made by the carpet weavers of Tabriz and meant to be sent to his mother in the US in recognition of his courage and sacrifice. Schools and streets in Iran have been named for him. There is a bust of him in Tabriz's Constitution House bearing the legend "Howard C. Baskerville— Patriot and Maker of History".

80 solar years ago, on this day in 1938 AD, the Jurist, Ayatollah Seyyed Najm ul-Hassan the founder of Jame’ Nazemiyya of Lucknow, the oldest Shi’ite Muslim religious institution of India, passed away at the age of 75. Known as Najm ul-Millat or Najm ul-Ulema, he trained several scholars, such as Sibt-e Hasan Naqavi, Farman Ali the translator and interpreter of the holy Qur’an, and Mufti Ja’far Hussain, who later became the leading scholar of Pakistan. He is remembered for his services to the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) in Tibet, Burma, Singapore, Shanghai, East Africa and other lands. He wrote several books.

57 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, Cuba’s air force shot down 9 of the 16 US aircraft used by the American-backed invaders and killed 114 of the insurgents, making the rest of the invasion force to surrender, thereby defeating the sinister plot of Washington to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, the US launched unprovoked attacks on Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf in support of Saddam the Ba’th minority dictator of Baghdad, in an operation codenamed 'Praying Mantis'. This was the largest naval battle since World War II. The Iranian navy put up a brave fight in the face of heavy odds with the frigates Sahand and Joshan challenging the American ships, along with a flotilla of speed boats backed by aircraft. Because of superior fire power, the US navy damaged Joshan and sank a few boats, but after an exchange of missile volleys with Sahand, it backed off. Earlier the Americans had scuttled the merchant ship Iran Ajr and attacked Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, the statistician and founder of the statistical sampling method in Iran, Dr. Abbas Qoli Khwajah-Nouri, passed away at the age of 78. He graduated in engineering in the year 1937 and thereafter lectured at Iran’s universities. He later on obtained his PhD in statistics from Paris Faculty of Science. He highly participated in research, educational, and consultative jobs in different ministries, and founded the Higher Education Institute of Statistics in 1966. Among his numerous compilations, mention can be made of Research Methodology, and Advanced Statistics.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, following the attack of FBI on the Headquarters of Davidian Sect in Waco, Texas 80 men, women and children were brutally killed for opposing the Godless policies of the US regime.

23 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, in Oklahoma City, US, a large car bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killing 168 people and injuring 500 including many children in the building’s day care center. As usual, the American press alleged the blast to be the work of what it called a Muslim terrorist. Within a week a suspect, Timothy McVeigh, was caught and charged, along with Terry Nichols, and since the two were white American Christians, all talks of terrorism quickly disappeared from the American press. The two were later convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1998. McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.

AS/ME